10. Bruised
ten
Bruised
I wake up to the sound of an engine revving and a throbbing jaw. It feels like someone hit me, hard, and on both sides of my face. The sun coming in the windows hurts my eyes, so I pull a pillow over my head.
Mom walks in. “I'm glad you’re awake. I was about to call the oral surgeon and tell him he put you in a coma.”
Oral surgeon? Right. That explains the pain in my jaw. I have a vague memory of laughing uncontrollably and trying to ask the nurse if my voice sounded funny to her or if it was just me. I don’t remember much after that.
“What time is it?” I mutter from under the pillow.
“A little after nine. You’ve been asleep for almost 16 hours. How do you feel?” Mom is trying to pull the pillow off my face. I hold onto it.
Like I lost a fight. “Just give me drugs and let me sleep.”
“Sorry.” Mom’s voice grates on my nerves. “You can’t have any pain medicine on an empty stomach. It will make you sick.”
“I am sick, Mom. I feel like I got hit by a train.”
“Do you really feel that bad? Let me see,” she tugs at the pillow again.
The revving in the yard starts again. “Could you please tell Matt and his friends to knock it off?”
“Actually, that’s not Matt. It’s Jacob. Remember? He said he’d come look at your car.”
“Jacob? My car?” I pull the pillow off my face. Clarity hits me like a punch to the stomach. Jacob is here at my house. Messing with my car. And I look...
“That is bad,” Mom says.
“What?” I sit up so I can see the mirror above my dresser. Bad is the understatement of the year. My cheeks are swollen and there are dark bruises on both sides of my jaw. I sink back on my bed. “Now I really want to die.”
“It’ll only look like that for a few days.”
A few days? I’ve been obsessing about Jacob coming over all week, thinking about what I would wear, what I could say to him, and now I can’t even show my face.
“I don’t want him to--” I catch myself. “I am not going to school looking like this on Monday.” Or downstairs, out of my room, or anywhere else where civilized people, guys, and particularly Jacob might be.
Mom shakes her head and hands me the glass she was holding.
I peer into it suspiciously. “What is this?”
“Breakfast. I made you a smoothie, blueberry and banana. Drink some of it and then you can have something for the pain.”
I take a sip and wince. “It’s too cold mom, it hurts my teeth.” I know I’m being a brat, but my mouth is throbbing, I look horrible, and there’s a gorgeous guy outside working on my car. I set the glass back on my nightstand.
Mom stands up. “Would you rather I bring you up some warm chocolate milk?”
I ignore the question. “When did Jacob get here?”
“Early, like before eight,” Mom yawns. She's never been a morning person. “And he was here last night too.”
A vague memory worms its way into my mind. “Wait. Last night? Before or after I came back from getting my teeth pulled?”
“He was here when we got home.” She picks up my pillow and sets it back on my bed. “It’s a good thing. You were completely out of it. You could barely walk, so I had him carry you to your bed.”
“He carried me...to my...?” I’m beyond horrified.
“You let Jacob in here?” I scan my room for anything embarrassing.
Black lace lies over the side of the hamper–one of my bras.
Three days-worth of clothes are lying in a pile in the corner.
Was my bed made? Probably not. My room smells like my sweaty track shoes.
Great. And my room is full of stuffed animals.
It must have looked to Jacob like I was a stinky, messy, little kid.
Tyler senses a chance to kick me when I’m down. He pokes his head through my door. “Yeah, Jess, Jacob carried you up to bed and tucked you in. You even gave him a kiss goodnight.”
“What?” I gasp. The movement causes my jaw to throb harder.
“You were pretty far out of it.” Mom says. “But I doubt you did that.” She shoots Tyler a warning look.
He ignores her. “Actually, you did kiss him, just ask Jacob.” He studies my face for a second. “Wow, you look like you lost a fight.”
“Okay, Tyler, out.” Mom orders.
Tyler puckers his lips and makes kissing noises.
“Out,” Mom roars. “I mean it.”
I throw my pillow as hard as I can toward Tyler. It doesn’t nearly go far enough and isn’t heavy or hard enough to do the kind of damage I want to do to my brother.
I pull the covers over my head. “Tell him to go away. Tell him I died.” I wonder if Mom knows I mean Jacob, not Tyler.
“I’ll go make you something warm and soft to eat.” Mom pats my head through the covers. “Don’t let Tyler get to you. I’m sure he’s making the whole thing up.”
After Mom leaves, I fight the fog that envelopes my memories for the past sixteen hours.
I have a vague impression of being carried up the stairs and wrapping my arms around Jacob’s neck.
I thought it was a dream. I don’t remember kissing him.
That doesn’t mean I didn’t. Tyler is a monster, but I don’t know if he has enough imagination to make up something like that.
Something nags at the back of my mind. Something I said that I shouldn’t have said.
Whatever it is, I'm positive I completely humiliated myself.
In front of my mirror, I study the bruises on my cheeks.
Tyler’s right. I look like I was on the losing end of a street fight.
I move over to the window, stand behind the curtains, and look across the yard to the Nag.
Jacob, Dad, and Matthew are leaning over the hood, like three surgeons discussing a patient’s fate.
Even at a distance and from behind, Jacob looks incredible.
Today he’s wearing jeans and a plain white t-shirt.
I lean a little closer. I have a good view from my bedroom.
Today might not be a complete waste after all.
I lean too close and clunk my forehead against the window.
Jacob turns toward my room. There’s no way he could have heard me. No way he can see me up here.
He waves.
He can see me. I step away without waving back, humiliated.
Mom doesn’t even ask me if I want to go with them to church on Sunday.
She leaves a bowl of scrambled eggs and a glass of warm chocolate milk in my room like I’m a pet.
My jaw doesn’t hurt as much as yesterday, so after my family leaves, I go downstairs to watch T.V.
I’m dozing on the couch when someone knocks on the door.
I duck down behind the couch cushions, hoping whoever it is will go away.
“Hey, is anyone home?” Jacob’s deep voice resonates through the door.
I burrow deeper into the cushions. What is he doing here? If I didn’t look so bad, I’d love to have Jacob at my house. Right now, he’s the last person I want to see.
“Jess.” He’s peering through the window. “I know you’re there.”
I consider pretending to be asleep, but the side door is always unlocked, so he could come in anyway.
I sit up with my back to the window. “Just a second.” I dash to the bathroom and look in the mirror.
The bruises on my cheeks are turning into a mixture of purple and a sickening color of yellow.
I haven’t put any make-up on for two days, my hair looks like I just got out of bed, and my cheeks look like they belong to a chipmunk. Not in a cute way.
Why doesn’t he ever show up when I look good?
I take a brush out of the cupboard, force my crazy hair into a ponytail, and pull one of Matt’s sweatshirts off the rack to cover my pajamas. Then I go to the door.
“Hey,” he says.
I put my hand over my mouth. “Hi.” It sounds like I have a mouth full of marshmallows.
“Can I come in?”
I nod and then turn quickly and head to the living room. There’s a blanket across the back of the couch. I pick it up and use it to cover my mouth.
“What are you doing here?” It comes out harsher than I mean it to..
“Your mom invited me to dinner.” Jacob sits on the opposite end of the couch. “I guess I’m a little early.”
I’m going to kill my mom.
“She said she wanted to thank me for working on your car.”
“What’s the status of the old girl?” I’m trying appear normal with the blanket covering half my face.
Jacob drapes his arm over the back of the couch, almost close enough to touch my shoulder. “Oh, I think she’ll pull through. She needs some new parts, but your dad said he’d pay for those and I can put them in for you.”
I’m touched by my dad’s generosity. He usually makes me pay for everything, especially when it comes to the car he told me not to buy. “I need to pay you something for all the time you put in.”
He holds up his hand and grins. “Don’t worry about it, I’ll think of some way you can pay me back.” He moves closer to me. “What’s with this?” He tugs on the blanket.
I grip it tight. “I got my wisdom teeth out on Friday. My cheeks are swollen.”
“Yeah, I was here when your mom brought you home.”
The way he says it makes me paranoid about what I might have said or did when I was out of it. I seriously consider making a run for my bedroom. Jacob gives the blanket another tug. “Let me see.”
I slide towards the other end of the couch. “No way.”
“How bad can it be? You should have seen my face when I got nailed in the nose with a baseball. Talk about raccoon eyes. It can’t be worse than that. Please.” He slides closer. “C’mon, Jess, I promise not to laugh.” He reaches up and pulls my ponytail.
He’s treating me like a little kid again. I guess I’m acting like one. I close my eyes and lower the blanket.
Jacob lets out a low whistle. “Wow. They really did a number on you, didn’t they?” He traces the bruise on my jaw with his finger. My skin burns where he touches me. “I didn’t know skin could turn that color. Are you sure this was from the dentist?”
I jerk the blanket back over my mouth. “I bruise easily.”
He leans back. His voice goes soft. “I didn’t mean to make you mad.”
“I’m not mad, just...” But I don’t know how to finish that sentence.
“Does it hurt?” He reaches, but doesn't quite touch my cheek this time. The gesture still sends electricity through my whole body.
I shiver and pull the blanket around me. “A bit, but I’m tough.”
His face shadows with those words. A memory pushes its way through the fog of the last 24 hours. I suddenly feel like Jacob knows more than he should know, but about what, I’m not sure. He looks me in the eye, his face serious. “Remember when we were kids, and I said you could tell me anything?”
My heart is thudding like crazy, my mind racing. What did I say to him yesterday? “I guess so.”
“That offer still stands.”
“That was a long time ago.” I shake my head, backing away, because I’m afraid of what he thinks he knows.
“Actually, my mouth hurts a lot. I think I’ll take one of my pain pills and go back to bed.
” I stand clutching the blanket around my shoulders.
“You can watch T.V. or something while you wait. My parents will be home in about half an hour.”
I know I’m being rude, but I can’t let this conversation go any further. Not even with Jacob. Especially not with Jacob.
“I hope you feel better,” Jacob calls as I start up the stairs.
I stop at the top of the stairs. I don’t want him to think I’m mad at him and never come back. He has to see me look good at least once. “Thanks for the work you’re doing on my car. I’lll find a way to pay you back.”
“Maybe you can help your mom make me cookies,” he grins, “Like when I fixed the chain on your bike.”
“Yeah, sure,” I turn around and flee to my bedroom. He still thinks I’m nine.