Living with the Swaylers

Chapter 13: Recovery

Life is hard, that's for sure, but staying strong has its rewards. For days I had to do nothing but stare at the wall, which is probably what I wish I could do while at school, but when that is all you can do, it was miserable. Once I made my way all the down the stairs into the garage to visit Ash as he was working on repairs on the car. 

"Annabelle, how did you get all the way down here? You're supposed to be in bed," he said looking up at me curiously with a little bit on car grease on his face which was a nice touch to his bad boy complexion. 

"I wanted to say hi. It's lonely up there," I said standing there looking at Ash with my crutches. 

He smiled, looked away, then looked back at me which gave me butterflies. "I'm sorry, but that's kind of the point. The doctor said you need as little stimulation as possible, which includes people."

"What if I just stayed down here with you?" I said with a sad, innocent look on my face. 

"I'm going to be working with loud tools. You'll have to go back inside to your room." I then pouted. "Bellie, c'mon don't do that. Here, I'll help you go back." 

He  walked with me inside and helped me up the stairs by giving me a piggy-back ride and also holding my crutches. He then set me down on my bed and my crutches within reach of the bed before petting Holly. "Wait, Ash?" 

"Yeah?" he looked at me.

"Um... I'm hungry," I said. I kind of wanted a hug too for no reason, but was too shy to ask in case that would be weird. 

"Ok, I'll go get you some food," he smiled. "Anything else you need?" 

"Hmm, no that's it," I said. I sort of didn't want him to leave, but I knew he had more work to do on the car. 

"Ok, well let me know if there's something else," he said and started to walk out of the room. How is that man so attractive, cute, kind, and hot all at the same time?! I sat there and thought about the fact that I am so lucky to be living with him, with all the Swaylers. 

-

Those days had finally ended, and I could go to school again. As I got ready for the school day, I was nervous now. How will my "friends" treat me now? Oh wait, now except for the Swaylers, I don't really have any friends. People know who I am and say hi to me, but I don't know much about them at all. Will I still popular after dumping my popular "friends"? I guess I'll just have to find out. 

Less than an hour later, I crutched my way into history class where every day begins, good or bad. A lot of the class looked at me not used to the sight of seeing me in a medical boot, but especially my old "friends". They looked surprised and looked like they even considered asking about it, but I was just focused on trying to find an open seat away from them. I spotted Caleb in the back corner of the classroom. I caught his eye and he waved to me. I waved back and he gestured to the empty seat next to him. Relieved, I made my way through the classroom over to where he was. 

"Hey Annabelle! What happened?" he asked referring to the crutches. 

"Car accident. How are you?" I replied sitting down and setting my crutches down. 

"Wait what? I'm good, but are you okay?" he asked surprised. 

"Yeah I'm fine now," I explained that I was gone for a few days because of my concussion, but I would just have to try to make it two days until the weekend. 

"Yikes, that sounds awful. I'm sorry. Well thankfully you didn't miss much, but it was kinda weird without you though."

"What do you mean?"