Cheek to Cheek

Chapter 15

A/N: I will be going back and dedicating these chapters to my most loyal/awesome/fantastic/super cool fans :D I'll get to that later. Enjoy!

I entered the nurse’s office, still sniffling from my small breakdown. At first the nurse gave me a questioning look why I was wet. I stared at her for a moment before lifting up my arm to show my terrible blisters.

She quickly ran into a different room to get bandages. I searched the room for any familiar people, but to my surprise, there was only one another person in the room, and he appeared to be fine. I hobbled over to the closest seat and sat down; Jake took a seat beside me. I waited in silence for a little while for the nurse to come back, but in my stomach, it just didn’t feel right.

“Thanks,” I mumbled, my heart slightly hoping he wouldn’t hear it. I was just glad to have it off my chest. He looked at me in surprise, past my dripping wet hair, into my dark eyes, and smiled.

“Anytime, babe,” he replied, to which I smiled again to his surprise. For once, it felt nice to be called that because it offered some kind of comfort. I gazed at the tile floor at my flip flops, which were soaking wet, and my small toes. I fiddled with them a little bit before the nurse came out of the room.

“Shoot, we’re out of gauze,” she said, smiling frantically, “I’m going to run quickly to the main office to see if we have any there. Let me see your arm.” I reached out my arm to her, which she took and sprayed it with anti-septic spray. I winced at the further stinging, but she gave it a gentle pat, smiled, and left the room.

I sighed, looking at my arm. Badly blistered and oozing puss, I didn’t even want to think about it anymore. Yet, I couldn’t help it. The look on Jack’s face had been amused at what Lacey had done. I sighed in frustration again.

I didn’t want to like him. Believe me, I didn’t. Jack only made himself appear to be a jerk. Yet, there was something about him I just couldn’t resist or walk away from. Maybe it was because I spent so long liking him... I’m sure everyone had gone through a similar situation. I just wish it had turned out differently.

“You alright?” Jake said, intruding into my thoughts. I sighed for the third time, shrugging my shoulders.

“I guess so,” I meekly replied, looking back down at the floor. For now, it appeared comforting. I just wanted to disappear into it.

“You seem deep in thought,” he commented. I nodded, shrugged, and licked my lips.

“Nah. I’m fine,” I assured him, but I suddenly remembered who I was getting comfortable around. Jake Marks, total jerk and player. He had cheated on Elizabeth without even trying to hide it. He touched me provocatively without my permission and pushed me out of my comfort zone. And now I was getting comfortable around him?

“What’s it to you?” I added defensively, not sure if I was liking where this was going. I suddenly bit my lip at the sudden harshness of my tone as the look on his face seemed hurt.

“Geez... What’s with the attitude? I was just asking if you were okay...” he replied, clearly offended. I didn’t know whether to apologize or roll my eyes. I did the latter.

“Why do you care?” I muttered, wrapping myself further into the blanket. His eyes grew wide as if I was accusing him of committing a crime. 

“What did I do?!” he asked rather loudly. The only other person in here stared at us in confusion and shook his head. I gave Jake a warning look.

“Shhh! You know what you did! Don’t act like you’re so innocent!” I whispered loudly. He stared at me, slightly baffled with his mouth agape. He tilted his head to the side, a puzzled pondering look engraved on his face.