Dirty romance

Chapter 10

My hand becomes sweaty while Mandi squeezes it with reassurance that Eric will be okay. I watch as Travis rips open Eric’s black T-shirt from the neckline to the bottom. My eyes flinch at the sight of the bullet wound just above his hip. The thin scarlet consistency runs down his side falling on to his bedding. Anger flourishes inside me while watching Eric in pain. Who would do this to him?

“Keep your eyes open,” Travis demands. He pulls at his latex glove covering his wrist and grabs his instruments from the pedestal next to Eric’s bed. My eyes leave the wound and glances over at Eric who is already staring my way. I know he’ll be okay – he has to be.

Moments later I hear the sound of metal falling into a glass container – and Travis murmurs something about thanking God the bullet wasn’t deep. Travis places his hand against the oozing blood coming from Eric’s body and grabs a bandage and begins to wrap it around the wound.

Beads of sweat drip down Travis’s forehead and I admire how calm he looks. I wonder how many times he’s had to do this.

“Will he be okay?” I ask Travis while keeping my eyes on Eric.

“Yeah, you’ll have to clean the wound and put new bandages on – make sure he doesn’t get a temperature. I’ll give you something for the pain but overall he needs to rest until the wound is fully healed.” He sounds so professional.

I nod. “What happens if he gets a fever?” I ask curiously.

“Well since you can’t go to the hospital just call me if he does, I’ll be here in no time,” he says and I feel grateful he doesn’t ask further questions.

I watch as Eric’s eyes begin to close and I’m thankful he is going to be okay. Travis moves to the bathroom to wash his hands and change into clothes that aren’t full of blood before he and Mandi say their goodbyes’.

“Keep us posted on his recovery.” I nod.

I close the door making sure that no one in the corridor peeps in the room not to raise any suspicion. I grab my phone to check the time while I notice 7 missed calls from Daniel. s**t, I totally forgot. It’s nearly midnight and I didn’t let him know I won’t be coming. I take a deep breath as I dial Daniel’s number into my phone.

“Hi.” He says.

I turn to see Eric lying on the bed falling asleep. I can’t leave him alone.

“Hey. I’m so sorry I didn’t let you know I wasn’t going to make it tonight.” My voice cracks.

“It’s okay…what came up?” he sounds frustrated.

“Uh…” should I tell him about Eric popping up with a bullet in his body and getting my friends to help cover it up? I can’t, I can’t even tell him Eric is here – he would flip if Eric was the reason I completely forgot about him.

“It’s him isn’t it?” he asks referring to Eric.

“Yeah…” what do I tell him?

“Something happened Daniel, Eric needed my help it was urgent,” I say hoping he will understand.

“Okay, I need to get to bed. Goodnight.” And he hangs up.

I toss my phone on my bed letting out a deep sigh. I’m obviously in deep trouble but I need to give him time to process. I turn to Eric’s bed and observe his deep sleep – he didn’t even ask me for pain pills. I adjust the blue blanket to cover his naked chest. I decide to go to sleep as well until I hear someone banging on the room door. s**t.

The door swings open and in walks, a girl with black straight hair flat on her head a black low cut tiny t-shirt exposing her cleavage with ripped skinny jeans and boots. I notice the helmet in her hand and I know - she’s here for Eric.

Her eyes lock with mine.

“Is Eric okay?” she demands. I point to his bed.

She runs to his bed and kneels at his side and starts brushing her hand over his hair. Who is this girl to Eric? His sister? Cousin? Girlfriend?

“He won’t be waking up anytime soon and I need to get to bed,” I tell her.

She looks at me and I notice tears glossing up her eyes – she’s crying.

“Did you help him?” she asks wiping her tears.

“Yes,” I answer.

“Thank you. If you don’t mind I’ll stay here with Eric tonight. I think he’d want a familiar face once he wakes up.” Her voice is bitchy even though she’s got tears in her eyes.

A familiar face, well what am I then? Until I realize she doesn’t know my relationship with Eric and I’ll be damned if I go to bed not knowing who is sleeping in this room.

“I hope you don’t take offense, but who the hell are you?” I ask in the kindest voice I can offer her.

She shifts on to her feet leveled with me and swings her hair off her shoulder. Her face doesn’t have any evidence that she was about to cry a few seconds ago. She’s in full b***h mode now.

“Eric and I go way back but I wouldn’t want to bore you with that so let me break it down for you. I’m his girl.”

I feel a pain in my chest at her words, of course, Eric has a girlfriend already then goes and messes around with me before he disappeared for weeks – he was probably with her the entire time. I gaze at her eyes hoping that she doesn’t notice how her words affect me. I swallow and take a breath.

“Well then you can take care of his wound and I can stop ditching my boyfriend to look after yours.” I sashay over to my dresser grabbing the bandages and pain pills shoving it into her hands before I jump into bed and shut my lights.

I move onto my back facing the ceiling drifting into my deep thoughts. I can’t keep doing this. Eric keeps finding ways to draw me in then something pops up proving to me that I shouldn’t be involved with him. I decide that tomorrow I’ll find a new dorm room, my new relationship with Daniel won’t survive this. And I need to put a stop to it. I don’t understand why the fact that Eric has a girlfriend hurt me so much. I know I feel something for him, something I don’t fully understand. He’s bad for me and I need to stay away.

I close my eyes ignoring her movement from across me and slowly drift off into sleep.