Butterflies and Secrets

2. Blood and Bruises

8:50 AM

The sun rose, and I started to feel the heat. I felt sweat dripping from my temples to my cheeks and my legs ached. That's when I knew I needed to rest from my little journey.

Then I heard a loud horn from behind me which caused me to topple and fall over. A black car, which I believe to be a Range Rover, passed by.

"Ow!" I grimaced in pain. It was only a graze on my knee and my palm yet they were bleeding a lot. "Agh, crap." I cringed as I looked at the red liquid oozing out from the wound. This was bad. I removed my helmet from my head.

The car's rear lights that passed by turned red foreshadowing that it was coming to a stop and returned, several feet beside me. The driver got off and rushed to my side.

"I'm so sorry!" I heard his soft voice, with a hint of British accent? "I'm really sorry, I didn't mean to do that."

"It's okay, I just-" I stopped when I looked at him for the first time. I'm staring at the most beautiful brown eyes I've ever seen. He also seemed familiar, like I've seen him somewhere before.

"U-um," he stuttered. "what were you going to say?" He says which cut me off from my daydream.

"I- I was gonna say, I need to stitch it up quickly." I said.

"I'll bring you to the hospital." He said as he reached for me.

"No!" He stopped at my sudden outburst. I cleared my throat. "Sorry about that, but no need for a hospital." I said. "Please, just cleaning it will be good enough."

"But you're excessively bleeding, I'll pay for the expenses."

I shook my head. I reached for his hand and stared into his eyes. "Please."

"O-Okay, of course!" He stood up and walked back to his car. "I have a first aid kit right here." I heard him shuffling around his car and then comes back with a small metal box.

"Here." He said as he bent down beside me. He stared at the red, uneven lines formed by the accident  again with worry. "Why are you bleeding so much?"

He took out some alcohol, cotton, and everything else needed. He started by pouring alcohol on the cotton. "This might sting."

"Yeah, I think I'm quite aware of that." I chuckled a little bit and so did he. I bit my bottom lip as he gently patted the cotton on the damaged part of my knee to keep myself from squirming and groaning loudly.

I stared at him as he cleaned the wound. I noticed that he had caramel brown hair then a strand fell onto his forehead. I was tempted to put it back in place. He was focused on cleaning my wound which I find very attractiv- No Cali! What the hell are you thinking right now? I softly shook my head to get rid of my thoughts.

"There you go." He said after he was done stitching me up.

"Thank you." I thanked him.

"I'm Tom, by the way." He said after he's done patching everything up. He's holding out his hand for me to take. I took it, then he said, "Tom Holland." with an award-winning smile. Although, his name sounded familiar.

"Hope." I smiled back. "Hope  He didn't let go of my hand then stood up and pulled me with him. A gasp came out of my mouth as I fell back down to the ground. Stinging pain came over  my ankle.

"You must have sprained it." He bent down with me again with a worried look on his face. "I'm terribly sorry, I did this."

"No, no it's fine." I smile at him.

He looked down at my right forearm and then down my leg, just above my left knee."You have bruises too." I just stared at him nervously when he sees the red, blue, and purple patches on my skin whilst he looked at me with a guilty expression.

"I-I'm really, really sorry." He said completely ashamed.

I smile at him again. "It's fine, really." He looks at me with a strange expression. I can't blame him though. Who would get injured like this and then be still all jolly and happy afterwards? Other people might even file an arrest for the person responsible but this girl, is different ladies and gentlemen.

"Aren't you a cheerful one?" He joked.

"Yeah, I've been told that- more times than needed actually." I laughed softly.

I tried my best to stand up and grunted in the process which results to Tom bracing himself to catch me. I smiled at him again for how adorable he was being.

"Are you really okay?" He reassured once again as I put my helmet over my head.

"Yes! I feel great, thanks to you Tommo." He raised his eyebrows at me. I walked over to where my bike was located and then pulled it up.

"You're not going like that." He shook his head at me.

"Yes, I am." I sheepishly grinned at him while walking, Tom catching up.

"Uh, no." He stopped in front of me with his arms spreading wide.

"I've to be somewhere. Now please," I waved my hand side to side and gestured for him to move. "get out of my way. What you've done was more than enough."

"How about I give you a ride?"

"I'm fine, I swear." I persisted.

"No!" He told me off. "You've got wounds on one of your hands and knees," he pointed at them with his hand, "you've bruises all over your body," he trailed off once more, "and you've sprained your ankle." He was very frantic how he's acting now. His arms were moving all over the place. "You can't exactly ride a bike with an injured ankle, so stop saying you're fine when you're really not."

"Of course, I can!" I shrugged.

"No, you can't!" He yells. I was shocked by his reaction. He started to look at me with pleading eyes. "I should've taken you to the hosp-" I cut him off.

"Okay, Holland." I gave up, unbuckling the straps of the protective gear that's on my head. "Fine, i'll go with you." He smiled happily with satisfaction. "But..."

He stared at me with narrowed eyes, saying 'What now?'

"What are we going to do with my bike?" I raised one of my eyebrows.

"That will fit in the back of my car." he shrugged.

"Okay." I smiled at him once more.

He brings the bike at the back of his car, opens the back door, and puts the bike there. It fit since his car was a little big. He opened the car door for me at the front, and the proceeded to closing it after I entered. He went around and then also came inside and stared at me afterwards.

"So Cali," He put his right hand on the steering wheel while the other wrapped around the gear stick. "where are we headed?"

9:09 AM