I Ran Him Over On Accident! Now I'm His Nurse!

Chapter 10

Cleopatra was certain of one thing; her treatment at the Granger’s Dojo was going from bad to worse. How many days had she being living under their roof, putting up with their shit? Three or four now, probably.

Whatever number it was, it had been far too long. She had skipped all yesterday’s meals. And now it was morning, and she didn’t dare to venture out of her room as she didn’t want to experience yet more abuse.

And, besides, no one had bothered to come and check up on her. She could be dead in her bedroom as far as anyone else knew. Not that they would care either way.

She was getting kinda hungry, though.

Suddenly, there was a knock at her door and Cleopatra tensed. Was it Kai coming to apologise? Or was he here to threaten her again? Maybe it was Hiro, checking up to see if she was ok. Or was it someone like Max and Ray, wanting to offer their help in some way?

“Are you going to spend all day in this room?”

A fresh bout of irritation flowed over Cleopatra when Hiro’s voice drifted into her room through the locked door. She rolled over in bed and glare at the door, even though she knew Hiro couldn’t see her. “Yes, I am,” she replied to his question. “Isn’t it obvious?”

“You can’t,” was Hiro’s curt reply.

“You can’t tell me what to do!” Cleopatra state defiantly, sitting up in bed now. Why was it that everything Hiro said or did to her brought nothing but feelings of annoyance and anger?

“No, but Mr Dickinson can,” Hiro suddenly stated. “You have a job to do, remember? The one you keep talking about?”

“Oh, so now you admit it?” Cleopatra smirked as she stood up. She folded her arms over her chest and casually walked over to the door, but didn’t open it. “You know what, no. I’m not feeling well today. Not after the way I was treated yesterday.”

There was a slight pause and the sound of shuffle of feet. Cleopatra felt her smirk widen. Here it was; an apology at last.

“Well, that’s what you get for trying to slap Kai across the face.”

Cleopatra was literally dumbfounded by that response. Kai had attacked her. Kai had physically laid his hands on her, hurting her, threatening her and Hiro was ok with that? Really?

This place was unbelievable!

“He started it!”

“I don’t care who started it.”

“If Kai is so loved, why isn’t he the one nursing that moron?” Cleopatra demanded to know, clenching her hands tightly into fists, trying to push aside the need to punch something.

“Kai isn’t here right now.”

That was a relief. Yet, it was also highly insulting and annoying.

“Oh, so now I’m his replacement?” Cleopatra hissed harshly.

“Oh, for fuck’s sake!” Hiro growled from the other side of the door and Cleopatra could see his silhouette, a hand reaching up to pinch the bridge of his nose. Suddenly there was a sound of someone taking a deep breath to calm themselves down.

“…Fine,” Hiro suddenly muttered as he moved to walk away. “Sulk all you want. I’ll just have to ring Mr Dickinson and let him know that you don’t want to be Tyson’s nurse anymore. Let’s see what he has to say about this.”

Cleopatra bristled with anger as she unlocked the door and threw it open, standing there with a look that could kill. Her glare intensified when she realised that Hiro actually had a phone in his hand, ready to carry out his threat.

“Fine!” she hissed. “Look, I’m out of my room.”

Hiro simply frowned at her as he put his phone back into his pocket. “Out of our spare room, you mean.”

Cleopatra ignored that as she stepped out of her room, roughly crossing her arms over her chest in an irritated manner. “This is abuse, you know?” she retorted. “Blackmail.”

“Oh stop making it so difficult for everyone,” Hiro snapped at her, losing his cool for a moment.

A part of Cleopatra was appalled that Hiro would raise his voice to her. Yet, another part felt somewhat smug. Hiro had actually lost his cool. And it was because of her. It appeared as if she was succeeding in getting under his skin.

“Look, you’re here out of the generosity of the BBA,” Hiro suddenly said. “Stop abusing that. And get to work. Tyson needs his bandages changed and I need to get back to work. Stop lazing about.”

Abusing their generosity? Lazing about? The nerve!

“I hate this place!” Cleopatra declared as she threw her arms in the arm in annoyance. She then spun around and stomped toward Tyson’s room. She felt understandably angry as she stepped into his room, finding Tyson sitting on the edge of his bed, his attention focused intensely on his iPhone.

Cleopatra didn’t even bother to announce her presence. She simply stalked over to the bed, grabbed some fresh bandages and reluctantly knelt in front of Tyson so she could look at his leg.

She let her irritation toward Hiro get the best of her as she all but ripped the bandages off of Tyson’s injured leg, making him yelp in pain.

“Ow!” he whined. “Be more gentle, would you?”

Cleopatra just glared at him as she continued to wrap the bandages around his leg roughly.

Still, something gnawed at her.

Cleopatra couldn’t quite put her finger on it. Maybe it was just a hunch but there was something slightly different about Hiro. There was this look in his eyes just now. He seemed…haunted by something.

No, Cleopatra told herself. He was haunted by something.

She knew he was as she had the same look. She tried to keep her pain covered and hidden by a mask of indifference and authority, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t hurting.

Could it be that she wasn’t employed to be Tyson’s carer, rather to heal his older brother, Hiro? Had Mr Dickinson seen the look of dark mystery in her eyes and realised that she was just like Hiro? Did he believe that these two like-minded people could somehow will each other to live?

It actually made a bit of sense now that Cleopatra thought of it. Hiro treating her like shit was an obvious sign that he wanted her to help him, but he just didn’t know how to accept her help. He was a proud man with many responsibilities. He wasn’t used to a powerful and independent woman like her entering his life.

It didn’t make his treatment of her any more forgivable, but she kinda understood where he was coming from now. He was simply afraid of her. Maybe even for her. Maybe he felt that she was too good for him, so it was easier to simply push her away?

No, it made total sense. So much so that Cleopatra wanted to punch him in the stomach and tell him to get his head out of his ass.

But now that she realised this, what was she going to do?