We drove along back to my place in relative silence. So many things were going through my mind at lightning speed I couldn't even form words. Stephen cleared his throat bouncing me from thought to reality.
"Nick- uh- is having issues remembering things." Stephen said. It took everything in me not to scoff at his words. "The accident at work, it's somewhat related to it. Everything was fine yesterday and the day before but now he thinks everything is different."
At first it sounded like he was making up excuses, but the latter made me believe he was thinking out loud. I looked at him concerned, wondering if the drugs he was on was making him more loopy than he thought.
"Stephen, that sounds just like a bad excuse." I claimed seeing if he would spill more. I pulled up to my flat and parked the car. I walked around the side to assist Stephen out of the car and into the house.
"It's not an excuse. I told him I was seeing you. Something happened, I can't explain it." he said through his gritted teeth as I led him down the hallway to my bedroom. He limped along not really using the support I was providing. As we walked into the room his leg hit the door frame. He let out a yelp in pain and launched himself to the bed.
"Are you ok?" I asked concern written all over my face. Stephen was breathing heavily to dull the pain as he nodded yes, he winced in pain as he adjusted himself on the bed undoing his pants. "Hold on cowboy, let me help you." I walked over to the dresser and pulled out some extra large sweatpants.
"You can wear these, they should fit you." I said, he eyed them quizzically. "They're mine. On the weekends I like to be comfortable."
He took his pants off the rest of the way revealing a blood soaked gauze around his leg.
"Jesus, Stephen, what the hell happened?" I closed the remaining space between us reaching out for his leg.
"It was the accident at work. I guess when I hit the wall I ripped open the stitches." he said as it was nothing.
"I think I have some bandages in the bathroom, hold on." I walked out of the room and into the bathroom.
"Skyla - wait." he said but I was already in the other room. I looked through my medicine cabinet finding the gauze I had. What could have caused an injury like that? I grabbed a couple of other products to clean the wound and walked back into the room. Stephen was in the process of unwrapping it when I walked back in.
"Look, I already know you wont tell me what happened because its job related." I began as I kneeled down on the ground to take a closer look. "But at least let me help you get this healed proper." He simply nodded to me as the last of the gauze was removed. I sucked in a breath, it looked like a bite, nothing like a crocodile, since they tend to do a death roll but it looked like something large enough to get a chunk of his leg in his mouth and tear it apart. A big cat maybe. I whistled at the sight.
"This is going to leave some pretty wicked scars." I said a I began to clean around it. They were clean tears, almost surgical. Big cat was out of the picture, their teeth were on the duller side. It looked more reptilian, or even a shark.
"More to impress the ladies." he said smirking as I looked up rolling my eyes at him. I began wrapping the fresh gauze around his leg.
"I'm sure you could tell them you were attacked at sea and fought off a vicious shark or saltwater croc." I said with a smirk. He looked panicked a moment, knowing that I could tell it was an animal bite. It only confirmed my suspicion of which.
"Or I could tell them that I had a crazy girlfriend who mistook an animal bite for a fall through a grate." he said trying to cover up on my suspicions.
"Right." I said with a smirk, noting that he had said girlfriend. After I fashioned the bandage to stay on his leg I looked up to him slinking closer.
"This girlfriend sounds like a crazy person." I said.
"Crazy doesn't even cover it." he smirked as he leaned in to kiss me. I knew what he was doing, but in that moment I didn't even care. I knew he was dodging my questions, fear of him letting something slip out.
"You know-" I said in between his kisses. "You can't just kiss me, to get past every conversation-" He shoved his tongue down my throat.
We got lost in the kisses that lead to other activities.
As I began to doze off I couldn't help but think about him. All of this, it was crazy, but I was determined to know.