The Regulator (Complete First Draft)

Chapter 36: James - What Once Was

“Good lord, kid, stop crying.” Andrew said. James watched the alcohol swab move towards his face with his good eye.
“No! It’s going to sting!” James cried loudly.

“I just need to wipe the cut under your eye, okay? I’m not going to get any in your eye, you can tear out the dirt yourself. Just move your hand.” Andrew said. James hesitated for a moment, but then lowered his hand from his right eye. The eye stung to keep open and was blurry. “Blink a lot, you’ll tear it out faster.” Andrew encouraged. James felt the alcohol swab wipe against his face. there was a slight sting and James reeled back.

“Stop!” James said.

“I need to do this, you don’t want that cut infected or anything.” Andrew said, wiping James’ face again.

“Infected?” James asked through tears.

“It’ll turn pink and will look gross and will hurt a lot. You really don’t want it to happen, especially during the first week of camp, so just let me clean it up and we’ll be all good...” Andrew said, concentrating on cleaning it up.

“The other boys need to play less rough.” James said.

“Yeah, well, maybe you should try too not catch kickballs with your face.” Andrew said, he let out a slight huff of a laugh. James just scowled at him. “Oh come on that one was funny.” Andrew said.

“Not funny.” James declared.

“Yeah, well, whatever.” Andrew said. He finished wiping James face and then put a band-aid on the cut.

“There, that should keep it safe til you get home.” Andrew said. He stood up and put the rest of his first aid supplies back in his bag. “Now, let’s get back in the game.”

“No.” James said, crossing his arms.

“Uh, yes, our teams up to kick anyway. Come on, you love playing games.” Andrew tried to reason with James, but James wasn’t having any of it.

“I don’t want to.” He pouted again. This was very unlike James. He was normally level headed and excited, but right now he was clearly neither of those things. Andrew sighed and sat down next to James, watching over the game.

“So this is what were gonna do all day? Just sit here and pout?” Andrew asked. James didn’t answer, just stared at him angrily. “Okay.” Andrew said, shaking his head and looking away.

“I hate today.” James said, arms still folded.

“Today didn’t really do anything to justify that hate.” Andrew said. James looked at him a little weirdly, but still angrily, not fully understanding what Andrew meant. “So you gonna do this every time you get knocked around a little? Like every time you slip are you gonna put like this and stop playing games? You’re gonna have a pretty horrible summer if you do.” Andrew said.

“No.” James declared.

“Then why do it now?” Andrew quickly asked, having had the follow-up question completely prepared.

“I feel like it.” James said.

“So you stop interacting with everyone just because you feel like it?” Andrew asked.

“Yes.” James declared rather quickly, without a second thought.

“Well, I hope no one’s ever relying on you for something when you’re in one of these moods.” Andrew said. He jumped up and started walking towards the game. “I’m gonna go have fun, sit here and pout and do what you do. If you decide to come back in, try to keep that eye a little safer this time.” Andrew said. And with that he was back in the game. The team moved out into the outfield as both James and Andrew missed their chances to kick. James just sat there and watched. He wasn’t interested in going back and being taunted by the boys for having cried. He didn’t like most of them anyway, and wasn’t gonna give them an easy chance to make fun of them.

James just sat there and waited out the whole game, deciding to join in at the next game.