I'm so excited right now. My edgy YA Romance Falling In Between (aka. Jumpin' Jenna) is complete.
I awoke to rhythmic beeping.
Something burned when I twitched my nose, and it wasn’t the strong stench of disinfectants that I was breathing in. I slowly reached up to learn what it was, but my hand was grasped before it got there.
“Jenna?” Sophie. I could sense relief in her voice and wondered how much time had passed since I hit my head.
My head! It didn’t hurt anymore. And my back and palms weren’t burning. Though something was snagging the hairs on the skin of my back. Tape, maybe, if they used it to secure the padding on my back. I could tell my scuffed up palms were wrapped with something too.
My head was still a little groggy though. I opened my eyes and saw her sitting beside me, her face just inches from mine. She crossed her eyes and stuck her tongue out at me. I smiled and tried to push her away with the hand she had a death grip on.
“Don’t,” I said. “Don’t make me laugh. I think it’ll hurt.”
Her eyes uncrossed and her tongue retreated, and I was left with a saddened face that was even worse.
“I’m sorry,” Sophie whispered. “I never should’ve bullied you into doing that.”
“You didn’t push me, Soph. I did the jumping.”
“Yeah,” she murmured, but I knew she didn’t believe it, or forgave herself. I think she just didn’t want me to argue with her about it right now.
After a moment of silence, she added, “Robert’s been here to see you. Hell, he’s practically lived here. Seriously, I had to pull the best friend card to get him out.”
Maybe it was the fog that clouded my brain at the moment, but I just didn’t get it.
“You’re in the ICU. They only allow one of us in here at a time.”
“Oh.” Robert had been to see me? And stayed? It was a little weird. I had liked him for awhile, but I honestly wasn’t sure if he felt anything in return. I got the occasional smile and we both caught the other looking every so often. But he’s never even tried to talk to me on my own. There were always other people around in a group conversation.
I remembered I was gonna be brave that night. We were gonna go find Robert and Jhett after our dip in the lagoon. Sophie said the jump would be a good practice run. If I could find the courage to finally jump from the cliff, then finding the courage to talk to Robert would be a breeze. Stupid, I know. But it was allowing me to delay our plan and work up some more courage. We knew they were down by the river, like they were most school nights. And Sophie was gonna lure Jhett away for me.
“I know you’ve got the hots for the guy, but seriously, you went a little overboard trying to get his attention.”
“Ha ha.” I sighed deeply. “Great. I finally get to be alone with the guy and I was unconscious for all of it.”
Sophie pressed her lips into a straight line, like she always did when she knew something I didn’t. Worst poker face ever.
“What?”
“Well,” she answered, hesitating, “Robert was the one that gave you mouth-to-mouth, so technically, you guys had your first kiss and you weren’t even alive for it.”
I chuckled weakly and asked, “Was it at least good?”
“I believe he slipped you the tongue.” Sophie winked her left eye.
“Lovely.” I tried to rub the grogginess from my eyes. “So long as my virginity is still intact.”
“Iron-clad. Sauron and his army of Orcs couldn’t break through your defenses.”
I rolled my eyes and allowed my hand to fall, snagging some type of plastic wire that was the cause of my nose burn. I pulled gently on it and it unplugged from my nose.
“Aw, man! Robert saw me in this?”
“He saw a lot more than that. You were in your undies when you performed the Jump of Doom. Remember?”
A wave of embarrassment rushed through me and I was sure more than my face flushed. Could this get any worse?
“Is there anything else you haven’t told me yet?”
Sophie’s lips pursed again.
I glared at her. “Soph?”
Her eyes watched the ceiling intently while she confessed. “Well, Robert was the only one that knew the whole CPR thing, so he was the one that…” Sophie placed one hand on top of the other, laced her fingers together and moved her arms in a thrusting motion.
Robert was the one that did the compressions to my chest. Great.
“So, technically…” Sophie continued, “your little jump got your relationship with Robert to go from non-existent to rounding first base in seven seconds flat.”
I couldn’t stop shaking my head. And now both hands were trying desperately to bury my face.
“Good thing you wore the lace, huh?”
I groaned, moaned and cried all within five seconds. “I did die. I’ve died and gone to my version of hell. An eternity of sexual humiliation.”
“Oh, come on. It’s not that bad. Jhett and I were there. It’s not like the guy tried to fondle you or anything. But he has been rather attentive now that he’s seen the goods up close and personal.”
A nurse came in and saved me from having to continue that humiliating conversation. She was pretty, even with her chestnut colored hair loosely thrown into some updo in the back of her head. The tag pinned to her navy blue scrubs said Michelle.
She smiled as she said, “I see you’re finally awake. How do you feel?”
“A little groggy, but no pain.”
“That’s the morphine. Enjoy it while you can because when you get out of here, those gashes up your back are going to itch and ache for a week or so until they really begin to heal.”
“And my head?” I couldn’t feel anything, but I remembered the pain when it slammed against the boulder and again when Robert revived me.
“Concussion, but the doctor ran some scans and everything looks okay. Just a nasty bump. And now that you’re awake, you’ll be moved out of ICU. But you’ll still have to spend a few days in a normal ward, just to make sure there aren’t any complications.”
“Is that it? Nothing else?”
“Well,” she said, eyeballing me while fidgeting with my saline pouch, “from what I got meeting that Headmistress of yours, she’ll probably give you the longest lecture of your life about teenage stupidity, so you might want to prepare yourself for something in that aspect.”
Another groan escaped my throat. Sophie better be forced to attend that lecture as well.
y
Sophie stayed with me until they moved me out of ICU, but when I woke up after my nap, it was Robert that was kicked back in the chair, completely zombie-fied as he stared at the television. His dark brown waves were tousled and there were bags under his chocolate eyes, and his hand lay gently on top of mine. He looked like he dragged himself out of bed without bothering to check the mirror on his way here. I suddenly felt grateful and less self-conscience about my own droopy appearance.
“So I hear I have you to thank for the pain in my chest.”
It took him a second to realize that the comment came from me and not the television. He dropped his legs from my bed railing and twisted the rolling chair towards me, refusing to release my hand in the process.
“Hi,” he said, the ends of his lips slowly curling.
“Hi.”
Finally. A private conversation. And all I had to do was throw myself off a cliff, drown in a lagoon in my undies, and let him put his hands on my breasts to bring me back to life.
Yay me…
“So did I really hurt you? Because I’ve never done that to a real person before. I wasn’t sure how much pressure to apply to get to your heart going again.”
“It’s okay. I’ll take a sore chest over death any day.”
“Good. Because I would’ve broken every rib in your chest if that’s what it took to bring you back.”
Aww…I didn’t know what to say to that. Did he really like me then?
“Look, we’ve only got a few minutes before Sophie comes back from lunch. When you get back to the dorms and start feeling better, you want to catch a movie with me or something?”
Uh, hell yeah! “Yeah, sure.”
A soft smile grew on his face and he tightened his grip on my hand. “So what would you want to see? That new Meg Ryan movie?”
“She doesn’t want to see that lovey-dovey crap. What she really wants to see is that new zombie movie, though she’ll never admit it.”
Robert and I hadn’t bothered to break our eye contact when Sophie interrupted, but now that she had neared my bed, I could sense something strange about her in the corner of my eye. I shifted my eyes to her and my jaw immediately dropped. Embarrassed, my wide eyes darted back to Robert. His eyes narrowed and turned to see the source of my panic.
Sophie stood there all perky with her hands on her hips in a model-like stance, and a smile that showed way too many pearly whites…and a helium balloon that shouted It’s A Boy!!!
“Nice balloon, Sophie,” he said, slightly amused.
“What?” she asked, all innocently. “They were out of Get Well.”
The hell they were. This little stunt was Sophie-esque. I knew exactly what that balloon meant – that I came into this hospital alone but I was gonna leave it with a boy wrapped in my arms. Sophie probably thinks he’s ready to suckle my breasts too.
Luckily, Robert had no clue to the workings of our inner monologues. I threw her a contemptuous glare before his head returned my way, but he caught part of it anyway. He quickly returned to Sophie and caught her sticking her tongue out at me.
“Yeah, I’m going to go now.” He squeezed my hand tightly before standing up. “Let me know when you’re feeling better and ready for company, okay?”
“You don’t have to go.” God that sounded kind of pathetic, and a little whiney.
“It’s alright. I’ve got a swim practice to make up and Sophie,” he glanced her way – she stood all innocent-like, “can clearly keep you entertained. I’ll see you later.”
“Thanks for coming.”
He lifted his hand in a ‘good-bye’ motion before he walked out the door.
Once gone, I threw Sophie another disapproving glare. “I hate zombie movies. They creep me out.”
“Which means you’ll spend the entire movie burying your head into his neck and his arm wrapped around you. Win-win.”
