Bitter Treats (BxB Romance, In Progress)

4: Sweet Healing

Present time

"Hi sweetie, did everything go well today?" Aunt Donna beamed toward Tyler as he got into the car. His last lecture of the day, Psychology 101, had just ended and she was about to drive him to his afternoon doctor's appointment. Tyler had many of those lately. People poked and prodded him while asking how he was doing and whether a certain poking hurt or not, and if it hurt, how much on a scale of 1-10, and so on.

Tyler was very tired of questions, or rather, he was tired of finding answers to everyone's well-meaning queries. "How are you doing?" loses its meaning when it has been asked a dozen times and the answer is still not "fine".

So while gathering his crutches and tucking them beside him in the passenger seat, he pondered how to answer the questions from his aunt. Because this time, the answer was actually "fine," but he couldn't very well say that since the reason his day had been brightened was on account of his tutor turning out to be mightily cute. While his aunt was always relentlessly supportive, Tyler wasn't quite ready for the follow-up questions that answer would garner. He needed to figure out the answers himself first.

So, he ended up going with, "I guess," muttered through gritted teeth.

"And the tutoring, do you think it will work out? I think it'll be good for you to get some extra support since you missed a few weeks of classes."

"Maybe," Tyler mumbled. To not betray his true feelings on the matter, which was that tutoring was a good excuse for flirting, he gazed out the car window. A glimpse of swaying dark bangs made his heart pound. The bangs disappeared from view before he could even surmise whether it was Robin who passed by.

"I'll take that as a yes," Donna chirped, turning the key in the ignition before starting to back out from the parking spot. "It's at least better than "when pigs fly" which is what you said this morning..."

"I heard there have been advances in pig aviation technology lately," Tyler replied, looking toward his aunt with a smile. "So I guess I have no choice."

His aunt returned the smile, a curious look in her eyes. But she didn't ask any further questions while she navigated out of the parking lot and out to the main road toward the hospital. This allowed Tyler to look longingly out the window, pondering how to crack the riddle of his tutor. Was Robin gay? Was Robin interested in Tyler? How would Tyler be able to coax out the answers to these questions without outing himself?

Although, maybe it was time to come out. But how to actually do that was also a tricky riddle to crack.

***

With only orange-and-pink striped boxers covering his lower body, Tyler felt exposed where he lay on the padded table, which had a distinct anti-bacterial smell.

"So when can I--" Tyler winced from the pressure of the doctor's hands on his leg. A buzzing pain jolted down to his toes, even though they were no longer there, when glove-clad fingers touched fresh scars. He breathed through gritted teeth. "--get a prosthetic?"

The physician, a bespectacled woman called Laura, or maybe Lauren? Or Laurel?--Tyler couldn't keep track of all the names of medical professionals he'd seen lately--hemmed and hawed a bit, turning the injured limb carefully in her hands. More electric sparks moved through his body when she once again nudged the scars. Tyler tried to not let the pain show on his face.

"Considering the amount of pain you're in from just me touching the skin," she replied, apparently seeing right through his brave act, "I would say another month or two at least. The nerves need time to heal. But it's difficult to predict, especially when it comes to traumatic injuries. The recent surgery should improve your pain levels soon though. Then you may be able to try a prosthetic."

"So maybe..." Tyler breathed in and stared up at the ceiling tiles above him on the medical table. He'd seen too many hospital ceiling tiles during the last few months. White, square, and boring. He was so sick of looking at tiles. He didn't want to be laying down anymore. He wanted to run. He wanted to jump. He wanted to dance. Sometimes it felt like his body was about to burst from all the contained motion that wanted to come out but couldn't. "...maybe for my birthday? It's in November."

Birthdays were a time for college kids to run wild. But Tyler couldn't run wild on one leg, dependent on crutches.

When he was stuck in that car, he'd sworn nothing would hold him back anymore, if he made it out alive. He would, finally, be himself. He would be free. But instead, he was more restricted than ever. The emotions he wanted to explore were still trapped inside as he struggled with simple things like showering, getting up stairs, and sitting down.

But meeting his tutor today had made him realize that he didn't want to wait any longer. He needed to explore, even if he would have to do it on crutches. His injury was after all just a small part of who he was, and other parts were now, after several months of only focusing on healing and coping, screaming for his attention.

"Maybe in November." The doctor's tone wasn't as assuring as he'd hoped. Tyler bit his lip to not betray any reaction. "You can sit up and put on your clothes again, Tyler."

"Here you go, sweetie." His aunt Donna handed him his jeans, neatly folded up under her care, as well as the black nylon sleeve for his leg, which went under his clothes to protect the sensitive residual limb from chaffing and to prevent swelling.

"I just want to..." A burning sensation commenced as he put the fabric to the bottom of the leg. He could see why it would not be advisable to contain the limb in rigid carbon fiber and metal just yet, but he couldn't help hoping. "... not have people look at me. And to be able to like to walk up stairs without issue."

Laura-Laurel-whatever-her-name-was nodded in sympathy. Always so much sympathy from these damn doctors, but no solutions. "You're back in college now, right?" she asked.

Aunt Donna answered for him, "He insisted on going back already this semester. I thought he should focus on rehab."

Meanwhile, Tyler rolled the black nylon over his knee, making the ugly scars disappear under it. "I was tired of just sitting at home," he countered. "Rehab. Therapy. Doctor's appointments. It's all I did. I need to live again."

Robin's shy but beautiful flashed in his mind. A glimpse of a blue sky on a rainy day. His tutor made him think of very different things than scars, crutches, and anti-bacterial-smelling hospital rooms. Robin made him hope for a brighter day on the other side of this storm.

He couldn't rush the healing of his leg, but he could attempt to heal his life in other ways in the meantime.

Author's Note: And we're back in the present time (as you may have noticed, chapters in the present time are called Sweet... while chapters in the past are called Bitter...). This chapter would be set between chapters 2 and 3 of SLB and tying into Tyler saying he needs to leave since he has a hospital appointment after class.

I know I said this story will update on Thursdays but after doing some counting, I realized I need to do some double updates to be able to hit 20k words in total before the Wattys submissions window closes. So to get ahead, and also give readers enough content to get into the story, I've decided to also do Sunday updates for a few weeks early on.