Father:Where are you?
Father:Ring me now!
Joseph:You are embarrassing me!
I flick my phone on, but the incessant dinging is too much, so I quickly turn it back to silent and pocket it again.I will deal with that later!
Colt creases his brows but says nothing other than, “Are you in pain?”
I shake my head. Truthfully, I can’t feel anything other than my pounding heart and my flight instinct. I’m so overwhelmed by the last fifteen minutes that I don’t even feel like I’m functioning.
“Dee, why did you leave? Were you gonna go without even talking to me?” The look of hurt in his eyes has me questioning my sanity.
“I… I—”
“You’re in shock. C’mon, up you come,” Colt insists, then leans down and lifts me, cradling me to his bare chest. I swallow hard, holding him around his neck. A security guard places Colt’s T-shirt back on my knee, and Colt carries me down the hallway.
My head’s spinning, and I think I am losing my mind.
Still carrying me, he walks into his dressing room, and the rest of the band looks over at us as we enter.
“Hey, man, no chicks, remember?”
“Shut the fuck up, dude. She’s just been attacked by the crazies outside.”
“Oh, shit! Dee, you okay?” the guy who looks like Colt asks.
“Pretty sure she’s in shock,” Colt replies, gently placing me on the couch. They all crowd around, and I try my hardest not to cry. Suddenly, the emotion of what just happened hits me hard, and my head turns fuzzy as I blink away any threatening tears.
Someone rushes in through the door and straight over to me. “Did you call for a medic?” she asks.
Colt looks at a security guard, and he nods. “Yeah, her knee is banged up, and she isn’t talking,” he relays as the medic looks down at my knee.
“Everyone out,” the medic says. The guys laugh, but she gives them a stern look. “I’m serious,get out,” she reiterates, and they stop laughing.
“I’m not leaving her,” Colt asserts as the other guys walk out of their dressing room.
“Look, I know who you are, and trust me, I’m a massive fan, but Iwillget security to remove you if I have to,” the medic states sternly.
“It’s okay,” I whisper. They both look at me, then at each other. “He can stay.”
The medic walks over and shuts the door. “Only if you’re absolutely sure, honey. I need to assess your knee, and the only way I can do that is to remove your jeans.”
She frowns, but I don’t care. I want Colt with me. After I nod, reassuring her it’s okay, she helps me stand to take off my jeans. I look at Colt, who’s eyeing my legs and appears to swallow hard. Then he subtly rearranges his crotch, and I think I see a hint of a smile cross his face until his eyes gaze across my knee.
As I step out of my jeans, I’m standing in a black tank top, a now slightly torn yellow cardigan, and a pair of black lacy boy shorts. I sit back on the couch, and the medic gets to workdigging out the pieces of gravel from my knee. It hurts, causing me to wince at the pain.
From where I’m sitting, I watch Colt walk over to the liquor counter, pull out a Jack Daniel’s bottle, and return, unscrewing the lid.
“Here, it’ll help with the pain,” he tells me while handing it to me. Even though the thought of alcohol is turning my stomach, the pain and the anxiety I’ve just been through make me take a giant mouthful of the amber liquid. I swallow, and my mouth catches fire, closely followed by my throat.
Heckity, heck, heck!I crinkle my face and stick out my tongue as I clench my eyes shut. “That’s disgusting. How can you drink that?”
Colt laughs. “I’m a man. It’s a man’s drink. If you can’t handle it, I can get you something else,” he says with a smirk.
It’s a man’s drink?Well, they can keep that all to themselves.
Still, I don’t want to show weakness, so I say, “No, I’m fine. I can handle it.” I take another sip of the awful stuff, and they both laugh as I scrunch my face again.
