Page 40 of Break the Barrier
“Bend over.” Her words jolt me from my fantasy, and I blink at her.
“What?”
She smirks, and I see a bit of her sass coming out, but she shuts it down. “I need your arm to bend over the sink.”
Gesturing to the sink, I followed her instructions and let her run water over my arm, thankful that it’s not quite burning yet.
“You seem stressed.” I glance up to see Thea watching me closely.
“I’m not.” But I was dying of heat, and my head was swimming.
“Logan, I really think I should take you to the ER.” She continues to look at my arm, worry lines stretched across her face.
“I don’t want to, I have Lue. I’m not going to drag her out.” My words trail off, and distantly, Thea tells me to hang on a minute.
She disappears, and I lean against the counter, my T-shirt still on but feeling too hot. I start to struggle to pull it off.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa, leave that on.” Thea readjusts it onto me again and then settles me back on the toilet lid. “Just stay still, I’m going to wrap this up.”
“Wrap it up?” I ask, wondering what she’s talking about. How long have I been in this bathroom?
“Hold tight, Logan.”
For a few long minutes, or maybe more time than that, she disappears, leaving me on my own in the bathroom.
A distant beeping noise wakes me from a fitful sleep. I’m not sure where it’s coming from, but opening my eyes seems to be a trick these days.
I feel a dull throbbing coming from my right arm and an intense throbbing coming from my head, but I hear voices around me, and I desperately want to open my eyes.
A hand lays on my left, and I wrap my fingers around it. Maybe it’s Lue or my mom?
“But he’ll be in and out…” The words faded again as I tried to open my eyes.
“Yes, he’ll need…”
But I just can’t focus.
“Good morning, sleeping beauty.” My brother’s voice jars me all the way awake, and I look at him, surprised.
“What the fuck, Stets, why are you holding balloons?”
I lift my left forearm over my eyes, blocking the light and the shininess of the balloons.
“They’re get well soon balloons! I thought you’d appreciate the gesture.”
I blink and look around. I’m in a hospital room—there’s a curtain to my right and a ton of noise coming from behind another curtain.
“How did I get here?”
“Well.” Stetson moves, setting his balloons down and leaning against the bottom rail of the bed. “Mommy dearest got a very interesting phone call last night from a very worried girlfriend of yours.”
I close my eyes as memories from the night before hit me. Thea looking at home in my house, Thea leading me to the bedroom—I really like that memory—Thea rubbing at my arm, and then…nothing.
“I had no idea you two were sleeping over at each other’s place officially.”
I roll my eyes and immediately regret the action, grabbing at my head. “What the hell happened?”
“Well, apparently when you fell the other night, it was a hell of a lot worse than you let on. As in, you whacked your head and split your arm open and didn’t tell anyone.” He gives me a look that makes me feel guilty for lying. “Why the hell didn’t you say anything?”
