Learning To Trust Again

‘Jake?’ Todd said, knowing he probably sounded as disorientated as he felt. Where the hell was he anyway and who on earth was Jake? Had he been drinking and blacked out but as this last question moved through his brain so did memories of those few painful minutes in the dark lane. Damn, now he remembered. Taking stock he tried to work put what the damage was. His throat felt raw and he couldn’t seem to get his voice above a rough whisper. His eyes didn’t seem to want to open either. As for the rest of him he was not game to straighten out for the moment, his body felt like it had been reduced to pulp from head to toe. Lifting his hands to examine the damage to his head that had started to pound, Todd’s arms seemed as if they were made out of lead.

‘Who did this?’ Jake asked.

Damn, Todd thought, as his brain finally connected the dots about who the man that was squatting in front of him was. Rebecca’s would be boyfriend and worse still a cop. Bloody hell! That was exactly what he didn’t need. Trying to sit up Todd attempted to extricate himself from the situation without explaining. He did not want to tell Jake what had happened, he didn’t want to tell anyone but particularly not a cop. ‘Can we do this later?’ he said with a groan as his injuries made themselves known. His first instinct about not moving had been the correct one. Trouble was he had no time to just lie there until he felt better so gritting his teeth he tried again to move and said ‘I need to get back inside before Mum and Dad begin to wonder what’s going on.’

Holding him down, knowing it was important he didn’t move until he was checked out Jake said ‘they’re going to know something is up as soon as they see you.’ Pulling out his phone he added ‘we need to get an ambulance and get you to hospital.’

 Todd groaned again, he could see Jake wasn’t going to let this slide. Cursing his rotten luck, he pushed the older man’s restraining hand away and finally managed to struggle into an upright position. Putting out his hand to stop Jake from dialing he held his head with the other hand. ‘No, I don’t want my family to know about this.’ 

‘Todd you need to go to hospital and get your injuries looked at’ Jake said ‘not to mention report this.’

‘No I can’t, not tonight. I can’t do this here.’ He wasn’t going to say anything to Jake but it was really Jemma, the girl he was seeing, not his family, that he was worried about. If he left her here alone he’d lose her. He knew some other guy would be sure to try his luck with her. She was gorgeous and now he had finally got her to agree to go out with him, after weeks of trying to convince her, there was no way he was going to risk that happening. Not to mention what she’d think of him if he had to go to hospital for this. It was embarrassing enough that he’d let the guy had get the jump on him. He’d look like a total loser, if on top of that, he had to leave his own party in the back of an ambulance. She would walk away for sure. No, instead of letting the bastard win, he’d use the situation to his own advantage. He could handle this without medical intervention, he wasn’t that badly hurt and in the process, Jemma would see exactly what he was made of. ‘Just help me get back to the party, I’ll be fine.’