A Bride for 100 Days

two: I hate spiders

I woke up on a polyester couch. 4 eyes blinked at me. 

"WHAT THE..." I sat up. Immediately felt wobbly and leaned back down.

The eyes morphed into two people. Men. Reaaaaallly cute ones. 

The one standing was muscled and deeply tanned with short curly hair.

The one sitting across from me on the coffee table one was lean and freckled with thick auburn hair. He was holding my foot and wiping it with a disinfectant pad. 

"Uh...OW...." Ok that hurt. 

"You come into contact with any spiders today?"

I nodded. 

"Congratulations, I think you seriously aggravated a brown recluse."

"Oh MY GOD, am I gonna die?"

Auburn shook his head and smiled into my eyes. "I think you're safe. The venom tends to only be fatal for children. I'm Dr. Scott and I'm a general practitioner. This is our house. Lucky you, huh?" 

I ground my teeth as he continued to press around the wound. I'm NOT LUCKY, Ok?

 He put some pillows under my foot. "Let's keep this elevated. Now I have to ask you a few questions. Do you have any allergies?"

I shook my head.

"Any medical conditions? Could you be pregnant?"

I shook my head and blushed. 

The other guy looked away. "Something I can get you, Jay?"

"Ice."

Other guy left the room.

"What about asthma?"

I shook my head again, trying to breathe through the pain. "Healthy as a horse."

 "Alice - your name is Alice, right?" 

"Well, Alicia St Georges. But everyone calls me Alice."

"Pretty name. So, Alice, this may blister or ulcer and if so, could become infected but for right now, I'm concerned–"

My gut was tensing and I fought back the nausea. "I think I'm gonna throw up."

"Jeb, grab a bin or bowl!"

The other guy came in with a plastic garbage bin just in time. I grabbed it and heaved and heaved. Weirdly, nothing much came up. 

"How is your pain?" Dr. Scott asked.

"Frowny...face..." 

"Do you think you could swallow something?"

I shook my head. I felt flushed suddenly. "I'm hot."

Dr. Scott frowned and pulled a thermometer from his bag. I winced as he pressed it in my ear. 

"Should we call for transport?" Other guy - Jeb - asked.

"Yeah, let me do that. Alice, do you live around here?"

"I go to... the University."

"Excellent."

Twenty minutes later, I was lying on a gurney in the back of an ambulance with Dr. Scott sitting next to me. 

The EMTs greeted him by name. "Jay, you making your own patients now?"

Dr. Scott laughed with them and put a roll of blankets under my foot to keep it elevated. "Take us to University Medical Center," he called to the driver like it was a taxi. "Jeb'll meet us."

The drive went by quickly. They had the siren and lights going and I was a little embarrassed and kept heaving into the bucket. 

Dr. Scott helped get me out of the back and into the Emergency Department. Everything was blurry and overwhelming but, luckily, I was in their computer from when I got bronchitis freshman year. 

They put a line in my arm and complimented my veins and raised my leg again and asked a billion questions. Then everyone left me alone for a long time; despite the bright lights and the buzz of activity, I began to doze in and out. 

"You asleep?"

I forced my eyes open. Other guy was leaning against the wall, his arms crossed. 

"No," but I wish I was.

"I'm Jeb Scott, remember me? You were at my house. Maybe now you could tell me why."

"Excuse...uh, oh...it was an accident. Sorry. I thought...I thought I knew the people across the street."

"Uh huh," he nodded. "That doesn't answer the question."

"I've had a bad day..."

"Yep."

"So..."

"What were you doing at my house?"

"Uh..."

"OK, start simpler. Where'd you get bit?"

"Oh. The wooden thing at the bottom of your drive. There were millions. They were all over me!"

"Good to know," he sighed. "I've been meaning to burn it down anyway. It's a hazard."

"Yes. Burn it. Burn them all. Please. I hate spiders."

"Done. Now, what were you doing at my house?"

"I thought my dad was your neighbor."

He lifted his eyebrows.

"I know that sounds stupid to you."

"Don't tell me what I think."

"Right," Asshole. "Um. He used to own the horse farm across the street from you. I didn't know he sold it, OK?"

Jeb burst out laughing. "Horse Farm? The property across the street has never had more than maybe 4 horses living in those stables. They got some great Pecan and Peach trees, though, in the back acres behind the paddock when someone bothers to tend 'em. So...that old lady was really your dad, huh?"

"Agnes? No, she was the caretaker. Dad bought the place when I started at the University. I spent a few weeks there freshman and sophomore years."

"Agnes was good people."

"You met her?"

"Farmhouse only has the one neighbor," he lifted an eyebrow. "You knew her name but you weren't at the funeral?"

"SHE DIED??" I gasped in surprise. "When? How?"

"Cancer. Her daughter came at the end and helped out but Agnes passed, oh, I wanna say 7 months ago. Guess caretakers don't rate, huh?"

"I just didn't know," My cheeks felt hot and my tears stung the skin. 

"So you went looking for Agnes but she's gone. And you had no car...? So you decided to trespass on my property?"

I nodded, slowly. He made me sound like an idiot as well as unlucky. "I'm sorry. I just needed somewhere to get out of the rain while I waited for another Uber. You know the rest."

Jeb rubbed his face with both hands and exhaled loudly. "OK, now maybe start back at the beginning and tell me why you're on the run?"

"Excuse me?" I stiffened.

"Alice, you took yourself 10 miles from anywhere without a way back or confirmation you were at a place that could take you in. You're in a party dress, you've got no identification or purse on you, and even when you were bitten by the second most venomous spider in the state - you didn't call for help." He stepped towards my bed and met my eyes. "So, why are you on the run?"