Constant Headache

Pride

I threw my fist blindly at the boy who was sitting on my chest, his large hand pressed against my face, blocking most of my vision. As my busted knuckles came into contact with the damp fabric of his shirt and the rough edge of his rib cage, I let out a primal scream and launched my fist in the same curve toward his stomach again.

Pressing my boney knuckles into his ribs with all of the force I could muster, I felt the boy on top of me take his elbow and drill it into my side, sending a wave of pain through my whole body. He thought it would stop me, but instead, I opened my mouth, letting the taste of dirt and blood hit my tongue, and tried my best to bite down on his hand that was still over my face.

“Stop struggling you fucking whore”, he barked and grabbed my face, picking it off of the asphalt and then slamming it back down. As my vision blurred and my teeth clanked together, I felt waves of pain crash over me that I had never felt before.

A part of me wanted to give up. A part of me just wanted to let him do whatever he wanted to do and deal with it when I became conscious again. But amidst my screaming thoughts and the adrenaline pumping through my veins, I realized that giving up and letting someone do this to me, wasn’t who I was.

I fought. I fought tooth and nail, I fought until my knuckles were raw and I was coughing up blood. I fought for my pride and I fought for my reputation. No one was going to strip me of my safety. No one was going to strip me of my pride.

Blinking the pain away, I kneed the boy sitting on top of me, and then managed to swing my hand around and grab onto his shirt. As I gripped the fabric between my fingers, I tugged on it, feeling his thin body twist. “You fucker”, I growled as I pulled on his shirt again, listening as the sounds of the seams ripping filled the air.

Heart beating quickly, I let the boy smash my face against the asphalt again before I drilled my knee into his back and listened as he let out a scream of pain. Pulling his hand off of my other arm, he balled it into a fist and went to drive it into my face when I kicked him again, and then used my other hand to land a sloppy half punch, half slap onto his face, sending him tumbling off of my body and onto the asphalt.

Once he was on his back, I quickly pushed myself off of the asphalt, watching as the light radiating from the street lamp made the pools of blood glisten around me. I wanted to scream and slam my fists into the compacted rocks beneath me like a small child, but as I heard the man groan a few feet away, I let the anger tickling my spin surge.

Hands shaking, I crawled over to the man and quickly jumped on top of him, pinning his arms down with my boney kneecaps as I pulled my fist back and drove it right into the bridge of his nose. As the red liquid started to seep from his nostrils, and he started slurring loud insults at me as he struggled under my grasp, I pounded m fist into his face a few more times before he got free and threw me back onto the asphalt, the back of my head colliding roughly with the earth again.

Screaming, I tried to steady my breathing as my heart rate sped up due to the fact that my vision was in and out. I would blink and everything would be in a bright blurry color, and then after I blinked again, everything would be dark, and the only thing I could hear was loud footsteps, slurred curse words, and the sound of a zipper.

Putting my hands up, I felt the familiar damp fabric under my fingertips. Rapidly blinking, I sucked in a deep breath and picked my aching body off of the asphalt and then grabbed onto the boys shirt. Just as I was about to pull him down to the ground, he drilled the toe of his sneaker into my side and laughed as I instinctively curled up like a dying animal and let out another scream of pain.

“Hey!” A deep male vice cut through the silence of the parking lot.

Letting out another scream, I stretched out my body, ignoring the pain and pushed myself up onto all fours. Breathing heavily, feeling my chest tighten with every inhale, I grinded my teeth together and shakily pushed myself to my feet, turning my trembling body toward the man.

Pulling my arm back, I gritted my teeth and used every bit of energy I had left to drill my bloody fist right into the man’s face again. As I felt more skin on my hand rip open from the contact of his teeth to my skin, I stumbled forward a little and collapsed to my knees just as the man collapsed next to me, his eyes fluttering shut as he groaned and turned on his side, a tooth and a chip of another falling onto the ground.

“Hey, hey, are you alright?” A body was next to mine as I panted, trying to find a way to breathe without bothering the ribs that were probably snapped in half and poking into my lungs.

Nodding, I felt the man put his hand on my shoulder and then exhale heavily. “I’m fine”, I whispered as I felt blood drip down from the back of my neck and soak into the collar of my flannel shirt. “I just need to-“

“You need to go to a hospital.” The man said hastily, his fingers lightly tracing from my shoulder up my neck, and to the back of my head that had been slammed into the asphalt a few times during the fight. “Can you walk?”

I nodded slowly, not wanting my vision to black out again. “I’m fine”, I said sternly. “Don’t worry about it, carry on.” My voice was raspy as I pulled myself up and stood on my own two feet. As soon as I was standing up, the man that had ran up to the scene shot up and put his arms out cautiously. “I said I can walk, I said I’m fucking fine.” I barked at the man, my eyes watering from the pain that was rushing through my body. My ribs were making my stomach sick, my head was enduring the worst headache I had ever been plagued with, and I could barely move the fingers on my right hand due to the torn up skin around my knuckles.

Taking a few steps toward the entrance of the parking lot, I sucked in a short breath and felt myself start to trip. Just as I was about to catch myself, a pair of strong arms caught me and held me tightly against their body. “Stop being so stubborn, you need to see a doctor.”

“Who the fuck are you, again?” I snapped at the man, my pride clouding my better judgment. I should be taking his offer, I should be nice to the man, but I was still so angry from the altercation, I was still fuming about how beaten up I had gotten that I didn’t want to be around anymore people. I wanted to be alone. I just wanted to figure this out alone.

“I don’t need to help you.” He snapped back at me, his arms holding me up as he slowly walked me through the parking lot. “I heard you screaming, definitely sounded like you needed some help.”

“Well, I don’t.” My voice cracked from how dry my throat was from inhaling the cold air in such large quantities and at such a fast pace

“You’re a fucking idiot.” The man barked at me angrily and loosened his grip on me as he picked up his pace and rolled his eyes as he noticed how hard it was for me to walk at a normal pace. As the soles of my boots started to scrape against the asphalt, and I tripped and stumbled alongside of this man, I slapped his arm and gave his body a small shove as doubled over, placing my hands on my knees as I focused on the white lines running along the black pavement.

“Just fuck off, okay?” I breathed as the pain in my chest started to increase. “I can fix this myself.”

The man dramatically threw his hands in the air and let them slap against his legs. “Do you not see yourself? You’re about to collapse and you think-“

“I don’t fucking need you. I don’t need anyone, all right? I’m fine.” I screamed at him, letting the pain in my chest finally take control of my body. As I collapsed on all fours, a tear slipped out of my eye and meshed with the blood that was dripping down my face.

No, I’m not crying. I’m not going to cry over this. I’m not going to cry over him. I’m not weak, I’m not dependent, I don’t care, I don’t need him. I don’t fucking need anyone.

Blinking hard, I opened my eyes to see the world spinning around me, but as I lowered my head and blinked again, I looked up to see the men kneeling down in front of me, his eyes wide as he put his hand under my chin and tilted my face up so my eyes that were now bloodshot and half open were connected with his.

“I’m Jamie”, he said slowly as he pulled a few strands of hair from my face that had dried into patches of blood and pushed them behind my ear. “I’m going to pick you up and take you to my car, then I’m going to take you to the hospital, and you’ll never see me again, okay?”

Instead of answering the man in front of me, I just stared at him, my eyes widening as I tried to make sense of the words that had just passed his teeth. Who the fuck was this nice to someone they didn’t know? No one would ever do this; no normal person would ever help a stranger out. All of those people were gone. This city was filled with assholes, and that was it.

“Give me your hand, okay?” He asked, his voice much softer than his previous tone.

With a nod, I inhaled slowly and then managed to balance myself on my left hand as I reached up with my right and placed my beat up hand into his large one. As he held tightly onto my hand, I winced in pain. He asked if he should let go, but I shook my head a little and then let him pull me back onto my feet.

Once I was steady, he put his arm around my waist, leaned me into him, and then helped me walk through the parking lot and over to the main road. Once my eyes came into contact with my car, I groaned a little and went to point it out to the man when he stopped for a moment, reached into his pocket, and pulled his keys from his belt loop.

Pressing his thumb onto the keypad, the large SUV parked behind my car flashed it’s lights and sounded a quick ‘click’ through the air. “What hospital do you-“

“It doesn’t matter”, I breathed, keeping my eyes on my boots. “I have pretty good health insurance.” I confessed as I blinked hard and then remembered that my wallet along with my cell phone was still sitting in the glove compartment of my car. “I need to get my wallet.”

“Stay here, I’ll get it, is it-“

“My car”, I huffed as he leaned me against the side of his SUV and took a step away from me. “Here, my key’s are on top of the back driver’s side tire. My wallets and phone is in the glove compartment.”

Nodding once, the man walked over to my car, grabbed the keys, and then quickly unlocked the car, pulled the door open, crawled inside, and then opened the glove compartment and took the items out. After he closed everything and locked the car again, he quickly walked me to the passenger’s side door, opened it, and helped me slide into the leather seat.

In all of my life, I had never been this happy to sit down before. Every muscle in my body ached. My whole body pulsed from the uncomfortable pain in my chest and the super sensitive skin on my hands. My vision went from clear to blurry every five seconds, and I couldn’t manage to put one foot in front of the other without feeling nauseous.

The cars engine revved causing me to shake my head a little and turn it so I could see the man sitting in the drivers seat. As he glanced over at me, his huge eyes filled with worry, he sucked in a small breath and then carefully placed my wallet, cell phone, and keys on my lap.

Without a word, he pulled away from the sidewalk and sped off down the street, his eyes anxiously bouncing from the signs on the road to me, and then back again.

“Ryder”, I whispered, turning my body a little so I was facing him. “My name is Ryder.”

The car came to a slow stop at a red light, and I watched as the man’s large deer-like eyes landed on mine. “How old are you?”

“Twenty-two.”

We sat in silence as the man hit the gas pedal and continued down the road. As he made a quick turn into the hospital entrance, I let out a small groan and watched as the car navigated through a few rows of cars and then pulled into a wide parking spot.

“I can make it from here.” I insisted as I loosely grabbed my things in my good hand and then tried to pull the handle of the door with the other. When it was too painful to bend my hand and grab the handle, the boy next to me sighed heavily and then quickly got out and rounded the car.

Pulling the door open, the man reached in and stuck one hand against my back and the other under my knees. As he lifted me up, he moved back and then carried me to the front of the car where he carefully set me down on my feet and leaned me against the grill.

Walking over to the door, he slammed it shut and then went to help me walk when I pushed myself off of his car and started to shuffle across the road. “Thanks”, I said lifting my bad hand and sending him a pathetic wave as I shuffled across the road and then leaned against a car to catch my breath and try to regain some strength to walk through the next four rows of cars and over to the Emergency Room entrance.

“Hey, hold the fuck up.” Jamie, I think his name was, called out to me as he placed his strong hand on my shoulder and pinned me against the car. “Can you stop with your prideful, independent, bullshit for five seconds and let me help you out?”

“Why should I?”

“Because if you don’t, you’re going to be crawling into the fucking Emergency Room like a dying fucking animal.”

“I’ve done this before, I’m fine.”

With an annoyed growl, the man quickly picked me up in his strong arms, adjusted me against him, and then started walking through the parking lot, completely ignoring my hushed threats that I would kick, punch, or bite him, if he didn’t put me down.

To all of my threats, he laughed, rolled his eyes, and kept walking.

When we reached the front doors to the Emergency Room, he set me down on my feet, steadied me, and then opened the door and motioned me to walk in. As I placed my arm across my stomach where the pain was surging from, I shuffled through the door, across the room, and over to the nurse behind the window.

Swallowing hard, I felt guilt start to rush through me as I caught glimpse of just how horrible I looked. Studying my reflection in the glass before me I started to think about how unnecessary it was for Jamie to help me out, and how unbelievably rude I was being to him. I was in really bad shape, I was probably going to die before I made it to the hospital on my own, and I did really need his help.

Biting down on my lip, I turned around and went to call out his name when my eyes landed on the door, now locked shut with no sign of his ‘deer in the head lights’ eyes anywhere. Shaking my head a little, I turned from the window and started to walk over to the front door when the nurse called after me.

“Miss, miss hold on!” She said frantically, “Wait, come here, you need some help!” The sound of her chair screeching against the tiles filled the room but didn’t stop me as I shouldered the large white door open and let the cool night air of the city blow into the room and blow my hair behind my shoulders.

Swallowing hard, I took another step outside and then caught a glimpse of the man walking through the cars. “Hey!” I screamed with every bit of energy I could muster as my body leaned against the brick faced wall of the hospital. “Hey! J-Jamie!” My throat felt like it was on fire as I screamed. “Jamie!”

The man stopped and then quickly turned around, his eyes shimmering in the moonlight as he locked them onto me. Just as he was about to speak, I felt a presence next to me, and then a cold hand rest down on my wrist as the nurse’s calm voice started to ramble on about how I needed to go inside and get some help. Sending her a nod, I lifted my good hand filled with my wallet and cell phone and waved at the boy.

“Thank you.” I called out to him, and then quickly turned toward the nurse, muttered an apology to her, and then let her help me shuffle back into the Emergency room.
♠ ♠ ♠
So I recently fell madly in love with Jamie Benn, and I had an idea for an original story in my head, so I just kind of fused the two.
Sorry it's so long, I know it's a lot
I hope you like it, and any kind of feedback would be awesome :3