“Take one now, and another one when you wake up.”
“You couldn’t have told me that prior to handing them to me?”
Jake gave her an odd look. “You swallowed them both?”
She nodded, looking pitiful.
“Holly, those things are really strong,” he chuckled.
“My immune system is strong. Pain killers don’t usually…” she trailed off, feeling warm and content and sleepy, and suddenly slumped sideways in the passenger seat. And that was the end of their conversation.
WHEN SHE WOKE, IT WAS DEAD SILENT. Her head still spun, but the aching in her hand was the worst. She started to cry. After what could have only been minutes, she found Bernie crouching beside her airbed.
“You okay?”
“My hand is killing me!”
“Here, take one,” Bernie suggested, picking up the same orange tube Jake had given her before she blacked out.
Holly took the tablet from Bernie, swallowing it without any water.
“I don’t know how you can do that,” Bernie commented, shaking her head.
“What happened? The last thing I remember was driving back here from the hospital.”
“You passed out from taking two of these beauts. This shit is really potent, Holls.”
Holly emitted a loud snort. “Yeah, that sounds just like me.”
Bernie giggled. “How are you, really?”
“They booked me off for two days. Marabella is going to love this.”
“Marabella will understand, once you explain to her what you did.”
“I beg to differ.”
“You stood up for yourself, Holly. That woman is all for self-defense; karate, judo, you name it!”
Holly agreed. Marabella was that type of woman, one who believed that women had just as much of a say as men did. Perhaps Bernie was right, and she really would understand.
The tablet had begun to do its job. This was clearly evident when Holly fell back onto her pillow.
“Just yell if you need anything,” Bernie whispered in her ear, leaving her friend to rest.
Birds chirping woke Holly for the second time that day, and deciding to get up went after a quick shower. The water felt refreshing as the tiny droplets ran over her aching body, which was probably due to having slept so much and most likely in the same position. She slipped into her sweat pants and a tank top, rolling her hair into a messy bun. As she walked out of the public restroom, she looked up at the sky. It was around five o’clock, too early for anyone to be awake yet, but she knew Josie would be.
Having reached Josie’s campsite, she found George sitting on one of the camp chairs with a cup of coffee next to him on a small portable table, and his laptop opened and perched on his lap. George worked for an international company, so having meetings via Skype on a daily basis with people all over the world was the norm.
“Hey,” she greeted when she finally reached him.
He looked up and smiled, but it soon disappeared when he saw the bandage around her hand. “What happened?”
“I hit a stupid guy.”
He laughed, throwing his head back. “Did you at least break his nose?”
“Yes,” she giggled. She was actually very proud that she’d done what she had intended to do. And then the darn guilt rose up again when she thought about how it all could’ve all gone horrible wrong. What if it had shifted up and spiked into his brain? She’d heard about noses being broken that way, with the person ending up brain dead. It had been a stupid thing to do and she should’ve apologized to him.
“Holly, don’t overthink it. The guy deserved it, otherwise you wouldn’t have hit him in the first place.”
She smiled. They knew her so well.
Josie emerged from the tent, hair standing on end and pointing in every direction. “Hey you! You’re up early.” On noticing Holly’s hand, she freaked. “What happened?”
“I hit Steward. And I broke his nose.”
“Holly,” she said, a tinge of pity evident in her tone. “Did you go to the ER?”
An almost uncontrollable grin broke out on her face. “I did, and Jake took me.”
Josie laughed. “I told you he was a heart-throb. If I wasn’t married—”
“Okay, we get it. You would do things to him that I could only dream of.”
“That’s not true. I do them all with you, my big toothpick,” she teased, leaning over and kissing George loudly.
“Too much, people. Still angry over here,” Holly cautioned, pointing at herself.
“Still?” Josie asked with an incredulous ‘huh’ look on her face.
Holly just chuckled.
George got up and poured both Josie and Holly a cup of coffee.
“So, did you guys chat? What does he do?”
“He’s studying to become a doctor. Did you know that?”
“Seriously?”
Holly nodded.
“Could that man be any more perfect?”
“He’s not. His mom is apparently crazy when it comes to him.”
Josie’s expression dropped from the daydream smile that had been plastered on it, to the ‘surely you jest’ kind of look. “You’re kidding?” she finally managed to say.
“Nope. He put my name down as Henry on the hospital form, just so his mom wouldn’t find out that he’d taken a female there for treatment.”
“Henry?” Josie could not contain her laughter.
Holly went ahead and recounted the entire story of how they kept calling her Henry. She had to admit that Jake hadn’t known where to look or how to act, but she was really digging the guy and looked at him the way she had before she’d assumed that Sonic was his girlfriend.
At around nine o’clock, everyone began to wake up; it was coffees all around. Holly met a couple of Josie’s friends, whom she’d never met before even though she’d been with Brandon. Every single one congratulated her for leaving his ass, adding that someone better would come along.
An hour later, breakfast was on the grill. The smell was divine, but Holly knew she needed to head back to Bernie’s. However, Josie talked her into staying and having breakfast with them.
This went on until noon when a familiar ache told Holly that her pain medication had worn off. When she mentioned it to George, he said that he had something even better for her pain. He got a bottle of South African Mampoer, a name she couldn’t pronounce, which brought about bouts of laughter when George kept repeating it and she kept getting wrong. However, the contents of the bottle were no laughing matter. It was really strong and went straight to Holly’s head. She’d had about four shots and was feeling dizzy but not the bad dizzy Jake’s medicine had left her with, this was a good dizzy.
Everyone started to whistle when Josie began chatting about her fantasy.
Holly attempted to get a clear picture of how Josie perceived Jake, but it was hard.
“C’mon, Holls, you can do it.”
“Do what?” Holly shrieked.
“Kiss the living crap out of him. He doesn’t have a girlfriend.”
“No, that is your fantasy.”
“It’s yours, too! No fibbing.”
“Okay, fine, it’s mine, too. But I’m not going to admit it.”
They all cracked up again at Holly’s reply. She just rolled her eyes with a huge grin plastered on to her face.
“Do it, Holls, take one for the team.” The girls began to chant, “Do it, do it, do it!”
“Okay, I’ll do it.”
“Woohoo!” Josie clapped her hands excitedly and cheered.
A fifth round of Mampoer came around, and one by one the girls passed out. Josie stumbled to her bed and collapsed. Holly had to admit that her head spun faster and faster and she felt as if she needed some air, even though they were outside.
“Let’s get you back to Bernie’s,” George suggested, throwing Holly over his shoulder.
“I can walk,” she slurred.
“No, you can’t. You’ll pass out
before you get there.”
It seemed like the trip back was taking ages, so Holly sang all the way in her precarious position hanging down George’s back. He chuckled at some of her words, singing along to some verses he knew.
“What the fuck?” Bernie shouted, when she saw them.
“Sorry, Bernie,” George apologized.
“She’s drunk.”
“I’m not drunk.” Holly lifted her body as best she could, turning her head in Bernie’s direction.
Bernie looked at her, not at all impressed. “You are drunk.”
Holly giggled.
“She had a good time, Bernie.”
“Your wife is a bad influence, George.”
“I know, that’s why I love her so much.”
Bernie shook her head, but couldn’t prevent grinning. “Put the alcoholic down.”
“I’m not sure if she can walk.”
Swatting George on his head, Holly slurred, “I can walk. Plus, I still need to do that favor for Josie.”
George’s shoulders vibrated with apparent laughter. “This, I’ve got to see.”
“What favor?” Bernie was doing the hands-on-hips, what-are-you-on-about stance.
When George finally placed Holly down gently, she inhaled deeply as her head still seemed to be spinning. He caught her as she started to sway backward.
“I… am… fine.” Holly managed to make those three words seem like a whole sentence, it took that long to say.
“Like hell you are,” muttered Bernie.
Holly ignored that comment and instead made her way toward Leonard and Jake on wobbly legs. But when she saw him sitting with a beer on the step of his RV, a picture of her leaping on him and falling off before she could kiss him played like a movie in her fuzzy head. She snorted—in a very unladylike manner—and walked back toward her friends, not even attempting to walk anything resembling a straight line.
“Nah, it’s not my fantasy.” She looked at George who was trying his damndest to cover his smile.
“Coward.”
“Whatever,” she mumbled while stumbling to her tent.
“One hour, Holly, and then I’m going to wake you up,” Bernie yelled.
Holly pulled a face, mimicking Bernie, and collapsed onto her air bed. The world spun and she felt like throwing up, but thankfully that didn’t happen. A couple of seconds later, followed by a few good spins, she fell asleep.
“Go away. You had her the entire day.” Bernie’s voice pierced Holly’s ears.
She opened her eyes, everything was still spinning. Closing them again, she breathed in deeply trying to settle herself. She could hear Bernie and Josie speaking softly, but couldn’t quite make out what they were saying. Hell, if she were honest right about then, she didn’t really care.
Out of nowhere, Josie gave her overpowering shrill laugh. “You coward!” she yelled into the tent.
Bernie would probably ask Josie what was going on, and Josie would tell her for sure. And that’s exactly what must have taken place, because a minute into their continued whispering, Bernie burst out laughing.
“Wake up, coward.” Josie kicked her air bed.
Holly growled. “Leave me alone.”
“I’m not leaving you alone, we had a deal.”
“It’s your fantasy, not mine.”
“Whatever, Holly. Get up, or else I’m going to ask Bernie to throw water on you.”
“Do what you want, just leave me alone.”
The girls apparently thought this was extremely hilarious.
Not five minutes later, Holly was soaking wet, drowned in ice-cold water. Gasping for air, she felt her body jerk back to life. “You bitch!” she screamed like a banshee.
“Josie did warn you, Holls,” said Bernie, a satisfied look on her face.
Gasping, she reasoned, “B-b-but, I didn’t think she meant it, and I didn’t believe you’d do it!”
“Well, I did. Get. Your. Ass. Out. Of. Bed!”
“Coward, coward, coward,” Josie sang.
She could honestly be such a pain sometimes.
“If you want it to happen so badly, why don’t you go kiss him?”
“I’m married, so I can’t. And I do have morals, I’ll have you know.”
Holly could in no way be upset with these two, so just ended up shaking her head and smiling.
“I’m not going to live out your fantasy. Poor guy, in the state I was in, he would have probably ended up in the ER himself.”
With all three giggling, it was quite a sight to behold.
“I’ll give you five minutes to get out of this tent, or else I’m sending Jake in.” Bernie’s finger was in Holly’s face now.
“Fine, you win,” Holly stuck her tongue out. “Just let me put on another shirt. This one is soaking wet.”
“Leave it on, it looks like you’ve just taken part in a wet T-shirt contest. The boys will love it.”
“My boobs are seriously not wet T-shirt competition worthy.”
“Holly, you can always make them bigger.”
“No, thanks. There is a reason why they are so small. I’m not going to tamper with that.”
“Four minutes, Holly, and counting.” Bernie wiggled her eyebrows and exited the tent.
Without wasting another second, Holly got up and started looking for a shirt in her bag. It would be just her luck if Jake walked into her tent after three and a half minutes, asking her what she wanted.
Sometimes, her friends annoyed the crap out of her, but they both had good hearts and would always have her back, no matter what. She found a black shirt, one that went well with her mood and slumped out of the tent. The sun was beginning to set, but the light still hurt her sensitive eyes.
“Over here, you coward,” Josie yelled from the direction of Jake’s RV.
She would kill her if she’d told him what she’d planned to do a couple of hours ago. She took a seat on a camp chair next to Bernie and promptly closed her eyes. It felt as if someone had blown sand into them.
“Holly, why are you a coward?” Leo asked.
“Josie is the coward, and a permanent pain in my ass.”
“Whatever, coward.” Josie kicked Holly’s chair, and it almost collapsed. She managed to keep it upright, but just barley.
“Your balance is good, for someone who is drunk,” Jake commented.
“I’m not drunk.”
“Holly, you sang, upside down of all things, when George brought you back. You were out of your rocker.” Bernie said.
Holly laughed. “Okay, a tiny bit, maybe.”
“You sang!” Josie shrieked.
“Oh, shut up, already.” Please, God, make them stop.
Josie started to sing Holly’s drunken song, and was quickly joined by Leo and Bernie who sang right along with her.
Jake’s shoulders shook with humor.
Holly looked at Josie. “Something is wrong with you, seriously. You should get your head checked out.” Suddenly, Holly gasped. “Maybe Jake can check it out for you. I’m sure if he tweaked some things up there, you would finally be somewhat normal.”
A fair amount of sniggering and giggles followed this statement.
“Jake can tweak my head, anytime,” Josie flirted.
“Ugh! That sounds so disgusting coming from your mouth,” Holly mumbled.
“Am I missing something here?” Jake had a puzzled look on his face.
“No, trust me, you’re not. Go home, Josie.”
“Fine, but you are still a coward.”
“Go home!”
Josie winked at her, then made her way back to her camp. “Coward,” she couldn’t help but part with.
“So, why are you a coward, Holly?” Leo asked again.
“That is our secret. You guys are keeping a secret from me, so deal with it,” Bernie answered for Holly.
“That must really be killing you.” Holly looked at Bernie with a mischievous grin.
“Ha-ha. Be nice, or I’ll tell.”
&nb
sp; “Tell. It’s not my fantasy.”
“Seriously?”
“Yeah, go ahead.”
“What fantasy?” Jake piped up.
“Josie has some pretty crazy fantasies. Ones that George can’t fulfill.” Everyone found this pretty funny. “She’s mental, really, a few steps away from the nut house.”
“What did you have to drink?”
“Something I still for the life of me cannot pronounce. That stuff burned all the way down. It lit up all my organs, even in places I didn’t know organs resided.”
“Well, you should really sober up because we’re going to do shooters tonight,” Bernie said excitedly.
“If I smell any more alcohol, I will puke.”
Jake stood and left. Bernie looked at him for a while. Her gaze soon affixed itself on Holly, who was also staring at his back as he walked into his RV.
Bernie sighed. “You are a coward, Holls.”
“Shut up. I’m getting tired of that damn word.”
He walked back out just as quickly as he’d entered, and making his way to Holly handed her a Coke. “Drink this.”
“I don’t drink Coke.”
“You want to feel better? It will help.”
“Is that a doctor thing?”
“No it’s a general knowledge thing.” He smiled.
“Fine.” She opened the can and the bubbles prickled her lips before the cool liquid tingled her tongue. The sweet taste felt good, and she finished the entire can in seconds. As soon as she was done, everyone looked at her disbelievingly. “What? I was thirsty.”
“Don’t drink Coke, my ass. For someone who doesn’t drink Coke, you sure poured that down your throat in record time.” This was the first time Sonic had spoken to someone other than Jake.
“She seriously doesn’t drink Coke.” Bernie, good friend that she was, rushed to her defense.
“Uh-huh,” Sonic mumbled.
Holly knew that Bern was going to have a fit as she disliked anyone who answered in that manner.
“Ignore it, please,” Holly murmured softly to Bernie.
“So, Sonic. How long have you been back in Jake’s life?”
“Bernie…” Leo warned, and Holly sighed.
“What? I’m just asking her a question.”
Imperfect Love Page 6