Wild Riders

Hurt

After Willy had welcomed me into the club, he invited me to stay, have a drink, and enjoy the night, but I didn’t think that was such a great idea. Most of the men here were club members, and I didn’t want to get introduced to them when they were all almost black-out drunk and drooling over some girl’s t**s.

On the way back home, I couldn’t stop thinking about tonight’s events though. Something about it all didn’t seem quite right to me. After I had thrown out the first few guys who were already in the office, I was prepared to be met by a swarm of men from the club. I was sure the guys I’d kicked out would’ve said something about an intruder, which then would lead to me getting ambushed, yet that didn’t happen. Why didn’t they say anything? Or did they? I mean there was a crowd in front of the room when the heated discussion with Axel arose, yet no one seemed to intervene or try to kick me out, fight me, or just anything really. I was so immersed in my thoughts, I didn’t even realize I was already standing in front of my door. I fished the key out of my bra, sliding it into the lock. Before I could turn it, a weird feeling came over me, making me turn my head to my neighbor’s house. No lights, no movement. Seems like he took a little detour after what happened at the club. Whatever, I thought as I finally pushed open the door and went straight to the bathroom, needing to wash the dirt and sweat off of me. I was glad the office floors were as “clean” as they were because if it’d been as bad as the club’s, I would’ve had to bath in bleach to get all the stickiness – which I hoped was only spilled alcohol - off of me.

An hour later, I was lying on the mattress which was still in the middle of the living room. “I’ve got to get myself a fuckin' bed,” I murmured to myself as I tossed around, trying to get comfortable. Just as I was drifting to sleep, some banging from outside woke me up. “The f*****g audacity,” I pinched the bridge of my nose. The banging then stopped for a good few seconds before it started up again, but this time it was accompanied by cursing. “What is this, some f*****g payback for when my music woke him up?!” pissed off, I stalked out onto my porch. I was hit by a cold breeze, which cooled my temper and made my body shiver. “Will you stop trying to break your own fuckin’ door down?” I kind of whisper-yelled over to my dear neighbor, but he didn’t seem to hear me. “Oh for f**k’s sake, this mother fucker better be drunk, or I swear to god …” I muttered to myself as I decided to go over to him and help. As I walked up the stairs to his porch, he was slumped over, leaning against his door, one hand still on the door handle. I slowly approached him: “Hey,” I stooped a few inches behind him. His head jerked up in confusion, but he didn’t turn around to look at me. “Axel?” I tried again, stepping closer to him, reaching my hand out, and touching his back. He let out a hiss as my hand touched the back of his ribs. Before I could remove my hand, he had already grabbed my wrist and pulled me to his side. His body was turned halfway towards me, his forehead leaning against his door. “What the hell? Let me go!” I tried to loosen the grip he had on my hand, wiggling around. “Stop, would you?” his voice came out raspy and hoarse like he hadn't had anything to drink for hours. As I turned my head from my hand to look at him, I caught a glance of his lock, and I was pretty sure the key of his motorbike was dangling from it. Was he drunk? I couldn’t quite put all of the pieces together. I was confused by his behavior and I wanted some answers: “You’re drunk,” my voice was calm and collected, but it seemed it made him more aggravated. “Would you stop annoying me, woman?” he turned his head towards me. His hair was messy, hanging over his face, hiding it. My patience with him was running short, so I reached out my right hand and brushed his hair back. Before I could react, he had me pinned against the door: “Why the f**k would you do that?!” he roared at me, the smell of alcohol on his breath hitting me so hard I had to turn my face away. I swallowed: “Did you get into a fight with someone else but me tonight?” I could hear his hand sliding down the door, his left hand still holding my waist firmly. He took a labored breath, obviously in pain: “What is it to you?” “Nothing,” I said, turning my head to look at him. His ice-like eyes were already strained on me. “Then why are you here?” his voice was low, husky, making my breathing more shallow and fast. “You woke me up, I wanted to kick your ass,-” I swallowed as he let out a low chuckle, followed by a pained expression on his face, “-but it seems someone already beat me to it.” The atmosphere between us was weird. The line between hate and lust was thin, but I could always tell them apart. At least I could until I met the man in front of me.

“I’ll help you unlock the door,” I decided that tonight wasn’t the night to try and decipher my feelings regarding him. We’ll be riding together, and we’re neighbors; I guess that’s got to be reason enough to neither punch nor f**k him, at least for tonight. He let go of my hand and leaned his back against the wall next to him, his hand on his ribs. I looked at him for just a moment before focusing my attention on his door lock. Please don’t break off, please don’t f*****g break off. I was almost praying, as I tried to get the key from his bike out of the lock. Axel’s breathing was getting louder, and I knew there was a high chance of him passing out on me. What the hell would I do if he passed out?! He’s a big dude; I could never move his body alone. As I finally got the key out, I worked fast to open the door. As it finally did open, I went to Axel's side, throwing his left hand over my shoulder, helping him move. “Oh, f**k me,” he groaned as we passed through the front door. I wanted to ask how he even got home by himself but decided it wasn’t the right time. “Where’s your bedroom?” I asked as I was reaching out for the light switch by the door. “Up-” he let out a groan before he finished the word: “-stairs,” he was leaning most of his weight on me now, and I doubted he could make it up the stairs without both of us falling.

“And your couch?” I sounded out of breath. “End of- ... hall.” I readjusted my hold on him and took a step forward, his feet almost dragging behind him as we made our way down the hallway. Once we reached the living room, I sat him down on the couch and went back to turn on the lights in the room. As I turned to face him, I almost fainted from the shock. Even outside, with only a quarter of the moon lighting up the night, I could see his face was bruised, but now, in the light, he looked horrible. His jaw was swollen, his lips tinted with the color of blood, and he had a gash that started above his right eyebrow, went over his nose, and ended on his left cheek. The wound was already closing up, but it still looked like a painful little cunt. “Were you in a knife fight?!” my voice came out louder than I wanted it to. “The fucker was playing dirty,” his head was leaned back and his eyes closed. “You’ll need to take your clothes off, I need to see what’s up with your ribs,” as I said that, his lips turned up into a smirk. “I knew you wanted me, Dove,” I just blinked at him. “Haven’t you been f****d up enough for today, or do you want me to punch you as well?” he let out a low chuckle at my statement, followed by a cough, which made him spit up blood. “Oh, yeah, just f*****g great,” I ran to his side, kneeled on the couch, and lifted the hem of my t-shirt to wipe away the blood. As I did that, he looked at me, his eyes tired. “Don’t you dare say anything,” I told him before I got back on my feet, reaching for the zipper on his jacket, and unzipping it. The black t-shirt he was wearing was dirty and soaked in blood. “C’mon, you need to lean forward, we need to take this off,” he pushed his body from the couch, wincing as he finally sat up straight. I quickly brushed off his jacket and then lifted his shirt. I kneeled down in front of him as he leaned back again, making room for me to assess his wounds and rest his body.

“He stabbed you!” my mouth hung open as I looked up at him, “Yeah, no s**t princess,” he groaned: “The fight was rigged.” I looked back at his torso. His muscles were all tense, making it hard to focus on the important things, which, in turn, made me feel like s**t. Get those horny thoughts out of your head!

I shook my head, trying to regain my senses. “You got a first aid kit, needle, and thread?” I got up while asking, ready to get the things I needed. “Bathroom, under the sink, black box.” I was already running out of the room before he could even finish the sentence that came out all slurred. There was no time to lose. He’s been bleeding for god knows how long, and if he loses any more blood, he’ll have to go to the hospital for sure, which would not be the best thing in this situation. As I reached the second floor, there were two doors opposite each other. I opened the one on my right, only to find it was his bedroom. To be fair, I probably would have taken a look around if the situation was different. I swiftly closed the door, opening the one on the left. I opened the door of the little cabinet under the sink so fast and with such force, the doors almost flew off, but I didn’t care. I quickly grabbed the black plastic box and rushed out of the room and down the stairs. When I finally rushed into the living room, Axel was slumped to the side, his eyes closed. “s**t, s**t, s**t!” I put the box on the floor and crunched down beside him. I grabbed him by his shoulders, shaking him and calling out his name: “Axel! Axel, wake the f**k up, you can’t sleep now!” he let out a soft sigh, his eyes opening for just a second before they closed again. “Axel! f**k, c’mon, you have to stay awake!” I pushed him up, so he was sitting again. He was going in and out of consciousness and I knew I needed to work fast before it really was too late. I grabbed the bottle of saline, took the squirt cap off, and poured the liquid over the wound, cleansing it. “f**k Axel, c’mon, I don’t want to call an ambulance,” I was threading the needle now, trying to keep calm so my hands would shake. Once the thread was finally through, I started stitching him up. He let out a groan as I pulled the needle through for the first time: “Don’t fall asleep now, okay?” I was trying to work as quickly as I could to close up the wound, but the blood was gushing out like a waterfall. “Axel, stay with me! If you're a good boy you’ll get a juice box!” my voice was cheery, like the one of a school nurse talking to a kid, and to be fair, at this point, I was ready to do or say anything, just to keep him awake.

Once his wound was finally closed, I let out a sigh of relief, before I stood up straight. “Axel?” his head was tossed back, his hair pushed back and damp with sweat. “Hey, Axel?!” he let out a quiet moan, just loud enough for me to hear. Good, he’s conscious, I thought as I ran to the kitchen to look for juice or something else to give him, to make up for his blood loss.