I wanted my friend back.
But most of all, the most terrifying thing of all that I tried and failed so hard not to think about… I wanted to know what her lips would feel like for real. I wanted to know if they were as soft as they felt in my dreams, what they felt like when I was actually lucid and not hopped up on pain meds with only a memory on replay to go off of.
This bath was making me lightheaded.
I looked at my fingers - pruney from sitting in the water for so long and decided it was time to get out. I tried pulling myself up to leverage my good leg, but my hands slipped on the edge as I tried to grip it, and I dropped back into the water with a tidal wave-sized splash, jarring my hip and knee at the same time. Pain shot through me like a bullet, ricocheting inside my bones,piercing my brain and burning my eyes in the sockets until they were watering.
The throbbing in my leg returned ten-fold, but it was excruciating in my knee.
“FUUUCCCK. FUCK!” I slammed my fists into the water, causing another surge to flow over the sides and onto the stone floor, soaking my clothes.
My head fell back onto the side of the tub.
Now fucking what?
The pain still coursing through my body was a stark reminder that I didn’t want to attempt it again. And I didn’t want to get out and then slip. I was stuck.
Is this what it felt like to be old?
I was supposed to be a professional athlete and I couldn’t even get out of my fucking bathtub. The thick black mood I’d managed to escape from while my body relaxed in the warmth of the water had returned at full throttle with the knowledge I was now trapped in here.
Fan-fucking-tastic.
Before I could descend further into my pity party for one, a buzzing started up behind me and I managed to snap out of my funk quick enough to realize it was my phone on the ledge, reaching it in time to see Drew’s name flashing on the screen, flooding me with relief.
I hit answer before it stopped buzzing. “Thank fuck. Where are you?”
“Driving back from weights, where are you?”
I closed my eyes, pinching the bridge of my nose to halt the impending stress headache. “I’m stuck in the bath.”
There was a second of silence before he responded. “What?”
“I’m stuck in the fucking bath.”
I heard loud laughter through the phone and realized I was on speaker because that wasn’t Drew’s laugh.
“Who’s that?”
“Jupiter. He came to weights with me.”
“Anyone else in the car privy to my humiliation?”
Jupiter was still laughing. “No dude, just me and Crawley.”
“How’ve you managed to get stuck?”
“It’s the first time I’ve attempted to have a bath, I tried to get out and slipped, and I’ve knocked my leg and now it fucking hurts and I don’t want to try again in case I damage it further.”
“Okay.” I heard a screech and the blaring of horns. “Sit tight, we’ll be there in twenty.”
The water was verging on tepid by the time Drew marched into the bathroom, fighting an expression of amusement as he took in my face which no doubt was filled with both immense relief and severe fucked-offness.
“Oh, bud.” He surveyed the scene as he looked around, grabbing some towels from the rail and throwing them down on the floor to mop up the small lake which had formed.
“Don’t.” I ran my hands through my wet hair, almost so happy to see him I thought I might cry. “Thanks for coming though.”
“Anytime. Before we get you out, how’s your leg?”
