I whisper softly, “I think so.” I can hardly move, let alone speak.
I hear Jase mutter an obscenity, and when I turn my head to look at him, he is sitting in the chair with his head in his hands.
“Okay, I will put in the order for that, and we can also take a few other preventive steps to safeguard against STDs,” she says as she lays her hand on my knee. She gives me a reassuring look, and all I can do is continue to nod my head like an idiot.
?????
About an hour later, Jase has his arm around my waist as we leave the hospital and head to his SUV. He unlocks the car and opens the door for me. He helps me up into the seat and shuts the door. I watch him in a daze as he walks around the front of the car and climbs into the driver’s seat. I start to feel the anxiety build in my stomach at the thought of going home. I know when I get there I’m going to have to explain all of this to Kimber. God, I don’t want anyone to know. I just want to pretend like this never happened. I want to hide from this nightmare.
“Can I spend the night at your place?” I ask as I stare at my fidgeting hands in my lap.
He reaches over, takes my hand, and gives it a squeeze. “Of course.”
Chapter Seven
––––––––
I walk into Jase’s apartment, and without a second thought, head straight toward the bathroom. I feel completely filthy, and the urge to scrub every inch of my body overwhelms me. I don’t say a word to Jase as I close the door behind me. Reaching into the shower, I turn on the water. Purposely avoiding looking at myself in the mirror, I start removing my clothes. The bathroom quickly fills with steam. I open the large glass door and step into the scalding hot water. Standing underneath the showerhead, I let the water pelt against my body. I brace both of my hands against the wall of slick tile and let my head fall down. My face is hot, and I know I’m crying even though I can’t feel my tears as they mesh with the water running down my face.
Time is frozen as I stand here in this position. My chest aches, and my whole body feels broken. My stomach burns, and I swear to God I can start to feel my soul begin to break. Piece by piece I begin to lose myself. My chest is crumbling into painful shards of what used to be me. Violent sobs wrack my body, and I slowly collapse on the wet tile beneath me. Sitting there on my knees, with one hand on the floor balancing myself, and the other pressed against my chest, I try desperately to gasp in breaths between my wails.
I know I am no longer alone when I feel arms wrapping around me and a heavy chest on my back. Jase holds me tighter than anyone has ever held me, and I begin to cry harder. I sit here, on the bottom of the shower, and everything I know about myself, everything I love, everything I am begins to fade.
My tears run dry, and Jase and I sit in silence under the water. He loosens his hold on me, and I continue to rest on my knees—frozen. Jase takes the body wash and starts to rub it into my skin. All of my energy has disappeared, so I don’t protest; I just let him take care of me.
After he washes my hair, I open my eyes and look at him for the first time. He is soaking wet in his gym shorts and t-shirt. He turns the water off and strips out of his clothes, leaving them on the floor of the shower as he steps out. Wrapping a towel around his waist, he grabs another and drapes it over my shoulders as he helps me stand up. He walks me over to the toilet and sits me down.
“I’ll be right back,” he says as he walks out of the bathroom. When he returns, he is wearing a pair of dry gym shorts and is carrying a handful of clothes for me. Grabbing a hand towel, he kneels down in front of me and starts wiping my face. I look into his eyes, and I can see the worry in them. I reach up and rake my fingers through the wet hair on top of his head and grip tightly as I drop my head and begin to cry again.
“I’m so sorry,” I manage to say through my tears.
He takes my hand from his head and kisses it. Leaning his forehead against mine and holding my face between his two hands, he says, “You . . . don’t you ever be sorry for this.”
We sit like this for a while before he dries me off and helps me put on one of his shirts and a pair of his boxers. We walk to his room and slide into bed. Wrapping me in his arms, I lay my head on his chest and listen to the rhythmic sound of his heartbeat. I release a silent prayer that when I wake up, this will have never happened—it will have only been a horrendous nightmare. I hold on tightly to that prayer as my eyelids become heavy, and I slowly drift into a restless sleep.
?????
I jolt awake and can hardly catch my breath. My hands are shaking, and when I look up, I see Jase on his knees next to me.
“Are you okay?” he asks, looking completely freaked out.
“I don’t know,” I say. I’m really confused, and my heart is pounding. “What happened?”