For The Least Of These by Jennifer Davis

The stereo system was custom installed. It was made by Bose and it included a six disc CD player, satellite radio, a cassette player, and multiple speakers. A small digital screen displayed the current outside temperature. Adam started the engine, and we were cruising at sixty in just seconds.
    Adam glanced over at me. “You really should put something on that sunburn, Brandy. It looks really unpleasant and painful.”
    “It’s not a sunburn,” I said. “I don’t really know what it is. It just sort of happened right before I met you.”
    “That’s Adam for you. Giving girls the hives before he even talks to them.” Rick said with a laugh, but Adam just ignored him.
    My seatbelt began pulling tightly across my chest. The pressure it put on my tender shoulder was unbearable. I pulled at it until the tension loosened a bit. Although not as intense, the pain was still there, and now I was beginning to feel it in my back. I couldn’t imagine what could be causing this problem. I hadn’t been in the sun all day.
    “So how did you get red paint only in your hair and on your dress?” Rick asked.
    “It’s sort of a long story. Suffice it to say that a punctured paint can and I had a fight – and I lost.”
    “But why is the paint only in your hair and on your dress? There’s none on your skin,” Rick pressed.
    “Well, I did have some on my face, arms, and back, but I used some solution to clean it and…” Awareness crept into my brain. I was having a reaction to the carb cleaner.
    Adam looked away from the road towards me. “Just what kind of solution did you use?” he asked.
    I didn’t want to tell him. I knew how stupid I would look. I had even suspected that the cleaner would be dangerous to my skin, and I had used it anyway. But I couldn’t lie. I needed to get the chemicals off my skin, and if I lied, I wouldn’t be able to do it soon enough. Hopefully, I hadn’t already waited too long. “It was carb cleaner,” I replied in a small, self-effacing voice.
    “What?” Rick laughed out loud from the backseat. “You put carb cleaner on yourself? Why in the world would you do that?” He was having quite a laugh at my expense, but I had to admit that it was sort of funny – or at least stupid.
    “You need to wash that stuff off of you,” Adam said. I noticed that he wasn’t laughing. My esteem for him grew in that moment. “I think you need to go to a doctor. Those chemicals could be dangerous. I’m going to take you to the Emergency Room of the nearest hospital.”
    “Wait a minute,” Rick said. “Are you sure this is that serious? We don’t want to overreact.”
    “All I know is that she put some chemicals on her body a while ago, and now she’s as red as a lobster. And from the look on her face, she’s in pain, too. I’m not going to take a chance.”
    I wanted to argue. I wanted to tell them that it wasn’t serious at all. I wanted to tell them that it didn’t hurt. But it did, and it was getting worse all of the time. My butt and my legs above my knees were now starting to burn, and I was beginning to realize that I had probably absorbed the chemicals from the vinyl seat in the truck. I needed relief, and a hospital didn’t sound so bad at that instant.
    I have no idea how far or in what direction we traveled. The lull of the car rocked me into a fitful sleep where I dreamed that Rick was at my bedside in the hospital. He wouldn’t look at me and I was crying for him. Then I saw myself lying in the bed and all of my skin had turned into black, ugly scabs that were seeping pus. I was loathsome, and Rick refused to turn towards me. Then he walked out of the room, and Adam came in. His eyes were filled with pity, but he didn’t turn away from me. Instead, he reached down and held me in his arms…
    I suddenly realized that I was no longer dreaming. Adam did have his arms around my neck and he was trying to get me out of the car. In my sleep, I hadn’t been cooperating with him, and