Crestfallen

12: Eyes on me, Pal

I shut my eyes as it came at me and I waited for the pain of its teeth digging into my forearm, but it never came. I heard a whimpering and I opened my eyes hesitantly and tilted my head curiously as I saw none other than Jeremy holding the end of the chain. I stood up shakily and watched as the dog growled at him.

"Sit." He demanded, but the dog didn't budge. "What type of fucking owners don't train their dogs to sit?"

I resisted the urge to laugh, especially because I was still partly (alright, entirely) terrified. Jeremy glared at the dog and questions arose in my mind, but now was definitely not the time to ask. As the dog and Jeremy circled and walked up to the fence hesitantly. The dog's head snapped towards me and it growled lowly.

"Hey, eyes on me, pal." He barked ironically. The dog's head whipped back towards him and Jeremy tugged the chain forward, causing the dog to trip over its own feet. I felt bad for the dog, but it did just try to attack me...

Jeremy quickly dragged it across the yard while it was down and tied the chain around a post in the fence. The dog jumped up and Jeremy jogged around it. I slowly climbed over the fence, still facing the aftershocks of the fear. I've always been terrified of dogs, this just reinforced it.

"Are you alright?" Jeremy asked me. Overall, what surprised me the most, was that he was the one to save me.

"Never mind me, what about you? Are you alright?" I questioned looking around for any injuries. I found a tear in his jeans and blood seeping through the gash. "Oh my gosh, Jeremy, you're bleeding!"

Idiot.

"Well then." Was all he said. He looked down at the wound and looked back up at me, his eyelids starting to droop.

"We have to get you to the hospital." I panicked, looking up at him worriedly. This is all my fault if I'd just asked to get dropped off at literally any other house...

"No." I was confused by his reply. "No hospitals." I frowned at the request but figured that I'd question him later.

"Your place then," I stated. My house was out of the question.

He paused but shifted his weight unevenly. I sighed and wrapped his arm around my shoulders and wrapped my arm around his hip. "I don't need help." He murmured, sounding distant.

"Suck it up." I snapped, taking it back immediately. "I'm giving you help, and you're going to take it."

"Not my place. There's nothing we can use there." I gave him a disbelieving look and helped him limp. We were conveniently close to Macy's house so I decided to take him there because I definitely couldn't bring him back home.

Then it started to rain.

Like.

November rain.

AKA half-frozen pellets of ice pounding your face. I heard Jeremy whimper once or twice, but I didn't mention it because I knew he was trying to hide it.

"How'd you know where I was?" I inquired, unable to hold it in any longer. I didn't know if he'd heard me or not, but in all honesty, I was too afraid to repeat myself.

"I followed Liam." He finally said. Maybe he was trying to plan how to not sound creepy. Unfortunately, he failed. I almost jumped away from him, wondering why the heck he was following us, but the weight he was leaning on me kept me planting under him.

"Why?" I made out as we continued walking. I tried to remain calm. Maybe it wasn't as creepy as it sounded?

"I don't know." He replied simply, though his voice sounded strained. I wanted to inquire further, but we arrived at Macy's house. "This is your house?"

He sounded awed and for a moment, I wished it was my house. I brushed off the thought and pushed aside the notion that Jeremy was following us by knocking on the door.

Macy opened the door and smiled at me, but frowned when she saw Jeremy. As she was giving him a disdainful once over, she gasped as she saw the gash on his leg. She started to hyperventilate and I sighed.

"Macy, do you have your parents' stuff?" I asked her and she came to her senses. She came outside in the freezing rain and helped me bring Jeremy into the house.

"Yeah, of course." Once we sat him down, he was half unconscious, but muttering incoherent sentences under his breath.

"Can a dog bite do that to people?" I questioned as she brought in the first aid and extra medical supplies that her parents kept around the house.

"Only if he's lost enough blood, I suppose." She replied, opening the kit and looking down at his pants. "Can you grab the scissors from the kitchen?"

I got up and found the scissors in the drawer. I brought them back to her, but she held up a hand. "Can you cut it for me?"

I nodded and grabbed his pants hesitantly. I looked up and found Jeremy unconscious. I took a deep breath and began cutting his pant leg around the wounded area. Once the patch of the material was off, we both gasped.

"That's not a dog bite," Macy stated, covering her mouth. "That's a five-year-olds stitching job and an infected gash."

The stitches over the deep wound were haphazard and random, and they seemed to barely be holding it together in the first place. It was coloured green around the edges. Well, where it wasn't covered in blood. I fought the urge to throw up, but I choked it down and Macy took a moment to get started. She took a small bottle of alcohol and dabbed it on the wound to disinfect it.

Jeremy awoke instantly and howled in pain. I cringed and Macy just continued to swab the cut. She then grabbed some stitching string from her parents' medical box and grabbed a stitching needle. She looked at it uncertainly and I smiled at her sadly.

"You've got this." She looked at me for reassurance and then began her work.