Chapter 18
River
I hate this. I hate seeing him like this.
The fights were brutal. The first one wasn’t so bad, but the second?
It was hard for me to keep my mouth shut when that man was beating the hell out of Royal.
He won the first, but lost the second. Either way, he was paid for them, and I suppose to him that’s what matters most.
His eye is nearly swollen shut, and his lip is busted open. There’s a bruise forming around his eye already, and his ribs hurt.
We made it back to the hotel, and I silently thanked God that he’s sleeping in a bed tonight.
Royal sits on the edge of the bed as Jeremy tosses me a small bag. I look at it before looking at him.
“What’s this?”
“Clean your man up,” he says, nodding toward Royal. I glance at him as he watches me, waiting to see what I’ll do. Then he reaches for the bag, but I snatch it away.
“I got it.”
“Do you know what you’re doing?” he asks.
“No, but I’ll figure it out,” I tell him. He nods his head, and I set the bag on the bed next to him before opening it up. I take things out and examine each of them before cleaning up his face.
“Those little packs in there? Just snap them, shake them, and apply them to his eye,” Jeremy adds. I nod my head and do as I’m told, pressing one to his eye. Royal reaches up and takes it from me, and then I get to work on cleaning the wounds on his hands.
When I’m done, I clean up my mess and leave him sitting on the edge of the bed while I throw away the trash.
“How you feeling?” Jeremy asks him.
“I don’t know if my ribs are broken or just bruised,” he answers.
“Hopefully just bruised, but I know that shit hurts either way.” I walk back over and sit on the edge of the bed, careful not to touch him. Royal just laughs and puts his arm around my waist and tugs me closer to him.
“I won’t break, River.”
“I don’t want to hurt you more.”
“You won’t.”
“So the party,” Jeremy says, grabbing our attention. “Everyone is going to be there.”
“Who is everyone?” I ask.
“People we’ve known for a long time.”
“Who’s throwing it?” I ask.
“Some little rich snobby bitch. Her parents are loaded, and she takes advantage of that,” Jeremy tells me. I slouch a little, hearing him say that. That’s exactly what they thought about me.
“He doesn’t mean you,” Royal states, clearly knowing what I was thinking.
“Yeah, I didn’t mean it like that, River. You’re cool.”
“Thanks, I guess.”
“Don’t do that shit. He wasn’t talking about you, River,” Royal snaps a little.
I nod my head and pull away from him, climbing up the bed and lying down.
Jeremy laughs but doesn’t say anything else before he lays down.
After a few minutes, Royal tosses the ice pack and comes to lie down next to me.
He pulls the blankets up over us, but groans the whole time.
“You don’t think you should get that checked?” I ask him.
“No. I’ll live.”
“But what if it’s broken?”
“Then it’ll heal.”
“Not if you keep fighting, it won’t.”
“Careful, River. It almost sounds like you care about me,” he taunts without looking over at me.
“I do care about you,” I barely whisper, but he heard it. His head turns to the side, and he looks at me so intently I want to crawl under these blankets and disappear.
“You shouldn’t.”
“Why?”
“I warned you that nothing good comes from me.”
“I haven’t seen anything bad yet.” He watches me, and I swear I can see into his soul.
His eyes dance between mine before he leans over and presses his lips gently to mine.
I don’t move. I don’t dare move. I let him kiss me.
I let him take things a far as he wants, and when he pulls back, I stare into his eyes.
“You’re so different,” he murmurs.
“How so?”
“You don’t back down, River. You don’t look at me and turn the other way like most girls do when they learn that I’m basically homeless.”
“That doesn’t define you,” I whisper.
“It means a lot to some people.”
“I’m not some people.”
“I can see that. Come here.” He lays back and holds his arm out for me. I scoot across the bed and rest my head on his chest gently, careful not to hurt him more, but this is where he likes me to sleep.
And just like that, I fall asleep listening to his heartbeat.