Page 136 of That Girl
Everyone but Fallon, Trevor, and JD exit the room. A man in a white lab coat walks in. This must be the doctor.
Trevor holds a cup with a straw in it for me to drink from. The first small sips feel like I’m swallowing shards of glass. As the doctor and nurse check me out—I’m not the biggest fan of the flashlight in the eyes—I try to focus on JD. He’s got a good scruff going on his face and his eyes are red and rimmed underneath with purple.
“I’m not the only one who looks like roadkill,” I comment, and he smiles at me.
JD could be wearing a fake Groucho Marx mustache and glasses and still be the most handsome man in the room. I roll my head to look at my right arm. I have a cast from my shoulder to the tips of my fingers.
“Okay, doctor. What’s the verdict?” I ask him as he listens to my heart with his stethoscope. The doctor looks over at Fallon and Trevor.
“Hey, little A. Let the man do his job first.”
“Headache?” the doctor asks me.
“Please don’t ask me to do a scale of one to ten because my answer will be one thousand.”
“Got it.” He grins and jots something down. “Pam, increase her dosage by five milligrams.”
“Wait. It’ll make me go back to sleep. I’m not ready.”
The doctor puts his warm hand across my forehead. “That’s exactly what your body needs right now. Don’t fight it,” he tells me.
Whatever narcotic they’re giving me works fast and my eyelids are already drooping. “Wait. Not yet. Where’s Connor? Is he okay?”
“He’s good, baby. He misses you. Renee and Ben have been watching him.”
Alright. Good. “My bike? Where’s Cam’s bike?”
“Getting fixed up and ready for you to ride it again.”
Okay. My eyes flutter shut. “Jackson. Don’t go.”
I feel his lips on my skin again and I sigh.
“Never, sunshine. Sleep, sweetheart. I’ll be here when you wake up.”
His familiar words follow me into the nothingness.
The next time I wake up, it’s easier to open my eyes, but this time it’s not the bright fluorescent lights that have my eyes tearing up. “What clown vomited up a rainbow stuffed unicorn?” I’m surrounded by colorful balloons and flowers everywhere.
Knox and JD are sitting beside my hospital bed playing a game of cards.
“It does look like that, doesn’t it?” Knox replies.
He stands up and kisses me gently on the lips. My stinging eyes jerk over to JD who sits back in his chair and gives me a half-tip smile. Okay, then.
“I’m supposed to be in California right now. The things you do for my attention,” Knox teases, then his face turns somber. “You scared the shit out of me, hood rat.”
There’s nothing I can say to that. I was scared shitless, too. I thought I was going to die.
“This guy needs a shower and a shave,” Knox says, jerking his thumb at JD. “So go easy on him, regardless of how bad he may smell.”
JD rolls his eyes.
“I’m going to go grab some really crappy hospital cafeteria food so you two can have some alone time,” Knox tells me. “Text me if anything changes,” he directs at JD, then kisses me on the forehead before walking out of the room.
“I smell a bromance.”
JD laughs and slides his chair closer to me. “I can’t let Knox out-compete me for kisses,” he says, leaning over me and kissing the side of my mouth. I lift my fingers to my lips and realize that one side is swollen and tender.
