Just One Kiss - J. Saman Page 0,4
jog in my boots as quickly as I can manage over toward the car that is still running. The front fender is crushed up against the tree, but otherwise it seems okay. I reach the driver’s side door, spotting a dark form inside pressed against the seat. I can’t make out much as the windows are entirely fogged over with condensation, so I knock.
“Hey,” I call out, trying not to scare them. “You okay in there?”
“Yes. I think so,” a female voice returns, but she makes no move to open the door. I nearly roll my eyes.
“Do you need some help?”
“I…”
“Did you call the police?”
No reply.
“Ma’am, are you alone in the car? Are you hurt?”
“I, um. Yeah, I’m alone.” I hear her curse something out. “I have no cell service. No cell service,” she repeats. “How is that possible? My phone works everywhere in the city.”
Great. One of these people.
“Maybe it’s time I update my carrier? What do you think?”
I think, more like I’m hoping, she’s just in shock or scared and not actually asking my opinion on her cell phone carrier.
“Can you open the door for me?” I would try it myself, but that’s not a good idea with a lone female who appears to be slightly dazed.
I hear the door click open and the cabin light inside the car flips on. She’s still buckled in and no airbag deployed, which means it hopefully wasn’t much of an impact. But then she turns to look up at me and her entire face is covered with smeared blood, oozing from a laceration on her hairline.
It doesn’t look terrible, scalp injuries bleed like a bastard, but she definitely needs medical attention. “Are you hurt anywhere else? Your neck or back?”
She shakes her head.
“No. Just my forehead. The cold air feels good. I should have rolled down the window when I started to feel faint. Bear Grylls would be so disappointed in my survival skills.”
My eyebrows hit my hairline. “Huh?”
“Never mind.” She waves me away.
“Can you get out of the car? You’re bleeding and you need help.”
She grunts, searching around at her lap. “Please don’t mention the blood. I’m barely hanging on with that. I ran out of tissues and it’s just… yeah, I hate blood. It totally freaks me out.” She lets out a bitter, humorless laugh. “For a girl who grew up in New England, you’d think I would be better prepared, but no. I drove up here in my car instead of renting one or stopping to get one of my father’s. Speaking of which, he’s going to kill me. I decided I couldn’t meet my deadline with my family breathing down my neck, so I stayed in the city until the last minute. Now look at me. I’m a mess. And there’s blood. So much blood.”
“How hard did you hit your head?”
She makes some kind of scoffing, snorting sound in the back of her throat. “I’m going to take that as a serious question and not a dig that’s questioning my sanity in this moment because that would be insanely rude and ill-timed. But to answer your question, I’m honestly not sure. Should there be this much blood?”
“How about you start with unbuckling your seat belt, okay? The snow is coming down pretty hard and I’d like to get you out of here.”
She presses the button on her car, shutting it off and stuffing her phone back into her purse. She unbuckles her seat belt, her midnight hair sticking to the side of her face. Touching her forehead, she winces at the blood coating her fingers. What I can see of her face turns white as a sheet.
“I really am a mess.” She pants out a few choppy breaths, her body swaying slightly. “My father is not going to be happy with me. Did I already say that? Do you have any idea how aggravating it is to be told, I told you so, from your father who is always right?”
“No,” I tell her in all seriousness, the familiar pinch accompanying the word whenever I think about my father. “Come on.” I hold out my hand to her and she slides her small, warm hand into mine. A weird spark of static electricity hits my skin, but I quickly shake it off as I pull her up gently, letting her do most of the work so I can assess the extent of her injuries.
“My knee hurts,” she says just as she buckles, my arms coming out reflexively to