But that was beside the point.
“Wait, what am I doing in this bed? Why are you all here? And why is Mom crying? Did someone die?”
That only made Mom cry harder, and that’s when Dad turned and pulled her into his arms. Damn. Someone did die.
“Sweetie,” Caroline said gently. “You were hit by a car last night. Do you remember any of that?”
I stared at her for a moment, a million thoughts racing through my mind, but only one bubbled to the surface. “Well, considering I thought I had a peg leg and an eyepatch, I guess not.”
But my head was still pounding, and now that she mentioned it, it was like the other aches in my body were making themselves known. I felt stiff, like I needed to lie down and sleepafter falling off a roof when trying to hang my lights. Only about ten times worse than that.
“You were walking out of Seafood & More when Alyssa was attacked,” Sam said, his thumb rubbing a soothing pattern on my hand.
Did he really think that was going to stop me from freaking out? I watched his thumb circle again and again, but it did not have the desired effect. Panic was engulfing me.
“You ran for help, and a car pulled out and ran you over.”
“Technically, you were hit by the car and thrown from the windshield,” Caroline corrected. “That’s where all the cuts came from. And the broken leg.”
But even as they explained it, I continued to watch his thumb go round and round on my skin. Maybe it did make it better. I didn’t feel like crying. I wasn’t scared anymore about becoming a pirate.
All in all, I mostly just wanted to go back to sleep.
“Oh,” I settled on.
“Is there anything I can get you, sweetie?” Caroline asked.
I shook my head, then glanced up at my parents. “I don’t suppose you could stop crying?”
When I wokethe next time, thankfully, I was alone with Sam in the room.
“Did I run them off?” I asked, groggily.
“And then some,” he smirked. “I believe your mother ran out of here in tears.”
Groaning, I shifted in bed, trying to get more comfortable. Not that I could with my leg in a giant stabilizing cast. “When do I get this thing off?”
“When the swelling goes down, you’ll get the real deal.”
I huffed in annoyance. “And then what?”
“Six to twelve weeks.”
I looked down at my leg and sighed. “This is going to really suck.”
“Look on the bright side, you’re not dead.”
I felt my lips twitch in amusement at his words. It probably shouldn’t be funny, but since I didn’t really remember anything, I couldn’t be too upset about the way it happened. At least my eyepatch was gone.
“So, tell me, do I look fuckable to you right now?”
“You always look fuckable.”
“I’m sure. I think the eye really does it.”
“Oh, definitely. But I think I actually liked you better with the pirate patch.”
I sighed, wondering how I actually looked, though I hadn’t had the courage yet to ask. I could only imagine I had bruises covering my body and stitches that made me look like Frankenstein.
