James got home from work late on Saturday. It was a little after 9pm, and the moment he opened the door the to the apartment, he saw Carter and Elias chatting on the couch. It looked like they actually had homework out on the coffee table, intermingled with snack bags that looked like they were purchased from a gas station store and two cans of beer. So, they weren't too drunk yet. He didn't know how drunk they planned on getting, but he only gave them a quick wave before he took a quick turn into his room. He needed to shower and get ready for bed.
"You smell like farm!" Carter shouted down the hall.
"Because I was at a farm," James said at normal volume before he closed his door behind him.
He stood for a moment in his doorway with a sigh before he plopped down on the corner of his bed and slowly pried his boots off, and then his socks. Even with them off he still felt like he was caked in a layer of dust and sweat. He was so tired.
He hopped off the bed and opened his closet, throwing his stinky socks into his laundry hamper and sticking his shoes on a paper bag in the corner. Then he went to his dresser, pulling out a pair of clean clothes to change into and sleep in after he showered.
When pulling out his pajama pants from the bottom drawer, he'd forgotten he left the top drawer open still for his shirt. So, naturally, as he stood up, he hit his head. Far too hard.
Ow.
As he ducked and veered back and out of the way, he hurriedly pushed the top drawer shut in wearied exasperation, but that movement combined with the bang from his head seemed to shake the whole dresser, sending one of the framed photos on top topping off the side.
His hand jumped out in an attempt to catch it, but he only managed to have the edge of the frame clip against his fingers before it hit the edge of the bottom drawer.
And of course, he heard the glass of the frame shatter. And of course, the glass exploded into the drawer and outside of it.
James stared down at the mess with a slow blink, and he let out a long, long sigh.
Now he had to clean that up first.
He scanned the carpet around his bare feet before he carefully leaned over and picked up the frame first, setting it back atop the dresser, now glass-less. Without moving his feet, he reached for the little plastic trash can behind him by his desk and brought it over. He crouched by the drawer and started picking shards out of the drawer and off the one by one. Carefully, and trying not to touch and jagged edges. When he thought he'd gotten all he could by hand, he scanned the floor once more and tried to step away. He knew he'd need a vacuum.
But apparently, when glass shattered, it could travel quite a distance. He felt something slice the bottom of his foot and he instantly picked his foot up, hissing.
It was not pretty, nor was it a small cut. But what was immediately the most cumbersome issue was the fact that he was now bleeding. A lot. And fast.
With one foot bent up, he hopped to the door and pulled it open.
"You okay in there, James?" Carter asked. "Heard something--"
His head popped into the hallway and he saw James holding up one leg, cradling his foot and tightly squeezing the cut with one hand in an attempt to staunch the bleeding until he made it to the bathroom.
"Oh shit," was Carter's contribution.
James hopped to the bathroom door and pushed the door open before he promptly stuck his bleeding foot in the bathtub, sitting on the edge of it.
"Elias, James is bleeding," James heard Carter say.
"I see that," Elias said as he stood by Carter, staring down at the few drops of blood that managed to drip down from James's foot.
Without prompt, Elias bounded down the hallway and stood in front of the opened bathroom door, worry washing over his voice. "You okay, man?" he asked James. "We heard some noise earlier that sounded like shattered glass. Did you step on that?"
James watched both Carter and Elias out of the corner of his eye, but he kept his focus mostly on his foot. He was still squeezing it, now with both hands over the cut.
"Yeah," he said simply. "Broke some glass in a picture frame. Don't go in there barefoot."
Carter glanced down the hallway towards James's room and stepped out.
Elias glanced at Carter. "Well, you can worry about cleaning that up later." He took a step forward, suddenly smiling despite the situation. "Want me to look at it? I've had weirder things happen during my internship. This would be easy to fix."
James pursed his lips. "Can you just -- I think we have a first aid kit in the hall closet. Can you get that for me?"
Elias nodded and then stepped out of the room to peek his head down the hallway. "Hey Carter!" he called. "Did you hear that? Can you get the first aid kit in the hall closet?"
"Sounds pretty urgent," Carter replied from down the hall. "It's a shame I'm about to be busy vacuuming."
"That's no way to treat the low budget emergency room," Elias said with a grin, but he paid no mind to Carter's dismissal and slinked away to get the first aid kit. "Hey man, be careful vacuuming glass," he said more distantly down the hallway. "I think it could cut through the filter or whatever's in there."
"Looks like he got all the big pieces," Carter said. James could barely make it out, though.
After about a minute, Elias came back with the kit. "This it?" he asked James, sitting on the other side of the tub and already opening it.
He didn't wait for him to answer as he looked down at his bleeding foot. James was still squeezing it, but he slowly pried his hands away to peek at it. It was deeper than he thought.
"Looks kind of bad, my dude," Elias said with his brows drawn together. He took out some gauze. "Does it hurt? And can I gauge how deep it is?"
James looked down at his bloody hands and foot and then glanced at Elias. It was strange. A part of him felt underwhelmed - like he'd experienced worse. And yet, he couldn't help but worry about how inconveniencing it would be for his foot to be in pain. He walked everywhere. And he still needed to work the next day. And he needed to be able to function. It was just going to be uncomfortable for at least a week until it healed.
"How..." was all that came out as he tried to sort through the hurried stream of thoughts in his head. He needed to wash his hands. He needed to stop the bleeding.
"Yeah, it hurts. I don't think it's too deep."
Elias took out a pair of medical tweezers out of the kit. "Well, buddy, that's probably because you still have glass in there." He gestured to his foot with the tweezers. "Want me to remove it for ya?"
James looked at Elias with narrowed eyes. "Have you... done anything like this before?"
"Trust me," Elias said with a grin, not answering his question. "I'm basically a doctor."
"Uh huh," James replied skeptically.
"I can always call 911 for you," Elias said casually. "Or we can proceed with the Free Doctor Elias Clinic, complete without proper PPE." He shrugged. "Up to you."
911 was far more work and money than James wanted to even consider.
"Free Doctor Elias," James said, staring at the pair of tweezers in Elias's hands.
"Cool cool cool," he said as he gestured again at his foot. "Hand me your foot?"
James already had his leg bent so his foot was up on his other leg. Fortunately, Elias was on the side facing his foot and not away from it, so he didn't quite have to bend around awkwardly. He did find himself a little uncomfortable as he scooted closer to Elias and offered his foot, but he did it anyway.
"Don't you have to sterilize those first?"
"I was going to do that, but now you're making me look bad," Elias said with a slight smile, taking out a cotton ball and the rubbing alcohol. He soaked the cotton ball in the alcohol and then rubbed it on the tip of the tweezers.
"Okay, I don't have a magifying glass, so don't mind me," Elias said as he got on his knees and sat uncomfortably close to his foot so it was right in front of his face. He squinted at the wound. "I already see a few pieces lodged in there, so I'm going to pull it out."
Slowly and gently, Elias reached in the gash with the tweezers as blood continued to drip down. With his free hand, he did pull back some of the skin on James's foot so he could have better access pulling the glass shards out.
He worked quick enough that it wasn't a long and painful process, but slow enough so that he could carefully pull the shards out one-by-one. He placed the first bloodied small shard on the edge of the tub next to him.
"I interned at the emergency room in the children's hospital last summer," he said casually as he worked. "I've seen worse stuff than this. The weirdest thing I've seen is some kid putting too many peas in his nose. I think this sight is easier to take in than the amount of snot I saw that day."
James sat stiffly, focusing on not flinching or showing his discomfort. "Sounds like quite the experience," he said blankly.
Elias glanced up at him, but still continued to work. How many glass pieces were in his foot?
"Yeah. Kid was clearly embarrassed, but I gave him a dinosaur sticker and some candy. Because, you know, at least he tried to eat some vegetables."
"His heart was in the right place. But his execution was off," James said straight-facedly.
"Exactly." Elias pulled away another shard and then set the tweezers down, this time holding some gauze against the gash on his foot to stop the bleeding. "Too bad the kit doesn't come with stickers and candy."
"I don't think either can help with blood loss."
Still providing pressure on the gash, Elias looked down at the tub where the blood pooled in a small puddle. "How do you feel?" he asked, voice gentler.
"Fine," he said with a slightly strained smile.
"Even if you lost a pint of blood like a typical donation, you should be fine," Elias continued on, glossing over his one-word answer. "But it doesn't even look like you lost half of that, so you've got Dr. Elias's stamp of approval. Maybe I'll ask Bo to cook you something with lots of iron, though."
"I think I'll be okay," James said. "I might just be walking a little funny for a minute."
With some cotton pads, Elias was cleaning up some of the blood around his foot with his free hand. "Yeah. It'll be a long minute. What's one minute times one week? That's the amount of minutes I think you'll be hobbling. I'm tryicking to stop the bleeding and so I haven't gotten that good of a look at the nasty thing, but I'm thinking you might need stitches."
James pursed his lips again. "Really? That seems a little... extreme."
"Maybe. Maybe not. Hard to tell, but it looked pretty deep and wide." Now, he was gently squeezing the skin around the gash, like he was trying to bleed it out some more. "I'm letting the blood wash away the germs now," he explained. "Just a little longer... and... okay. Go ahead and run your foot under the water until it has stopped bleeding. It might bleed a little bit, but it should mostly be stopped. Ready?"
James only nodded.
Elias turned the shower knob so water came out of the spout (not head). "Just going to make sure it's at a body temperature, aaaand... okay, good to go," he said as he felt for the water and then pulled away. "I'll be back in a minute. You good?"
James just stared at his foot now running under the water.
"Yeah," he said, glancing over at Elias. "Thanks."
"Don't worry about it," Elias said with a smile as he gave him a quick pat on the back on his way out. "'Kay, be right back."
James sat alone in silence for a few minutes (apart from the sound of vacuuming), not sure how long it was supposed to take for the bleeding to stop. If he needed stitches, he assumed it might be longer than a minute. The pain was surprisingly pretty bearable - he just wasn't sure how it would feel to walk on it.
"Knock knock," Elias said, back at the bathroom doorway as he softly knocked on the door with his knuckles. He then sat back on the edge of the tub again, holding a new kit on his lap. "I ran up to my apartment and got some of my supplies instead. How's the bleeding?"
"I think it's stopped now," James said. The blood looked like it'd stopped flowing.
"Sweet." Elias handed him a small towel. "Dry up."
James nodded and took the rag, patting his foot dry. Carter seemed to finally reappear in the hall.
"Glass is gone," he announced.
"I can't believe all it took was broken glass for you to vacuum," James said.
Carter narrowed his eyes and smiled wryly. "Can't believe all it took was slicing your foot open for you to take a bath."
"Not a bath," Elias corrected as he stared at his foot, waiting for him to finish. "Unless you count washing just one foot a bath?"
Carter clicked his tongue. "Only one clean foot," he said before he disappeared from the doorway.
"Gotta love that guy and his sarcasm," Elias said with an amused smile to James as Carter disappeared.
James only hummed.
"Okay, let's see the damage now," Elias continued on, sitting on the floor again.
James sighed and lifted his foot back up, pointing it to Elias so he could get a good look. James had looked himself, but he didn't think it needed stitches. It might just take longer to heal without them.
"Hmmm." Elias was staring intesely at his foot, moving it a bit from one side to another so he could see the gash at different angles. "It's not as deep as I thought," he commented. "It's easier to see that now without all the blood."
"Thanks," James said.
"No probs." Elias started to take out some gauze and unwrapped a new bandage roll package. "So, no stitches. But you should still be careful walking."
"Sounds like a good assessment, Free Dr.Elias," James said, starting to pull his foot away.
"I'll take payment in tutorting sessions," Elias said with a small grin. He seemed to note that he pulled his foot away. "Need help wrapping it up, or do you got this?"
"I think I can take care of it," James said. "Thank you, though."
Elias pulled out some antibacterial cream from his kit. "Okay, but put a dab of this under the gauze. And wrap your foot a few times tightly. If you cheap out and only use one or two layers, it might come undone when you walk. You'll have to do this every night, or whenever it gets wet." He paused. "You sure you don't want my help?"
"If I have to do it every night by myself, I might as well start now," James said, grabbing some gauze from the kit.
Elias shrugged. "Fair enough." He stood up to give James some space, but still stood by the doorway. "Okay, but I'll watch you the first time, just to make sure you got it right."
"I suppose you'll be grading me then," James said as he started applying the antibacterial cream. "What a role reversal."
Elias chuckled. "Yeah, exactly. Your grade today will determine what kind of coffee I'll get you tomorrow."
"Sounds like I win either way if I get free coffee," James said, suppressing a small grin as he laid some gauze over the cut and then started wrapping a roll of bandages around it.
"Heh, sure. The best things in life are free things, am I right?"
James paused. He knew Elias likely didn't mean it in a deep way, and he probably didn't even put much thought into the saying, but James found himself wondering. What was considered free?
Probably best not to develop that with Elias. Not in this context, anyway.
"I suppose--" was all he got out before Carter interrupted from somewhere in the living room.
"What about BEER? Someone's gotta pay for it!"
James blinked slowly as he wrapped his foot and avoided rolling his eyes.
"Pffft," Elias said as he poked his head out the hallway. "I think your liver's paying for that one, bro."
Carter scoffed. "So is yours!"
"Hey, not my fault you want that boujee beer." He glanced back at James, and his grin showed that it was all playful banter. "Want me to throw a tenner at you so I can bring another pack of Natty Light only for you to complain that it tastes like dirty water again?"
"Not my fault that I have standards," Carter retorted.
"How burdensome," James said under his breath as he tied off the bandage on his foot.
Elias turned his attention back to James. "The beer, or Carter?" he said softly as a joke.
"High standards," James replied, though Elias was right in both of his guesses.
"Hey Carter!" Elias yelled out again. "Your high standards are burdensome."
"Oh yeah?" Carter said. It sounded like his voice was coming closer - or rather, moving around the living room. "Where'd you learn that word? One of your nursing classes?"
James tidied up the first aid supplies, putting things back in the kit.
"Hah hah," Elias said with amusement, half-rolling his eyes. He was leaning against the frame of the door, watching James tidy up. "How does it feel?" he asked him.
James planted both of his feet on the floor and hesitantly stood up. His foot ached, and the cut still stung to a degree, but it was a dull pain.
"It's okay," he said, picking up the first-aid kit and walking towards Elias and the doorway.
"I give you an A minus," Elias said. "It'd be an A if you had a sticker, though." He watched James carefully for a few seconds. "But really, don't overexert yourself. Talk an Advil if it hurts, 'cause it probably does."
James nodded. "What's the thing you guys say... 'It's just a fleshwound.'"
James reached out and patted Elias briefly on the arm before he slipped past him into the hall so he could put the kit away.
"I will never not be over how little you know about internet memes," Carter said. He was standing within view, in the living room, with a bag of chips in hand. James only shrugged in reply as he opened the closet and put the kit away.
"He doesn't even know pepe the frog," Carter said.
Elias followed James out into the hallway but sat down on the armrest of the couch. "Hey, our man's a normie," he said. "I think it's kinda funny that he doesn't think the B emoji is funny."
James closed the closet door and looked down the hall at the two of them.
"I don't know how you keep up with all of it," James said. "Seems like there's a new slang word every month... or week."
"Urban dictionary, bro," Carter said.
"Internet in general," Elias added on.
"You have to learn all the words, bro," Carter said. "You're an english major."
James simply turned around and walked straight for his room.
"Oh, no, Carter," Elias said with a fake urgent voice. "James is yeeting himself away from this conversation."
"I know what yeeting means," James replied wearily. Then he came to his door. He scanned the floor, seeing that the carpet was, indeed, freshly vacuumed. Hopefully he wouldn't step on any missed shards.
"Thanks again, Elias," James said. He didn't wait for a reply before he closed the door.
Gender:
Points: 3255
Reviews: 174