RIDE YOU DOWN

Chapter 19

Chapter 19

JAKE

The first thing I noticed wasn’t the blood but the way she didn’t notice it like she hadn't seen it. She followed my gaze because I wasn’t saying anything.

“Oh.” That’s all she said.

Oh? Is that all she had to say?

“How long have you been bleeding?” I asked, walking up to her.

She looked at the cut on her arm for barely two seconds before pulling her sleeve over it like that somehow solved the problem.

“I don’t know.” She answered briefly.

I blinked my eyes open, “You don’t know?” It was hard to keep the worry and concern I felt from slipping through my words.

“It’s just a scratch.” She added immediately.

I stared at her. “A scratch, you call this a scratch?”

She shrugged. “I’ve had worse.”

Something tightened painfully inside my chest. She said it so casually, like bleeding through her clothes was another random thing.

I looked at the blood on the hallway floor, then back at her.

For f**k sake. How can she be … You know what, f**k this.

I shook my head. “No, it’s not just a scratch.”

“It is, it’ll stop.” She sounded so sure.

“You don’t know that.” I fired.

She sighed dramatically. “I’ve survived worse.”

I wasn’t paying her any more attention. She was so stubborn, but there was no way I would let this slide.

I stepped back toward my apartment without taking my eyes off her.

Her brows furrowed as she watched me, “What are you doing?” She asked. Her eyes traced my hand’s movements.

I grabbed my car keys from the bowl beside the door and jiggled them in front of her. “I am taking you to the hospital.”

Her face dropped. Eyes dragging over me as if to ask if I was joking but I wasn’t. “No, you are not. I told you it’s not a big deal. I don’t need to go to the hospital.” She answered back, her voice so stern, enough to make me back off but I have heard worse and I have survived worse.

“Yes, we are.” I fired back at her. “You’re bleeding.” I pointed to the blood still rolling down her hands. The more my eyes followed the trail of the blood, the more it pissed me off.

How did she even manage to get a cut this deep?

She glanced at her sleeve. “I’ll clean it.” She snapped.

“No, we are going to the hospital to get stitches and proper medical treatment,” I said calmly.

She folded her arms like she was about to start a fight. “I don’t like hospitals.”

I almost laughed.

A whole Rave doesn’t like hospitals.

“Birdy, come on—-

She pointed toward her apartment. “I’m going inside.” She cut me off, frown spread all over her face.

I slammed my eyes shut, knowing she wasn’t going to like what I was about to do. But f**k it. I’d rather she get mad at me and get treated than allow her to sleep in that house with those bloody hands.

I snuck behind her, grabbed her waist, and threw her over my shoulders.

“Jake!” She yelled. “Jake, put me down!”

I held her thigh, pressed to my chest as I walked down the hallway, heading to the garage. She struggled to break free but I held her down.

“Jake!”

“Put me down!”

“I can walk!”

“People are looking!”

“Please put me down.”

She kept shouting. So typical of her.

“You should’ve listened when I asked nicely,” I muttered beneath my breath.

“Ah! You are insufferable!” She yelled.

“I know.” I shrugged. I placed her into the car and fixed her seatbelt. “You can either be a good girl and sit still while I take you to the hospital or we can yell all night… I don’t mind.” I whispered, leaning over her, eyes scanning hers.

Her throat bobbed, eyes flickered, tracing my face which was a few inches away from hers.

How can she look so god damn pretty even when she is angry?

Control yourself, Jake.

“Hmhp!” She rolled her eyes, arms spread over her chest, “Argh!” She groaned in pain, forgetting she had an injury.

I shook my head and reached for my mini towel, I took her hands and placed the towel over them.

“Are we going to the hospital or not, Nanny?” She sneered, like a kitten.

I bit back a smile.

I got to the car and headed for the hospital. She shrugged and looked out the window all through the ride.

At the hospital, she sat quietly while we waited for a doctor to attend to us. After a while, the doctor came and we walked down to the dressing room.

“You’re lucky,” the doctor said while examining her arm. “Another inch deeper and this would’ve been much worse.”

“I told you,” I said quietly.

“It wasn’t that serious.” She rolled her eyes.

The doctor looked at both of us before smiling. “I’m guessing you’re a stubborn patient.” The doctor said,

“Always,” I answered.

She shot me a glare. “I wasn’t talking to you.”

The doctor directed a nurse to clean up the wound and SM while she was at it, Rave just lay down staring at the ceiling, looking like she would rather wrestle than be there, she didn’t flinch when the antiseptic touched the wound. She just stared at the ceiling.

“You’re brave.” The nurse said as she wrapped the bandage around her arm.

“No, I’m used to it.” She answered quietly.

I heard that clearly and it somehow hurt.

We left the hospital after she was done and the drive back home was quieter. Normally, silence never bothered me but with her, it did, it made me question everything.

She has barely spoken since we left the hospital.

Did I do anything wrong by taking her to the hospital?

I kept both hands on the steering wheel while the streetlights passed across the windshield one after another. Rave faced out the window with her expression unreadable, now and then she adjusted the bandage on her arm.

By the time we got back to the apartment, I offered to go to my place and surprisingly she didn’t argue. Dinner had gone cold so I reheated it without saying much.

The microwave hummed softly while she stood awkwardly near the kitchen counter.

“You didn’t have to do all this,” she said.

I didn’t respond to her.

When the food was warm again, I placed a plate in front of her.

“Eat,” I said without even giving her a look.

She looked at me for a second before quietly sitting down. The aura felt strangely different, I just focused on my food.

Across from me, Raven poked her food with her fork.

“I survived.” She broke the silence but I kept eating.

She cleared her throat. “The doctor said I’d be fine.”

I only nodded once.

She shifted in her chair. “I think the doctor likes me.” She said smiling.

I said nothing.

She sighed. “You’re making this awkward.”

I finally looked up. “Am I?” I asked.

“Yes.” She said, “You’ve barely said five words.”

“I’ve said enough.” I exhaled.

She frowned. “I liked it better when you annoyed me.”

I almost smiled but instead, I put my fork down carefully. “I don’t think this is funny.”

Her shoulders stiffened. “You came home covered in blood,” I said.

“It wasn’t…

“I know.” I cut her off.

She looked away from me. I took a slow breath, “I know you’ve had worse, but that’s the problem.”

Her eyes slowly found mine again. “You talk about getting hurt like it’s normal.” My voice stayed calm.

“And it shouldn’t be,” I said slowly. “You don’t get to decide your life isn’t worth worrying about.”

Something about her expression changed immediately as nobody had ever said something like that to her before.

“You should be more careful out there,” I stated firmly.

“I came to your door expecting us to have dinner…” I swallowed. “…and instead I saw you bleeding.”

She looked down at the table. “I didn’t want to get you worried.” She said, “I honestly forgot.”

“I know.” My voice softened.

Her fingers traced slow circles against the edge of her plate.

“I’m not used to people worrying.” She sounded almost broken.

“I know.”

She laughed softly. “You keep saying that.”

“Because I do.” I smiled back.

For the first time that night, the wall around her seemed smaller. She stood slowly and walked around the table until she was standing in front of me.

“So…” She hesitated. “…are we okay?”

I stood too. “We were never not okay.”

None of us moved. She was close enough for me to notice the tiny freckles across her nose close enough to smell her shampoo beneath the faint scent of antiseptic.

My hand lifted almost on its own. I tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear and surprisingly, she didn’t pull away rather, her breathing slowed.

My eyes dropped to her lips, pink, wet… I wanted to but I knew I shouldn't. My throat bobbed, my eyes flickered with hunger.

“Jake… I…”

She pulled away, slipping out of my hands. “Good night.”