Night On Set ❁ COLIFER

Chapter 22 ❁ Slip 'n slide

Jen's POV

When I wake up before my alarm goes off the next morning, I know something's wrong.

"Oh, please, not today," I mutter to myself, lifting up one arm to massage my forehead. A dull pain is spreading from my temples to the back of my head, and I know it's the kind of headache that will stick around for a few hours. Fighting it with medicine will just make me drowsy on an important shooting day.

I slowly get up, petting a sleepy Ava, and turn off my alarm before it can start blasting through the room. I usually don't see the point in showering before going on a run, but maybe it will help with the headache, and maybe the run will clear up my head so I can focus on my lines today.

A shower it is.

I shuffle to the bathroom on my slippers, switching on the lights and squinting because it's too bright. The water helps a little, but I keep rubbing my temples in vain. The thing with headaches is that you can't really do much about it; it's just this dull or stinging or throbbing pain under your skull you can't get to.

And with every headache I just hope it won't turn into a migraine.

But that's not the case today. At least one relief.

I've already washed my body and I'm rubbing shampoo in my hair when I think I hear something. I turn off the water and listen, my eyes closed so the shampoo doesn't burn them, but it's quiet.

Until he knocks again.

"Jen? Are you up? I didn't hear your alarm go off."

I blindly grope for the shower curtain and pull it aside, somehow convinced that will help me hear Colin better. "Yes, I'm up!" I call back, sputtering because all I'm tasting now is shampoo.

"Are we still going for that run?"

"Yes! I'll be there in a minute, I'm in the bathroom." I close the curtain again and take a step back, but suddenly my left foot is slipping away on the surface of the tub and my eyes fly open; I'm flooded with the realization I'm losing my balance, so my first instinct is to grab around me for something to keep me up. 

My fist finds the shower curtain, but my weight is too much and the curtain comes down with the rail, which clatters to the floor. I crash onto the side of tub with my left side; there's a loud BANG as I hit the bottom of the bathtub, and I literally can't breathe for a few seconds.

I keep dead quiet, holding the edge of the tub with my left hand, but I don't even realize my arm is hurt. I'm overwhelmed by the pain in my back, which makes it hard to breathe without feeling a sharp and stinging pain, but now I'm panicking and that makes it even worse.

It's bad. I know it's bad. I can't move, let alone lower my arm, because I'm pretty sure I broke a rib. If it isn't broken, at least it's bruised, but this is not good.

"JEN! What's going on? Are you okay?"

I didn't even realize Colin was still standing in the hallway between our apartments, but now I look up at the bathroom door. My mouth is twitching from the pain; my breathing is going faster and I feel my heart thumping in my chest.

"Colin, I..." I screw up my face when the pain cuts off my breath, groaning. I sit really still for a moment. "I... I fell."

"What are you saying?"

"I fell," I call back a little louder, suppressing the pain it causes me to talk. Soapy water is dripping down my hair and over my back, and my eyes are stinging from my shampoo. I'm on the verge of shivering when I force myself to stay still.