The Good Girls Secret

Chapter 20- The Dream

My heavy eyelids slowly open and I find my whole body bobbing up and down. It takes a moment to realize that Braiden is carrying me into the house.

"Well look at this, Sleeping Beauty finally wakes up." He sends me a warm smile, swinging open the door to the house.

The clock on the stove reads 3:32 a.m, which means Marsha's probably fast asleep.

"Okay, you can put me down now." I scowl, lightly patting his chest.

He gently places me down and I wince when I put weight on my leg. It's encrusted in dried, brown blood, but there's also still fresh blood trickling out of it. I grab a napkin off the counter and gingerly wipe it clean.

A strangled cry leaves my mouth, which I quickly stop with my fist. "Braiden, I don't know if-"

I slowly start to collapse, anticipating to hit the ground, but instead being caught by Braiden. The pain is so immense it's causing me to feel dizzy and the blood loss isn't helping either.

"Woah there, Ryan. Let me get you some pain meds, then we'll take a look at your wound, okay?" He softly says and all I can do is nod.

His arm hooks around my waist as he pulls me over to the couch and gently lays me down. The leather is so silky against my skin and the pillow my head is on feels like he set me down on a cloud. All I want to do is shut my eyes and drift off into dreamland, but I'm smart enough to know how stupid that is.

A couple seconds later Braiden comes back with two Ibuprofen in his hand and the first aid kit.

"Here, these will help with the pain and swelling and this," he holds out the fire truck red kit, "is going to help fix that nasty gash in your leg."

I swiftly pop the pills in my mouth, not even using water to get them down. Braiden makes his way around the couch and kneels down in front of me. He carefully examines my leg, being careful not to cause too much pain.

"Um," he scratches the back of his neck which I've noticed is a nervous habit, "I'm going to need you to take off your pants."

"Look Braiden, it's not going to be that easy for you to-"

He puts his finger over my lips to stop me from finishing my sentence. "That is not what I mean and you know it. I would never disrespect you like that, Ryan. Or anyone for that matter."

"I know, I was only kidding, but seriously, why?" I tilt my head to the side, meeting his eyes.

"Well, for one I'm going to need to wrap gauze around it, and for two, the leather on your pants will flake off into the wound."

I slowly nod my head in understanding, feeling very uncomfortable. Sure, we've been in awkward situations before, but still, it's weird.

"Okay, well look away." I demand, motioning him to turn around.

"You do realize I have to look at you in order to fix it, right?" He asks, a small grin taking over his face.

All I do is shoot him a glare and he raises his hands in surrender, then turns around.

Satisfied, I unbutton my pants and slide them off. The fabric around the cut is stuck to my skin, and I wince as I pull it the rest of the way. It feels like there's hundreds of needles repeatedly stabbing me in the same spot over and over again.

After what seems like forever I finally get them off and can clearly see the damage Ian did.

It looks a little less horrible without my pants matting it down, and missed the major artery in my leg. The reason I know this is because if it did hit it, I would have been dead in thirty minutes from the blood loss. Also the fact that it's not deep enough to have hit it.