I was told that morning Jase would be my babysitter. I wasn't sure if it was a collaboration, if it had been planned or if it was just a series of unplanned events but Jase never showed up and Nan left unconcerned that Jase hadn't arrived. Thank god Alec had brought me home otherwise I probably would have been in the parking lot at school still.
I didn't mind the silence in the house at first. But it didn't take long before some uneasiness fell through me. What if something happened and I needed help? No one would be there and god only knew when my dad would come home.
I called Jase at least six times before he texted back and told me not to worry. Someone would be there soon. I thought he had been referring to Brandy. But it wasn't Brandy who knocked on the door a short time later.
"So this is all you do when you're home?" Mina asked, her gaze focused on the TV in front of us. "No wonder your attitude is so bad."
"I have the bad attitude?" My eyebrows pinched together in confusion, my jaw dropped slightly at her accusation.
We weren't seriously going to debate who had the worst attitude out of the two of us, were we?
Her green eyes snapped to mine, she rolled them like she always did when I asked a question.
"Yes you have a bad attitude." She repeated. "You need to do something, get out. How depressing just sitting here."
She was right, it was depressing. I was sick of watching tv but what else could I do? The weather was still shitty most of the time and I was crippled.
"Yeah okay." Sarcasm dripping off my words.
She blew out a breath, standing from the brown leather couch. "Where's your coat?"
"What?"
I'd heard her, I just couldn't believe her. She ignored me, disappearing out of my sight.
"Want your varsity coat?" She called.
I hadn't worn that stupid coat since my accident. It reminded me of all the things I'd lost.
"No. There's a green one. With some fur shit on the hood." I called back.
"You've got to be kidding me."
She had said it quieter like maybe it wasn't meant for me to hear.
"What?" I asked anyway.
She emerged with my coat and I was guessing hers, a smile broke out on my face as I realized what she had been referring too.
"We have the same coat." She said flatly.
I snorted out a laugh at her expression. "We're going to look so cute."
Her green eyes rolled, still very unamused. "You're annoying."
"You like it."
I watched her shrug into her coat, mine sitting where she had dropped it on the arm of the couch beside me. I grabbed it, starting the annoying process of putting it on. I almost always got it stuck on my chair.
"How are we even going to do this?" I asked her.
"We are going to get in my car and I'm going to take us somewhere."
I yanked at my coat, my arm pinned awkwardly in the sleeve. It was stuck for sure. Mina just watched me struggle, her arms folded across her chest.
"A little help?" I asked.
"You've got it."
Sighing, I continued with my struggle. "You do realize I can't just walk out to the car and hop in like it's a piece of cake right?"
I pulled my arm back out, twisting as much as I could to try and unhook my coat from whatever it was caught on. Mina waiting there patiently, unfazed by my inability to get a damn coat on. She had a knit hat on, a fuzzy little Pom Pom on the top covering her blond hair.
We were currently in Michigan's fourth winter. There's the one that takes us all by surprise every year in early fall, then actual winter which hits around November December time, then there's usually a freak thaw followed by February which is a cold snowy son of a bitch. Another thaw and some freak warm weather just to get us all excited and then the temp drops and we all get depressed. That's how you know you're in Michigan's fourth winter.
"You're good at transfers." She simply stated.
"Not into a car."
I pulled my coat again, this time my arm sliding through the arm hole like it was supposed to. I tugged at the back, flattening it out behind me before I zipped it up.
"You're telling me that in therapy you sit there and transfer back and forth to all the equipment like it's nothing but you still don't to a car?" I nodded. "Your grandma and brother are going to ruin you."
"What's that supposed to mean?" I snapped.
"Just come on." I pulled my own hat and gloves from the pocket of my coat, tugging it down over my ears as I pushed myself toward the front door. I wrestled my gloves on as I rolled after Mina.
"This isn't gonna work."
Of course, Mina didn't answer me. I rolled down the ramp my Pops had built so that I could get in and out of the house. Mina's white car sat in my driveway beside my truck. It hadn't moved in months.
I stopped my wheels near the front of her car, watching as she pulled open the passenger side door. There was no way this was going to go well.
"Well come on."
"I can't do it." I told her, not moving.
"You haven't even tried."
"But I'm telling you I can't." Our breath crystallized in the cold air, the temperatures had dropped back down below freezing as the day had progressed.
Her eyes rolled as she left the car door open and headed my way.
"Try Owen."
I let her push me toward the open door. I wasn't really sure why. I knew I wouldn't be able to. The gap from the wheelchair to the seat was enormous. All I could see in my mind was a thousand ways this could end up bad. I felt her lock the wheels, my chair pushed up tightly against her car.
"Do exactly what you do every other time you transfer." She told me.
I looked up into her clear green eyes, she was confident that I could. And I was confident it was false confidence.
"I'm not gonna make it."
She blew out a breath. "Yes you will."
"You have too much faith in me."
Her head shook, the Pom Pom on her hat bouncing back and forth.
"You don't have enough."
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