Rachel's Accident (3 page)

“Stop worrying about me.”

“
s’better
than
thinkin
’ ‘bout the pain,” I slurred.

I heard him shuffle away from me in the direction of the door. Get back to your life, I thought. I felt a dull ache near the center of my chest as that thought passed my mind before the pain meds finally kicked in and I blacked out completely.

The next time I woke up again my room was dark. I panicked for a second before I clicked my brain on again. It must be night and everyone tried to sleep with the emphasis on
tried
. Case in point I heard a loud snore coming from the far side of the room. It abruptly stopped and I held my breath. There was a shuffling sound and the snoring continued. I sighed. He still hadn’t gone home.

It was sweet how concerned and worried he seemed about me, but I really didn’t want that. I had never been good with anything emotional related.
I’ve
had one single meaningful relationship in my life and that had destroyed me on the deepest emotional level. And since my parents had died almost eight years ago I had been on my own. Besides he probably had some ulterior motives that I didn’t even want to think about right now. I couldn’t let him take care of me either way.

Speaking of taking care of things.
I had to work every weekend and on Tuesday and Thursday evenings. I didn’t even know which day was today and I couldn’t believe that anyone might have contacted my boss or Jess or the college where we both studied.
God, damn it.
I probably had tons of texts and voice mails. Shit.

I shifted my body to the edge of the bed, slowly getting it into an upright position. It hurt, but I ignored it. I was usually very good at ignoring any kind of pain, physically or otherwise. Only when the pain got too much I let it show like the last few…hours, days? Please, don’t tell me it was whole days that I missed.

I stood up and shuffled over to the chair where my soiled clothes lay. Fortunately, none of my body parts seemed to be fractured or in any other kind severely injured. From what I could see I was just one huge walking bruise. Ugh, pretty. I felt a lot better than the last time I had been awake, though.
Wait,
hadn’t the doctor said something about fractures and worse? Just how long had I been out for? Or had I just dreamed that? Yeah, that must be it.

As I rummaged through my pockets in search of my phone the snoring in the corner got louder. Wow, that guy was sporting a whole lumber mill over there. Where was that stupid phone?

With a jolt I remembered. I had been talking to my bestie only minutes before the accident. It was actually one of the last things I could recall clearly.
Fuck, that
meant my phone was either still in my car (probably both wrecked beyond recognition) or in someone else’s custody, which meant most likely the police.
Or maybe some paramedic?
Who knew? It could be anywhere.
My
phooooneeee
…
aaaaaahhhhhh
.
I felt like crying all over again. I had loved that phone to pieces… okay bad analogy.

A loud ringing suddenly made me jump, and groan low in my throat as my whole body protested. The snoring stopped abruptly and I heard the big guy shuffle around in search of his own phone. A few seconds later I saw the screen light up his face and the annoying ringtone stopped. He had hung up on whoever had been calling … in the middle of the night. Huh, strange?
Maybe his concerned girlfriend or wife.

He looked up toward the bed. When he didn’t find me there his brow furrowed and his gaze swung around searching the room, finally landing on me standing by the chair. He noticed me watching him.

“What are you doing up?”
H
e asked with authority in his voice. “The doc said you had your legs and arm broken. How are you up and walking?”

“He must have been wrong, I guess.” What the hell was going on here? Okay, let’s distract him so he’ll stop asking questions I don’t know the answer to. If I was really some weird freak with super healing powers, I sure as hell didn’t want anyone to know. They were not going to dissect me. Never! I cleared my throat, “More importantly what are you still doing here?” I looked at him questioningly now.

“I couldn’t leave you here alone. And I didn’t know anything about you, so that I could have called your family or anyone else. So…I stayed.” That reminded me that I was currently lying in a single room, which I could not afford in a million years.

And how would he be able to afford it? With that unkempt look of his he didn’t leave the impression of being particularly affluent. Was he a bank robber?

“Did you pay for all this?” I gestured around the room and gave him another questioning look.

“Well,
yeah, of course. It’s my fault that you’re here in the first place, so I only thought it fair to provide you with the best medical help possible in so little time.”

“You’re wrong. We are both to blame for that. I know I’m not the most careful driver.”

“No,” he said harshly with a little too much emphasis. At my shocked and maybe a bit frightened expression he took a deep breath and calmed down before speaking again. “I was drunk and shouldn’t even have been behind the wheel. So, it doesn’t matter how careless a driver you are because I’m a thousand times worse. And this is my responsibility to take, so please let me.”

I made a rude noise in the back of my throat. “Drunken Yeti strikes back! Read the whole story in tomorrow’s newspaper at your local kiosk,” I said in my best advertisement voice with the most serious expression possible.

“Yeti?”
He
laughed.

“Yeah, just look at you. You could definitely be Mr. Yeti’s
handsome
cousin. ‘Sides I don’t even know your name.”

“It’s Ethan,” he answered in a low voice. Wow, he sounded almost…shy?

“Well, Ethan, I’d really like to say it’s nice to meet you, but, and I’m sure you agree with me there, it would have been so much nicer under different circumstances.” I smiled ruefully at him.

The corner of his mouth lifted in a sexy, but sad, smile that made my heart skip a beat none
theless. “I couldn’t agree more
,” he said.

After a long pause in which none of us said anything he added in his hushed shy voice, “I was really worried about you.”

Aaaawwww
.
I just wanted to eat him up. He was so cute. “You don’t have to be. I’m fine.
I’ll
be as good as new in no time. Though, I wonder about my car. How much damage did the accident cause?” I paused at that. “No, wait, you know what? Don’t tell me. I’m sure I won’t be able to stomach the answer.”

“You’re in a hospital bed with enough pain meds to knock out an elephant and you are worried about your car?”
He
asked disbelievingly. The look on his face told me clear as day that he thought I had lost my
friggin
’ mind. Great now
I was
labeled as the ‘nut job’.

“It has sentimental value.” N
ot my best retort, but in this case I couldn’t think of anything better.

In that car were all my best memories and more. In secret compartments I had hidden my most prized possessions since I was always afraid to lose them or them getting stolen. I know that I just got the car and ‘objects are not as important as peoples’ lives’, but god damn it. With the money that car had cost I could have bought myself a hundred people.
At least for a few hours, but still.
I had saved up money for that car for the last six years.

Now a little panicking I walked over to him and took his hands, “Please don’t tell me it was beyond recognition and had to be towed away.” With a pleading look I searched his eyes for any sign of a bad message, but all he did was look perplexed.

“What’s the matter? Please tell me. I need to know.”

A strange look crossed his face. “You’re too close,” he breathed.

I looked down at our hands. He probably felt disgusted with me. I let go of his hands immediately and took a step back. “I’m sorry.”

“Me, too,” he mumbled under his breath, “I shouldn’t get a hard on with the girl I just got into the hospital.” He looked shocked after the words had left his mouth as if he couldn’t believe what had come out of his mouth.

My head snapped back up. “You didn’t think I’m disgusting?”
She
asked quietly.

He frowned at her disapprovingly.
“Hell, no.
Did you take a look in the mirror lately? You’re damn beautiful.”

She had to blink hard to avoid the oncoming tears from spilling over. For all her effort one little drop still made it through. It rolled down her cheek before she could wipe it away.

“Shit. Please, don’t cry. I didn’t mean to insult you in any way. I’m sorry. Please, stop crying,” he pleaded with
me
, a panicked look on his handsome face.

“I’m fine.” I smiled at him. “You didn’t insult me. It’s just… This was the first time anyone ever said something like that to me.” I paused and looked down at the bulge in is pants.
Hot damn.
“Or had a
n instant
hard on because of me.”

“What?” He was completely baffled. “You have got to be kidding me.”

“Yeah, I would’ve liked it to be different, too. Unfortunately, no I’m very much serious about this.”

He exhaled sharply. “Well then,
I’ll
say it again. You’re really beautiful. You should remember that.”

“Thank you,” she breathed. And this time when I smiled at him again his eyes wandered to my lips, seemingly entranced by them.

“So beautiful,” he whispered again.

No, I wasn't beautiful. Or even remotely pretty
.
Not by my standards anyway. I know I often set them too high, but really. I was so far beneath my ideal/standards that I couldn't imagine anyone else seeing me within their respectable standard limits. The poor guy must have hit his head something fierce if he was hallucinating like this
, but I was flattered nonetheless.

Well, whatever, not that I really cared. Not that anyone cared. I was just another ugly face in the crowd. I melted into the background perfectly. Standing out would probably be my demise. I have already been bullied in school. I didn't need the humiliation as an adult as well. Thank you very much.

My ugliness didn't come to me naturally. It had been a stupid accident in my childhood that had made my then great popularity
take
a sudden nosedive.
A stupid mistake that caused my life to change forever.
And yes, it really had been that dramatic. I wasn’t exaggerating.

I knew that much about myself. So why was this complete stranger saying these things? Was he just trying to flatter me so he could get off easy? I didn’t know, but I definitely didn’t like play-pretenders. Not one bit. Even though, his compliment had flattered me. He probably really did hit his head. He had sounded so sincere.

I just ignored his comments and went back to bed. Such a discussion wasn’t worth the trouble.

I was relieved when I was finally discharged the next day after the doctors couldn't find any more injuries in body. The fractures, the concussion, all those heavy injuries had disappeared over night. The only thing left was the bruises that were now fading, too. It was a miracle. Yeah, right.
More like a fucking freak show.

I could feel all the doctors and nurses staring at me as Ethan and I left the building. And since I hadn't agreed to be tested for a hundred different things and have experiments taken with my body they couldn't keep me there by force. Even if they wanted to I had my very own body guard to protect me.

We exited through the front entrance. Ethan kept his hand on my lower back guiding me. I'm sure he only did that because he still couldn't believe that I had healed that freaking fast. He had probably planned to stay in that room with me for the next year or so. Barely sleeping or eating. Not to mention hygiene. He needed a shave and probably a shower, too. He had admitted that he'd barely allowed himself to leave my side for five minutes to go to the bathroom and pee.

Well, here was a guy who took a commitment seriously. All the single ladies out there...come get him. I think he's available. But if he's not, then you're shit out of luck, girl
s
.

As we wandered through the parking lot I looked around for his car. It must be some old rust bucket if I had to judge from his
appearance. As if on cue a run-
down, dark green Nissan came into view.

I looked at Ethan expectantly, seeing if he would head for this car. To be honest my used Mustang had looked better than this, but beggars couldn't be choosers. And I was not going to judge him.
To my surprise he walked right past the rust bucket and headed toward the other side.

But wait hadn't he paid the hospital bills. And those sure weren't cheap these days. So maybe he drove something better. Maybe that Rover a few parking spaces down was his.

He lifted the key fob and pressed the button to remotely open the car. It wasn't the Rover that chirped to life at the signal, though, it was the little black sports car that was
parked behind it. What the...?