Work Text:
I found Richie in the bathroom down the hall from the computer lab, standing over the sink, blood dripping from his nose.
"Uh, Richie? You okay, bro?"
For an answer, Richie spat a glob of phlegm and clotted blood into the sink. Maybe he hadn't heard me, so I went and stood next to him.
"Are? You? Okay?" I asked, mimicking the cheesy video from the First Aid class as I shook him gently by the shoulder. "I. Am. Trained. In. First. Aid."
Richie laughed, still gross and dripping. "Yeah. Guess whad?" His words were slurred, and he looked even paler than usual, but that was probably just the blood loss.
"What?"
"I jus' bade a shiddon of modey."
"Somebody pay you to get punched in the nose?"
He laughed again. "Doe. I found a hudred million digit prime dumber. Dere's a foundation dat'll buy it for a hudred and fiddy grand." He snorted out another clot and turned on the tap, rinsed out the sink.
"Found, like under a rock somewhere?" I said as I stepped into the stall, pulled out a wad of toilet paper and handed it to him.
"Doe. With math. Might have overused my bower." He took the toilet paper and pressed it against his nose, leaning heavily against the sink.
I shook my head. “Dang. A hundred and fifty K though? That’s totally worth a nosebleed.”
Richie laughed. "Totally," he murmured, just as his grip on the sink slipped and his head lolled back. I just barely managed to catch him before he fell and cracked his head on the linoleum.
I swore and moved him into the safety position, propped up so he was lying on his side, then ran out into the hall, yelling for a teacher.
Still, though for a hundred and fifty thousand? Totally worth it. Probably.