On The Sidewalk Bleeding

Chapter 16

Chapter 16

Payton

            In the morning, I wake up at 6:30 only to find that I had completely wrapped myself around Kyle. He was snoring lightly, and I didn't really have the heart to wake him up, so I just shifted slightly before watching him sleep. Creepy, I know, but he was definitely handsome when he slept, more so than usual. His face was calm with his eyes closed, and as much as I loved his eyes, he looked so peaceful.

            I was fairly comfortable, so I snuggle my head into the space between his neck and shoulder and fall back asleep.

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            When I wake up again, I notice that my jacket had managed to fall off at some point in time I look over at the clock to find that it's 2:17 in the afternoon. I look back over to see Kyle watching me with a small smile on his face.

            "I'll let you know now that you have a grip like steel when it comes to holding onto something." He bursts out laughing as I mumble a sorry and my face turns bright red.

            I don't even consider telling him that that was the best sleep I've had in a while. I don't remember the last time I slept so solidly for so long.

            Another thing crosses my mind. I didn't have any nightmares either. I can't think of a time after I started dating Luke that I didn't have nightmares.

            He stops laughing, but I can still see the humor in his eyes.

            "Did you have a good sleep? You seemed pretty comfy when I woke up around 10ish."

            "You've been up since 10? Why didn't you wake me up?" I holler at him, slapping his chest as I go to roll off the bed. I only realize that I hit the bruises on his chest once he winces. "Oh my god! I'm so sorry! I honestly didn't mean to! Please don't hit me!"

            I freeze as the words fall from my mouth before I can stop them, and I can feel Kyle tense beside me. I turn my face away from his and climb out of bed.

            I go over to my drawer and pull out some clean clothes to wear for the day, but then shove them back where I got them. Screw it, I might as well stay in these clothes for the rest of the day. I tell myself, repeating it over and over to try and convince myself that that is the reason why I don't want to get changed, when in reality, I have no energy left after saying those words. I had said stuff like that ever since Luke's personality changed.

            A hand was softly placed on my shoulder, pulling me around to face Kyle.

            "I would never ever hurt you Payton, you need to know that, okay?" His words come out softly, and I just nod my head because that's what he wants to see, even though I don't believe it. Luke said the exact same thing to me, and look where that got us.

            I shuffle past Kyle silently, grabbing my hoodie that's lined with fuzzy fabric on the inside. I try to hold in tears as I attempt to shove it over my head, but I get stuck and can't seem to get myself unstuck. I can hear Kyle chuckle quietly before his footsteps head in my direction, and his hands start to twist the fabric around so that my head finally slips through the hole at the top. His hands rest on my shoulders for a moment before he pulls me into a warm hug.

            "Besides," he says, "My ribs don't hurt that bad anymore." I give him a deadpan look, knowing he's lying.

            "Fine, if they don't hurt that bad anymore, then you should have no problem with me checking to see if they're broken or just bruised." I smirk at him as I talk. Now it's his turn to deadpan me. "I know that a bruise that dark ought to hurt like hell, so I do know you're lying, but if you're so convinced that it doesn't hurt very much, let me have a look." He only sighs before nodding, not knowing that his ribs are going to hurt like hell once I put pressure on them to see if they're broken.

            The only reason I know how to tell if they're broken is because I took some CPR and nursing courses this summer to get more credits towards graduation.

            I watch as he slowly lifts his shirt up and over his head, wincing when he raises his left arm too much. That's almost enough to tell me that he was definitely lying about it hurting before.

            My eyes glue themselves to his perfect torso. His defined abdominals, to his pronounced collar bones. It was like he was sculpted by the devil himself solely to lure me in, and it was working. My eyes widened when they fell upon the massive bruise that reached from just below his collar bone all the way down to his hip. It stretched from the center of his chest, and wrapped around his side to his back like a ribbon that was continuously getting larger. I could see where the bruise had started, as it was slightly lighter than the newer areas, but the problem was that the bruise was still spreading, meaning that he could have internal bleeding between the muscles, from the bone.

            I moved closer to him, slightly skimming the tips of my fingers over his rib cage, and as he sucked in a quick sharp breath, I saw it.

            There were four prominent ridges on his rib cage, all fairly close together, but not quite in a line either. One of them looked jagged, almost as if it was trying to break through his skin. The other three weren't quite as prominent as the other one, but they were still extremely noticeable.

            I realised that Kyle hadn't let the breath out yet, and when I looked up, his face was scrunched up in pain.

            "You can breathe you know." I say. He slowly lets out his breath, keeping his eyes on mine until he winces again.

            "So doc, what do you think? They broken?" He raises an eyebrow, waiting for my reply.

            Before I answer, I set my right hand on his left side, right where the bruise is. His body shifts away from my light touch, but I can still feel the heat from the bruise. When I set my left hand on his right side, his skin is cold… much colder than average body temperature. And that's when I yank my hand away.

            He was bleeding. Internally.

            "Kyle…" I whisper, tears coming to my eyes. I didn't want to tell him, I mean, I could be wrong, but the signs were all there. I remember learning about it this summer, "You're bleeding internally."