"You're not making me lose any friends. Ben and Jack like you and Gena's trying." Matthew soothed, petting her smooth hair. "Do you think you could tolerate her, for my sake?" Matthew asked. "I need Gena. We've been friends since I fell out of a tree when I was 5 and she found my mom for me. She's one of my best friends and I can't just write her out of my life."

"Gena's not trying," Leane muttered bitterly. Still not looking at him, she added softly as she rested her forehead upon his chest, "Matt... I don't want you to write her out of your life and ditch her.. Just.. please don't make me try and like her.. I can't do it. And the more I try, the more she'll get on my nerves and the more I'll hate her. We're best just left as we are.. I just.. I don't want you being angry with me.. And I don't want you angry with her either.. I can promise you this, however.. I will hold my tongue if she says something vile.. But if I leave cooking class early in a rage? You'll know it's because I reached my limit and I couldn't take it anymore.."

"Gena knows she acted like a child. She's a bit stubborn so I'm sure you guys will clash again some how. But I think you should give it a shot at tolerating her. We're best friends and she's wise enough to know not to treat my girlfriend horribly. I think that if you give it a shot then she will. But telling her that she's vile, self-centered, and a jerk isn't the best start." Matthew laughed as he put his arms around her. "Please, Leane. Please try and tolerate her for me?" He asked softly, burying his face in her hair.

"But she is a vile self-centered jerk.. and apparently she's not too swift, Matt, she did say some cruel things on Friday," Leane insisted.

Sighing as she almost instinctively wrapped her arms around his waist, momentarily forgetting just how bad they were, placed a tender kiss upon his neck as she spoke softly, "But I promise you, and I'm only doing this for you I hope you know, I will hold my tongue around her."

"Thank you." Matthew replied before biting his tongue in response to her hug. The pain erupted in his side where before it had been a dull throbbing. "Now I'm truly starving." Matthew laughed as he pulled Leane to his side and put an arm around her. "I'm thinking its a macaroni and cheese kind of day." He joked, patting his stomach gently.

Leane smiled as she placed a tender kiss upon his neck as they walked, "Of course. But first, we make a small detour," she said softly before making a turn down the hallway to their left after they passed the lockers.

"Detour?" Matthew asked, confused. "Where are we going?" He asked curiously as Leane led him through the halls.

Stopping at the nurses office and pulling him in, Leane stated simply, "Here. I don't believe you're as fine as you say you are, and I won't be satisfied until I hear it from Ms. Carvoit."

Placing a tender kiss upon his cheek, Leane asked Ms. Carvoit if she would check over Matt, coming up with an excuse that he fell down the stairs, and she wanted to make sure he was alright because he was having far too much pain for far too long for just a simple bruise.

"Of course, Ms. Supton. Come on over here behind the curtain, Mr. Sommers, and we'll give you a quick check."

Matthew sighed as they entered the nurse's office. "I'm fine. Really. The bruise is bigger then I like but its nothing serious." Matthew said as he walked behind the curtain, lifting his shirt to show Mrs. Cavoit the bruise on his stomach. It was turning purple and stretched across his thin stomach.

Ms. Carvoit shook her head as she looked over his back and abdomen, "Mr. Sommers, are you sure it was the stairs that did this to you? Tell me when this hurts and when you're fine," she added as she began feeling his ribs one by one.

"Yes it was the stairs." Matthew said pointedly, knowing that she would see right through his lie but there was nothing she could do. Matthew winced slightly as her cold fingers felt his ribs. "It hurts but its just tender. Nothing terribly painful." Matthew shrugged. "It feels like any other bruise, only bigger." He laughed.

Going down his ribs, they felt fine for the most part. However, the tissue around a couple of the lower ribs were quite swollen and more tender than the rest. As for his abdomen, Ms. Carvoit could see a clear out line that looked like the heal of a boot. sighing, Ms. Carvoit removed her hands from Matt's abdomen and looked at his nose. Seeing that it wasn't broken or severely damanged, just bruised, Ms. Carvoit put her hands on her hips as she spoke to Matthew.

"Well, Mr. Sommers, I can tell you one thing. The stairs hit you in this area," pointing to the area where Kurt's boot had hit Matt, "harder than the rest. You need to get a medication into you that will reduce that swelling pronto, it'll push into your organs if it keeps swelling like it is. I want you to go to the ER to check for something internal as well. With the swelling increasing, there's something going on in there and I'm not qualified to determine if it's a break or a fracture. Though, since you're moving, my guess is that it's simply a hairline fracture on one of your lower rib bones. You must have hit the stairs pretty hard to get something like this. Now, are you able to drive yourself? Or do you need me to have someone come get you?"

Leane, who was listening on the other side of the curtain, her temper growing by the second, pulled back the curtain and forced a smile, "I'll take him, Ms. Carvoit."

Matthew sighed as Leane opened the curtain. Great, she was only going to be more upset. "Alright then." Matthew said with a small smile. "We'll let the office know we're leaving. Could you give us permission, to prove we're not just going to try and get out of school early?" Matthew asked the nurse.

Ms. Carvoit sighed as she went to her desk and wrote out the permission form, "I trust you Ms. Supton, so I am allowing you to do this just this once. I will notify the parents in just a few moments," she added as she handed Leane the forms. Noticing her look, Ms. Carvoit smiled at Leane, "Ms. Supton, you have nothing to worry about. Mr. Sommers here is a tough kid, he'll be just fine. This is simply a safety precaution."

Nodding as she took the forms, Leane thanked the nurse and stormed out of the Nurse's Office, her temper fuming so high that you could have sworn you saw smoke coming from her ears.

"Leane?" Matthew asked quietly as he followed her out the door. "Come on, she said it was fine. Its just a precaution. I'm not in alot of pain. Don't get mad." He soothed as he caught up with her, walking towards the office.

"Its too bad about lunch, I actually like the mac and cheese here." Matthew sighed as they passed by a hallway leading to the cafeteria. "Though we could always find a place after the hospital. There's tons of diners here."

Leane sighed as she stopped and leaned back against the wall. Closing her eyes as she leaned her head against the cool wall behind her, Leane felt a tear fall down her cheek from her temper. "Matt, if you're that hungry, you can go eat, I won't make you go when you're starving like this. We can go afterward. But if I walk into that cafeteria the way I am now, I'm going to pulverize Kurt's face with my heel and fist the second I see him. I'll wait for you here, alright?"

"Leane." Matthew sighed, moving to stand in front of her and wrapping his arms around her waist. "Its really not that big of a deal if we skip lunch." He smiled, kissing away the tear that ran down her cheek. "So Kurt beat up a little? He's done worse, this isn't this big of a deal." He soothed. "Don't be upset. I'm going to be good as new in a few days." He smiled, hoping to cheer her up and probably failing miserably.

"And had I known any of those people, or cared about them a tenth of the amount I care about you, maybe I'd have done it sooner. But right now? You're all that matters to me, and him doing this... I just.. Matt, I can't forgive him. Whenever I see him or hear his name, I just get so angry! I just.. I just want to rip him to shreds. This isn't fair! You've done nothing wrong! So we kiss a lot, big deal. He kissed me, surely that made him feel as if he's more superior again since you don't have anything over him anymore.. I mean, it's not like we've made love or anything! I mean, God! We've only been dating three days. I'm not that much of a slut.."

Blushing, Leane continued, "Okay, so I am. But you're the sensible one who talked me out of it! So really, it's not like he really has any right to be this cruel. I mean, God damn it! I'm not some trophy that he can fight for and steal away! Ughh.. I can't take it anymore. This has to stop," she said furiously before placing a hard, tender kiss upon Matt's lips and slipping out of his grasp, stalking towards the cafeteria.

"Leane!" Matthew cried in surprise as she slipped away from him. Running to catch her, Matthew held her back firmly and pulled her aside. "Yelling at Kurt is going to make things ten times worse. Every guy in school will consider me a target because I had a girl standing up for me. You have to let this go." Matthew said sternly. "I don't want this getting any worse then it already is. Being bruised isn't as bad as being a punching bag for the rest of the year so that guys can laugh about you yelling at them."

"Please." Matthew said quietly. "Please, let's just go to the hospital and put this behind us." He begged quietly.

Leane winced as he grabbed where her bruises were. Sighing, Leane blushed as she looked down at her feet, "I'm sorry.. I didn't think of it like that.."

Resting her forehead against his chest, Leane bit her lower lip, her pointer fingers absently slipping through the front two belt loops of Matt's jeans and pulling him closer to her, "I'm sorry... you're right, as always.. let's go.."

"I'm not always right." Matthew corrected her, giving her a tender kiss. "Don't be upset." He smiled down at her. "I'll buy you macaroni and cheese at the hospital." He teased as he lead Leane to the office.

Rolling her eyes playfully, Leane rested her head in the crook of his arm as her arm slid around his back and her pointer finger lazily looped through his hip belt loop to keep her hand from falling back to her side. "I honestly don't get why you're so obsessed with that food. Couldn't you like something more amazing? Like yellow rice or red peppers or something?" she teased as they neared the office.

"I think I'll stick to my macaroni and cheese." Matthew grinned as they reached the office. "Mrs. Black, the nurse gave us permisson to leave to get my stomach checked out at the hospital." Matthew explained who simply nodded and held out her hand for the note.

With the note signed, Matthew led Leane out of the school and towards his car. "To the hospital then." He smiled as they walked.

Laughing, Leane shook her head and detoured him over to her car, "Not a chance. I'm not driving your gas hog, we'll take my eco-friendly Prius," she teased as she looked through her purse to find her keys.

"I can drive." Matthew laughed as got into the passenger seat of her car, fighting back a wince as he sat. "I'm fine, really."