Chapter 21
Rose
I love Katie but I already miss staying at his house. It's only been one day, and I know he wants his bed back. It can't be sleeping on that small couch of his. I miss waking up to him cooking breakfast and him giving me my lunch when I leave for work. How can I be so comfortable with someone I have only known for a week. I feel like everything is moving so fast with him but too slow all at the same time. Last night when I got home last night I made two quick strawberry cheese cakes. One for me and Katie and the other for him and everyone at work for all the help and kindness they gave me. I hope they like it. Katie bugged me the whole time about what happened when I left. When I got to Mike she got really interested. She has seen him around town some times but doesn't know much about him. I think she may have a little crush going on. We talked about everything. She made me feel a little bit better about my feelings for Blake. That is ok for me to open up again. I can take things slow and really get to know him. To be sure of everything. If he's not ok with that then he was never the person for me and I will know before I give my heart to him. I just got off the phone with him. We went to the meet up place and waited for him. I see a truck coming towards us slowing down. I tents. I know he said he got a new truck his boss is letting him use but I never asked him what it looked like. I'm scared I want to tell Katie to drive off. I hold my breath so I don't scream. Then I see his white hair. My whole body relaxes. I hate this. I hate being scared of every shadow. I want my life back. He pulls up to my window with his rolled down. I do the same.
"Hey there, how was your first day?" He sounds all bright and happy but I can see the dark circles under his eyes. It's like he hasn't slept all night.
"Are you ok? You look tired." reaching out I feel his forehead to see if he's warm. Did his stitches get infected? We still have a week until we can get them taken out. It looked ok Sunday night when I changed the bandage. He's not warm.
"Yes, I'm ok. I just stayed up last night watching tv and before I knew it. It was very late. I did sleep but just for a few hours." Why does he look guilty telling me this? I bet he watched one of the shows we said we would watch together. It's ok I will forgive him because I started one too last night. I only watched two episodes though he looks like he binged watched one.
"When you get home, go straight to bed to night. Don't watch any tv. I'm going to call you and talk until it sounds like you are about to fall asleep so I know your night watching anything." he gets a big smile.
"I will be looking forward to it." We do our change out, and head to work. I have beef stew, bread, cut up peaches, two root beers, and coffee. I take the coffee out and pour myself a cup. I sigh in just the way I like it. I drank one cup right before leaving the house but it wasn't enough. Pulling up to the post I see two women standing by it looking around frantically. As soon as we stop the truck they run two up.
" help please. We need help." we jumped out.
"Whats going on?" i ask them
"Are boyfriends thought it would be a good idea to go to the cliff to take pitchers. They were horsing around and fell off. Our phones aren't working. That is when we remember riding past this post. Please, we know we aren't supposed to be here but help us." i taller one tells up while holding her other friend who is just crying.
"Don't worry we will help "I look at Katie she is already calling the rescue team on her satellite phone. "Ok where exactly did they fall?" I pull out the map we keep with us at all times. They show us where they fell. Katie relays the messages. They will meet us there in 20 minutes. We tell the girl to stay there and not to leave. We hope on our four wheeler's and speed off. We make it to the cliff. I look over to try to see them while Katie gets the ropes and harnesses out. I spot one he's yelling for help. He looks banged up but not too bad. The other guy seems to be conscious too. He's laying up against the cliff but his leg is bent in the wrong way. I can see blood pooling under him. They are about 10 feet down. They feel on a cliff hang one wrong move and they will fall down another 20 feet to the bottom. They are lucky they fell and landed where they did.
"Don't move. be very still I'm coming down." I yell down to them. I turn to Katie to see how it's coming. She has everything ready for me. I run over to her and get the harness on. He hands me my medical bag. I might not be able to treat people but I do my first aid training every year. I slowly lower myself down. Katie is up at the top making sure I don't plummet to my death. I finally reached them.
"My friend he's hurt really badly, please help him" The one who can walk comes running over to me.
"Get to the cliff, put your back to it and stay there. Don't go running around. I will help your friend now stay a way from the edge." I tell him sternly. I don't want him to fall off again. He does what I tell him but he watches me closely as I walk to his friend.
"Is he going to be ok?" he yells to me
"I will do my best to help him" I got to the friend and kneel next to him. His eyes are unfocused on me and his skin has gone pale and cold. I pull a blanket from my backpack and put it on him. Then I turn my attention to his leg. I take my scissors out of my bag and cut his pants so I can see. Cutting his paints showed me the brake. The bone is coming out of his left leg. His right leg looks broken too but nothing is coming out of the skin. I need to set it and bandage it or he's not going to make it until the the rescue helicopter gets here. I pull out everything I need.
"Hey look at me I need to set your leg. It's going to hurt really bad but i need to or your not going to make it." i pull out a biting stick. "Bit down on this so you don't break your teeth." he comes two a little and opens his mouth for him to bite on it. His friend is by his side in seconds.
"Didn't i tell you to stay where you were?"
"I can't leave him by himself while you do that" he tells me as he grabs his friend's hand telling him he got him.I take a deep breath and get to setting his leg. When I'm all done and have him bandaged up I hear the helicopter. I look up and I see it's almost to us. I stand up and set the flare so they can find us better. Two of the rescue guys come down with a board. They get the guy with the broken legs up first then come back for the other guy. When they are finally on their way to the hospital. I look down at myself. I'm covered in dirt and blood. I need a bath. By the time we get back to the post the state cops are talking to the girls. It took us hours to finish everything, all the statements and reports. After everything. Tiffany texted us and said we could go home. It's just after lunch time when we leave. Just our luck when we hit the road we hear something.
"The car feels like it's pulling to the right hard," Katie tells me as we pull over to the side. we get out and see the tired is getting a little flat. We pull out the spar and change it but a donut isn't going to last long on these dirt roads. So we decided to go get it changed. I was a little happy after the day I had. I get to see him. I also think Katie is happy to get to see Mike. We carefully make our way to the shop.