Sawyer has had my arm slinged around her shoulder for almost an hour trying to get back up to my house. We're close now, but right now, I'm honestly pretty freaked out by Sawyer.
She told me not to move, and be quiet, and it looked like the police didn't even see us! Like she somehow pulled some trick on them to make us think we're not there?
I haven't asked her any questions on the way here, because what she did is awesome and spooky and magical at the same time and...
Wait a second...
"Okay, here we are." says Sawyer. We've arrived at the back of my home, seeing the ledge and the hidden stepds. I take my arm off her shoulder positioning my bad leg off of the ground.
"Thanks for getting me home. You can go home now." I say. Her eyes give me a look.
"No way, I have to treat that leg if you won't go to the doctor." she says. I scoff, already getting annoyed with her.
"I can treat it myself! I'm sure I can figure it out." I say.
"Really? Even when you've done nothing for it for the past two days?" says Sawyer.
"Since when do you know medical related incidents, Sawyer?" I ask. She waves her hands around, telling me she doesn't know what to say at first.
"I mean... I don't. But... I have... I'll know what to do." she says.
"You'll know what to do, even though you literally just told be you don't know this stuff." I say. Sawyer sighs annoyed and her eyes roll.
"Listen! It's hard to explain, especially when you don't understand it, but I have...... this... talent... that helps me know things when I've had no experience. It's... something... I've always been able to do." says Sawyer.
That... literally makes no sense.
"But Eli... sometimes you just have to accept the only options you have. You know sometimes you can be in shark infested waters and your options aren't just to sit there, because you won't get anywhere! You have to swim! If you don't wanna lose your leg, or maybe even... die from it... your only option is... the hospital." says Sawyer.
I stare at her.
I mean, it would suck to lose my leg or even die.
"You won't get recognized by anyone. I promise." she says. I sigh, giving her a look.
"That's not something to promise, because they will. Here in this city, I'm famous for being a criminal. There are pictures of me hung up on bulletin boards in pretty much every building, telling everyone that I'm wanted from the police. They will recognize me." I say.
"No they won't. You're gonna be fine. Okay? They're not gonna recognize you." says Sawyer.
"Listen Sawyer. There's nothing you can do to make me go to the hospital. Now please. I'm not asking. Go home." I say. She makes a thinking face, clearly by the look of her eyes, since a lot of her face is covered from the weird mask, and then looks at me.
"Sawyer come on, I─"
I suddenly feel the need to stop myself in mid sentence, and I all of a sudden don't want her to go home anymore. And start thinking stuff completely different.
Sawyer is staring at me deeply.
I now suddenly feel the urge to go to the hospital. I don't know why, but now I feel, or maybe even know, that no one will recognize me if I go.
Now I all of a sudden think that I will be completely safe, and no one will catch me.
"You want to go to the doctor." says Sawyer in a monotone voice.
My mind marks those words, and is repeated into my thoughts, and I now want to go to the doctor.
"Okay Sawyer... let's go." I weirdly say. She nods, not looking surprised that I somehow changed my mind. And now I'm walking beside her.
Why did I change my mind that fast? It's like something convinced it and controlled it.
Weird...
* * *
I don't know what made me want to come in, or even change my mind. Sawyer's been in the waiting room. It seems like people haven't been recognizing me ever since I walked in here.
One person even started to say something like, "Hey are you─", but then they stopped and just smiled at me, and Sawyer acted like it was nothing, or even weird.
She's definitely not the person I expected her to be the first time I saw her. She's whiny and demanding and incredibly tenacious, and I don't understand that because I've only known her for a few days, and she acts that way towards a stranger?
That's when the doctor comes in, carrying paperwork, and a weird black, soft looking boot. She looks at me smiling.
"Well?" I ask.
"Good news. Despite your limping and pain, it's a small fracture in the tibia and a spain on the ankle only. All you'll need is a boot for a few weeks, and then you'll be out of here." she says. I nod.
"I don't have the money for this." I say. She shakes her head.
"There's no paying for a boot in this hospital," she says. Oh. Well that's odd. "What did you do to your leg in the first place?"
I look up at her.
Oh right...
"I fell down the stairs at my house." I lie. The doctor looks at me weirdly, as she takes the ice packs off my leg an starts to wrap bandages around my ankle to around my foot.
"Must've been a hard fall for a fracture and a sprain. Must be pretty high steps." says the doctor.
"Yeah." I mutter.
"You must be very clumsy." says the doctor finishing up the bandaging. I give her a look for saying that.
"Um..." I mutter. The doctor snickers, getting the boot out, and setting my foot inside.
"I'm just kidding you don't have to answer that. I am incredibly clumsy. My mother hated it because I would always drop things, like important stuff. Your mom ever scolding at you for that kind of stuff?" says the doctor. I look up from my foot and stare at her.
She would be if she was still around... as well as my dad...
I decide to stay silent, until she finishes putting on the boot. It's snug, and my foot feels a lot more cooled down then it was, and it finally feels painless after two days of horrid pain.
I'm glad Sawyer convinced me to go to the doctor. For some reason she changed my mind really quickly. I felt the need to go to the doctor so fast, and she didn't look surprised that my mind changed so fast and everything.
The boot is now strapped tightly onto my leg, and the doctor then looks up at me.
"You're all set to go Eli. But take that crutch on the way out. It may hurt to walk in it for a few days. I'll see you in a week." she says getting up and walking over to the sink.
"Okay." I step down from the counter. I look over at the crutch standing by the doorway. There's no way I wanna risk walking on this leg.
I hold out my hand, tighten my fingers, and focus on the crutch standing at the corner. I lock the wires connecting to the mysterious sensor in my brain to the crutch.
And the crutch flings over to me, and I swiftly grab it with my hand, and put it under my arm, and walk out of the doctor's office.
Yeah... I should tell Sawyer about that talent of mine. But she should explain first on what the hell she may have done to make the cops not see us.
I walk down to the waiting room, and see her sitting there. Like I said. Incredibly tenacious. I walk with the crutch over to her, and give her a look as I meet her eyes.
"Isn't this a nice surprise?" I say to her. She looks up at me, by the look of her eyes, she smiles, from under that mask covering her face.
"I told you," she says standing up and crossing her arms. "Do you wanna go back to your house now?"
"No duh," I say to her. "Maybe on the way there, you can tell me what you did back at the cliff."
She looks at me like she does not wanna talk about that.
"Oh..." she mutters. "See that... is something... that's best not to share."
I instantly get upset.
"What do you mean that's something best not to share? You told me not to move, and the cops didn't see us? Like you knew they weren't gonna see us and we were right out in the open! Sawyer you need to get me some answers." I say to her. She looks around at everyone else, because I've started to raise my voice.
"We should take this outside," she says quieter. She starts walking to the doors of the hospital. I follow after her. Once we open the doors, we immediately stand face to face and start arguing. "I would tell you, but you wouldn't believe me because it sounds incredibly fake and stupid to someone as ignorant as you are!"
I laugh.
"Oh my God! You're acting like you know me well enough to know that! We've known each other for two days Sawyer, you hear me? Two days! And I'm already getting suspicious about not only you, but whatever you did to make those cops not see us! You don't understand me yet!" I yell. She glares at me.
"Yeah well you don't either. And I know you never will. Because this a city full of bad people and criminals, and I've met a criminal who breaks the law and runs from the police for no reason." she says. I stare at her, thinking I don't know what to say next, but yet a whole new wave of words come to me.
"You're right. I don't understand you," I say. Her eyes look surprised when I say that. "You wear a mask over your face, for no apparent reason because the reason you told me why you wear that stupid mask is because you've stayed inside your whole life which made your immune system weak? Yeah! That's damn right false and you might even be wearing that mask for attention! And then you pull me from the waters, rant at me to go to the hospital and then use some sort of magic trick to make us invisible and you won't even tell me about it because it's apparently something you never tell people! And you know what that makes you Sawyer? It makes you a goddamn bullshitter for not only acting like you know me well enough to just know me in general, but you telling me that you are a person who keeps things to herself! Your face and your magic tricks listed."
She looks up at me, with heaps of water hanging on her eyelids.
"You... don't... even... know the first about me..." she mutters. I stare at her, so ready to just walk away from her and not look back. I look around, annoyed, and then look back at her.
"Neither do you." I say. She shakes her head and looks away from me.
"Well... I guess we really just don't know who the other is yet..." she says, almost a whisper.
"There's no 'yet', Sawyer. Because I never want to see you again." I say.
She looks up at me, a tear falling from her eye. I start to walk backward, and then turn around, walking with the crutch away. I feel the urge to look back, but I just keep on walking, trying to throw it all away.
Trying to see if I'll be able to throw this girl out of my life, or if I'll even be able to.