Page 103 of Puck Lust

I squint, hoping to see someone who can tell me what happened, but other than me, there’s nobody else in the taupe-painted room. A throbbing pain assaults my skull and I gingerly touch the sides of the bandages wrapped around my head.

There has to be someone around, but my head feels like a cement block, and I can’t even raise it off the pillow. An IV sticks out of my right arm.

I shift on the mattress, rolling onto my left side to search for a nurses’ call button and wince, my left arm is also covered in bandages. Rolling back over, I call out, hoping to God someone will hear me.

“Help,” I wail pathetically.

Where the hell is the call button?

The door opens and a nurse pops her head in the room. “Mr. Larson, you’re awake. I’m so glad to see it. I’m Annabel, your nurse.”

She steps inside, dressed in blue scrubs. Her hair is blonde and in a low ponytail, pink-framed glasses sit on her nose, and her smile is so white, it’s blinding.

Blinding to the point where I need to close my eyes again.

Well, maybe that’s the medication they’re pumping into me.

Medication that isn’t nearly strong enough since I am riddled with fucking agony.

“What happened?” I ask.

She raises my bed a bit and then puts a straw to my lips. “Here, take a sip.”

The water hits my lips and it tastes so good and wet. “Thanks,” I croak.

Annabel places the cup back on my nightstand and leans forward to check out my bandages. “How’s your pain?”

“Miserable,” I say. “Can you up whatever’s coming through these little tubes?”

She nods. “Of course. But first, the doctor will want to come in to examine you. You just woke up, so we don’t want you to go right back to sleep again. You were very lucky.”

“I don’t feel lucky. My head is gonna explode at any second.”

“You took a big hit in the accident.”

“Accident,” I mutter. “I don’t remem?—”

Then my lips snap shut.

And suddenly, I remember all of it.

The dingy apartment, Jeremy’s father, the rolling pin that gave me a fighting chance to survive that shit show, Jeremy’s screams…

“Where’s Jeremy?” I mumble. “Is he okay?”

“He’s fine.” Annabel smiles and touches my arm. “You’re a hero. You saved his life when you took that bullet in your left arm. But you lost a lot of blood, and that’s what made you black out at the wheel and crash into the tree.”

“How did we survive a head-on crash?”

“The airbags deployed and prevented you both from flying through the windshield but yours forced your head against the driver’s side window, giving you a brain contusion. That’s our focus right now. The doctors repaired your arm, but we need to keep you under observation to make sure the swelling in your brain goes down.”

Annabel checks my vitals and looks at the screens of the machines bleeping around me.

“Is Jeremy still here?” I ask. “I really want to see him.”

Annabel turns with a nod. “Yes, I’ll see if I can get him back here. There are some others who are waiting to see you, too, if you’re up to it.”

My chest tightens. “Who?”

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