Personal Injury

Intro

Phoebe was rapt in the pages splayed on the table in front of her. It was a typical weeknight affair; the college junior had tucked herself away, deep inside the second floor of the campus library. She had been hunched over the same textbook for what felt like hours; Legal Ethics, Second Edition.

As her eyes flitted across the small typeface, she dragged the tip of her finger to and fro a few lines ahead. The soft, chafing noise that filled her otherwise silent cubby providing a soothing soundtrack for her studies. Every handful of pages, she would sit up straight and roll her shoulders back, relishing each distinct pop of her vertebra she received in return.

Phoebe grabbed the mechanical pencil that was resting on the yellow legal pad next to her reading. She started jotting down a note in her nearly-unintelligible shorthand, something about conflicts of interest and--

"Hey, Phoeb!"

The law student stirred from her focus with a start. She had been dashing the tip of her pencil on the page to punctuate her writing, when the sudden intrusion caused it to drag off in a jagged line. Before she even looked up, she knew who it was.

"Karl." She addressed him in a cool voice as she lifted her gaze from her work. It landed on a gawky man who stood a few feet away, leaning against a cubby divider. He was smiling brightly down to where she perched on her plastic seat.

Karl stood about 8 inches too tall for his frame. As a result, the blonde haired boy looked like his legs and arms had been stretched thin. His knit sweaters and green corduroy pants always looked too baggy for his whip-thin body, and the result was not someone Phoebe found particularly attractive.

"You should have told me you were planning on studying this afternoon, I would've been happy to keep you company." His words carried a chiding edge, lips quirking into a hopeful smile. "My stuff is actually just on the other side of the reference section, maybe I could move it over and join you?"

"Thanks," Phoebe started, suddenly working to scoop her materials up before the small talk could grow into anything further. "But I was actually just leaving. I have to hit the grocery store before my shift tonight." Without another beat, she stood from her chair, looking down to the canvas bag she was stuffing full of stationary. Her eyes didn't linger on him long enough to watch his face fall.

"Oh, cool. Maybe another time?"

"Another time."

Phoebe did not hesitate. She offered the taller boy a half-hearted smile, slung her bag over her shoulder, and took off towards the stairwell. As soon as she had turned away from him, her pretty face set into a deep grimace. In her head, she was repeating a familiar mantra; It's always the weird ones.

While she stomped past the librarians kiosk, through the front doors, and across the parking lot, the junior law student reflected on the male faces she often found leering at her. Blotchy, scruffy, wrinkled, misanthropic, penetrating, exposing, lascivious...

Phoebe stopped, banishing the thoughts as her eyes scanned the darkening campus in front of her. She let off a heavy sigh, and noticed for the first time that she could see her breath as a puff of white.

Autumn was marching on, and the days were growing shorter absent of her notice. Soon, she'd be having to trudge through snow and brave sub-zero temperatures on her travels between campus, her job, and her rented home.

Although she had lied about her errands, Phoebe was due for her shift at the drug store in just over an hour. She resumed her clipped pace towards the Northwest corner of campus, where she traded paved sidewalks for a brief wooded footpath. It was a 10-minute walk at most, unless she stopped for a puff.

As she strode across the quiet street that bordered the university, she figured she had the time to spare.

The rubber soles of her boots ground into the gravel path, announcing each footstep she advanced. As Phoebe came to a lonely lamp post, she slowed to a stop, standing in the dim, orange light. She shrugged off one of the straps of her canvas bag, beginning to rifle through its depths for her seldom-used carton of cigarettes. It felt as though the temperature had dropped dramatically since she left the comfort of the library, and the late afternoon breeze was causing her to shudder. Her cold fingers found the crumpled edge, and she fished it out to raise to her mouth.

An awkward moment later, she had a filter between her lips. After a few flicks of her failing BIC, smoke was rising in a the thin line from a glowing ember at the tip. The stressed-out student drew in a deep drag, tilting her chin back and letting her eyes fall shut as her lungs filled with tobacco smoke. She made a mental note to pocket a new lighter during her shift.

As soon as the head rush hit and Phoebe felt dizzy, she let the hazy breath hiss out of her mouth. About to take in her next hit, she opened her eyes just enough to see the dark forest scene through her smoke screen. Before she could suck in through the filter, a small flash of light in the distance caught her attention.

Someone else lighting up for a smoke in the woods?

She drew her bag in close, tucking her free hand into her fleece sweater as she cautiously puffed on her cigarette. Her eyes searched the dark, now wary of any unseen company she might have.

Maybe a stray beam of headlight through the trees?

The junior shook her fuzzy head. "I'm going nuts." She declared, her voice soft and husky as yet more smoke slithered from the corners of her mouth.

Only halfway though her Marlboro, she resumed her short trip home - refusing to look anywhere but the next few meters in front of her.

It isn't good to fill my head with worries... or my lungs with smoke, for that matter...