“Okay.” Even to my ears, the word doesn’t sound right, so I just open my mouth to get my point across.
The pill is followed by more water, then silence, even as she stands there with the door still open.
“You’re probably going to hate me for this, but I can’t think of anything else right now.”
I don’t know what to make of what she says just before closing the door nearest my head. A few moments later, the door near my feet open and she slides the duffle bag that had been over my legs away, and then the blanket.
My bare feet are sensitive to the cold air, but that doesn’t seem to matter when I feel a hand undoing and then pulling down my jeans.This seems like a weird time for sex.
Suddenly my eyes have no problem popping open and while I’d been picturing the beauty from the bar the other night, my memories are a little fuzzy right now, so I’m relieved it is her. Except I can’t figure out why she’s holding a hoodie over my midsection with her cheeks flaming red, I wonder if she has a fever.
Once she sort of half-wraps the hoodie over my boxers, and a little under my ass, her amber eyes lift up to meet mine.
“It’s a new truck and honestly, I’ve been terrified that you’d piss back here and I’d never get the smell out.”
The grunt that I let out seems to be a sufficient answer for her and the stress on her face eases when she smiles. “I knew you’d understand.”
*
The last few days have been a series of getting tortured, passing out, and waking up with a new part of my body screaming in pain, completely unaware of the day or the time. The next time I fully wake up it’s because my bladder is aching for release. I’m unbelievably relieved when I realize that nothing else hurts.
A light snore beside me has me slowly turning my head, since I’m somewhat expecting my whole body to start hurting again at any moment.It’sTrouble, I think, smiling at the woman I tagged as such when I saw her in Kent the other night.
We’re next to each other on a fold-out couch and from the dim light that’s on somewhere in the room, I can see a series of framed skeletal diagrams along the wall beyond her.
Where the fuck am I? Not that I haven’t woken up in unusual places before, but this is a new level of weird.
I move to sit up and that’s when a lower level of the pain I was expecting kicks in, and I realize there’s an IV in my arm. Not giving it a second’s thought, I yank that out and feel the woman beside me sitting up.
“No! Oh, it’s empty now anyway,” she stops her scolding as suddenly as she started and reaches her hand out to feel my forehead. “How are you feeling?”
“Good. Where are we?”
“In my clinic, about four and a half hours from Kent. I just wanted to get you somewhere they couldn’t find you and Dadwanted me away from there because of everything going on, so this made the most sense to me.”
“My head’s a little fuzzy and I’m not sure I got your name, but I need to pee.”
“Since my patients don’t use bedpans, the best I could come up with last night is that,” she says, pointing to a counter where there’s a plastic water bottle with the top cut off. “Let me help you sit up and I’ll give you some privacy.”
“You’re a vet,” I say, trying to cover for the groan I let out when she sits me up.
“Yes. I’ve got a doctor friend nearby who owes me a favor, so I’m going to ask for some pain meds when it’s a decent hour.”
“But. But, there are pain meds in my system,” I confirm, not sure I like where this conversation is heading.
“Here,” she says, handing me the bottle. “Pee first, worry about suing me later.”
With that, she leaves me on my own and I shake my head, trying not to laugh at the thought of what Thunder will say when he hears I was treated by a vet. He’s going to get way too much pleasure out of that material.
After a few minutes there’s a light tap on the door and I let her know it’s safe to enter.
“I wasn’t sure what to do with this,” I say, shrugging awkwardly as I hold my bottle of piss.
She crosses to a paper towel dispenser and wraps some around the bottle before leaving to dispose of it.
“My dad mentioned knowing a King named Jessup,” she says when she reenters. “Is that your name?”
I nod, frowning and wondering how her dad knows me. “Everyone calls me Rage.”
