“Look, there’s a hospital a mile away. All we have to do is get in my car and I’ll drive you—”
“I can’t go to the hospital,” he says.
For the first time since I met him, he looks kind of embarrassed.
“Why not?” I ask him, wondering what it is that scares him so much about going.
“I just can’t, okay?” He falls to the floor, breathing heavy, hands across his face. “Shit,” he sighs.
“No, you’re not,” I mutter. “I’ll do it.”
He lifts his thigh up, and I bend down slowly. The position is awkward to
say the least.
“There you go,” he whispers, tilting his head back. “Thank the lord.”
I place my lips around the bite area and begin sucking the poison out, spitting the bitter taste onto the floor. I have no idea what I’m doing, let alone if this even works. I’m so flustered I go along with it.
When I feel his hand fall lightly across the back of my head, I glance up at him and stop. I spit the rest of it out onto the floor.
“Okay, what the fuck?” I ask, feeling sort of violated, in the weirdest way.
“Don’t be mad,” he laughs. He picks himself up and hops over to his garage.
I follow him, repeating myself, “Do you always have to act like such a pervert?”
He looks into one of his army-green bags and pulls out a syringe. He injects it into himself, without a care in the world. “You can’t suck the venom out. It doesn’t do anything,” he says.
“You bastard!” I feel my face turn red with embarrassment. My anger and adrenaline soon follows. “You’re… disgusting!”
“Hey, I saved your life,” he yells after me, jumping up from the concrete.
The smell of burnt rubber fills my nose and, although I thoroughly enjoy it, I’m thoroughly annoyed with this man that is my neighbor.
He limps after me. “Don’t you dare follow me back inside,” I say. “You… you… you violated me!”
“It’s called a joke, honey,” he says, smirking. “You know, people do make those every now and then.”
“Yeah, well, it was overboard,” I say, turning around at the edge of my door.
The snake is slithering away into the distance, and I suddenly remember my dream. All of the emotion, the passion, and the heat come flooding back into my body.
Fuck, why does he have to look the way he does? And why the hell do I have to be so tempted by his body? What is wrong with me?
“Hey, before you slam the door on me, I want you to know that I always carry around a first-aid kit with anti-venom serum. You ever need help; you should call me. I know you think I’m the devil or something worse. Shit, maybe I am. But I don’t have much to do during the day, so I can help you whenever you need it,” he says. “That’s not an innuendo. It’s just the reality.”
“All right,” I whisper.
Dammit. Why does he have to turn around and act so nice?
“Sorry for the venomous joke. I realize now that it wasn’t that funny,” he says. “Anyway, um. Goodnight.”
He walks back to his place, swiping his hair back with his fingers. He’s stopped his limping now and is seemingly back to normal.
Maybe I’m too harsh on the guy. I mean, he is an asshole, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t have good intentions.
“Rowan, wait,” I say. He stops and the dust beneath his boots flies up around his jeans.