Wheelchair Accessible

Part Eleven

                Shawna seemed to have a gift of making time go by quickly.

    It had been two months since that day she trampled me in the park, but I was starting to think that when we crashed, she'd messed with the space time continuum somehow. I didn't know how it was possible to have learned so much about someone in such a short amount of time. I had known the guys on my team for years and didn't know half as much.

But I was pretty sure I knew more about Shawna than I knew about anyone else in the world. For example: I have learned that she liked gummy bears, but she only picked out the red and yellow ones. Her all time favorite movie was 127 Hours, because the guy has to cut off his arm, and well...because James Franco. And on that note, I have learned she also is not afraid to talk about how attractive celebrity men were. In public. To literally anyone. Including an old lady at the grocery store we met while we were picking up ice cream. 

                Each day brought something new, and there was still so much to learn. Her brain honestly still surprised a lot of the time. Not only because of the pure weirdness that came out of it, but because she somehow always had something good to say. Even on the bad days when she was feeling tired, and she had just had an argument with her parents or her homework was stressful, she always found something positive about the situation, or something to laugh about.

My mind didn't work like that. It was a mystery to me that hers did.

But day by day, a piece of that mystery would fall away with each conversation over the phone, or movie watched together, or walk in the park. And parts of my own shell were flaking away, too. I was telling Shawna things that I had never told anyone before... and it felt good. Not intrusive, or shameful. It was nice having a friend who actually listened, rather than one who cared only as much as they gained from it.

Every day we got a little closer, and Shawna was proving to be the best friend I ever had.             

                Or maybe the only real friend I ever truly had.
***

                "When are you taking me home to meet your parents?"

               "I beg your pardon?" I shot her a glance. We were trudging our way through a bustling mall after school one afternoon because Shawna needed to buy a new card for her camera, but we ended up making stops at several shoe stores.

               Don't ask me why she always needed new shoes even though she didn't even walk. I didn't get it. But I hadn't been able to hang out with her for the past few days, so if this was the only time we had to hang out, so be it.

                "I want to meet your mom and dad," she told me simply, looking up at the mannequins in the store window we passed.

                I felt my neck heat up, "Uh, why?"

                "Why not? You met mine."

                "B-but, it's not like... like you're my girlfriend or something," I forced out a laugh. Shawna's eyes narrowed and she turned her head towards me before I could look away.

                |You're looking a little red all of a sudden, Mark."

                 "Pfft."

                "Are you blushing?"

                "It's warm in here."

                "Uh huh..." she chuckled, turning a corner and peeking up at me again. "Besides, I don't have to be your girlfriend to meet your parents. Like I said, you met mine."