Desolate

Jordan thought long and hard about Charlie’s arm and tried to remember the things she’d read in the medical book she’d read when she was younger. She ran her fingers through her hair and sighed as she paced back and forth. She suddenly gasped ran over to Charlie. She gently took her arm and examined it carefully.

“Did you ever get the bullet out?” she asked softly. Charlie looked at the wound, then at Jordan and shook her head. Jordan smiled and gently put her arm on her lap.

“That’s the problem. It’s most likely not the wound at all. It’s the bullet,” she said. She pointed to her arm and gave her a pained look, “we have to get the bullet out.”

“Are you crazy?! Are you trying to kill me?!” Charlie yelled, holding her arm away defensively.

“Charlie, this is your health we’re talking about. If we get the bullet out, you won’t have that infection anymore and you won’t hurt anymore!” Jordan retorted. Charlie scoffed and looked away.

“Well how are we supposed to get it out?” Bianca asked. Jordan leaned down and pulled out a pocket knife from Charlie’s pocket.

“We dig it out, with the tip of this knife,” she said. Charlie’s eyes widened and she almost jumped out of her skin.

“Don’t you dare come at me with that thing!” she snapped.

“What if we let you take a swig of whiskey to numb you so it won’t hurt as much?” Jordan offered with a smile. Charlie sat back down in between Oliver’s legs and nodded slowly. Jordan pointed to Alex with the knife, “Get Charlie some whiskey.”

Alex nodded and ran off to get some whiskey. Zakk grabbed the knife from Jordan’s hand and knelt down by Charlie’s arm.

“What are you doing?” Charlie questioned.

“My girlfriend was a med student. She constantly had medical books lying around and she was constantly reading them to me,” he said, glancing at Jordan for a split second before looking back at Charlie.

“Your girlfriend was a med student? You never told us that,” she said. Zakk shrugged and looked at her arm.

“It’s not deep, this shouldn’t be too bad,” he said. Alex came running with a big bottle of whiskey and a bottle opener. Alex opened the bottle with the bottle opener and handed it to Charlie, who immediately took a giant swig of it

“Are you good and numb yet?” Zakk asked, the blade inches away from her arm. Charlie took a few more swigs before sighing and nodding as she handed Alex the bottle.

“We’ll be going now,” Jordan said, “Do you want Oliver to stay?”

Charlie grabbed Oliver’s arm and nodded. Jordan nodded and led the others to the other side of the store. If Charlie screamed at all, Jordan did not want to hear it.

It had been almost an hour when Jordan decided to see if Zakk had finished. When she and the others got to where they were, Zakk was wrapping up Charlie’s arm and Jordan couldn’t help but fix her eyes on him. He looked up to find them and smiled.

“Success,” he said proudly. He pointed to the bloody bullet that lay next to his foot, “the swelling should go down now.”

“Are you ok Charlie?” Jordan asked.

“Definitely,” she said.

“No pain?” Bianca said.

“Slight discomfort but I’ll live,” she said slowly.

“I’m glad you’re better,” Oliver said softly. Jordan glanced at Darren, who looked slightly jealous. Jordan backed away slowly as everyone crowded around Charlie. She slipped into the greeting card aisle and looked through the funny birthday cards and laughed softly to herself.

“What are you doing?” Jordan whipped her head and found Zakk staring at her like she was crazy.

“I’m not doing anything. It’s just…when I was a kid I used to go to a grocery store and read all the funny birthday cards,” she explained, blushing a little.

“Did you also go to comic book stores, read the comics, but never buy them?” Zakk teased. Jordan shoved him playfully as she slid a birthday card back into its slot. They stared at each other in silence before Zakk spoke.

“Are we thinking the same thing?” he asked softly.

“We are if we’re thinking that we’re cheating on our significant others,” she replied, playing with her engagement ring nervously.

“Yeah…we are,” he said.

“Why? We’re not doing anything wrong,” she said, “you girlfriend is long gone and she wouldn’t want you moping around.”

Zakk nodded in agreement and Jordan sighed, “and my fiancée is probably dead too and he wouldn’t want me to stop living.”

She slid her ring off her finger and dropped it behind one of the birthday cards, “I’m not going to let that ring weigh me down anymore.”

“So…what do we do now?” he asked softly, jamming his hands into his pockets.

“Whatever happens happens and we just go with it,” she answered, “We should just do what makes us happy.”

They stared at each other for a few more seconds before she spoke again, “and beneath this whole battlefield, this whole crap filled world, you make me happy.”

They shared a kiss and it crossed her mind then that this wasn’t the right place to start any kind of romance. But she didn’t care. She just pushed it to the back of her mind and forgot everything.