53. Worst Surprise

“Does it hurt?”

“It hurts...” Ashley groaned with a grimace. Her eyes were closed tightly as she couldn't bear the onslaught of pain that felt like thousands of sharp needles digging into her skin.

Josh couldn't bear to look at the girl. "Should I stop? What if this medicine doesn't need to be applied? I think drinking medicine is enough to treat it from the inside?" he asked hesitantly, not really understanding medical issues like this. He even knew the order in which the topical medicines were to be applied because he had read the written instructions on the package yesterday.

Meanwhile, Ashley, whose medical knowledge was also not better than the man's, did not know what to answer.

As soon as the stabbing pain faded a little, she even told Josh to continue administering the medicine. "Don't. They gave it to me because I have to use it. Just apply it, but not too much, and—maybe you can do it quickly so that the pain can happen all at once? So that I don't have to hold it in for too long, because there are a lot of places that need to be medicated."

Josh nodded. He understood what Ashley meant, though the girl explained it by jumping up and down—the effect of the pain attack, perhaps.

“Are you sure you can stand it?”

“Yes,” but he shook his head as he replied. “Just do it, I'll try to keep quiet.”

"Then get ready. I'll start tapping it again, okay?" Josh gave the signal. He then very carefully but nimbly administered the liquid with light and very fast tapping.

Ashley felt like she was being skinned alive as Josh gave her the cursed drug. But she tried to endure it with all her might by closing her eyes tightly, biting her own teeth until her jaws hardened, and gripping her sheets until they were tangled. Even after Josh finished giving her the medicine, Ashley was still grimacing and whimpering in pain. Her tears came out enough to run down her cheeks and make them slightly wet.

Josh was silent and let her be. He didn't interrupt the girl by asking rhetorical questions about whether it hurt so much—because it was obvious from her reaction—because he wanted to give Ashley time and space to work out the pain on her own. He thought it would be more comfortable for the girl.

Then after the girl finally let out a long breath and her breathing started to become regular again, Josh spoke. “Does it hurt less?”

Ashley nodded weakly.

“There's still a wound that needs to be medicated,” Josh pointed to the left side of the girl's face. “I'll start cleaning it first when you're ready.”

Ashley just remembered that her face still had the scars from Josh's girlfriend's scratches a few days ago. That one had dried up quite a bit and the stinging had been greatly reduced. She was unsure whether or not to apply medicine to the wound. But she nodded anyway, “I'm fine.”

It was probably better for her to take care of the wounds regularly, rather than taking risks that could make them worse. Especially since it was on her face. She could not be rash and make it difficult for the wound to heal properly. Instead, she should provide better care than this.

After getting consent from Ashley, Josh touched the girl's cheek until her head turned and faced him—so that he could see the wound on the left side of her face properly. Ashley complied even though she immediately looked away. Josh might not feel anything—even when the man moved closer to her to clean the wound properly—but not for Ashley. Their position like this was enough to make her awkward and misbehave.

To suppress her own uneasiness, and for Josh not to notice, Ashley tried to shift her focus by staring at the brightly lit window of her room. While Josh was cleaning the wound and applying the medicine that gave her that terrible stinging effect, Ashley drowned her mind to think of random things, just so that she could still look calm in Josh's eyes.

Which was surprisingly difficult to do.

“I'm sorry,” Josh spoke as he applied the last tap to the scratch on Ashley's cheekbone. “You're probably tired of hearing it, but I wanted to apologize for Sharon.”

Ashley remained silent. Her mind, which had been elsewhere, now returned to a reality that made her uncomfortable.

"There's no need to forgive her right away or forgive myself right now. But I just want you to know that she was angry with me at the time and accidentally hurt you. So if you want to blame someone, blame me. Don't blame Sharon. All those things happened because of me," Josh said as softly as possible in a remorseful tone.

Again Ashley didn't give any reply. She was busy fighting with her own feelings rather than confronting Josh. Seeing the man she liked defend a girl to the death like that with her own eyes, was very painful for her.

Josh rubbed Ashley's tear-drenched cheeks. “I'm sorry, Ash.”

He understood that the girl was not in good physical condition, so he realized that he could not force Ashley to respond to his words. Therefore Josh restrained himself from saying anything more in order to keep the atmosphere between the two of them from worsening.

Josh got up from his seat on the edge of the bed, to clean up the medicines and put them back into the plastic wrap. Then placed them on the nightstand as before.

About an hour later, Ashley's mom told her that she would be at the house soon. And Josh helped Ashley move from the room to the living room to await the woman's arrival while sitting comfortably there.

As soon as the bell rang, Josh moved towards the main door to open it.

He tried his best to put a friendly smile on his face as he greeted his mother-in-law.

“Josh?” Mrs. Ashley looked quite surprised by the presence of the man. The information she received from Ashley was that Josh was out, so she did not expect to see her son-in-law at home and opening the door for her. For her, this was not a good thing, because her purpose in coming to that place was to have a private conversation with Ashley alone. “I heard you weren't home?”

“Oh—you are at home, son!” a voice came from a figure that followed Ashley's mother behind—Josh's own mother.

The woman's presence took Josh completely by surprise. “Mom?” He could barely even hide his widened eyes. But realizing Ashley's mother was there, Josh quickly set his facial expression back to as normal as possible as before.

“Surprise,” the beautiful woman smiled broadly at her son with a cheerful twinkle on her face.

“Can I come in?” Mrs. Ashley interjected in a flat but firm voice.

Josh moved aside and let her in.

Then his own mother whispered after Ashley’s mother was already inside, "I almost thought some bad things when she said you weren't home. My heart is so happy to see you here." 

It made her walk after that woman in such a good mood.

Josh really couldn't imagine what would happen after this.

Just a moment ago he was only preparing to welcome Ashley's mother alone, not a combo with his mother also. This made it like two bombs dropped at once.