A/N: Just a little one shot prompted by Christag Banners and her awesome Word Cloud Challenge.
Clumsy Cullens
The ER is really no place to find your destiny. It's messy and dirty and chaotic. When you come face to face with your fate, when chance smiles upon you and you encounter the first step of your latest important journey, it should not be in a stiflingly sticky and smelly room full of bleeding people. But, such is life.
"I don't give one damn about your rules!"
Well, I remember thinking. That guy is pissed. Then I looked up. That guy is hot. These were my first two impressions of the man who would fulfill the fairytale dreams of my childhood, the romantic fantasies of my teenage years, the jaded expectations of my early twenties. Even with all of the time, love, and life that we have passed through together, those descriptions have never really changed. Pissed and hot; definitely accurate.
"Sir, you have to calm down. We will let you see your friends as soon as we can. Do you have anyone you can call to come sit with you?" The young nurse at the counter said this with both fear and hope in her eyes. I was pretty sure she would've liked to see someone walk in that waiting room with the power to even out this guy's mood.
"No. I do NOT have someone to call. All the people I would call in a messed up situation like this – one of whom is my BROTHER - are in the ROOM you won't let me go IN!" He dragged a huge breath into his lungs, an obvious attempt to chill himself out. "What is going on?" The calmer voice seemed to work on young nurse.
"I'm not supposed to give any information, but you're family, so… They are stable, resting. The doctor is running tests just to be sure he caught everything." She reached out to touch his arm, running her hand up his get-an-eyeful-of-the-tattoos-bicep, looked up at the relieved man, "They're both going to be fine."
From where I sat, I could see his eyebrows shoot up as he removed her hand from his arm. Glancing around the room, he noticed me looking and widened his eyes as if to ask me Is she for real? I grinned. Yeah, dude, she's for real. Have you seen yourself?
"Thanks for the info," he said. "Please let me know when I can get back there to see them." Then he walked across the tiny, crowded room to where I sat, and spoke to the drunk guy sitting next to me. "Mind moving so I can sit next to my girl here?"
"Wuh? Sit where?" the drunk slurred before he caught sight of the man standing over him. The he got up and stumbled away. Good choice.
"Hi. I'm Anthony." Bronze hair, perfect lips, deep voice. Well, hello Anthony.
"Isabella."
"Come here often?" he deadpanned, with a gleam in those expressive, stunningly green eyes.
"No, not really. The scene is much too quiet for me. Though, it looks like you could score," I answered back, playing his game. I nodded toward the young nurse, and he snorted in humor and dismissal.
"Not my type. Too, uh, wide-eyed. Something, whatever." He was quiet for a moment, gathering himself, sneaking peeks my way. "Are you here waiting for someone?"
"Uh, yeah. Me and my girls are going to a party in the pediatric ward. They have the best Kool-Aid in the city."
"Smart ass. I like it," he said through what can only be described as a dazzling smile. "But really. Someone hurt?'
"It's stupid. My friends and I really were going out tonight, but one of them toppled over on her six-inch death-spike heels and took out the other in the process. Both of them – BOTH of them – broke a bone. I'm just lucky I was standing on her other side. She could've gotten the hat trick." I expected laughter, but not quite as much as I got.
"Oh, hell. That's an amazing story. It's almost the craziest thing I've heard all night. Almost." He started laughing again, drawing angry, curious, incredulous, annoyed stares from the walking wounded in the room with us. "But I can beat it."
"Yeah?" I raised an eyebrow, a non-verbal challenge to top my tale of crazy.
"My brother and my best friend are in the back, bleeding and probably broken in a few places, because-" He paused here to sigh so very deeply. "This is fucking embarrassing. They're hurt because I caught my boot lace on the exhaust on my motorcycle and pulled it over. My brother, trying to save the bike, burned his hand when he touched the very same exhaust and flailed around so much he knocked our buddy over… into himself…and they both fell…pulling my bike onto them both." He could barely get any of that last part out, he was laughing so hard, gasping for the breath necessary to finish the story.
"Oh my God. You win," I told him.
"Yeah, but not by much." I didn't mind losing the unexpected contest, though. I liked a guy who could laugh at himself. It's so rare; usually they'd act like a big baby and pout when they're embarrassed. We both laughed quietly, attempting to be respectful of the others in the waiting room of this sad little ER. "So, what do you say we get the casualties tucked away in a couple of cabs and-" Just then, before I could tell him yes, I heard my girls bickering their way around the corner.
"If you would just wear normal shoes, Alice, we would be drunk by now," lamented Rose, cradling a cast-covered wrist to her chest.
"Well, I don't know about you, but I certainly feel drunk," Alice giggled back. I bet she did. Judging by the cast and crutches, I assumed she got the good drugs.
"Alice?" Anthony said, shocking me. Before I could question how he knew my best friend, a great behemoth of a man came barreling out from the back room, hands wrapped like a Scooby Doo mummy of the week.
"Rose?' the giant asked.
"Emmett?"
"Edward?"
"Alice?"
"Bella?"
"Jasper!" With this final exclamation, Alice hobbled as fast as her stoned self could hobble over to her boyfriend, who himself had a bloody lip held together with stitches. The big bear of a man, Emmett I gathered, was cooing adorably all over Rose and her "boo boo", as he called it.
Turning to my recent companion, I questioned, "'Edward' is it?"
"I hate that name," he said glaring at his sister. "Thanks, Alice."
Well, he's pissed, I remember thinking. And so hot.