“Just keep out of rivers from now on and we’ll be good.”
“No problem,” Slade laughs.
Slade steps out of his way and Nessa and Damian instantly back up. Thomas nods in my direction and walks out as Slade comes striding toward me.
He throws my sketchpad down at the end of the bed, right out of reach it and draws me into his arms. “Are you alright?”
“Better now.”
“Ugh,” Nessa groans, grabbing Slade by the back of his shirt and pulling him out of her way. “Move, bitch. You’ve been here all fucking day. We only just heard about it.”
Slade rolls his eyes and holds his ground as he kisses me deeply. “Just say the word and they’re gone.”
Peering around his shoulder, I find Nessa with her arms crossed over her chest and a perfect scowl aimed at Slade’s back. “Move,” I groan, hating that he’s going to be out of reach, but if I don’t do this now, she’s never going to stop.
Slade grins against my lips and takes his sweet-ass time moving out of Nessa’s way. The second he’s gone, she flies at me, knocking the air out of my lungs as she crushes me with her arms. “I’m so sorry. If I knew, I would have been here the whole damn time.”
“Get off her,” Damian calls from across the room as he strides to the other side of the bed. “She just drowned and got shot. You’re squishing her.”
Nessa stretches out and turns a sharp glare on Damian. “Is she drowning right now?”
“No,” he grunts.
“Is she currently bleeding out?”
“What’s your point?”
“That she’s fucking fine and if I want to squeeze the living shit out of my best friend after her ass was nearly taken out, then that’s exactly what I’m going to do. Do you have a goddamn problem with that?”
I’ve never seen Damian shut up so fast in my life. He waves his hand in front of me and steps back as if to wait his turn. “As you were,” he murmurs, “but for the record, she’s my best friend”
“Damn fucking straight,” she grumbles before looking down at me and rolling her eyes. “I’d keep hugging you but he kinda ruined the moment.”
“Thank fuck for that,” I grin. “You took the whole squeezing the living shit out of me a little too literal.”
Nessa scrunches her face and cringes. “Sorry. It’s been an emotional half an hour. Did you really get shot?”
I nod and cringe in pain as I sit up and throw the blanket off. “Hey. What the hell do you think you’re doing?” Damian demands, grabbing my shoulders and forcing me back into a lying position. “You nearly just died in two different ways. I highly doubt you’re supposed to be moving.”
I glare at Slade. “Did you really have to bring them here?”
“Had no choice,” he grumbles, leaning back in his chair and stretching out his long legs, looking like the most delicious meal that I plan on eating the second I can. “My truck is currently at the bottom of Aston Creek with the sharks. Had to hitch a ride somehow.”
“Bullshit. There are no sharks in there,” I say, wide-eyed as I glance between Nessa and Damian for confirmation but only get scrunched up faces, neither confirming or denying Slade’s allegations.
Slade nods but there’s still a very strong chance that he’s fucking with me.
I don’t get to think on it further as Nessa all but climbs over me to get to my right thigh. “Holy shit. This is it? Do you think the nurses would be pissed if we took the bandages off? Have you seen it? Is it like a hole or does it just look like a massive cut?”
“Geez, nosey,” Damian says. “One question at a time.”
Nessa flips him off and turns her attention straight back to my leg as Damian gets one of his love-struck smiles on his face that has me and Slade grinning to ourselves. Nessa glances up at me. “You’re going to be the coolest kid in school. I mean, who the fuck actually gets shot? That shit only ever happens in movies…or you know, if you’re in a gang or something like that.”
“Yeah, something like that,” I agree. “But trust me, you don’t need to worry about me being the coolest kid in school, I already am.”
Slade scoffs and his eyes flare with mischief. “Right after me, of course.”
“Excuse me?” Damian grunts. “You two need to pull your big heads out of your nasty asses. Everyone knows I’m the king of Aston Creek High.”
“Seriously?” Nessa laughs at him before exaggeratedly nodding in Slade’s direction. “Seriously? You don’t think you have any competition at all?”
“You heard me,” he says, puffing his chest out. “Everyone wants to be me or fuck me. They’re just too fucking scared of Slade to admit it. Besides, he’s off the market now so all the girls have to find their meat somewhere and it just so happens that there’s a monster right here, waiting and ready.”