Backstage Pass (3 page)

Jesse paid and held the door open. I headed for an empty spot between two cars to cross the parking lot.

“You’re starting to rub off on me. Can we just be—” a chunk of the sidewalk crumbled beneath me as I turned. My ankle collapsed. Asphalt shredded my skin and my ankle throbbed. As I landed, the lid of my To-Go box popped open. Waffles and syrup coated the lower half of my leg and the sidewalk beneath. I groaned and grabbed my ankle. Pain radiated outward.

Jesse dropped to the ground beside me, a hand on my shoulder. “Are you okay?”

I slouched against the tire of a red Prius. “No. Not really.” I couldn’t relax my fingers. They banded tightly around my ankle, whitening the skin beneath.

“Let me see.” Jesse covered my fingers.

I groaned and dropped my head back, squeezing my eyes shut tight. “It’s fine.”

“It’s not fine.” He pried my fingers away and grunted.

Strands of syrup clung to my hands. The view tilted. I squeezed my eyes tighter. “What’s that mean?”

“You need a doctor.”

I squinted and opened one eye. While I’d been sitting there, my ankle had grown to twice the size. I couldn’t even see my ankle bone anymore. But I could feel it. It screamed and twisted in my leg. Jesse squeezed my fingers gently. I didn’t realize he’d been holding my hand. “Do you want me to call an ambulance?”

I grimaced. “No. God, no. Just help me back to my place.”

He kneeled next to me and plucked the waffles off my shoe. “I think you’re breakfast is a goner.” Thick rivers of syrup dripped off the waffle and into my shoe. “I promise I’m not bad luck.”

I pressed upward, leveraging my shoulder against the car’s fender. Jesse supported my arms until I was upright.
Of all the people to have to rely on
. The parking lot spun again and I gripped his hand. One arm slipped around my waist. “I got you.”

The ground flattened out and I sagged against his chest. “I’m okay, just give me a sec.”

Jesse didn’t release his hold. I shifted my weight, and touched my toe to the ground. Pain shrieked up my entire leg, wobbling the cars and asphalt again. My stomach lurched.

“No good.” Jesse leaned forward, slipped one hand behind my knees, and scooped me into his arms.

Everything spun and I clutched his shoulders. He looked at me and waited. “You’re green.”

“I’m okay.” My head fell against his shoulder. Strong arms tightened around my back.

“Let’s get you home.” Jesse shifted my weight. Another wave of nausea forced my eyes closed. I linked my hands behind his neck and concentrated on not feeling every single one of his steps pulsing through my ankle.

On the other side of the street, his breathing came harder and faster.

“I’m probably heavy.”

His gaze wandered over me and he smiled. “Light as a feather.”

I squirmed and he cradled me closer against him. He smelled minty with a hint of bacon and maple syrup. I studied my knees. Beneath them, my skin tingled where his arms held me.

A dog lunged from behind a shrub, barking and growling. Jesse twisted away, bumping my toe on a mailbox. Pain eclipsed my vision and stole my breath. I wanted to scream but squeezed Jesse’s neck and buried my face into his shoulder instead.

“I’m sorry. Sorry.” He pressed his cheek against mine. Either he was trembling, or I was. He held me tighter and doubled his speed. “We’re almost there. Hang on.”

I did. My arms ached with the grip around his neck. If a whisper of a touch like the mailbox was enough to make it hurt this bad, there’s no way this was something that would heal quickly.

Jesse slowed and I glanced up. We’d finally made it to my house. Kerri raced down the steps, arms outstretched. Who knows how long she’d been outside waiting for me to get home.

“Wait!” Jesse yelled. “I think her ankle’s broken.”

Kerri’s hands flew to her mouth. “Oh, Sash.” She stepped aside so Jesse could carry me in.

“Wait a minute, were you guys together?” Kerri looked from Jesse to me as he lowered me to the couch.

“I met her while she was running.”

Kerri kneeled next to the couch and smoothed my hair back from my forehead. “Do I need to take you to the hospital?”

Jesse paced. “Yes. Immediately. I’d take her but I don’t have a car.”

I looked up drowsily. “You don’t have a car?”

He glanced away. “No.”

“I can take her.” Kerri raced to the counter and scooped up her keys. “But can you get her in?”

“Advil,” I croaked.

Kerri tossed her keys from one hand to the other. “Sash, I think you need to call your mom.”

“No way.” I shot up from my prone position on the couch. “Absolutely not.”

“Are you sure? I mean if you have to go the hospital we’re going to need insurance. They’re going to ask you all kinds of questions.

“I said no, Kerri.”

Jesse stepped outside while we argued. A golden flame glowed in the gray morning, then ignited the tip of his cigarette. I glared at him through the wall then back at Kerri. “Please don’t call her, Ker.”

“Fine. Jesse, will you carry her?” He stomped out the cigarette and blew a huge cloud of smoke that floated above his head and into the house.

“Yeah.” He scooped me up off the couch, gentle fingers belying his rough edges. Cigarette smoke clung to his skin and clothes. I wrinkled my nose. He smelled awful.

He followed Kerri outside and settled me into the back, gently lifting both feet onto the seat and buckling the seatbelt around my hips.

“Thanks. I guess I’ll see you later,” I said.

He shut the door and ran around the front of the car, slipping into the passenger seat. Kerri adjusted the mirror and smirked at me in the reflection. “We’ll have to carry you in,” Kerri told me before I could ask. I rolled my eyes at her and glared. She didn’t know what she was playing at, but obviously finding us together for breakfast had led her to the wrong conclusion. I leaned my head against the window.

“What happened with Trey?”

“Ugh, he’s such a jerk.” She started the engine and backed out of our small parking lot.

“He’s always a jerk, Kerri. I’ve told you that from the day you started dating him.”

“Well this time it was worse.”

I glanced at her in the mirror. She wasn’t making eye contact. I knew she didn’t want to hear what I had to tell her. She never wanted to hear it. I wasn’t sure how much I could berate her with Jesse in the car, though, clearly listening.

“What happened?” he asked.

Kerri’s glaze flicked to me in the rearview mirror. She sighed. “After you left, he started drinking and got into a fight with boys from another house. I bailed and walked home even though he promised to give me a ride.” I kept my mouth shut. She didn’t want to hear me lecture her now because that was the stupidest thing she could have done. By that time, she’d probably had more to drink than she could have handled and her ‘I’m staying over’ text was at two, so by the time they fought, it would have been late and dark. Fine for me to walk it alone but I’d been mostly sober.

“That was pretty dumb,” Jesse voiced my concern.

Kerri sighed. “I know but I was mad.”

“Still that was dumb. You girls should call me when you need an escort.”

This time I did roll my eyes. Kerri saw me and giggled. “Sasha sure made it home safe.”

“He dropped me at the door Kerri.” Jesse didn’t bother to corroborate my story. I glared at the back of his head.

Kerri swung us into a front spot at the hospital, tipping me sideways and banging my toe against the back of the seat. I moaned.

Jesse was around the car and opening my door before the pain made me pass out. “I got you,” he whispered. I didn’t like that he’d been saying that a lot since my injury. I didn’t want him to
have
me. He still smelled like cigarette smoke. I hated that too.

Strong fingers slid beneath my ribs while he eased me backward on the seat until he could get his other arm beneath my knees. He lifted me easily and held me against his chest. My arms naturally went around his neck.

“Don’t think I didn’t see that little smirk,” I said, linking my hands tighter.

“A smirk doesn’t mean anything. This still isn’t a date. I’m just carrying you.” Kerri shut the door and ran ahead to open the hospital’s double doors.

Inside, I answered the nurse’s barrage of questions and she finally led me into a small, glass-walled cube. Jesse eased me onto the bed and the nurse adjusted the head so I could lean back. “Thanks, you can go now,” I told Jesse.

“Or stay,” he said, landing in the only open chair. I could hear Kerri outside my room on the phone, probably with my mother.

“No really,” I said, adjusting myself higher on the bed. “Don’t you have a concert to get ready for or something?”

Jesse leaned back in the chair and crossed one ankle over his knee. “Nope. Next gig isn’t for a week.”

Great
.

Kerri hung up and peeked around the curtain. “Everybody decent?”

I chuckled. Jesse stood and offered her the chair but a nurse came in behind Kerri with another. “I thought you guys could use this.”

“Thanks,” Jesse took it from her and settled it on the other side of my bed. Too close for my comfort. I inched closer to Kerri’s side. Jesse situated the chair until he was at an angle, then rested his forearm on the bed next to mine. If I scooted further away now, it would be obvious he was making me uncomfortable. I wasn’t about to give him the satisfaction.

“So what’s the deal with Trey now?” he asked, leaning forward until our skin accidentally touched. A shock of warmth flashed up my arm. “Are you guys over?”

Kerri lowered herself to the chair and sighed. “I don’t know. He’s such a pain but he can be so nice. I don’t know. He’s been apologizing for the last six hours at thirty-minute intervals. I want to take him back just so he’ll stop bugging me.”

I laughed. “That’s so Trey.”

“I know, right?” she said with a wistful look in her eyes.

“What is it with girls? What is the attraction to a guy who treats them like crap?” Jesse asked.

Kerri bristled. “He doesn’t always treat me like crap.”

“Okay, if he ever treats you like crap, that’s one time too many. You deserve respect, not crap.”

I blinked. Who was he to be giving relationship advice? Mr. Smoker-Drinker-Panties-on-the-Stage-Rockstar.
Please
. I knew all too well how that life played out.

He leaned forward and braced his other arm on the bed. “No, I’m serious. I don’t understand what this attraction is. I know better than anyone what girls will do for a guy who pretends to be a bad boy.”

I scoffed. “Pretends? So this is an act you have, this bad boy rocker?”

He shifted his gaze to mine and held it. “I don’t know. I’ve been doing it for so long I'm not sure anymore.” He snapped his mouth shut. “We were talking about Kerri.” He broke the stare. “Kerri, I don’t know you very well but you seem like a nice girl. If Trey doesn’t treat you like he should, you need to dump his ass.”

Tears flooded her eyes and she looked away. I couldn’t stop staring at the side of Jesse’s head. Who was he? “You totally perpetuate the attitude,” I told him, returning to his life rather than Kerri’s.

He leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms over his chest. “How do you figure?”

“Oh my gosh. Are you serious? Hello. You take home how many different girls a night? Your entire band is completely surrounded by groupies all the time.” My ankle throbbed and the room tilted. I gulped air and leaned my head back. Oh, I hate musicians. Hate them.

“Sasha, that’s not very nice,” Kerri said, scooting her chair closer to the bed in case she needed to intervene.

“Okay, you cannot tell me you’re sticking up for him.”

“I’m not sticking up but there’s no need to be rude. He’s been very helpful.”

Jesse watched our volley without comment.

A nurse pushed through the curtain. “Okay, let’s get some vitals.” She flopped half a dozen plastic packages on the tray at the end of my bed. “First some blood pressure.” She pulled a cuff out of the first plastic bag. Jesse eased his chair to the foot of the bed, settling his warm fingers around my knee. It tickled but I couldn’t yank it away without cracking him in the chin or bumping my broken ankle. Though right now, I wouldn’t mind busting him one in the chin.

The nurse pulled out an oxygen monitor and wrapped the sticky sides around my finger. She checked the monitor, took my temperature, and squeezed my shoulder. “What’d you do, hun?”

“She fell off a curb,” Jesse said.

I widened my eyes and gave him the visual what-are-you-doing look.

“That’s nice your friends came, hun,” the nurse said, entering details into the computer. “That ankle looks pretty bad. Do you think it’s broken?”

I stared at my giant, swollen ankle. “Not sure. I’ve never broken a bone before.”

“Really?” Jesse’s fingertips made circles on the skin at the back of my knee. We still hadn’t had that ‘just friends’ conversation. I needed to hurry that up. Apparently, holding me in his arms three separate times was enough for him to think touching me was okay.