by Cher Etan
“Yeah. You sit in the front and your hand is always up even when the teacher hasn’t really asked a question,” he said smirking slightly. If Meaghan had been any lighter skinned she’d be blushing but even so she felt her cheeks grow hot.
“Oh er, well that notwithstanding, how can I help you at this moment?” she asked him.
“Are you a mechanic?” he asked, “I need a mechanic.”
“Mr. Henley will be back shortly if you’d like to wait for him,” she replied.
“Thanks, I will,” he said. Meaghan stared at him, wondering what to say now.
“Er what happened?” she asked.
“What happened?” the guy echoed.
“To your car,” Meaghan clarified wondering if she should have started with an introduction. The guy seemed to hesitate so Meaghan jumped in.
“I’m Meaghan by the way,” she said stretching out her hand to shake. The guy looked skeptically at it.
“Dean,” he said reaching out to shake her hand reluctantly.
“Good to meet you Dean. Are you alright? Your car looks pretty banged up – did you escape unhurt,” she asked briskly so he would answer without thinking too much about it.
Dean looked at his car and then at her, “Er well, I think I might have hurt my ribs a bit but otherwise I’m fine. I just need the car fixed really fast so my dad doesn’t need to find out about this,” he said.
At that point, Mr. Henley stepped inside so Dean and he could talk and come to some agreement. Dean was apparently willing to pay extra if Mr. Henley could repair the car within the night. The side of the car was pretty banged up and normally Mr. Henley would turn down such a deal but Dean was offering twice his normal rate.
“Fine. Let me see what I can do,” he said. Dean heaved a sigh of relief and stepped aside so Mr. Henley could assess the damage. Meaghan stepped closer to him and looked up at him shyly.
“If you want, I can take a look at your injuries and see if I can do anything.”
“Oh. Are you a medic now too?” Dean’s tone was just this side of nasty.
“I’m trained in first aid,” Meaghan replied neutrally. Dean continued to look at her then seemed embarrassed at his behavior because he dipped his head and stammered slightly.
“Er yeah if you don’t mind,” he mumbled.
She led him up to Mr. Henley’s office and retrieved the first aid kit from underneath the sink in the bathroom.
“You’ll need to remove your shirt,” she said quietly. Dean smirked and made a show of removing his shirt in a slow and sexy way, unbuttoning slowly and then inching it off his body with slow careful movements that showed off his chiseled physique to full effect. Meaghan was diverted until she saw the bruised swelling that ran all the way from his sternum down to his hipbone. It looked like it hurt quite a bit and Meaghan gasped in sympathy. Dean glanced downward to see what he was looking at and his face blanched but he recovered quite quickly and he shrugged nonchalantly.
“It’s nothing; barely hurts,” he said.
Meaghan turned toward the door, “Stay there, I have some ointment in my trailer that will help with the bruising and the swelling,” she said and then dashed out and left him staring after her in bemusement.
Her trailer wasn’t far and she was back before long clutching a container of homemade ointment that contained some aloe vera, valerian root, willow bark, ginger and propolis. It was good for swelling, bleeding and had antibiotic properties as well as being a painkiller. If Dean wanted to keep this accident under the radar then he very likely wouldn’t be visiting a hospital. Best to cover all bases.
His shirt was still off and he was sitting on the edge of the desk as if he belonged there. Meaghan came close and put the jar down, running her hand lightly over his bruises trying to get a sense of how bad they were. He didn’t flinch but he was holding his breath the entire time her hands were on him.
“Does this hurt?” she asked softly. Mutely he shook his head. She went to the sink to get some hot water in a bowl and gently dabbed his side with it. Then she took the ointment and gently dabbed it on as well. She could see him trying to regulate his breathing as she did so and did her best not to hurt him.
“There. All done,” she said after she was through.
“Thank you,” Dean said
“You’re very welcome”, Meaghan replied and stepped back. “Can I get you something to drink maybe?”
Dean smirked at her again, “Ever the gracious host.” He said teasingly, “Sure I could drink a coke if you have it.”
Meaghan nodded and went down to the coke dispenser in the lobby. She had a few coins in her hand that she used to get him a coke. She didn’t know why she was bothering with all this for this guy who clearly wasn’t too impressed with her anyway. For all she knew she’d never see him again after tonight. But no, wait, apparently they were in the same class.
Meaghan carried the can of coke upstairs and gave it to him. He took it with a nod of thanks and drank it down almost in one fell swoop.
“So…you work here huh?” he asked her when he put the can down.
“Yes,” she replied and then cast around for something else to say, “You didn’t tell me what happened to your car.”
“It’s kind of private,” Dean said.
“Right oh, sorry I didn’t mean to pry,” Meaghan backed up immediately. Dean grinned at her.
“Kidding. My girlfriend was drunk, she was driving; she banged into a telephone pole. Nobody was hurt in the making of this melodrama,” he said.
“Except you,” Meaghan said.
“Except me,” Dean replied.
“Sorry about that,” Meaghan ventured.
“No it’s cool. That’s what you get I guess.”
“I would hope not. But your girlfriend’s fine?”
“Still very drunk but safely asleep in her bed,” Dean said.
Meaghan nodded her head, wondering at the shenanigans these rich kids got up to.
“Is that…Iliad you’re reading?” Dean asked her sounding insultingly surprised.
“Yes,” she bit out in preemptive self defense.
“I always found that Zeus was over-rated,” Dean said in casual dismissal.
Meaghan couldn’t help herself, she puffed up in indignation. “What?” she cried. “What do you mean by over-rated. There is absolutely no way in this world or the next that Zeus can be over-rated.”
“Oh yeah,” Dean rose to the challenge. “Well let me count the ways”, he said lifting up his hand in the air to do a verbal countdown.
The time flew past as they argued over the Iliad and its implications for modern life and what Homer had said as opposed to what he meant and before they knew it, Dean’s car was ready and it was going on midnight. Meaghan needed to go home and get some sleep. Luckily her mother was on night shift again so she might not find out how late she’d actually gotten in. she bid Dean goodbye and left after assuring him that she could get home by herself perfectly safely.