Learning to Cope

Page 11

Andrew:

"Walk? You can barely walk around this hospital room" He cannot be serious, walk? Is he gonna walk? "Well, it's not super far" he rubs his hand on the back of his neck. "I'm giving you a ride, c'mon" I take an old worn pair of grey track shoes from Ashley's hands and put them in his. "You really don't have to do that". August gets a little closer, my heart beats a little faster. He punches me in the arm, not super hard but it wasn't gentle "ouch" he sits on the edge of the bed and leans down to put his shoes on. "You earned it" he groaned.

August signs himself out and we step towards the front door together. We walk to my dingy car and I open the passenger door for him. "What a gentleman". He says sarcastically rolling his eyes. once he's seated, I close the door for him. I walk around and get into the driver's seat. "Okay, so what's your address?" I open my navigation app on my phone and hand it to him. A couple of seconds later he hands it back.

"You were gonna WALK?!" his apartment building is 30 minutes away by car, there is no way this cripple will get from point A to point B without either passing out or getting mugged because he's an easy target. "It wouldn't be the first time, it's not that bad." he's looking out the window. I sigh "you're so dumb sometimes, you're not an inconvenience or anything." I feel my cheeks getting warm. I start the car and follow the directions on my phone.

It's been 10 minutes and August is passed out in the passenger seat, I can hear his deep breaths from here. I turned on the radio and flipped to a channel I like. I really want to know more about August, I want to know what he likes and dislikes. I know he doesn't like ham, and he hates all of the nicknames I've given him, but I want to know everything about him.