“Can you please believe me?”
“I don’t think so,” I replied, then steeled myself before I spoke to him. “I don’t think I believe a single word that comes out of your mouth, and I don’t know how I ever did.”
“I’m—”
“Don’t,” I said. “If you say you’re sorry again, I think I’m going to explode. Don’t, okay? Do not.”
He blinked. “Jess,” he said as he put his hands on my bare arms. “I never meant for any of this to happen.”
I shrugged him off. “I don’t care,” I said. “I want you out of my life. You want to humiliate me, take revenge on me again? I’d like to see you try.”
“Jess—”
“Try,” I said. “I’m going to leave this town and you’re going to be nothing but a bad memory who has left a bad taste in my mouth. You are going to be nothing but someone I gave a chance to once and I was wrong about. But trust me, Jody. You’re going to be the last boy I make that mistake about. The last person I make that mistake about.”
He opened his mouth and I heard words coming out of it, but I didn’t want to hear. I didn’t want to hear anything else that he said.
Never, ever again.
CHAPTER SEVEN
2019
I sighed as I looked down at my clipboard. The free clinic was so underfunded that the doctors didn’t have their own electronic devices and we all seemed to share one computer in one of the darkened offices.
I waited a few seconds before my gaze slid down the list. There were no names I recognized and I didn’t think I was going to find Jody in the list. He wasn’t going to come in and I wasn’t going to be able to speak to him or to check on his wound.
I sighed again as I walked to the next room, room number three. I knocked on the door, walked in, and my breath caught in my throat. Jody was sitting on the chair in the corner, looking up at me, big bags under his eyes.
I knew I wasn’t supposed to say it, but I thought that he looked dreadful.
“Mr. Banks,” I said.
He smiled at me. “I checked in as Ian Smith,” he said. “Do you like it?”
I shook my head as I smiled back. “It’s not very imaginative,” I said. “But I suppose, if it’s better than your own names.”
His smile widened into a grin. “It was the best I could come up with on such short notice,” he replied. “I could have planned it out, but I didn’t know if I was going to come over here.”
“I’m glad you did.”
“You seemed like you really wanted me to,” he said. “How could I say no?”
“I really wish you had stayed in the hospital,” I said. “But if this is the best I can get, then I’ll take it. I did bring your things, too.”
“You did?”
“I didn’t know if I was actually going to see you, but I figured you weren’t going to go to the hospital.”
His expression softened a little. “I didn’t—you didn’t have to do that.”
I shrugged my shoulders. “It’s okay,” I replied. “I figured you wanted to keep your things.”
I could see him chewing the inside of his mouth. “You’re still really nice.”
“Only because you’re my patient,” I said. “As soon as you’re out of earshot, I start telling everyone how much I dislike you.”
“Do you still?”
I laughed a little. “As endearing as it was to see you in my emergency room, it didn’t particularly change my opinion of you.”
He shook his head then tilted his face up so he was looking at the ceiling. “Yeah,” he said. “I guess that makes sense.”
“Can I see your arm?”
He nodded. He slowly moved his sleeve down his arm and I noticed that he was practically grimacing as he moved it away from him. I walked over to his side and noticed the way he smelled. He smelled like a cologne, but I didn’t know what it was. It smelled like sandalwood and oak and I could’ve stayed next to him smelling his cologne for a while.
Unfortunately, despite how I felt about Jody, I still loved the way he smelled. I didn’t want to. I thought that I would feel upset by being around him, but no. I remembered the way he had made me feel when we had broken up, but I also remembered how he had made me feel before then.
I leaned down and looked at his arm. The wound was healing okay, though it was a little red.
“You haven’t had any fever or anything, do you?”
“No,” he said. “Not as far as I know.”
“Keep an eye on that,” I said as I examined his wound. “I need to know if there are any signs of infection.”
“Like what?”
“If the wound doesn’t seem to heal, or if you have a fever, those are pretty good indications,” I said. “If you don’t, you’ll probably be okay.”
He blinked. “Well, I’m glad I came in, then.”
“Keep taking your antibiotics,” I said. “And if you wait for me for like, I don’t know, thirty minutes, I’ll get your things out of my car.”
“You really do have my things in your car?”
“I told you I did,” I said. “Of course I have your things.”
***
I walked out to my car and looked around the parking lot where I scanned for Jody. He was standing by the wall, leaning against it, smoking from one of those cherry-flavored vapes. I saw a white cloud coming from his face and walked over to where he was, flashing him a smile.
“That can kill you,” I said.
“I
