"Nice guy," Denny lied once William was gone.
"You have no idea," Beth agreed darkly, turning to gather her things and help Jenna.
After collapsing and bagging the tents, Les and William drove the girls around the long way to Beth's truck. Kara and Lucy had very graciously volunteered to stay and finish packing camp. There would most likely be just as much work for William and Les to do when they returned as there had been when they set off. As her little red truck came into view, Beth thought she'd never seen such a welcome sight in her life.
For Les and Jenna it was the beginning of the end, and Beth busied herself with throwing backpacks in the truck to avoid their mushy goodbye. Deciding on warming up the truck, she reached for the door handle, but William got there first. He opened the door for her, closing the distance between them once again. They both looked at the open door for a moment and then at each other.
After an awkwardly long silence Beth pronounced, "Well, this is it. Your torture sentence is over."
William's eyes combed her face slowly, then dropped to the ground. He laughed, unsmiling. "I doubt that." He met her eyes again and cocked his head to one side slightly, studying her face.
Maybe he thought that since their best friends would probably be spending all their time together from now on, it wasn't likely.
"Looks like they're doing just fine on their own," Beth reasoned.
William scowled at Les and Jenna, locked in passionate embrace, before focusing on something in the distance and shoving his hands in his pockets. A muscle tensed in his jaw, but he said nothing. After what seemed like several minutes he finally looked at Beth, his dark eyes holding a nameless expression. Vulnerability? It had only surfaced for an instant before William's eyes hardened. He looked at Beth for a second longer, then pounded on the truck's hood to get Les's attention.
"Break it up," he commanded when Les looked over. "See you around, Beth," he said before stalking off to Les's truck and jumping into the driver's seat. He revved the engine, a warning for Les to move it or lose it.
"Bye, Beth!" Les called as he loped to his truck. She waved, then watched them drive away.
The weight that had been pressing on Beth for the duration of their accidental camping trip seemed to recede at once, keeping pace with the big white truck. But the relief was tinged with something else she couldn't pin. It bothered her all the way home, and when she finally discovered why, she was mad at herself. When he'd said goodbye, William hadn't called her sweetheart in that derisive tone that set her teeth on edge. Instead, he'd said her name. And the tone of his voice, coupled with the set of his shoulders as he'd walked away, made her feel like she'd just kicked a puppy.
PROVOCATION
"A new sort of way is this, for a young fellow to be making love, by breaking his mistress's head!"
~Jane Austen, Persuasion
Beth pulled her jacket more snuggly around her neck and suppressed a shiver. It was the beginning of December, and the breath of winter was in the air. Beth hadn't been truly warm since the ghastly camping trip two months ago. She couldn't help but feel that, at least in part, the change in weather was somehow connected to that particular event.
Her perpetual frigidity could also have been a result of the fact that Jenna was now hardly ever at Longbourn, and a curious sensation of emptiness had settled within Beth. The void refused to be filled by anyone or anything else. When Jenna wasn't in class she was with Les. She did her homework at his house, and they ate out most meals (Les couldn't cook, and according to Jenna, William had cracked a tooth on one of Kara's homemade cookies). Though Beth wasn't completely enthused about the new arrangement, she was at least glad that she and William were far from being indispensable to their respective friends. She had only seen him two or three times since Camp Catastrophe. Each time he had either been on an important phone call, or had simply turned and left the room when he saw Beth. So much the better.
Beth pushed the door of room 204 open and, as she had expected, was overwhelmed by the emptiness of the place. A vague impression of loneliness stuck to the walls and manifest in pillows on the couch, untouched since this morning.
With a sigh she threw her keys on the counter and pulled her hair up into a bubbly ponytail. It looked like Jenna would be MIA for dinner again, and the thought of making mac and cheese for the third time this week made Beth scrunch up her nose. She decided to make a real dinner and just have the leftovers during the week. Donning her apron, she set to work. The apron looked its age; it had been passed down through generations of Beth's female ancestors, finally ending up with Beth when she'd gone away to college.
After pulling some chicken breasts out of the fridge and putting them into a baking dish with lemon juice, salt, and pepper, she prepared a box of stuffing and spooned it onto the chicken. Then she topped it off with slices of Swiss cheese and deposited the dish in the pre-heated oven. She had just begun chopping ingredients for a salad when the front door opened and Jenna came in, followed by Les and William. It felt strange to see him again after such a long time, and her stomach did a little somersault.
Ignoring the sensation, she set down her knife, hugged Jenna fiercely, and gave Les a broad, encouraging smile. She even managed a friendly "hey" for William.
"Are you hungry? I'm just putting dinner together - it should be done in a little while."
"Sure! Can we help?" Les offered.
Though Beth knew he was sincere, she imagined he would have a hard time doing anything with Jenna in his arms. And besides, Beth was just glad for the company.
"That's okay, I'm almost done."
Apparently they didn't need telling twice. Les whirled Jenna around and they plopped on the couch, dissolving into each other's eyes.
So much for the company.
William glanced at the couple and Beth thought she saw him shake his head ever-so-slightly. As she resumed her carrot chopping, William sidled up to the counter.
"So…..how've you been?" he began awkwardly.
"Cold and busy. You?"
"Toasty and bored."
Chop. Chop. Chop. Beth grimaced at him, suppressing a snide comment about his apparent perpetual body temperature.
"So, you could be on the cover of a 1950s Woman's Day." He smiled as if it was meant as a compliment.
"Excuse me?" Beth stopped chopping carrots.
"The apron. Goddess of her kitchen and all that."
Chop. Chop. Chop. Maybe one of the carrots would slip and launch itself into William's eye.
"It could be worse, William - at least I'm wearing pants."
He looked her up and down, seemingly amused. "Good thing too. Pretty sure I'm scarred for life."
Beth rolled her eyes dramatically, then dumped the carrots into the salad bowl and decapitated two unsuspecting green onions.
William leaned onto the counter, looking up into Beth's face, but she kept chopping.
"Why do you like to bug me so much?" she finally asked, exasperated.
CHOP. CHOP. CHOP.
He shrugged. "Your reactions are epic."
Beth sniffed and lifted her chin. "Good to know. I'll just ignore you from now on."
"Not sure you have the will, sweetheart."
Beth made a 'puh' noise.
He grinned like a rogue, setting his deep brown eyes on hers - making it impossible to look away.
CHOP. CHOP. CHOP.
Beth gasped when the knife bit into her finger. William stood bolt upright and then froze, as if he didn't know what to do first. Beth gaped at her hand, lifted in midair in front of her face. The tip of her middle finger hung by a thread of flesh, and blood dripped down to her elbow and onto the floor. Black gathered around the edges of her vision, and suddenly it felt like all the air had been sucked from the room.
William hastily grabbed the dish towel hanging on the oven door and firmly closed his hand over Beth's, wrapping his other arm around her lower back for support.
"Beth - just breathe. Now, look at
me……good girl."
Beth looked at him, bewildered, her finger throbbing. Then she swayed and her eyes closed.
~:~
When Beth passed out, Jenna made a noise somewhere between distress and indignation. Les hurried over. "Dude, I can't leave you alone for a second!"
"What happened?" Jenna added in accusation.
"She sort of cut off her finger," William answered with hot embarrassment rushing into his face. "Les, get your keys!" he barked. Les obeyed, wrenched the door open, and William led the way out of Longbourn with Beth's limp form in his arms.
Beth didn't wake for several minutes. They were in Les's truck, vacant land whizzing past outside the windows, when William felt her stir in his arms. By the faint illumination from the dashboard lights, he saw Beth's eyes rest on the bloody heap in her lap, which was cocooned in his own hands. She tried to pull free, but William held on.
"Don't do that. If I let go it'll start bleeding again."
Instead she backed out of his arms and turned her face to the opposite window. William vaguely recalled a statistic about body language making up over ninety percent of communication, and he flushed with fresh chagrin. Beth obviously wanted to be as far from him as possible.
He wanted to punch the window; relish the satisfying crack that would sound and the inevitable pain that would follow. Instead he said, "We're almost to the hospital. I had no idea it was twenty minutes away. Stupid small towns..." to which Beth replied with a sigh.
Five minutes later they pulled up to the Emergency Room doors. Jenna and Les hurried around to help Beth out, and William trailed behind, feeling out of place. Beth would probably freak if he touched her - even to help. It was probably best to stay on the sidelines.
~:~
After a twenty minute wait in an empty admitting room, Beth was finally called back to a semi-private room. For an instant she found herself echoing William's diatribe about small towns. Why had they waited twenty minutes when there wasn't another injured person to be seen? After another unnecessarily lengthy wait the nurse tromped in. To call her robust would really have been an understatement. She resembled a full-grown bison, and as she checked the injury with a reproachful expression, Beth imagined her with curling horns and a frothing mouth. Her severe black hair was coiled on top of her head in a sloppy beehive. She was precisely the sort of nurse you might find at elderly care centers where residents were routinely abused.
"Whad'ya go and do a thing like this for?"
"…..It was an accident," Beth said weakly.
"That's no excuse!" she chided, roughly cleaning the blood from Beth's finger and causing her to cry out.
"Quiet!" she barked. "Whad'ya expect? Sure it's gonna hurt. Maybe you'll be careful next time."
Beth turned her head away, biting her cheek to distract herself with a different pain and catching sight of William as she did so. He looked livid - angrier than Beth had ever seen him - lounging against the wall with eyes the color of black thunderheads. No doubt he agreed with the nurse - probably thought she deserved the lecture and lack of gentility. His chiseled features emitted nothing like guilt or empathy. Beth closed her eyes, shutting out the sight of him, and let her head fall onto Jenna's shoulder as the nurse bellowed for the doctor.
~:~
William watched Beth's face in the dim lighting of the truck's console. Her lashes were sweeping up and down like a tired butterfly. Why did she fight it? After Nurse Beast had finished lecturing her, the doctor came in and stitched Beth's finger. He'd shot her up with a handsome dose of morphine and discharged her with a prescription for pain killers - ignoring Nurse Beast's protestations and muttering about "life lessons." William still felt like spitting nails at the thought of her, with her Marge Simpson hair and linebacker build. Why exactly was she in the medical field? She had about enough compassion to fill one nostril.
William let his eyes fall on Beth, who leaned against her door with her hands in her lap, obviously distancing herself from him. Upon leaving the hospital Beth had tried to hand his jacket back, but he flatly refused. It was the least he could do, after causing the whole catastrophe in the first place. Beth must think he was such a jerk. His intentions back at Longbourn hadn't been vicious; he only wanted to watch her eyes light up with indignation as he provoked her. Then she went and chopped her finger off. He had certainly distracted her - but was that good or bad for him? Over the past two months he had put careful distance between Beth and himself. Though he still thought about her several times a day, the compulsion to show up at Longbourn had finally weakened, just a bit. When Jenna and Les had invited him along tonight, he thought, why not? It's been months - maybe she will have gotten ugly in that time. Then he'd walked into her kitchen and seen her looking all domestic and charming, and all his hard-earned Beth sobriety went to pot.
Les pulled the truck into Longbourn's parking lot, and William pulled Beth out of the truck and into his arms before anyone could stop him. Beth herself was unconscious, and didn't have a say in the matter. The three of them climbed the stairs and Jenna held the door open.
William paused before stepping in, eyebrows raised. "Curfew?"
Jenna glanced slyly at the RA door. "We still have a few minutes. Just be quick."
William swept past her into the entry, up the stairs, and into the girls' dorm. Jenna motioned to the right, and William stepped into Beth's dark room. Jenna cleared Beth's bed of text books and papers with a one-armed sweep, and then retreated out the door. William laid his charge gingerly on the bed like a doll - she hadn't moved since morphine had won the battle in the truck. He shimmied the covers out from under her and folded them over her still form. Dark hair tangled across her face, and he pulled it carefully away with his fingers. After watching her for a moment, he bent down and gingerly took her bandaged hand in his.
"I'm sorry," he breathed, murmuring the confession into her mummified finger, appealing directly to the injured party for forgiveness. Then he tenderly situated Beth's bare arm under her covers and hovered there, unwilling to break the physical contact.
Jenna's soft voice sounded from the doorway. "It's curfew," she said apologetically, and William knew she'd been standing there all along. Not that it mattered. Les and Jenna both knew how he felt about Beth. Before leaving the room, William paused in front of Jenna. "I'll be over tomorrow," he promised.
UNINHIBITED
"His avoidance, and her pursuit, with the probable intoxication of both, was an amusing scene."
~Jane Austen
William knocked softly at room 204, obeying when he was beckoned inside.
Les and Jenna sat on the couch, a tangle of jeaned legs and twined fingers.
"How's the invalid?" William asked, wondering idly if they'd been making out two seconds earlier. Well, not really wondering - it was a certainty.
"Sleeping," Jenna informed him, not taking her eyes from Les. "She got up to use the bathroom a few minutes ago and fell right back into bed."
William nodded. "Well, I know you two had plans today, so I thought I'd offer to spell you off."
"That's okay -" Les had begun, abruptly silenced by a look from Jenna.
"We'd love for you to take over," she accepted sweetly. "I'm starving, and we need to go grocery shopping."
Les obviously had no clue that his angelic girlfriend was capable of deviance and scheming. But as the intrigue benefited William, he didn't object.
"Should we bring you something back?" Jenna asked, donning her coat and slinging her purse over a shoulder.
"Nah, I already ate."
"Okay, we'll see you later then!" Jenna sang, giving William a significant look before pulling Les out the door.
Once alone, William sat down on the couch, propping a leg up on the coffee table. He opened the portfolio he'd brought with him, deciding to get some work done while Beth slept.
About five minutes later, muffled breathing and whimpering sounded from Beth's room. Carefully, William cracked open her door and looked i
n. She was tossing around on her mattress, her brows knit together in a scowl. Stepping inside the room, he knelt by her bedside and brushed the hair off her forehead. As he did so, he couldn't help noting the burning temperature of her skin. He went to the kitchen, collected a glass from a cupboard, and filled it with cold tap water. While the glass filled, his eyes fell on a prescription pill bottle next to the sink. Oxycontin……take one to two tablets by mouth every four hours as needed for pain. He grabbed the bottle and took it into Beth's room. Her eyes were open, but she wasn't really focusing on anything.
"Can you sit up, Beth?"
She looked at him for a second, without seeming to really see him. "It hurts," she whimpered. William helped her upright, sitting behind her for support, then put the glass to her lips.
"Drink," he instructed. "Do you know when you had your last dose of pain medication?"
"It hurts," she repeated, slumping against him.
She's not pulling away from me…..she must be in a world of hurt, he reasoned. She probably hasn't had any.
"Here," he said, shaking two pills out of the bottle into his palm and offering them to Beth. She tossed them back, chased them down with the remainder of her water, and then her head fell back against William's chest. He swept his fingertips from her forehead to hairline, hoping that the sheen of moisture on her skin didn't indicate fever, or worse - infection. After gathering the hair off her shoulders and twisting it away from her neck, William rested his hand on his knee. Beth breathed uncomfortably, astounding William when she gripped his hand with her uninjured one. Her fingernails dug into the flesh of his palm, and acting on instinct (and to avoid possible scarring), William flipped his hand so they were palm to palm. Beth resumed her vice-like grip on William's hand, melding their fingers together. Then, after fidgeting a little more, she stilled and her breathing evened out. William felt the tension in her muscles gradually slacken, and knew that she'd fallen asleep. The room was so quiet that all he could hear were his own thoughts.
Pride's Prejudice Page 8
