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Chapter Fifteen – We Laughed, We Kissed, We Swapped Numbers
Jesse
When I woke up on Monday morning, part of me was sure the weekend had been a bad dream, but the sight of my crutches leaning against the wall told me otherwise. My knee throbbed. On a normal morning, I wouldn’t have considered getting out of bed at six o’ clock, but I wanted to get my first dose of painkillers in before it got too unbearable. Besides, once I was up, I could put some ice on it too.
Getting out of bed was a bit of a struggle, and trying to tug my jeans up over my knee brace was even more of a pain in the ass, but I managed - eventually. Hobbling over to my crutches was agony, and even though I knew I was supposed to try and walk on my leg a little, I figured it could wait until I was fully awake and pumped with anti-inflammatories.
As I swung by Isabelle’s room, I was hit with the desire to knock on the door. I missed her so much, and the weirdness over dinner the night before had really put a strain on everyone. Hunter in particular did his best to help mask it, but it was impossible not to feel it. I was supposed to be mad at her, I was mad at her but that didn’t make me care about her any less. At the party, I felt closer to her than I’d ever felt to anyone and then … Leon.
I forced myself to keep going, past her room and down the stairs. Not easy to do on crutches, but I managed to get to the bottom without falling down and causing any more damage.
Because it was so early, I wasn’t expecting to find anyone in the kitchen, least of all Hunter who never got up before nine. He was sitting at the table, coffee in hand.
“What the hell?” I asked, with an amused grin. “Have you ever even seen this time of the morning before?”
“Funny. I was gonna offer to fix you some breakfast when I heard you clacking down the hall, but if you’re well enough to give me cheek, you’re well enough to make your own food,” he said, in a mock British accent.
I hadn’t considered how I was going to carry anything to the table while using crutches, and I looked to Hunter for support.
“Alright,” he said, dramatically, “What can I get you?”
He stood up as I reached the table, and I freed my wrists. “Coffee, glass of water, toast and painkillers please.”
“Coming right up.”
Hunter busied himself boiling the kettle, and putting bread in the toaster, and I propped my leg up on a vacant chair. I was meant to keep it elevated as much as possible. It needed to be higher, but having it up would just have to be enough. Without a word, Hunter walked out of the room and returned with two cushions from the living room.
“Dude, did you get up early just so you could be my nurse maid?”
“No,” Hunter answered, carefully lifting my leg and putting the cushions underneath. “But it’s the least I can do. I didn’t feel like I was much help yesterday so … whatever.”
“Didn’t do much? Hunter, you spent the whole day at the hospital when you could have been … I don’t know … doing something a lot more fun and a lot less depressing.”
He shrugged, then went back to check on the toast.
“I should be doing stuff for you,” I said. “The rest of this vacation’s going to suck now I can’t move around as much.”
“Were you serious about trying to go home early?” Hunter asked, bringing me my coffee and tablets.
“I don’t know,” I sighed. “It would be easier for everyone if I was out of the way, and it would make my parents happy if I was back with them.”
“But?”
“But, I was kinda looking forward to being here for another couple of weeks.”
“Me too.”
“Just because I might leave early, doesn’t mean you have to.”
“But it wouldn’t be the same without you. You’re my boy, even if you are a cripple right now.”
“I don’t have to make any decisions yet,” I said. “There are still some things I need to do here anyway. I think the police want to talk to me again later, to see if I remember anything else about the party?”
“Do you?”
I shook my head. “Not a damn thing. Although … now I think about it, I do remember seeing you and Willow wrapped around each other. What happened with you two?”
A blush coloured his cheeks, something I’d never seen before, and he busied himself buttering my toast.
