The Exchange Student

El Cangrejo

(Hello everyone ! Thank you for the likes and the reads ! Feel free to comment, or even chat with me ! I hope you'll like this new part.)

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She had grown to like the chair. At first, she pictured it as an enemy. As the personification of the hard times that she was going through. But with time, it became her friend. More than that, it was the extension of her body. Without it, she couldn't do anything. Or rather, with it, she could do so many things. So yeah, she liked it.
But it didn't really change the fact that she wanted to get rid of it, as soon as possible. She was relieved to know that in a couple weeks, she'd be back on her feet. But for now, she still has to push herself from the wheelchair and onto the crappy plastic stool inside the shower stall. She was tense. In fact, not only her body was. She was upset.

The lukewarm water running on her body could only do so much to relax her. She was equally mad at Beatrice and herself. Part of her wanted to laugh because she just had her first fight with her girlfriend.

But yeah, it sucks that things were hard these times. Ever since the accident, so many problems came into her life. Her ability to walk plus all the legal stuff, that might get her ass in court soon enough. She was well aware that her friends and Beatrice had become an amazing support system. However, it was incredibly overwhelming. Because in the span of a minute, a second, even, she had lost her independence. And sure, she was young. Many nineteen years olds are not independent. For her, it had been different ever since she had lost her parents.

So, to rely on some people was something she wasn't used to. Even her aunt had been pretty laid back when Ava used to live with her. And Beatrice, whom she had very quickly put a large amount of trust in, she had kind of crossed a line. Not because she was boring – in a cute way – and didn't want to make fun of the situation yet, but because she made Ava feel like she couldn't handle her problems on her own. And even if she didn't explicitly say it, Ava still felt that way.

She made sure to take all the time in the world to finish her shower, so when she stopped the water, she grabbed a towel, wrapped it around her body and stayed on the stool. After what felt like an hour, she finally got out of the shower stall, and sat back in the wheelchair. She struggled to put her clothes on, but it took her five minutes less than the first time. Small victories, right ?
By the time she got out of the bathroom, Beatrice's apartment felt empty. The smell of weed was completely gone, and the cool early evening air had spread into the flat. It wasn't until she heard a sob from the next room that she understood that Beatrice was still here.

Ava exhaled three times before pushing herself to the living room.

Beatrice was sitting cross legged at the very end of the sofa, head down buried in her hands. The sight wasn't heart breaking, simply sad. Which were two very similar things, but Ava knew she wanted to surpass this. She wasn't afraid of communication, she just didn't know how it worked. Yet.

Beatrice turned her face to look at her. "Hey."

"Hey," Ava whispered, her voice matching Beatrice's. She softly bumped her chair into the other side of the couch. Ava carefully approached her. "Where's Cam ?" She had a neutral tone. It was a bit sharp, but caring.

Beatrice jumped, she had been so lost in her thoughts she didn't even hear the bathroom door open. "Oh, well," she sniffed and raised her head to stare at the wall in front of her. Ava could only see her profile, but her eye and cheek were pretty red. "She left to pick up dinner."

Bless Camila and her extreme respect of boundaries and privacy.

Ava took a second to observe her. Beatrice smiled softly at her, but there was pain behind her eyes.