Protected

A Mistaken Injury

                     After laying in the hospital bed for a few hours, I began to feel disgusting. I asked Cassidy is she could find Carson and send him in.
She agreed, and a few moments later Carson was back. "Hey!" I say brightly. He only nods at me. "I noticed there was a CVS across the street, would you run over and grab a few things for me?"
He nods again and smiles, "only if it's nothing awkward." I wrote down a list of the following: hairbrush, deodorant/perfume, nude sparkly eyeshadow, voluminous mascara, blush.
I looked up at him and said, "just hand the paper to the sales lady, she'll get everything."
He glanced at the list and reddened. I laughed, "Dude, there's nothing awkward on there. Chill!" He made his escape with the list.  And I leaned back into the pillow to answer the questions Cassidy was asking about my parents.

           Carson walked into CVS and paused. He glanced at the list again and groaned inwardly. Coughing, he walked up to an employee and said, "Excuse me miss. My friend is in the hospital and asked me to run over and grab some things. Could you help me?"
The girl grinned and replied, "Yeah! Absolutely!" She took the list and scrambled around grabbing things.
"I can check you out at register 4." She ran around the other side of the counter and started ringing things up.
"So," she said, getting chatty. "Your friend is in the hospital?"
Carson nodded. "She was feeling pretty badly so she asked me to run over and get some things to freshen her up."
The girl nodded and a sly smile spread across her face. "How's she feeling?"
Carson shrugged. "Pretty well, all things considered."
The salesgirl reached across and grabbed his arm. "Well I congratulate you. You seem a little young, but kids are doing it so early these days."
Carson was confused for a minute and then realized, his face growing bright red. "N-no ma'am." He stuttered. "She-she's not... No. Oh gosh."
He rubbed the back of his neck, totally embarrassed. "Lexi's only fifteen." He said by way of explanation.
The girl tutted her tongue. "Such a shame. So young and giving yourself away."
Carson blushed again. "I don't think I've made myself clear. She's, uh, not pregnant. And she's not having a baby."
The girl looked surprised. "Oh my gosh! I'm sorry! My bad!" She gushed. "When you mentioned your friend was a girl, I just thought girlfriend, you know? So many teens that come in here from the hospital are in that situation!" She handed him his bags. "That'll be $32.56." She said. Carson had her punch in his parents CVS card, thanked her, and left.

              When Carson came back into my room, Cassidy had gotten ahold of my parents and they, with tear filled thanks, were on the next flight to Cali.
They had also said they would get Carson's folks, and they'd be there in a couple of days. Snatching up the bag Carson held out to me, I hustled off to the bathroom. Perfect. He'd gotten exactly what I'd wanted.
I opened the hairbrush first, running it through my long red tangles. I brushed my hair for a while, embracing the feeling. When my hair was smooth and felt good again, I moved on.
Putting on eyeshadow and mascara that accentuated my emerald green eyes, I sprayed on perfume and looked at myself in the mirror. It's definitely an improvement, I thought wryly. My hair reached almost to my waist and had lost its healthy, shiny look. My face was thin, almost sallow. My left eye was swollen, and black, blue, purple and green bruises swirled down my face, overlaid with angry red scratches.
Across my throat ran lines of bruises that resembled the ones on my face, only these looked like fingers. My skin was pale, not creamy porcelain but more sickly.
The freckles that danced across my nose had faded to light smudges, no longer the cute little dots I had always loved.
I was thin, too. My bony shoulders and my ruined arm did nothing to improve my appearance. I sighed and headed out of the bathroom. When I entered the room Carson looked me over and gave a low whistle, pretending to tip his hat at me.
"Much improved, m'lady. Much improved." I blushed and pretended to curtsy, but stumbled and couldn't continue for the pain in my back and sides. Carson rushed over and caught me, the happiness on his face replaced by fear.
"Lexi."
"I'm fine!" I gasped. "My back- it's just my stitches."
Carson frowned and helped me over to the bed. "I'm sorry Lexi. I hurt you again."
I demanded an explanation of that comment.
"Well," Carson said, "I didn't defend you from Boss, and then I made you curtsy and re-injure yourself."
I laughed at this. "Oh Carson. I'm not injured, I just tugged at my sore spots. I didn't re-break my ribs or anything. Nothing serious."
Carson frowned. "I still caused your original injuries."
I was getting very sick of his comments. "Carson do not say that. You had absolutely no way of knowing and even if you did, there's not much else you could have done. Please stop saying that. Please. It's not your fault! Besides, there's nothing really serious. I'm going to make a full recovery of every injury! So it doesn't matter anyway."
Carson nodded slowly. "I'm still mad that I couldn't have saved you, but you're right. It wasn't really my fault." He paused. "But I let you do all the dangerous work! If I had done the hard stuff you wouldn't have... " He caught himself when he saw my face and smiled sheepishly. "I'm going along that line of thinking again aren't I?"
I nodded affirmative. "I'm feeling a little antsy, Carson. If you don't mind walking painstakingly slow, like literally, I'll ask if we can walk around in the garden." Carson said, "Definitely! And I know you're hurting, so I don't mind walking 'painstakingly' slow." He laughed. I called for Cassidy and told her what we were planning. She thought it a fabulous idea and gave us the go-ahead. We eased our way out to the elevator.
"Oh and Carson?" He nodded, "Yes?" "When we get outside, I want to hear all about how you got the police, and how we escaped."