I immediately miss his warmth when he takes a couple of steps back.
The thought hits me that I’ve never felt this kind of attraction before; not with my high school boyfriend, nor with Tim before I followed him to his room.
“Ma’am, you’re all set.” The attendant’s voice helps me snap out of my lust induced daze.
He’s hung a new target for me and I do my best to copy the position Colsen just showed me.
When I’m satisfied that the heart drawn on the silhouette of a person is perfectly visible through the rear sight, I squeeze the trigger.
Here goes…nothing.
I squeeze the trigger a second time, but the gun doesn’t go off.
“Am I doing something wrong, or is it broken?” I ask nobody in particular.
“Sorry, my bad.” Colsen takes the gun from me to inspect it. “I left the safety on. It’s here, see? You can flick it off when you’re ready to shoot.”
I thank him and then do my best to replicate the shooting position he showed me earlier.
Once I’m happy that my shot is lined up, I flick the safety off and squeeze the trigger.
Everything happens in the blink of an eye, and it takes me a second to understand what’s happened.
All I know is that a split second after I pulled the trigger, the gun jumped back and the back of it hit my mouth.
The unexpected jump and the sudden pain blooming on my bottom lip caused my body to jerk back too, and I involuntarily squeezed the trigger again.
The second the second shot goes off, I hear a pained noise coming from a few feet away from me.
Tucker falls to the ground, blood trickling down from a cut on his leg.
“Ow,” he wails, his blue eyes wide with surprise.
I don’t realize that my hands are trembling until Colsen takes the gun from me.
“What—what just happened?” I run to Tucker, who in the meantime has gotten back to his feet. “Tucker, did I do that? I’m so, so sorry. I didn’t mean to shoot you.”
The attendant reaches him at the same time as I do.
“You didn’t technically shoot him, ma’am.” He explains. “You accidentally pulled the trigger a second time when the gun recoiled and hit you, and the bullet hit that wall over there and then ricocheted and got your friend in the leg.”
I cover my mouth with my hands, horrified by the nick in the concrete bottom part of the booth. The taste of blood in my mouth, as my bottom lip is still throbbing, doesn’t help the situation.
“Tucker, oh my God. I’m so sorry.” I look at him but I don’t dare touch him.
The attendant and Colsen are right by my side.
“Do you want me to call 911, sir?” he asks.
Tucker shakes his head. “No, no. I think it looks more serious than it really is. Do you have a first aid kit?”
As the attendant brings the first aid kit, I take over.
“Let me, please. I’m a nurse. Well, I just graduated. Tucker, I’m so sorry.” I repeat as I open an antiseptic wipe to clean his wound.
“It’s ok, baby.” He says softly, “You didn’t do it on purpose.”
I shake my head as more blood oozes from the cut on Tucker’s leg. “I don’t know what happened. The gun jumped back, and it hit my mouth and I must have pulled the trigger again without realizing it.”
