“There you are.” Swiss pokes his head into Dew and Rain’s dressing room with a mischievous grin. His sights are set on Dew.

“Let me borrow you for just a minute,” he suggests, steering Dew by the shoulders out the door into the hallway. Rain gets up to watch them leave, curious. Dew looks at him and shrugs.

“You can come too, Rainy.”

Swiss leads the two of them a short distance down the hall to his own dressing room. He ushers Dew inside with a hand on the small of his back. Rain follows of his own volition.

Inside the room is an unfamiliar young woman wearing scrubs, maybe a nurse. She’s standing in front of an arrangement of medical supplies on the makeup counter. There are gauze squares, alcohol swabs, glass vials, and syringes filled with something bright red.

“What’s this?” Dew’s feet are rooted in place, one step inside the room.

“Vitamins,” Swiss coos, drawing out the word. “It’s good for your immune system. We don’t want a repeat of last time.” He presses on Dew’s back again.

Dew complies. The nurse directs him to stand at the counter and slide down the waistband of his pants so she can inject the bright red liquid. He doesn’t react to the needle, but wrinkles his nose when she presses down on the plunger at the end of the syringe. When she’s done, he pulls up his pants while aiming a vicious glare at Swiss and heads for the door.

“Your turn now.” Swiss pushes Rain forward with a hand on his back, just like he did to Dew.

A cold wave of anxiety runs over Rain’s body. His eyebrows shoot up involuntarily. “Me?”

“Why don’t you go first,” Dew suggests, poking Swiss in the back with one finger.

“I already got mine.”

Dew looks to the nurse, who nods in confirmation.

“C’mon,” Swiss encourages, leading Rain by the arm to the spot where Dew was just standing.

Rain lets himself be pulled into the room. Swiss returns to the entrance, leaning a shoulder against the doorframe, nonchalant.

Rain stands in front of the counter and reluctantly lowers his pants on one side. He has to hold the hem of his shirt up slightly with one hand to keep it out of the way. He looks down in an attempt to avoid seeing himself in the mirror. The syringe is right there on the surface in front of him. He’s not afraid of shots, he tells himself, but this one is so big and the stuff inside is so red and—

The nurse scrubs his skin with an alcohol swab and he shivers.

“Take all your weight off this leg, okay?” She pats the side of his thigh.

She keeps patting there until he shifts to stand mostly on his opposite leg. He feels dizzy. He rests his free hand on the counter to balance himself.

She grabs the syringe from the counter and removes the cover from the needle, which is really long and pointy, and Rain can’t look anymore. He whips his head around and tucks it against his shoulder. Inadvertently he looks toward the door, where Dew is watching him with a little frown. When they make eye contact, a crease forms between Dew’s eyebrows.

Dew walks back over to where Rain is standing. He peels Rain’s fingers from their now white-knuckled grip on the edge of the counter. He leans against the counter next to him, holding his hand, like it’s the most casual thing in the world.

“Ready?” The nurse asks. Rain nods, eyes closed.

“Three, two, one,” she counts, fast, and then she sticks the needle in, also fast. It feels like barely anything, a tiny pinprick.

When she pushes down on the plunger a tiny, stinging, concentrated muscle cramp blooms in Rain’s hip. It makes him inhale sharply and squeeze Dew’s hand. It quickly grows in intensity until he squeaks out, “oh—”

“Done.”

The nurse withdraws the needle and presses on the spot where it was with a gauze pad. The pressure hurts in a way that’s oddly pleasant, like scratching an itch. She disposes of the empty syringe in a nearby container so quickly that it’s like it never existed.

Rain exhales half a breath he didn’t realize he was holding. When he opens his eyes, Dew is watching his face. The crease between his eyebrows fades.

The stinging sensation has dissipated into a dull, barely-there burn. Rain adjusts his pants.