Faded Heart

XXVIII. Slow Dancing in a Burning Room

Oftentimes, people say the trip home is much shorter than the trip to the original destination. In my case it was the complete opposite way around. Our return back to the Chateau seemed to drag on forever. Each second only grew worse and worse as the pain and paranoia grew stronger.

By the time we arrived back at the Chateau, I practically threw myself into the bathroom to tend to my leg. It was way worse than I had originally thought. There was a huge cut extending up the entirety of the front of my thigh. That fallen tree branch sure did a number on my leg.

JJ follows suit, beginning to fumble through the medicine cabinet to look for any signs of medical supplies. He was still very tense from the encounter with my dad. He barely said anything on the way back to the Chateau, but he had a protective watch on me at all times.

"This is about to hurt like a bitch." He says, crouching down in front of me with a bottle of rubbing alcohol in his hands. I cringed at the thought of how it would feel to clean my cut out. It already was bad enough without adding rubbing alcohol to the mixture.

Before I had time to stop him, JJ ran a paper towel of rubbing alcohol over my cut. We were both very unprepared for how I was going to react. As soon as he ran the rubbing alcohol over my cut, I let out something along the lines of a scream and a mixture of swear words. From the sounds that just left my mouth, someone could've thought that I was dying in here. A sharp burning sensation spreads through my leg, worse than anything I had ever felt before.

"Damn, Emerson. You're a screamer." JJ laughs, his blue eyes meeting mine once more. His goofy personality started to creep back up. I appreciated it right now because after what just happened I could have used a little bit of lightheartedness in the air right now. "Glad to know that for future reference."

I smack his hand away as I try to fight back a smile, "You have a sick mind, JJ Maybank."

"Hey, I haven't heard any complaints about it yet." He grins, only finding my reaction to his joke even more amusing. This time, his free hand grabs a hold of my uninjured thigh and begins running his hand up it. "Especially not from you."

I felt a flutter in my stomach as I let out a small breath. He sure had a way of making my thoughts wander to places they shouldn't be right now... I shouldn't have been thinking about this, because we both knew now was not the time. The smarter part of me warned me that he was only teasing me. The weaker part of me wished that I could relax and let go with him for a little while because the way he was looking at me made me forget about everything else going on in the world.

I wanted nothing more than to come up with some witty response, but I just couldn't. I had finally crossed the threshold and finally entered the realm of letting a boy have this type of effect on me. He left me speechless. JJ Maybank of all people.

"Look on the bright side, babe. When this is all said and done, you're going to have one killer ass scar." JJ says, bring my attention back to the cut on my leg which I had momentarily forgotten about. But just as I suspected, he was only trying to get a rise out of me and he knew it worked. "No one's gonna mess with you."

Just as I was about to reply, there was a knock on the door causing both JJ and I to jump. We were the only two at the Chateau, but we knew no one else would've knocked on the door. There weren't many people who'd take the time to knock on the door.

JJ swifty made his way to the bathroom door, peaking around the corner to see who the knock belonged to. "Shit." He whispered, pulling himself back around the corner. "It's Peterkin."

"What the hell is she doing here?" I ask, moving back to sit down and wrap my wound. I needed to get something on this cut to stop the bleeding.

"I don't know." He huffed as he paced around the bathroom with his hands on his head. I knew he was panicking at the thought of being arrested once again, but not for the reason most people would. He didn't want his dad to pick him up at the station again. "Probably something with my restitution or the charges. The amount of possibilities is endless. Fuck..."