Protect Me (The Protective Archives, Book 1)

Neljä/Four - Janne

"Ouch!" I hissed through my teeth, my hand involuntarily jerking back as a reflex to the stinging pain. "Do you have to be so rough? It hurts!"

Asko sighed, picking up the thin silver needle from between the small squares of grey synthetic carpet for the hundredth time that night. "Well," he breathed irritably, "it wouldn't be so painful if you sat still, and let me finish stitching up your cut. May I remind you that it was you who broke the glass, and wounded yourself?"

I narrowed my lips into a firm line, and let him continue on with the task. He'd applied a small amount of numbing cream to the inside of my hand to make the experience less agonising, but it was on the upper part of my hand, unprotected by the cream, that was causing me the most grief.

"Why did you do it?" Asko asked, not making eye contact once with me while he placed the thick black thread precisely between the scissor blades, snipping it.

I sighed, dropping my chin into my palm while I drummed my fingers against my jaw. I was growing tired of sitting on this white L shaped couch for so long, staring at the same navy blue painted wall framed with dozens of developed photos.

"You know, it's not like I intended to do it," I remarked dryly, quickly looking away from his eyes when they met mine. "Who's the girl in the photo?"

He averted his gaze to where mine was fixed, his irises shimmering softly with the reflection of the glass. The small blond girl standing next to a taller, cute boy dressed in a purple jumper and pale blue shorts with the same hair colour seemed to hold significance to his heart. I assumed she was his sister, but I couldn't be one hundred percent sure.

"That's Nikole," he murmured, confirming my unspoken thoughts. He turned his face back towards my hand, fishing through his first aid kit until he retrieved a white rolled up bandage. "I grew up with her, Juha, Mikko, and our parents in Mikkeli."

"I grew up in Los Angeles," I found myself opening up, not entirely sure why I was. Perhaps it was an after effect of the pain relief he'd given me, prior to stitching me up. I rarely opened up to people, unless it was someone I knew very well. "When I turned seven, my mum decided to move to Finland with me and Juha, because of certain circumstances. My brother Dominik remained in America though, along with my sister Tina."

Asko glanced up at me briefly, hastily averting his attention back to my hand as he wrapped the bandage carefully around my fingers and underneath the side near my thumb.

"My parents have been married for twenty-five years," he said, tucking the end of the bandage up underneath the part covering my wrist. "I moved out of home when I was nineteen, and left them to deal with my siblings."

"You must be pretty young then," I noted, steering the conversation in a completely different direction.

"I recently just turned twenty-three," he smiled up at me, rising from his crouched position on the rug. His knees cracked, and he let out an immense sigh of relief. "How about you? Will I get to know Janne Jukarainen, or are you just going to ask me stuff about my personal life?"

"I'm going to be twenty-seven in October," I replied, leaning into the couch cushion. My whole body relaxed as soon as my back made contact, sinking into it as if my limbs had turned to jelly. "But that's all I'm going to be telling you. I've said too much already."

He raised an eyebrow, knotting his fingers in front of his parted thighs as he sat beside me. "What do you mean by that? I won't tell anyone what you've said here in my house, if that's any consolation at all."

"I mean, you and I are never going to be friends," I affirmed, rising to my feet and gathering my black denim jacket from the coat rack by his DVD shelves. I slid my arms through either hole, shimmying into it with ease. "Thanks for stitching me up, but this will be the last time we ever talk." I headed over to the front door, pausing with my fingers wrapped around the golden knob. "I may acknowledge your existence in front of the band, however, to keep up appearances."