Phoebe

I wake up naked laying on the hardwood floor on my stomach staring at the glass coffee table next to me. The sun is shining through the three black windows, and I have a shooting pain going through my head. I go to lay on my back, but all my muscles are in pain.

I fight through the pain and lay on my back. After the pain subsides from doing that, I scream as I reach my arm up, grabbing onto the coffee table, pulling myself up in a sitting position. When I finally stand up, I am breathless and limping to the bathroom. When I reach the bathroom, I close my eyes and prepare myself for what I am about to see.

I am taking in a struggled breath and open my eyes to see dry blood over my face and neck. Bruises painted over my whole body. I start shaking and start covering my body with my arms, but nothing is working. Instantly I feel my body ready for the emotional breakdown.

Tearing my eyes away from the horrific sight of my body and turn on the shower, not turning on the hot water. I learned that taking cold baths and showers can reduce swelling constricting broken blood vessels. Hopefully the bruising will go down quick.

After my body isn't numb anymore and I can move my body without groaning. I get out of the shower turning it off and go into the medicine cabinet behind the bathroom mirror, pulling out two white pills. I fill my mouth with sink water and drop the two tablets into my mouth, swallowing them.

Avoiding the mirrors, I head into the closet and grab a pair of denim jeans, a green shirt, and boots. I put them on the bed and slowly get dressed. When I am done, I grab my camera bag and laptop from the secret compartment under the floorboard and put them on the bed.

I pull my phone off the charger and call my supervisor, Mia. After the 3rd ring, she answers with her popular script.

"Hello, Mia Birmingham from New York Times. Who do I have the pleasure of speaking to?"

"Mia. It's Phoebe. Where do I go?"

"It is 10 in the morning, and you are just now calling me?" She lets out a breathy chuckle, "There is some protest happening outside Mount Sinai Hospital. Go check it out and have an article ready by tomorrow at midnight." She hangs up on me as always, and I get ready to leave. I grab my notebook shoving it into the back of the camera bag with my laptop.

All I need to do is brush my hair and hide the cut on my forehead. It is really swollen, and it looks gross, but I don't want people, especially people at the hospital questioning me.

I slip on a jacket, grab my keys and pull my bag over my shoulder. I casually walk to the elevator trying not to limp in pain, but when I get there, I see a written sign in sharpie saying

"You have got to be kidding me?" I sigh, rolling my eyes in frustration at everything that is happening in my life. But now I have to take six flights of stairs to reach my car...

I head to the stairs and start slowly stepping down them. When I reach the fifth floor, I notice someone is moving into the apartment undermining. Fuck... Boxes are everywhere, and a man is coming up the stairs with boxes stacked in front of him.

I stop halfway on the stairs, waiting until he makes his way up. When he reaches the top, I notice he is shirtless only wearing a pair of jeans and sneakers. He is tall, tan, and I bet he is sexy. I can't turn away as I see his back muscles are toned as well.

He sets down the boxes, and I quickly make my way down the rest of the stairs. When I reach the top of the third flight of stairs, a hard body collides with mine forcing me into the wall. My head hits the wall, and I feel the cut on my forehead opening. I brace myself as I think my body is about to fall down the stairs, but I am caught by two strong arms holding onto me. I open my eyes, looking at the person who saved me, and I suck in a sharp breath as I gaze into dark brown eyes.

"Are you okay?" His deep voice shakes me out of my sudden daydream.

"I-I'm fine. Yeah, I'm fine." I shake my head, recollecting myself. He let go of my upper arms and takes a step back looking me up and down, making me feel uncomfortable. I move my hair out of my face, and that's when I see his face turn to worry.

"Your head." He goes to reach his hand out, but I flinch away from his hands. It was out of pure instinct... I reach my hand up to my forehead and hiss when I touch it. I look down at my fingers and notice the familiar red colour.

"I'm a doctor. Please. Let me help you." His voice is soft.

"It's just a cut. I'm fine." I go to walk down the stairs, trying to get away from this man, but everything starts to spin. "Woah," I whisper, feeling my head fall forward and my knee's collapse.

"Woah there." His strong hands hold onto me again, and this time I'm thankful. "I got you." He whispers in my ear. Wrapping his arm around my waist and making me walk beside him.

When the spinning stops, we enter into an apartment with boxes and a few pieces of furniture in it. I need to get this man off of me. But every time I try to move away from him, his grip gets a little tighter. My body is too bruised up to handle any more pain...

"Let's set you down so I can take a look at your head." He places me on a grey sofa and heads into a room. I'm about to stand up, but he rushes out with a giant bag in his hand.

I feel my heart beating through my chest as he sits across from me. He looks at me then opens up the bag. I lean over slightly looking into the bag, and it is filled with a bunch of medical supplies. So he really is a Doctor... He reaches out to move my hair away from my face, but I flinch away.

"I'm not going to hurt you." He sighs at my actions, putting on a pair of dark blue gloves. "I apologise for hurting you. I was zoned out, and I didn't see or hear you." He shakes his head, looking down at his hands. I watch as he slowly moves his arms up to my face. Gently he moves the hair out of my face making me hold my breath. I shiver as his other hand side's under my jaw and stops behind my head.

"Just breathe." He whispers, making me let out the breath I was holding. His fingers brush over the cut, and I hiss. My instinct was to move my head away from him, but his other hand is keeping me still.

"It's a deep cut," His minty breath brushes against my face as he speaks. "You are going to need stitches." He lets go of my face and opens a clear bag.

"I'm fine. I- thank you, Doctor, but I really need to leave." I try standing up from the sofa. But his hand pushes me back down. I move his arms off of me, feeling my heart beating faster than it already was.

"Call me Noah." He smiles big, showing off his pearly straight teeth. I shake my head, wanting to leave.

"I-"

"I promise. It won't take longer than ten minutes," His eyebrow raises, trying to convince me. "Skilled surgeon fingers." Noah shakes his fingers.

Breathe... You need to relax Phoebe!

"Fine." I try not to stare at this half-naked man as he tends to my head wound. I decide it's best to stare at the ceiling. Jay would kill me if he found out about this... Me being attracted to another man-

Noah tells me everything he is about to do before he does it. I look down quickly to see him grab a cloth and soak it in something. I look away before he sees me staring, and he starts wiping away blood on my face. When he's done, he shakes his head, tossing the cloth into a bag.

"I need to numb the area." He stops and looks at me in the eyes. "I'll take this" he brings out a filled syringe, "and prick the sides of the open wound. It won't hurt." I nod my head, squeezing my eyes shut. I don't do needles... He chuckles slightly, and he's right, I barely felt it.

"Time to stitch you back together." I look at him, and he smiles. I look to the left of him staring at a small stain on the white wall as his hands come closer to my face. I almost flinched again, but I resist it. When he finishes stitching my head, he put a white cloth over it and tapes it.

"Thank you," I say as he throws away the used supplies in a trash bag and takes off the gloves. "I should get going." I pick up my bag off the floor and head for the opened door. I need to get to a protest.

"If you experience any dizziness or vomiting-"

"Go to the hospital. Got it." I nod my head, giving him a small smile as I walk out the front door. I head for the stairs feeling him follow behind me, but he starts picking up the boxes in the hallway, taking them into his apartment.

I'm grateful for his help, but I can't let people get close to me... They will just get hurt. They always get hurt-

I get into my car and put the address into my GPS. Please still be there... I cross my fingers as I start driving towards the hospital protest.

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Hello readers! This is a new book of mine, and I wanted to do something different. Romance is a whole different realm of mine. So I hope this is good and I hope you like it.

Questions:

1. How do you think this book will be?

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Thank you for reading Chapter 1 of my book.

- Anna