call it what you want

Chapter 29

Ameeriah

We've been at the party for over an hour when we walk over to some of Jackson's friends playing beer pong.

It's at least 11 now and I'm starting to get thirsty so I get Jackson's attention.
"I'm gonna go grab a water," I shout so that he can hear me over the loud music.
"I'll go with you," he says as we start to walk.

As we're walking through the crowd, we accidentally bump into a girl walked out in front of us too quick and her beer bottle hits the side of the counter and cracks before she moves quickly and it hits Jackson in the hand.
"Fuck," he whispers as he looks down at the cut on his hand that's starting to bleed.

"I'm so sorryyyy," the girl drags out as she tries to hold his hand to look at the cut that on his hand.

"It's okay," he says to her as he tries to step away from her slightly.
"Wait let me—" she says as she tries to reach for him again.
"It's fine, I promise," he says as he gently puts the hand on her that's not bleeding to her shoulder to move her slightly so we can get past her.

"That's a nasty cut you need to clean this," I say as I reach for his hand to get a better look.
"Yeah," he kinda laughs.

When we get to the bathroom, someone is screaming the words to the song thats playing downstairs, so Jackson reaches over me to shut the bathroom door.

I bend down to look in the cabinet while I hear Jackson turn on the water and rinse his hand.
"Ow."

I kinda laugh. "Do you think they have a first aid kit or something in here?" I say to him while I'm moving things around in the cabinet and he sits down on the closed toilet.

I reach over his head to tippy toe to be able to reach the cabinet that's above the toilet.
When I do, my body is close to his and I hear an sharp intake of breath by him.

"Sorry," I mumble because I must have hit his hand or something.

Finally, I see a small first aid kid and there's some gauze inside.
I reach for a washcloth and move over to the sink to wet it.

"Fuck there's blood getting on my shirt," he says as he gets up and moves over to the sink so that the blood drippings fall into that instead of his shirt.

"I think there was some peroxide in the cabinet, I'll get it," I say as I move over to open the cabinet again.
Once I grab it, I turn around and stop in my footsteps whenever I see Jackson pulling his shirt over his head with one hand to rinse it under the water.

I gulp.
Okay, moving on.

"Did you find it?"
"Uh yeah," I stammer, and swallow to stop my stupid fucking rigid breathing. "Yeah here," I say as I walk over to him and hand him the peroxide.

"Thanks," he mumbles as he grabs it and starts to spray it on the bloodstains on his shirt.
"Here give me your hand," I say as I reach for his hand and he stops what he's doing and freezes.

I start to wipe the wet washrag around the cut and it's so fucking silent in here.

I hear a light exhale of his breath through his nose, and when I shift my eyes up to look at him, he's got his eyes shut and his mouth ever so slightly opened that his lips are parted. His chest is making deep breathes.

"Sorry," I mumble.
"It doesn't hurt," I hear his deep voice in a whisper.

I swallow before I continue slowly washing the cut off.
We're so fucking close I swear I can feel the heat coming off of his body.

I lean a little closer so that I can grab the gauze beside him and he doesn't move at all.
I begin to wrap it around his hand slowly now that the cut is clean. With every wrap, I can feel him breathing.