"Do you - hate me? For leaving?"
I couldn't hate him for taking off like he did. He took all of this just as hard as the rest of us. He just had a different way of coming to terms with it than the rest of us. He skated. We were shook up, and wandered around not knowing what to do. He took his confusion to the streets, doing what he did best.
"No. You had to try to deal with it. Same as the rest of us."
"O-kay." he said, stretching out the "kay".
"Do you? Hate me, I mean?"
By the look on his face, what I had said sounded like some foriegn language he didn't understand.
"Why do you think I hate you?"
"I didn't come find you in Jacksonville."
"To be honest, I'm kinda glad you didn't. I mean, look at me. I can tell just by looking at you that you hate seeing me like this."
He was right. I did hate seeing him like this. By the looks of it, whatever happened or whatever went wrong was brutal, like nothing he's ever been through. Only, I wasn't sure I hated seeing him like this, or I hated the pain and suffering I could see in his eyes.
He spoke again.
"Hey. Look at me, I'm fine, okay? I'm breathing, anf the worst I have is a broken ankle."
" 'Chior, I know that, but..."
I couldn't contain it any longer. Both my heart and my brain felt as if they were going to explode. I had never felt so uncomfortable around him before. I knew I probably didn't want to know waht happened in J-ville, but at the same time, like I said: both my heart and brain felt as if they were going to explode.
"What is it?" 'Chior asked.
My mind not yet fully made up, I replied:
"Waht the hell happened over there?"
"You may think you want to know. Please trust me when I say: you probably don't."
I trusted him. I always trusted him. Probably always would. I wanted to know. I was sure now.
" 'Chior?"
"Yeah?"
I looked him dead in the eyes. In all seriousness, I spoke.
"Tell me."
He wasn't prepared. I wasn't going to push it too much if he wasn't ready.
"Later," he said, "let me heal. And get out of this damn 'bed.' Uncomfortable as all hell. Gonna have to take me to a hotel, soon as I can walk."
"Dude," almost slapping him to see how fast he'd register it, "have you forgotten that there's no one here to stop me from getting behind the wheel of a car?"
What he said next, he either said it trying to joke around or he was saying it sarcastically, I couldn't really tell. I think he was just playing around, but there was some part of how he said it that made it seem like he was being a little serious with what he said.
"You would do that for me?," not yet waiting for an answer because he already knew it, he continued to say: "How about you marry me? I can't believe that you would not only stay with me, even after I told you I wasn't going to tell you what went on, which is for your own good, you would try and get me out of a pool, walk me to a car,help me into it, and drive me to a hotel, just because I said this was uncomfortable."
"Well, uh... wouldn't you? If the situation were reversed?" I said, trying not to laugh at hte sight of shock on his face.
"Eh." I stood up and started walking towards the door. I got halfway there. EH called my name. I stopped. Turned around.
"Yeah?" I asked.
"Definitely." he answered.
