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First, Jackie heard Shauna’s car rumble into the driveway. She heard the door slam shut. She heard Mrs. Richardson’s two kids shouting at each other across the street.
Jackie got up off the couch to open the door. Then she heard a soft, quiet thud, and then Shauna shouted, “Ow! Fuck!”
She threw the door open and ran out onto the lawn. Shauna was doubled over, head in her hands. Blake and Ryan Richardson were running across the street in their direction. “Sorry!” Blake was squealing. “Sorry! Sorry! Sorry!” His pubescent voice cracked a little on every sorry. A football lay in the grass at Shauna’s feet. Jackie put it together pretty quickly.
“Sorry! Sorry!”
Jackie hurried to Shauna’s side. “Shauna? Baby? Are you okay?” Shauna stood up straight, legs shaky. She slowly took her hands from her face. Her nose and her mouth were smeared with blood. It was like something out of a horror movie, just blood, blood, blood. “Oh my God!” Jackie moaned.
“Jesus,” Shauna sighed, voice nasal and gunky.
Ryan scrambled up and plucked his football off the ground. When he lifted it up to the sun, Jackie saw a little red smear of Shauna’s blood along the stitching. The blood was still running, thick and hot, out of Shauna’s nose and over her lips. It made Jackie’s stomach turn. She rubbed her friend’s shoulder, and took her hand and traced soft little patterns on her palm.
With the football under his arm, Ryan gulped and whimpered, “We’re uh, really, really sorry.”
“What the fuck is wrong with you?” Jackie roared. “Why don’t you use your eyes and look around before you fling a football at somebody’s face you fucking–”
“We didn’t mean to,” Blake squeaked.
Shauna glared at the boys. “You two are generational athletes, you know that? The NFL’s gonna be beating down your door any– ow!” She twitched her nose a little bit, and the pain cut off the rest of her sentence.
Jackie sighed in sympathy, “Oh, baby.”
“We can uh…we can get you some water if you want,” Ryan said. “Or like, a bandaid. Or uh–”
“Do you want us to call an ambulance?” Blake asked.
“Yes!” Jackie said. God there was so much blood. It was splattered over Shauna’s flannel and across the breast of her grey t-shirt, like an ugly red flower. It looked like she’d been stabbed.
And it made Jackie feel like she’d been stabbed. A stray strand of dark hair clung to Shauna’s cheek, sticky with blood. Jackie gently brushed it away with her thumb, careful not to touch her nose.
“Go!” Blake smacked his brother on the chest.
“What?”
“Go call an ambulance, dumbass! Jesus!”
Ryan turned around to run home.
Shauna held out a hand. “Wait, wait, wait. Don’t call a fucking ambulance, dude! What the fuck?”
Jackie gasped. “Shauna look at you! You need to see a doctor. It’s…oh my God look at all this blood!” She tried to brush more hair out of Shauna’s eyes, but there wasn’t anymore to brush away, so she just gently stroked the curve of her cheek again.
“It’s fine Jax, Jesus. It’s just a broken nose. I’m not gonna die.”
Ryan stood in the middle of the street, caught between his contradictory orders. “So uh…should I…”
Shauna waved her hand dismissively. “Just go home, dude. Jesus.” She pinched her nose and groaned, “Ugh, fuck!”
The two kids gratefully scurried home, slammed the door behind them, and didn’t come back out.
Jackie touched Shauna’s hip and said, “come on,” and led her into her house. She sat her down at the kitchen table and wet a rag in the sink. Shauna slumped over the table, covering her nose with her hands again.
“Come on, Shipman. You gotta sit up.”
“Why?”
“So I can see.”
Shauna rolled her eyes, sat up, and took her hands away. Jackie winced again at the horrible splatter-pattern of blood smeared over her friend’s mouth and nose and cheeks. It was already starting to darken and dry. She gently dabbed away the blood from Shauna’s lips and her chin.
A weird tightness developed in her chest and seized her throat, the way she got when she was watching a really sad movie. She wiped away more blood, scared to get too close to her nose.
But there was just so much and pretty soon the rag was stained dark red and there was still more blood.
“Okay, we’re going to urgent care. Come on.”
“Jax, stop. It’s just a broken nose, seriously.”
“Well you don’t know! They might have to…set it so it heals right or something, I don’t know.”
“It’s not the first time I’ve–”
Jackie grabbed her hand and hauled her to her feet. “Come on.” She dragged her back through the house, out into the driveway, and practically threw her into the passenger seat of her own car. Then Jackie got behind the wheel, jammed the key into the ignition, threw it into reverse, and peeled out of the driveway like they were fleeing a crime scene.
Shauna rested her head against the windowpane as they drove, blinking slowly. “You’re actually kind of ridiculous, Jackie, you know that?”
“Well I’m sorry for being concerned about my best friend’s well-being!” The tightness in her voice closed hard on the last word, and it came out like a weird little squeak.
“I’d hate to see you if I ever really got hurt.”
Jackie hit the left turn signal and then shook her finger in Shauna’s face. “Do not even say that.”
“I’m kidding.”
Of course, Shauna was right. A broken nose was pretty far down on the list of medical emergencies. And it wasn’t even the first time it had happened. It was just – seeing all that blood, hearing Shauna whimper in pain, knowing she was hurting, it made Jackie feel like the world was crumbling down around her, and maybe it was stupid and a little silly but she couldn’t help it.
They pulled into the Urgent Care parking lot, and Jackie came around to help Shauna out of the car. Shauna rolled her eyes. Again.
The lady at the window gave them a bored, detached look. She stared right at the blood on Shauna’s face and asked, “What brings you in today?”
“I broke my n–”
“No, she didn’t break her nose. Some idiot twelve-year olds broke her nose,” Jackie said, practically seething with rage.
They were signed in, and the lady asked them to “Please take a seat.”
Shauna tried to read a six-month-old issue of Rolling Stone, but Jackie didn’t let her. She put her arms around her shoulder, and pulled her close, resting Shauna’s head on her chest. Jackie locked her hands together over Shauna’s stomach, and it made her feel a little better to feel Shauna breathing gently against her.
“Are you okay?”
“Yep.”
“How bad does it hurt?”
“Agonizing. 11 out of 10. I don’t think I can take anothe–”
Jackie planted a kiss on the top of her head, right where her dark hair parted down the middle. “Quit it.”
“Okay, okay. It’s like, 4 out of 10. I don’t know. I’ll save it for the doctor.”
She hadn’t even noticed the doors to the examination rooms had slid open, and the doctor was standing there calling out “Shauna?”
She had to say “Shauna” three times before they heard her.
Truth was, it hurt a little worse than Shauna was letting on. But Jackie was freaked out enough as it was.
The doctor, a redhead of probably thirty-five or so, set her down on the edge of the hospital bed and gently wiped away the rest of the blood with rubbing alcohol.
“Okay,” she said. “I’m gonna press on it just a little bit, which is probably not gonna feel great. Just to see what we’re dealing with her.”
Shauna nodded and braced herself. The doctor gently pinched her nose. The pain rocketed back through her skull, exploded at the nape of the neck and slithered down her spine. She groaned and thanked God they left Jackie in the waiting room.
Next the doctor pressed on her cheekbones and the bones around her eyes, which produced no pain.
“Okay, well it’s definitely broken, but it’s not too bad. I can put a splint on it, and it’ll heal in a couple weeks.” She squinted at the bridge of Shauna’s nose. “There’s a little cut here, though. You might come out of it with a little scar.”
“Thanks.” Suddenly flush with embarrassment Shauna said, “I know it’s kinda ridiculous to come in for this. I mean, it’s not like it’s the first time–”
“It’s okay,” the doctor said. “Look, it’s not exactly a severed spine, but I’m sure it hurts.”
“It’s just my friend kinda freaks out over little things like this, and she pretty much dragged me–”
As the doctor coolly and expertly applied the splint, she smiled and said, “Well, you’re lucky to have such a solicitous friend, don’t you think?”
“I guess I am.”
On the way home, Jackie stopped at McDonald’s and asked Shauna what she wanted. Shauna grinned at her. “Are you gonna ask me what toy I want with my Happy Meal, too?”
Jackie swatted her hand and said, “Shut up.”
They got back to Jackie’s house and ate cheeseburgers and fries in the living room while Sabrina the Teenage Witch buzzed on the TV. “Doctor says I might have a little scar on my nose,” Shauna said.
Jackie’s coke stopped halfway to her lips. She set it down on the coffee table. “Oh, no. Come here.” She took Shauna’s hand and hauled her into her lap. Then she tucked into the hollow between her chin and her shoulder, and rested her chin on the crown of her head. “Hey Shipman…I’m sorry for getting…like that. It’s just…I really, really hate when you get hurt.”
“I know,” Shauna said. Just like the doctor had said – “Thanks for being so sweet.”
Jackie tipped her chin up with her index finger. “You’re super easy to be sweet too.” She stared straight at the splint on Shauna’s purpling nose, and her huge hazel eyes glimmered with tender affection. “Can I give it a little kiss?”
“You wanna kiss my broken nose better?”
“Uh huh.”
“Fine.”
Jackie pressed the smallest, softest of kisses right onto the bridge of her nose. It hurt. Just a tiny bit. But it was totally worth it for the gentle sensation of Jackie’s lips touching softly to the sensitive spot right between her eyes. Despite herself, a smitten smile stole over Shauna’s lips.
“There.” Jackie planted one more kiss onto Shauna’s forehead, right above her left eye, before she drew back. “That should do it.”
“What if I need more kisses?”
“Hey. Don’t take advantage.” Then Jackie tipped up her chin and gave her another kiss, right on the lips, and it sparkled into Shauna’s heart like a flush of sunwarmth. “How about that, hmm?”
“I don’t know. I think I might still need a couple more.”