Page 17 of The Second Kiss
The light, happy feeling I had before is gone. I’m suddenly sad, so sad I want to cry. But I can't let Jacob see me cry. “Maybe. It might just have been gum, or the smoke from the party. Lexie told him to do it.”
“Did he hurt you?” Jacob sounds mad. Is he mad at me?
“No. I hurt him. I scratched his face. He hates me now. They all do.”
“I’m going to put you down now.”
I don’t want to let him go, but I don't want him to be mad at me. I let my arms slide off his neck. I know I said something I shouldn’t have. I'm not sure what it was. He leans over me. “Are you sure you’re okay?”
“Yeah,” I try to smile, but my face sags like a deflated balloon. “I’m a tough girl, remember?”
"I remember." He looks at me for a long time. Like he wants to say something else. Finally, he stands up. “I hope you feel better. See you tomorrow, Jess.”
ten
Bruised
I wake up to the sound of an engine revving and a throbbing jaw. It feels like someone hit me, hard, and on both sides of my face. The sun coming in the windows hurts my eyes, so I pull a pillow over my head.
Mom walks in. “I'm glad you’re awake. I was about to call the oral surgeon and tell him he put you in a coma.”
Oral surgeon? Right. That explains the pain in my jaw. I have a vague memory of laughing uncontrollably and trying to ask the nurse if my voice sounded funny to her or if it was just me. I don’t remember much after that.
“What time is it?” I mutter from under the pillow.
“A little after nine. You’ve been asleep for almost 16 hours. How do you feel?” Mom is trying to pull the pillow off my face. I hold onto it.
Like I lost a fight. “Just give me drugs and let me sleep.”
“Sorry.” Mom’s voice grates on my nerves. “You can’t have any pain medicine on an empty stomach. It will make you sick.”
“I am sick, Mom. I feel like I got hit by a train.”
“Do you really feel that bad? Let me see,” she tugs at the pillow again.
The revving in the yard starts again. “Could you please tell Matt and his friends to knock it off?”
“Actually, that’s not Matt. It’s Jacob. Remember? He said he’d come look at your car.”
“Jacob? My car?” I pull the pillow off my face. Clarity hits me like a punch to the stomach. Jacob is here at my house. Messing with my car. And I look...
“That is bad,” Mom says.
“What?” I sit up so I can see the mirror above my dresser. Bad is the understatement of the year. My cheeks are swollen and there are dark bruises on both sides of my jaw. I sink back on my bed. “Now I really want to die.”
“It’ll only look like that for a few days.”
A few days? I’ve been obsessing about Jacob coming over all week, thinking about what I would wear, what I could say to him, and now I can’t even show my face. “I don’t want him to--” I catch myself. “I am not going to school looking like this on Monday.” Or downstairs, out of my room, or anywhere else where civilized people, guys, and particularly Jacob might be.
Mom shakes her head and hands me the glass she was holding.
I peer into it suspiciously. “What is this?”
“Breakfast. I made you a smoothie, blueberry and banana. Drink some of it and then you can have something for the pain.”
I take a sip and wince. “It’s too cold mom, it hurts my teeth.” I know I’m being a brat, but my mouth is throbbing, I look horrible, and there’s a gorgeous guy outside working on my car. I set the glass back on my nightstand.
Mom stands up. “Would you rather I bring you up some warm chocolate milk?”
