"Nothing is broken."
"You're bleeding."
The elevator dinged and opened on my floor.
"Probably." I sighed. "I fell a few times, rolled down the hill, hit a rock, etcetera."
"I'm going to ask you what happened, but Victoria is going to ask you that too, so I'll wait." He smiled and followed me to my room.
I scanned my fob again, glanced at Doc and opened my door enough for me to peak in.
"Victoria?"
"Girl, why you sneaking around? Get in here." She came over to the entry way.
"I, uh, have Doc with me." I blushed, though I wasn't really sure why at that point.
Victoria's eyes widened, and she gestured for us to come in. "O-M-G what happened?" she asked as soon as she got a good look at me.
"I'm sorry about your dress."
"It's a dress, don't worry about it. What happened?"
Doc shut the door behind us and glanced around the room. I stood there and started to shake. Doc put his arm around me and led me into my side of the room and sat next to me on the bed while I shook.
I thought I saw Victoria look at him. Mostly I stared at my hands. In the light, I could see scratches all the way up my arms where my sweater had torn badly.
"Doc?" Victoria prompted.
"I'm not completely sure. Give her a minute."
"I'm sorry, I just...it's..." I couldn't make the words work, so I fell silent again.
Victoria sat on the other side of me and put her arm around my waist so that they both held me tight.
"Take your time, we've got all night."
A wave of exhaustion washed over me, and I groaned. "Alex and I went to the campus observatory, which was pretty cool, then we walked around on the paths up there. They're designed to be walked on at night, and I thought it should be safe enough. There were other people around. I guess I was wrong. They took Alex out with magic. I ran. I called Doc. Are you sure Alex is okay?"
"Pretty sure," Doc replied.
"Girl, you look like you got run over with a pine tree."
"I feel that way, too."
Doc moved his arm from around my shoulders and picked a few pine needles out of my hair.
"I've got something back at my cabin that will get the pine sap out. Victoria, I'm not completely positive it's safe here tonight. Do you want to come with us?"
She sighed. "I gotta leave early, but maybe I should follow you up there. Is there anything we can do to make our room safe?"
"Yeah. We'll put some wards up." He frowned and glanced at his wrist. I hadn't noticed the wide, ornately beaded bracelets he was currently wearing before. "I think I can manage to do that sometime this weekend."
"You're a mage?" Victoria sounded surprised.
"No."
"He keeps saying that, and he keeps doing magic," I muttered, burying my face in my hands for a minute. He put his hand on my shoulder.
"I'll explain tomorrow. It's not immediately important, and we need to get the two of you safe for the night."
Victoria stood. "Sofia, did you already pack a bag?"
"No."
"Why don't you change into some clean clothes and do that. I'll help. I'm ready to go other than throwing on real clothes."
Doc took Victoria's hint and left my side of the room.
She grabbed my notebook and scribbled on it before showing it to me. 'You want to go with him, right?'
I nodded, and she shut the book and tucked it away, apparently satisfied.
"Do you have a bag we can throw stuff in?"
"Um, backpack."
"Great. I'll pack. You change. Doc, you have a first aid kit at your place?" She raised her voice only slightly.
"Yes," he replied from her side of the dorm room.
I pulled off my ruined clothing and dropped it all on the floor. "Victoria, I'm so sorry."
"It's just a dress. I'm glad you're safe, and if you feel that bad, you can take me shopping some time and we can look for new dresses for both of us. Should I schedule it in?"
I burst out laughing. "Yes." I quickly pulled on jeans, a T-shirt, and my light jacket.
She gave me a quick hug and handed me my backpack. "Okay. We're ready." She tugged my hand and led me to the other side of the dorm where Doc waited. She grabbed her bag, which was already sitting near the door.
His eyes glinted, and he smiled before he headed to the door. He waited by it, listening before opening it a bit and listening more.
Victoria's eyes widened, and she looked at me. I clenched my fists, and she patted my shoulder.
Doc opened the door and gestured for us to follow him. We all hurried down the hallway after the door shut behind us and got in the elevator.
None of us spoke, and Doc took my hand again once we were outside. I got the idea it was more so that we wouldn't get separated for whatever reason between the dorm and the parking lot, rather than because he actually wanted to hold my hand. Though he rubbed his thumb across the back of my hand, speeding my heart just a touch and making me re-evaluate my thoughts.
We made sure Victoria was in her car and that it started before Doc led me over to his pickup.
"I'm sorry," I said once we were in his truck.
"For what?"
"All this."
He was quiet for a minute before he reached over and took my hand again. "Some things are worth it, Sofia."
My stomach fluttered. He's your teacher, I reminded myself. That didn't slow my pulse any.
∞ ∞ ∞
Doc took his hand back to drive, and at some point, I fell asleep. The next thing I remembered was Doc carrying me.
"Sofia, you should wake up. We need to get you cleaned up before you sleep."
I blinked a few times and inhaled Doc's scent. It took me a minute before I could focus on anything other than
