Page 33 of Hot for Her
“What? Am I having a bad hair day?” I teased.
She moved closer to me. “You’re making jokes right now? Seriously?”
I threw my hands up, regretting it immediately when the lightning pains struck my ribs. “What else am I supposed to do? Cry? Sit here and feel sorry for myself?”
Her eyes went round. “Drew…”
I sighed. She was the last person I wanted to be an asshole to. “Sorry. I’m having a shit day in case you hadn’t heard.”
She sat on the side of my bed. “Who did this to you? Your mom said you won’t say, but I don’t understand why you’d protect someone who hurt you like this.”
I swallowed the thick lump in my throat. “Can you hand me that water?”
When she lifted the cup from my bedside tray to my mouth, I took a sip from the straw. She waited patiently for me to finish.
“It doesn’t matter who did it. I don’t want to press charges. I just want to move on.” Her forehead creased. “Don’t frown, gorgeous. You’ll get premature wrinkles.”
She tilted her head at me like a wounded puppy.
“Stop looking at me like that. Come here.”
I pulled her into my arms, letting her lie alongside me even though it hurt like hell. “So how was your night? My sister said there was a man here with you earlier.” I waggled my eyebrows at her. “Did you fall in love with a carnie after all?”
She huffed out a breath but said nothing.
“I got my ass kicked and I’m in the hospital, Em. Give me something to live for.”
She looked up at me and her eyes clouded over. “It feels wrong to be gushing over some guy while you’re like this.”
I rolled my eyes. “Stop. I’ll be fine, the doctors said most of my injuries are superficial. I don’t even need surgery.”
“They don’t look superficial to me. Are you in a lot of pain?”
“I said superficial, not artificial. The shit hurts, yeah. And a morphine drip only goes so far. So help take my mind off it.”
She laid her head on my chest and sighed. “Camille ditched me for Derek at the carnival.”
“Shocker,” I broke in. Derek was Camille’s kryptonite.
“He was with some other girl and she lost her mind. Ethan was late meeting me at the gate and my phone died. I ran into this…guy. From my art history class at Southeastern.”
I could tell by the weight of her words, he wasn’t just some guy.
“A hot guy?”
She waited a beat. “Yeah, you could say that. A hot, smart, thoughtful, too sexy for his own good guy.”
“That’s exciting. Em, I’m proud of you. You needed to go out and have some fun for a change. I hate that my drama ruined it.”
She pulled back and pinned me with an incredulous look. There was a word people didn’t use enough.Incredulous.I vowed then and there to start using it more.
“Your drama, as in you gettingphysically assaultedand nearly beaten to death. I don’t know if it’s the meds or what, but this is serious, Drew. And you need to tell the police who did this to you so they don’t do it again—to you or to someone else.”
“Calm down before you get an eye twitch.” I patted her gently, bringing her back to lay beside me. “I’m not going to see him again. Period. Trust me, he’ll leave me alone. He has much more to lose than I do.”
She peered up at me. “Drew…was it like…a hate crime?”
I sighed and tried to figure out how to explain. “Look, Em, I know you’re upset and I know you’re upset because you love me. I love you, too. But trust me when I tell you, this person, the one who did this, he didn’t do it because he hates me. He did it because he hates himself, and all that anger, all that toxic hatred, it’s poisoned him and he may never get it out of his system. Can you imagine a harsher punishment than hating yourself? I mean, you’re stuck with yourself forever so…it’s a life sentence. Literally.”
