My Protector

chapter nine

I awoke to a white room that couldn’t have been any cleaner. The sharp distinct smell of something like hand-sanitizer made my nose crinkle and I rolled over, only be taken aback by the soreness that came from the action. My whole core protested as I tried to move from side to side and then I remembered.

 I had been stabbed. Jon had stabbed me in that closet and Jake had saved me. The look in his eyes was branded into my mind as he was putting pressure on my wound to stop the bleeding. He was trying to save my life, not take it. I didn’t understand the reason he had for an exchange with Ben then. As I stared at the ceiling in an attempt to figure things out, I heard a small noise coming from my left.

Jake was sitting in a chair, his head rolled back onto the seat asleep and he was snoring. His arms were folded limply across his chest and I noticed that next to him was a bouquet of a dozen roses. I smiled to myself as I had never received roses from anyone before. I wanted to reach out and tap his knee to wake him up, but I couldn’t reach. I stuck my hand out, but once I saw the IV tubes taped to my wrists, I pulled back, feeling sick at the thought of needles inside me. But I had a knife inside me, which must be worse right?

The antiseptic room was making my mind spin and I felt dizzy and weak. I moaned softly and tried to get comfortable, only to find that my quiet moan had woken Jake up and now he was staring at me not knowing what to do. His eyes were stained with concern, sadness, and uncertainty as he stared at me at a loss for words. I smiled weakly and coughed. This sent him into action. He hopped up from his seat and jumped to kneel by the bed and grabbed my hand in his own big, strong one.

“Are you okay? Should I call a nurse?” he asked helplessly as his wide eyes searched my face for any pain. I almost wanted to laugh at his concern but I felt it wouldn’t be appropriate considering he practically saved my life, again. How many times was that now? I needed to get around to thanking him for practically being alive right now…

“Yes I’m fine and no you don’t need to call the nurse. Nothing hurts, I’m just sore,” I said and smiled weakly as I rubbed my stomach. The touch hurt me and I tried not to reflect the pain in my face to worry him, but I guess I didn’t succeed. He didn’t say anything about the pain because he knew I was stubborn and would just refuse to admit to the pain, but he instantly reached over and held up the dozen roses he had brought for me.

My smile stretched all across my face and I tried to hold the tears back from my eyes as he stood there, holding out these beautiful flowers in the cutest most awkward way possible. I took them from him gratefully and mumbled,

“Wow Jake. Thank you they’re beautiful. Ha ha that sounds so cliché but they really are!” I almost squealed like a little girl because I just felt so happy that Jake had taken the time and effort to get me these flowers! “I don’t know really what to say because I’ve never been given flowers before…” My words trailed off as his face grew into a confused expression.

“Who in their right mind wouldn’t bring you flowers? If I could afford it, I would bring you flowers every day.” His face was dead serious and he stared into my eyes, his gaze never breaking. I stared back for a moment, then broke away, blushing.

My thoughts were immediately dragged back to that day when I thought Jake had betrayed me and I thought he wanted me dead just like Jon and Ben.

Jon.

That low-life little weasel got away and it was my entire fault. I should have fought back or done something that would have gotten him caught. Just as I remembered Tommy opening the door, I remembered Jon’s face. He was…crying? Why would Jon be crying?

“Um, Danielle? Is something wrong?” He looked at me and I hadn’t noticed until I relaxed my face that it was scrunched up in thought. I decided I had better get my first question out before I exploded from wanting to know.

“Well, I was just wondering why you were talking to Ben the other day at school. I thought you had betrayed me.” I looked down, embarrassed to complete my feelings into words before him. When I looked up, his face had hurt me worse. His eyes looked hurt and his face read that he couldn’t believe what he was hearing. He shook his head and slowly walked towards me, his face suddenly very serious.

“Danielle, I would never, ever betray you. I know what you went through and I know how they hurt you. I was protecting you. I confronted Ben after school to tell him that he’d better stop messing with you or I’d beat both their asses. He just looked scared as hell and said that he would never, but that I’d have to pay Jon money to stay away. So the next day, the day you saw me, I did. I gave him $200 to stay away from you. But I should’ve known he’d have broken his stupid promise.”

I was in shock. Was this really true? Of course it was and I had been thinking badly of Jake this whole time when really he has been my protector! I couldn’t stop the tears rolling down my cheeks now as I slowly reached up and touched his face.

“Jake, I’m so sorry I didn’t trust you. It’s just I have a hard time trusting people and-and well I thought that I had lost everything and everybody that I cared about when I thought you did what you did. So I did something stupid and it led to this. I’m so sorry you’ve been brought into this Jake I would go back and remove you from this horrible situation if I could.”

 “Danielle don’t you dare say that. I would never want to leave you in this. Even if you weren’t in all this shit I would still want to be with you. I mean, only if you want me.” He looked up and his eyes dove into mine as we held the gaze before I slowly leaned in and gave him a gentle kiss on his soft, sweet lips. I groaned and pulled away, the pain form my core still not allowing me to use that muscle. He looked at me with concern but left it alone.

“Do my parents know about this?” I questioned right as the door opened and in walked Ben.