It's been three days since the Shack was defaced. Stan's car is still on fire. Candy and I have been working on scrubbing off the spray paint. And…I think I may be enjoying it a little too much.
"So, Dipper…" she started a sentence, her Korean accent is admittedly kind of adorable. "You remember that whole thing about me…liking you?" A flush appeared on her cheeks briefly, but we didn't look away from the wall we were cleaning.
"Urhm…" I slipped up, and ended up washing off part of the S in 'Mystery.' "Yeah." Wow. Good going, Dipper. You really made her swoon with that one.
"I…I think I might still…" I froze in place. I knew what she was going to say next, and I was absolutely mortified. The ladder started to wobble as I lost my grip, and I could do nothing about it. I was paralyzed with anticipation, fear, and maybe seventeen other things that I don't think there are words for. The ladder starts to tip backward and Candy reaches out. "Dipper! No!" she grabs onto me and wraps her body around me as the two of us fall off the ladder, thirty-five feet down to the grass. Her small frame was pressed around me, her arms in between my vest and my shirt. The two of us hit the ground and I hear a sharp crack. The pain of my ribs breaking was too great for it to even register. My eyes blurred and my eyelids drooped. Candy was sobbing softly and I heard three pairs of feet sprinting toward the scene. Everything went black and all my senses cut out.
The lights of the hospital blinded me the very instant I tried to open my eyes. I slowly opened my eyes, and realized my left arm was in a cast, and my chest was bound, presumably to keep me from shifting my healing ribs. The next thing I picked up on was how warm I was. There was no blanket on the bed and I was spread out on my back. I turned my head.
"Oh, my God." Candy was curled up under my right arm, pressed up to the right side of my torso. Her hands were cast, her fingers in splints. She stirs and stretches a bit.
"Oh…hey Dipper!" she looked up at me and I think I just fell for her even harder (no pun intended.)