Not That Bad #Wattys2018

Chapter Twelve

The inside of the bloody bus is air conditioned and red. There are cushioned seats and tubes and vials and cotton swabs and stuff. The radio is on, I guess to make blood donors feel more comfortable. Eli asks me a whole set of questions that make me feel so embarrassed I want to jump out of the tinted window.

"Have you ever had sexual contact with anyone who has ever used needles to take drugs or steroids, or anything not prescribed by their doctor?" he asks, looking me in the eye.

Jaq.

Chase.

When I refuse to answer he says, "I take that as a yes."

"Don't assume." I say, but we both know that the answer is yes. Then Eli wraps some straps around my arm and it tightens slowly. Then he cleans the crook of my elbow with a cotton swab soaked in some orange liquid.

"You seem like you do this..."

"Often?" Eli finishes, "Yeah. And I've been watching my mom do this since I was seven."

He takes a needle attached to a bag and pretends like he's going to stab me with it. He laughs when I flinch.

"Cruella de Vil's scared of a little needle." he says.

"I am NOT scared." I say, biting my lip as he puts the needle in, "And that is NOT a little needle." The blood flows quickly into the bag and soon it's half-filled with dark red blood.

"Cool fact." Eli says, "Did you know that your nose runs when it's cold because the blood vessels in your nose get more blood to keep it warm."

"I have no idea what you're saying to me."

"It causes the blood vessels to dilate and they produce more mucus."

"Oh." I say and roll my eyes.

Eli puts a blue plaster on my arm when the bag is full with blood. It looks really cool and dark and awesome.

"Can I have the black one instead?" I say, gesturing to the black plaster in the jar.

So Eli peels it off and puts a pink one with hearts, instead. I scowl at him and he smiles. I have to admit I was pretty proud of myself that someone was going to benefit from MY blood. I felt like, I don't know... a hero. I stand and it feels like my head is swimming. I stumble a little and Eli puts his hands on my arms to steady me.

"Sit." he commands and he gets a juice box from a mini fridge. "This will help too." he says handing it to me. While I drink, Eli clicks around on a computer.

"Wow." he says after a while, "Look at this." I get up and lean over his shoulder to have a look. He points to the screen, "Surprise, surprise. Your blood type is.... "