A Long Story

"How?" I asked, practically breathless. My fingers trembled as I reached inside the box to stroke the front cover of the book resting amongst the tissue paper.

"I had seen you eyeing it a few times and thought it would make an appropriate apology gift," smiled Bai Long Qiang, still kneeling in front of me. "So, did I do good?"

"You brat! You didn't do good! If you did, you wouldn't have let her get bullied in the first place," snapped his grandfather, but I really wasn't paying attention.

If this was what I got for being bullied, then I would be happy to be dunked in slime every day.

"Well? Don't keep us in suspense. What did he give you?" asked Mom as she leaned forward to look into the box on my lap.

"The Nei Ching," I said softly, still stroking the cover.

"The original copy," smirked Bai Long Qiang. My head snapped around, and I glared at him.

"It's not the first edition," I told him flat out. It didn't make it any less of an amazing find, but it was definitely not the first edition.

"I am confused," said Mom, trying to reach in and take out the book, but I moved the box so it was out of her reach. It might not be the first edition, but it was an old one. The pages were brittle and yellow, and I was not taking the chance of anything happening to it because of some overzealous individual. Even if she was my mother.

"This is a copy of the Nei Ching. One of the oldest known medical books. It was written by Huang Ti, also known as the Yellow Emperor, sometime between 2697 and 2597 B.C.E. The original is probably locked away in a museum somewhere, but—"

I looked up at Bai Long Qiang. "If I keep getting bullied, will you keep buying me medical books?" I thought it was a valid question. I had a whole list of books that I wanted that I didn't know how to get my hands on… or the money to buy them.

This one alone would cost upward of a few million dollars.

"How about I just buy you the ones that you want and you stop being bullied," replied Bai Long Qiang as he booped my nose. I slapped his hand out of the way as I pouted. There was nothing I hated more than being booped, but for some reason, he was happy every time he did it.

"Deal," I said quickly before he could change his mind. "I'll send you a list tomorrow."

"You know," said Grandfather, interrupting the conversation. "We can buy you whatever books you want."

"Why spend our money when we can spend someone else's?" I asked, blinking my eyes.

Something scratched against my left eye, and I could feel my contact shifting a bit. "I'm just going to put this away someplace special," I said, standing up. Cradling the box in my arms, I quickly walked upstairs to the bedroom that Grandma and Grandpa had given me.

Placing the box on my bed, I quickly ran into the ensuite.

Not tall enough to be able to see over the counter easily, I used the stool to climb up. Looking into the mirror, I noticed that the contact had indeed slipped, revealing the faintest blue iris off to one side.

I suppose I should be happy that it made it through school and the slime, but not even my grandparents knew about it.

Letting out a huff of frustration, I took out the contact and looked around for a safe place to put it down until I could dig my contact solution out of the hiding place I had put it in.

The lens was incredibly dry, and I was surprised that it hadn't been even more of a discomfort than it was.

Not finding any place to put it, I held it up as I slowly tried to back down from the counter. The toes of my left foot tapped around, trying to find the stool under me.

"Kitten?" asked Bai Long Qiang out of the blue, causing me to gasp. My balance already questionable, I found myself falling backward.

Letting out a string of curses, Bai Long Qiang shot forward and wrapped me up in his arms before I could hit the floor.

"Let's not do that again, shall we?" he said with a huff, looking over my body to make sure that I was okay.

My right hand was still held up, trying to protect the contact lens on my index finger, and that drew his attention to it.

"What--?" he started to ask before he cut himself off. He was staring into my eyes, my mismatched eyes.

"How did I not know?" he asked, breathlessly. I looked at him with concern. Was he going to freak out? I really couldn't handle him freaking out right now. I needed to put the lens in the solution first and hoped that that would rehydrate it.

Then, I needed to find my spare one so I could go back down for dinner.

"No one knows," I snapped, not at all enjoying my vulnerable position. And it had nothing to do with the fact that he had yet to let me down.

"No one?" he repeated, his eyebrows shooting up. "How is that possible?"

"Okay, Mom and the two doctors from City A know, but that is it," I clarified. We hadn't even told Dad. "It happened after my accident."

"Accident?" he pressed.

"Long, boring story," I assured him, squirming so he would let me down. As soon as my feet touched the ground, I was in my bedroom, shutting the door before going into my closet. Finding the case with everything I needed, I brought it into the bathroom.

"Then I suggest you hurry up and tell it, Kitten. Or else you are going to be late for dinner," replied Bai Long Qiang with a smile on his face.

I glared at him as I got to work.

"First day of Grade One, I got hit by a car. The hospital here transferred me to City A for better care. When I woke up from my coma, I had two different colored eyes," I explained precisely as I squirted the lens solution into its case and placed the contact in.

Opening a white package, I pulled out a single brown lens.

"Help me up," I huffed. If the lug was going to stand there staring at me, the least he could do was be helpful.