Page 3 of Make Me Pretty
“Do I have to take off my pants, too?” I ask after lying back down. The room spins less this way. Much more bearable.
The nurse hesitates for a moment. I watch the wave of different emotions flicker across her face, through her eyes. She purses her lips in contemplation. Shit, she’s probably never seen something like this in this small ass town.
“Are you… do you?—”
I wince, eyes scrunching for a moment before I smooth my features out. The blood flowing from the split in my eyebrow slows its descent, but the throbbing in my other eye socket remains strong and steady. The plasticky-paper material under my ass makes a crinkly noise as I shift, fighting against the pins and needles in my legs.
“Nah. I’m not filing a report. I just want to get stitched up so I can go home.”
I’ll give the nurse some credit. She doesn’t even flinch. “Abel…”
Here we go.I sigh loudly.
“You’re seventeen, and you came in alone… andbeaten.We have to?—”
“Yeah yeah, call CPS. I know. Bill will be thrilled, I’m sure.” I throw my fist in the air, albeit pathetically because my aching rib keeps me from raising it all the way, so it falls back with a pitiful thump against the lumpy bed.
Tension fills the room. The nurse digs through a cupboard before handing me a shit-green hospital gown, golden eyes warm and knowing. “Put this on. I’ll be back in a few minutes to examine your wounds, and then we’ll get the doctor in here.”
“Aye aye, captain,” I remark, saluting her. She smiles before closing the door softly behind her. After the final vibration cuts off and I’m left alone, the tears finally try to come into play.
I swipe aggressively over both eyes, barely even feeling the pulsing ache in my left as I disperse the tears trying to spill over. “I don’t fucking think so,” I growl to myself. “Not today. Not fucking today.” After a few seconds of pushing breath through my nostrils, I feel more in control—for now, anyway.
I wish it could last forever.
Standing on my own two feet takes more strength than one would imagine, but I manage to drop my jeans after undoing the belt. They fall to the floor around my ankles, pooling in a huddle of worn denim. I step out of them and kick them to the side, now down to one fucking change of clothes.
I huff angrily and yank the scratchy material of the hospital gown over my arms, ignoring the sight of my mottled body. Nothing new in that department.
Once it’s on, left untied because fuck if I can reach the strings, let alone be fucked to even tie it, I crawl back into the bed, this time on my side to try and curb the nausea. A few minutes pass in a long stretch of silence before a soft knock bounces off the wood.
“Ye—” I clear my throat. “Yeah.”
“Is it okay if I come in?”
“Well, I’m not naked anymore. Sorry you missed the show.”
The nurse enters, closing the door behind her. She pulls gloves from the container holding them on the beige colored wall. She’s not hiding her smirk of amusement as she pulls on the blue latex.
“Can I touch you?”
I roll onto my back, closing my eyes. A voice inside my head urges me to be more diligent, but I’m just so tired. And I like this nurse. She gives good vibes. It’s a nice change of pace.
“My name is Elise, by the way,” she tells me as her fingers glide over the cut in my eyebrow. I twitch.
“Abel,” I respond even though she already knows my name.
“I would say it’s nice to meet you, Abel, if it was under better circumstances.”
I peel open my right eye. “So, it’s not nice to meet me now, you’re saying?”
She huffs a laugh. “You’re a troublemaker, aren’t you?” Her fingers glide up the side of my head, feeling around the lump that’s there somewhere from when I was shoved into the wall, the mirror inches away…
“Only on my best days,” I reply, shoving the vivid memory down. Away. Locked up tight. Just another day. Just anotheraccident.
“Do you want to tell me what happened to you, Abel?”
“Oh, jeez. Well, you see, I’m just so clumsy…”
