“What are you doing tonight, Heid?” I asked.
“Um...” she hesitated, “I dunno.”
Tears squeezed out of the corners of my eyes as I raised myself up onto my crutches. “You don’t have to lie, you know. If you’re going out with people, that’s fine with me,” I hobbled off the couch and took a few cautious steps.
“Are you sure you should be doing that?” she asked.
“I have to learn sometime.”
“Isn’t that what physical therapy is for?”
“So are you going out tonight?”
“Yes.”
“With Dave and everyone?”
“Yes.”
“That’s cool...”
“Look,” she said, “It’s only been a week, hon-”
“Don’t give me a speech on giving up hope, Heid... I’ve had enough of those lately...” I flopped back down in the couch and flicked on the TV.
“I’m going to one of Dean Armandi’s parties with everyone.”
“Have fun,” I said without enthusiasm. For the past week, I had been singularly bitter.
“They’re coming to pick me up, “ Heidi said as she pulled a red sweater over her head and bounded up the stairs.
I didn’t answer. The physical therapist said that there was nerve damage in my right ankle and foot from the myelitis. They gave me crutches, and now I get to go to physical therapy twice a week. What’s worse was that I promised Tay I’d tell him what happened, but I really didn’t have any way of contacting him, unless he called me (but he hadn’t). As I sighed, the doorbell rang. “Heidi!” I called.
“I’ll be right down!” she called from her room.
If I had the power, I’d have answered the door myself. The doorbell rang again. “Dave?” I called.
“Yea, baby?” Dave yelled from outside.
“It should be open.”
It was. The front door swung open and a horde of people rushed in. Dave, Oscar, Travis, Alise, Muf, and like five people I didn’t know stood in the front hall. “Tay!” Dave dashed into the living room and pounced onto the couch next to me. “How are you feeling?”
I shrugged grumpily. I really wanted to go with them, but there was no way my mother would let me. Plus, I could barely walk.
“Still gloomy?” he turned my face to him. Pouting, I nodded. “Are you coming with us?” I shook my head. “Why not?”
“Hello? I can’t walk.”
Travis laughed, “By the end of the party, we won’t be able to walk either.”
I laughed too, shaking my head at them.
“Hi everyone,” Heidi smiled as she descended the stairs.
“Ready to go?” Travis asked.
“Are you sure you can’t come?” Dave asked, laying his head in my lap. I nodded. “Can’t you sneak out?”
“I’m afraid not,” I looked down at him.
“Poor baby. Want me to stay here with you?”
“Yea, right,” I laughed.
“No,” I really will. “I got smashed last night anyway.”
“Are you kidding me?”
“I’ll probably get drunk tomorrow night, too. There’s no hurt in missing one night,” he reached up to twirl his fingers through my hair that was falling in his face. “I’ll keep you amused so you don’t wallow in your misery.”
“Don’t be silly. You know you want to go to Dean’s...”
“Are you coming or not, Dave?” Oscar asked.
“Just go,” Dave waved them away.
“Don’t be stupid,” I lifted him off my lap and tried to push him with everyone.
“I can’t believe you’re actually pushing me to go get drunk. You of all people...”
“I don’t want you to get drunk. I just don’t want you to miss out on a good time.”
“My good time would be getting plastered,” he informed me, ushering all his friends out the door.
“That’s pretty sad,” I laughed.
“Isn’t it?” he plopped down next to me. “So where is your mother on this fine evening?”
“Working and then some kind of dinner for some dude who’s leaving the company.”
“Sounds thrilling...”
“So what do you want to do?” I asked him.
“Strip poker?”
“Sure. The cards are over there,” I pointed to the drawer in the end table.
“You really want to play?”
“Why not?” I smirked. My dad taught me to play poker when I was really little, and I’d been perfecting my skills ever since. Besides, I was wearing like five layers of clothes because I had been really cold before. Dave got the cards out and we started to play.
“Dammit,” he cursed as I lay down the winning hand. He pulled off one shoe.
“Shoes come in pairs, my love,” I reminded him.
“Damn, you’re pretty eager to see me naked, aren’t you?”
“Oh yea!” I laughed, rolling my eyes. He pulled off the other shoe, and then handed the deck to me to deal again.
“You’re gonna lose,” he informed me as I handed him his cards.
“Right...” I said as I lay my full house on the table.
“Damn you!” he said, showing this three of a kind. He pulled off his socks.
We played until Dave wore nothing but his khakis (and whatever he was wearing under them). I, on the other hand, was still fully clad, except for my scrunchy (I let him win). “Look!” I laughed as my cards beat his again.
“What?! You cheat!” he contested.
“Take ‘em off!” I laughed.
“Come on!” he whined.
“No, you come on. You wouldn’t be merciful if I was the one who was losing.”
“Yes I would.”
“You are such a liar!” I laughed, reaching across the table to grab him.
He dodged me, yelling, “Haha, I can run and you can’t!”
“I don’t care. You wanted to play this game. Play by the rules!” he stood up and started to pretend to strip, singing. He unbuttoned his pants, probably thinking I’d stop him. “Go ahead,” I urged.
“Damn, girl, you just-” The telephone interrupted him. As he leapt for it, he tripped over his falling pants and crashed to the ground. “Hello? Robinson residence, Dave speaking. I’m too sexy for my pants,” he answered the phone, laughing hysterically. I couldn’t breathe. I wish someone else was there to witness that. Man, was it funny! Anyway, so Dave, his face red, handed me the phone.
I covered the mouth piece and said, “See, that’s what you get for not obeying the rules! You should have just taken off your pants when I told you.” I removed my hand and talked into the phone. “Hello?”
“What are you doing?”
“Tay? Hi! Dave and I are playing... poker.”
“Strip poker?”
“How are you?” I avoided the question.
“Strip poker?”
“Chill, Tay...”
“Well are you playing strip poker? I heard what you said about his pants.”
“We’re only joking around... Besides, you’d be proud of me... I’m winning...”
“You know, Robinson-”
The tone in his voice told me he was about to go ahead and yell at me. All right, so it looked really bad... What could I do about it? “Tay, can you just like, breathe for a second?”
“Well I was calling-” he was really pissed.
“Finally!” I was getting annoyed myself, “I mean, it’s been like, what, a week? You don’t even know if I’m paralyzed or not!! I could be in a wheel chair for all you know!”
“Well that’s why I called,” he yelled, “but you are just way too busy getting naked with your other boyfriend-”
“Okay first of all, I am not naked. Second of all, he’s not my boyfriend. And what am I supposed to do, sit at home all day waiting for you to call? I do have a life and other friends, you know,” I yelled. “You really need to learn how to chill out,” I informed him as I clicked the phone down, not caring if he was sorry or anything like that.
Dave looked at me as I crossed my arms over my chest grumpily, “So, how is he?” he asked innocently.
I couldn’t help laughing, “Pissed.”
“That’s so cute!” he teased me.
I reached to slap him, “If I could reach you, I’d kill you!” I laughed, hitting the air with my hands.
“Want me to carry that?” Odessa asked, referring to my history book.
“Yea. I’m totally dumb at this,” I hobbled on my crutches. Odessa was escorting me to my next class, French. After about two weeks on crutches, I was still a total idiot. But at least my mother let me go back to school. It’s not like me to want to go to school, but I was getting a major case of cabin fever.
“You’ll get used to it,” Odessa encouraged.
“It’s been two weeks. I think I’ve had long enough to learn. I’m just dumb at this,” I half-laughed, trying to hurry.
“There’s this party at Andrea Moroni’s house on Friday, can you go?” Odessa asked.
“I dunno,” I pouted, shrugging, “My mother hasn’t really let me go anywhere.”
“You should beg...” Odessa laughed.
I nodded, not sharing her happiness. Tay and I were still not on the best of terms, Dave hadn’t called me in like five days, and I was still angry and bitter that I was unable to function.
Odessa delivered me safely to French as the bell rang. I sulked my way through the rest of my classes, and the bus ride home, too. As I lazily lay on my bed, depressedly musing, the telephone rang. I toyed with the idea of letting the machine get it, but aftet the thiird ring, I picked up the portable. “Yea?”
“You sound excited...”
“Who is this?”
“You don’t recognize my voice? I’m hurt, Robinson... it’s Zac...”
“Oh, hi!” I actually smiled for the first time in like two days.
“How are you?”
“Sucky...”
“How come?”
“I’m a f*&$ing cripple,” I ran my finger along the trim of my night table.
“Poor baby...”
“How are you?” I changed the subject.
“I’m pretty good. Having fun...”
“Good. Everyone in your family is okay?”
“Yea... Tay keeps chewing my ear off about you-”
“Can we not talk about that?” I interrupted.
“Sorry...” he sounded guilty.
“Don’t worry about it.”
“I don’t suppose it will please you then that we’re coming home like, next week?”
“No, that’s cool. I guess he and I just have some issues to work out...”
“Can I just say something?”
“Go ahead,” I flopped over onto my stomach.
“He never really said what you guys had a fight about, but I can tell you did. He’s really stressed, and so the littlest things set him off... I think he’s afraid to tell you, but he really likes you a lot, Robinson, and he doesn’t think you like him as much as he likes you.”
“Why would he think that?” I thought out loud.
“I don’t know...”
“Is he there?” I asked.
“No,” Zac informed me, “He went someplace with Ike...”
“Oh.”
“I can tell him you want to talk to him,” Zac offered.
“All right. You’re so helpful, Zacky, I can’t wait until we can hang out,” I smiled, genuinely excited.
“Me neither.”
“We can go to some rockin’ parties or something...”
“Awesome.”
“When will you be here?”
“Next Monday?” he seemed slightly unsure.
“That’s cool.”
“Uh, I gotta go, Robinson, but I’ll tell Tay to call you. I hope you feel better...”
“Thanks, Zac.”
I hung up and sighed. I heard footsteps on the stairs, “Heidi?” I called.
“Yea?”
“Have you talked to Dave recently?”
“Not really, why?”
“Just wondering. He hasn’t called in like, a week...”
She stuck her head in the doorway, “I’m sure he still loves you.”
“I hope he’s alive,” I wasn’t even kidding.
“Travis would have called if anything that serious happened.”
“I guess...”
“You worry too much,” she smiled, exiting the room.
“You know you want to go,” I persuaded.
“Actually, I really don’t...” Dave laughed.
“Come on, it’s the first time I’m allowed out of the house.”
“She’s letting you go grocery shopping with her. It’s not exactly the thrill of my life,” he informed me.
“Well it’s the thrill of mine. Come on, man!”
“Why?”
“Because you love me, and you know it...”
“All right, all right,” he relented, “I’ll come with you.”
“Come over,” I said, smiling.
“You’re crazy,” he laughed as he hung up.
“Mom, Dave syas he’ll take me to the grocery store. You can stay home if you want,” I called into the kitchen.
“All right.”
Yes, we were going to the grocery store. It was a lovely thing for me because my mother had forbidden me from going to that party Odessa had mentioned, and I hadn’t done much of anything other than school. Dave picked me up (I was armed with a shopping list and some money), and helped me into the car.
“I feel like such a spaz,” I said as he took off down my street.
“You are.”
“Oh, thanks.”
“I can’t believe you’re this excited about grocery shopping...”
“I am. Get over it.”
“Ooh, attitude!”
“You bet your ass.”
When we got to the super market, we got one of those shopping carts, and Dave lifted me into it so that it wouldn’t take like nine years for me to walk. Anyway, so once inside the place, I directed Dave to push me over to the vegtables. We got all the necessary stuff, bread, pasta, apples, and Lucky Charms, and then we decided to have some fun.
“Catch!” he yelled, tossing a six pack of toilet paper at me. Of course I missed, and it hit the floor. “You suck!” he laughed, tossing another so that I could catch it. I did. Placing the other one back on the shelf, we headed over to the junk food.
“Potato chips!” I called. I caught them. “Onion dip!” he placed it in the cart because it was glass.
“I want some Chips Ahoy,” Dave informed me.
“Let’s go then!” I laughed as we sped down the aisle.
“Get those ones,” I pointed.
“Which?”
“Those,” I pointed to the ones with the M&M’s in them.
“These?”
“No,” I waved my finger in the other direction.
“Which then?”
“Come here,” I summoned him. I hoisted myself up on his back, and lead him to the ones I wanted. “These,” I held the cookies out in front of him, leaning my chin on his shoulder.
“Yummy,” he turned his face to mine. Our noses brushed against each other. I could feel his breath on my face.
“Um... I forgot to get milk,” I said, turning my head away.
“Let’s go then,” I could see him smirk even though he turned his head away.
I loosened my tight grasp around his shoulders a little as a chill ran over me. When we reached the aisle where the milk was, he asked, turning his head again in my direction, “What kind do you get?”
Distracted by his hands clasped under my butt, I stammered, “Sk-skim.”
“Sure about that?” he teased.
I nodded meekly.
“So when is your little lover coming home?” he asked, grabbing the milk.
That’s when I knew he was making me feel uncomfortable on purpose. With the hand that wasn’t holding the milk, he slid his hand onto my thigh. “In four hours,” I slid his hand off, smirking.
“Damn.”
“Why?”
“I was hoping we could get it on.”
“What? You’re not serious, I hope...”
“Chill,” he laughed. “I was only joking.”
Pausing because I felt stupid, I cleared my throat and said, “It would take less than four hours anyway.”
“Not if we did it my way,” he laughed, depositing me back by my crutches.
“Did we buy Cool Whip?” I asked, leaning over into the cart to search.
“Nope.”
“I want some. I love that crap.”
“You would,” he smirked evilly.
“Shut up, you pervert!” I hit him in the shin with my crutch.
