Where Nerves End

left arm at all, and even raising my right generated its own set of eye-watering twinges.
    My gaze slid toward the pill bottle. The only thing that made me hesitate to take two was the threat of more nausea. They wouldnt do me any good if I couldnt keep them down, and as it was, I couldnt tell the pain-induced nausea from the drug-induced. One pill wasnt helping, two might finish me off in the sick to my stomach department.
    My eyes flicked from the pill bottle to the corner of the wall and back.
I picked the wall.
Holding my breath, I leaned against the corner, pressing back as hard as I could to dig the sharp edge of the wall into my shoulder blade. Tears stung my eyes, plaster bit into my bare skin, and the darkness behind my eyelids turned red as the pain intensified.
When I couldnt take another second, I pushed myself off the corner. I grabbed the counter for balance, closed my eyes, and took slow, deep breaths. As the pain receded, relief weakened my knees and lightened my head. The dizziness didnt help with the nausea, and I held my breath, clenching my jaw as I told myself over and over that I would not be sick, I would not be sick, I would not be sick.
The spinning slowed, and the queasiness retreated. I let my head fall back against the wall and took more slow, deep breaths as I savored the diminished pain. The relief wouldnt last long, but it was all I had.
As soon as the pain started closing back in, I pressed up against the wall again. The third time, the relief was tremendous, but the wave of nausea almost sent me sprinting for the sink. I leaned against the wall again, this time just for support, and just breathed.
Footsteps turned my head, and when Michael came around the corner, we both jumped.
“Oh.” He blinked. “I…thought Dylan was up.”
I laughed selfconsciously. “No, just me. Sorry if I woke you.”
“Dont worry about it.”
That was when I realized hed shifted his attention to my shoulder, which Id been rubbing gingerly. His eyes flicked toward the corner of the wall I leaned against. To the open pill bottle on the counter. Back to me.
Dropping both my gaze and my hand, I cleared my throat. “I, um…” I muffled another cough.
“How bad is it?” he asked.
“Ill be fine.”
“That wasnt what I asked.” He inclined his head. “I can help you withthat, you know.”
“Much as Id love to take you up on it,” I said, “Im still fucking broke. Theres no way I can pay you until Ive caught up now that I—”
“Jason, youre obviously in pain. Im not going to let you spend the whole night like that just because of money.” He threw me a pointed look. “Im not asking. Lie on your stomach on the couch. Ill be right back.”
He turned to go. As the stairs creaked under his feet, I was tempted to call up after him and tell him I was fine, but to hell with it. I felt like shit, he was already awake, and he could actually do something besides jamming wall corners into knotted muscles.
So I went into the living room as hed ordered. Fortunately, I didnt have a shirt on, because I didnt see myself going through the motions required to take one off. I lay on the couch on my stomach and rested my forehead on my right forearm. I couldnt raise my left arm, so kept it against my side.
Michael came into the living room and pulled the ottoman up next to the couch. He sat on the ottoman, and just outside my peripheral vision, a wrapper tore. For a split second, my minds eye superimposed a very different kind of wrapper into his hands, and I barely kept myself from shivering.
Dream on, Jason.
Hell, even if he was game for something like that, it was out of the question tonight. No way when I felt like this, which was why I was in this position in the first place. When his hand warmed between my shoulder blades, I nearly arched into him like a cat. Not out of arousal, but searching for the relief that I knew was coming. His touch had become synonymous with both unrelieved arousal and very relieved pain, and I could only bring myself to care about one of those tonight.
The end of the needle and the plastic tube touched my skin, and I closed my eyes.
Michael tapped the needle. It stung briefly and mildly, the minor pain gone before Id really even noticed it. Same with the second and third. A fourth, not far from the base of my neck, went in without incident, but from that pinpoint sting, a warm, dull ache slowly radiated. I tilted my head to stretch my neck, pulling at the annoyed muscle.
“Is that