Explosion; the not-so long story of the orange ninja

This is Awkward but Don't Stop

Cole made me sit on the couch as he pillaged the cabinets, looking for a first aid kit that he swore was in there somewhere.

I turned around on the couch and watched him mutter to himself and hit his head on a cabinet that he had stuck his whole head inside of, which made me laugh a little.

Finally, he pulled out a red plastic looking box and sat next to me with it in his hands.

He looked at me as I turned to him and I could tell he was forgetting something.

His eyes lit up with remembrance and he got up again. I saw him come back with a slightly damp washcloth.

"Okay, I've done this before, so just trust me," Cole reassured me.

With a sigh of which the emotions were unrecognizable, Cole pulled down the collar of my shirt and dabbed at the small cut there. It didn't cause me much pain. It was only about three inches long and a few millimeters deep. It would heal quickly and easily.

He finished cleaning the wound and put some weird tape stuff on it.

Then, he just stared at me, and I could sense he was nervous.

I raised an eyebrow, and he cleared his throat.

"I need you... to umm... well... if you want me to help with your back... I need you to... y'know, take off your shirt..." he muttered the words with great difficulty, and I understood why, which made my face go very pink.

There was no way I was gonna be able to do this by myself, so I didn't really have a choice, did I? I mean, at least I had a bra on, but still. He and I just met, so this literally could not get any more awkward.

But, as I said, I wasn't going to do this by myself, so I had to do what I had to do.

With lots of hesitation, I turned around so my back was facing him.

I was about to take it off myself, until I felt Cole's hands at both of my sides, his fingers curling under the edge of my shirt and starting to lift it off.

My whole body froze and my face turned red. Of course, I wasn't going to do anything about it, because I was already going to do that. He was just saving my energy, is all.

But some part of me... liked it? I shook the thought from my head as I lifted my arms where the sleeves slid off with minimal effort.

He handed me the shirt, and I took it to examine it, since it meant taking my attention from the fact that I was sitting there topless.

He brushed my dark brown hair aside.

Then I felt the wet washcloth against the cut, and a wave of pain shot through me. I stifled a groan and gritted my teeth.

Cole seemed to notice this, and he immediately lifted the washcloth off of the wound.

"I'm fine," I lied through my teeth.

Cole sighed, knowing that what came out of my mouth was a total lie, but kept going. He was gentler this time, which made it a little better. A little.

I took my focus off of the pain and tried to direct it towards looking at something else. Anything. My shirt was the only thing I could think of and was already in my hands.

It had a giant rip in the back, of course. Red seeped into the blue fabric on the front and back.

That was all. It was just a plain t-shirt. What in the world was I supposed to think about?

I sucked in air through my teeth as I felt another rush of pain.

Well I had to think about something. There was nothing else to think about. Nothing interesting I could look at in this whole place.