Chapter1
Liv
Ijust stare at my hands. I can't stop. They're twisted together in my lap, motionless, but my nails are digging into the flesh. I think I can feel it. I mean, no. I can't. Not the way I should. But the dulled pain I feel is welcome because I'm here to feel it. I'm here. Alive. Unharmed, mostly.
“Olivia,” a gentle voice says. I look up to find a nurse’s head poking through the ajar door. “Your cousin?—”
And then the door is pushed all the way open and the nurse barks out a complaint but Tenley shoves her out of the way anyway. “Liv. Oh my God. Liv.”
She is charging toward me at the speed of light. I flinch and hold up my hands, palms out, as my eyes snap shut. Her sneakers squeak on the white tile floor she stops so abruptly. “I’m fine. I swear.”
I amsonot fine. Not mentally. But physically, on paper, I am and that’s important. It’s everything. I have to focus on that.
“Ma’am I told you to wait in the hall until she gave consent.”
"I give consent," I say and my voice is oddly hoarse. Oh right, I screamed when he tried to… do whatever he tried to do.
The nurse hesitates but closes the door and Tenley squats in front of me, a foot from the edge of the medical bed I’m perched on. She looks up at me, her fearless blue eyes are… fearful, and that’s when my own tears overtake me. Fuck. I’ve scared the one unflappable, brave, fearless person I know. Fuck. Fuck. FUCK.
"Liv. Oh, God." Tenley is crying now too. I can't see it, because my eyes are swimming in tears, but I can hear it. "Oh my God, I am going to fucking murder this guy. I am going to rip his throat out with my bare hands. Oh my God."
“I’m fine,” I repeat because eventually I should believe it, right? Manifest it or some shit. “He didn’t. I wasn’t.”
“You weren’t?” Tenley questions, and we don’t have to say the words. We’re women. We both know exactly what we’re talking about. “He didn’t?”
“He tried. I mean I think he was trying,” I swallow and wipe at my cheeks, willing the tears to fucking stop. “Maybe he was just going to rob me, but the police think… I stopped him from maybe doing both.”
Tenley raises to her full height and I watch her walk to the little bathroom attached to the private room they put me in off the emergency waiting room. She comes back with a paper towel in her hands. “Can I touch you?”
I nod and she leans forward and wipes the paper towel gently across my cheek. I'm shocked when it's pinkish-red. "You have blood on your hands and you wiped it across your face."
I look down. My nails sliced my flesh. There’re three bleeding half-moons on the flesh of my palm. I press them into my jeans. The door opens and we both turn. I jump though because I’m still freaking out inside.
The doctor looks at me with a small reassuring smile. “Your CT came back clear. You don’t even have a concussion.”
“Thank god,” Tenley sighs out. “Can you look at her hands please?”
The doctor’s eyes flit down and his eyebrows pinch for a second but he smiles again and puts his tablet on the bed beside me as he asks me to flip over my hands. He sees the marks. “I’ll get a nurse to clean that up and I’m going to prescribe you some Ativan. I want you to take one before you leave. And another tomorrow morning and then, as required.”
“I don’t need drugs.”
“You do,” he insists. “Just for a couple of days. And you also need counseling. I am going to give you some pamphlets.”
“I don’t,” I argue. “Nothing happened to me.”
"Miss Garrison, just because you didn't experience the worst-case scenario doesn't mean you didn't experience valid trauma," he tells me like I'm some silly little kid who doesn't know how the world works. I kind of feel like that so I'm not offended. "And I'm still going to advise you to let us call your parents."
“No. Never. NO!” Did I just yell that last no? Judging by the way the doctor stiffens and Tenley jumps, I guess I did. I try to take a deep breath but I can’t. “Are my ribs broken? Bruised. I can’t… I can’t take a deep breath.”
“That’s what the Ativan is for,” he explains as he picks up his tablet. “It will help with the shock and panic. So will the therapy. And the support of your family. Parents.”
Tenley’s hand gently touches my shoulder. “I’m her cousin. She lives with me. I’ll take good care of her.”
He looks less concerned after Tenley reveals that but still a little worried. He nods and hands Tenley some pamphlets from his lab coat pocket. “The nurse will be here in a second with the prescription and to clean your hands. Take care, Olivia. You’re a warrior. Remember how strong you were tonight.”
He leaves the room and Tenley runs a hand on top of my head and looks at the bruise I know is forming on my cheek. She forces her eyes to mine. “He’s right. Youarea warrior and I’m so proud of you.”
She tucks the pamphlets into the back pocket of her jeans and goes back to smoothing my hair. It’s nice, and that feeling of comfort starts to seep in. My mom used to smooth my hair after I had nightmares when I was little. My mom… oh God… if I was just more like my mom maybe I wouldn’t be this shaken. Maybe the asshole wouldn’t have seen me as a target. She’s the only person I know who is as fearless, strong, and tough as Tenley.