Happy Accidents

Leah

*LunaWrites's Part*

“One more time before the manager kicks us out?”

“Seriously Sam?” I asked, snickering. “I’m actually getting tired of it. Maybe we could just go home and-”

He inhaled deeply and hummed, “Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee-” I covered my ears in mock horror, attempting to hide my laughter.

“Oh my god, STOP.”

“-eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeese?” he finished, finally running out of breath. He was about to take another when I stopped him.

“Jesus, fine.” I sighed. He started beaming as he whirled around and jogged to the other end of the aisle. I shuffled back to my my side and gripped the bar of my grocery cart. “You ready?” I called.

“Yup!” he said perkily. “You?” I resituated the pool noodle under my arm and nodded back at him. Sam counted us down from three, and then we were running at full speed, hopping on our respective momentum-powered “steeds”. I took a short gasp of air and bellowed,

“FOOOOOOR NAAAARNNIIAAA!” in perfect sync with him. Then came the familiar crash of cart-on-cart, and I felt the usual jolt of impact. My little brother was already climbing off of his cart, smiling with exhilaration. But I felt something different; a sharp pain was nagging at my foot. I bit my lip and looked down.

I don’t know how I didn’t notice it when I jumped on, but somehow my right foot had wrapped around the leg of the cart, directly above the wheel. I couldn’t tell for sure, but it was twisted at a sickening angle that I tried not to think too much about.

“Leah?” I heard my brother say from over my shoulder. “You okay?”

I gulped and looked away from my feet. “Uh, I don’t actually know. Can you help me down?” I asked shakily.

Sam came up behind me and wrapped his arms around torso, lightly pulling me up. In spite of all that was going on, I couldn’t help but notice that he felt much more solid against my back than I seemed to remember. God, all grown up. I thought to myself.

He lowered me to the tile floor and I slid off my flip flop. I steeled myself before pulling my jeans up. I winced. It looked red and angry, and my ankle was still in that horrible twisted state, resembling an eraser shaving more than a body part. I tried to point my toes and winced.

“Yup, that is NOT good.” I said, flashing Sam a half smile. He didn’t seem to find it funny.

“Oh god, I’m so sorry. Shit. How did this even happen?” he spat in a flurry.

“I dunno, but I seriously doubt I can stand on it.” I glanced around. “Maybe if you could help me into the basket, I could get out to the car. Or we could get an employee and-” he rolled his eyes and sighed. He bent down and snaked one arm under my bent knees, and the other wrapped around my back. He hoisted me easily and started padding off to the car, leaving aisle #7 a mess of grocery carts and pool noodles for some unfortunate employee to find.

I wrapped my arms around his neck and muttered my thanks. He slid me into the passenger’s seat and even buckled me in, despite my protest. He plopped down into the driver’s seat, put the key in, and was about to drive off before I came to my senses.

“SAM !” I bellowed. He jumped up and whipped his head towards me.

“Wha? Does it hurt?” he said, confused.

“No it doesn’t hurt! You’re barely fifteen, and you don’t even have your learner’s permit, you are NOT driving me anywhere!”

“Oh, that,” he said, smiling so that only the bottom of his front two teeth were visible.

“Don’t give me the chipmunk face,” I muttered, crossing my arms, which only caused him to chipmunk harder.

“Dude,” he sighed. “You messed up your FOOT. I don’t know a whole lot about cars, but I’m willing to bet that driving a stick-shift one legged is a bad idea.  And if we get ambulances involved, Mom and Dad would hear about this and I dunno about you, but I sure don’t want to explain to them how this happened. Besides,” he said, “I’ve driven before. What’s the worst that can happen?”

I fumed, but cracked a small smile. “A lot can happen. And I hate to break it to you, but I think Mom and Dad are going to find out no matter what we do.”

He threw his arms up. “Please! I never get to do the cool stuff.”

“Samuel Jacob.” I said sternly.

“Leah Elaine.” he glared for a minute before his face lit up. “You know what? It occurs to me that I don’t actually need your permission. You’re an invalid who left her cell phone at home. I’m unstoppable” he turned the key and started backing out of the Kroger parking lot far smoother than I had expected. I buried my face in my hands and let out a sigh, which instantly turned into a scream as the car jerked to a stop.

“What the hell?!”

“Sorry,” he giggled. “Red means stop,” he gestured to the light.

The rest of the car ride was very similar, filled with confidence that was oddly reassuring until he came to a halting stop or left skid marks from a turn. He pulled into the hospital lot as if he was trying to shake a creature off the back of our car. He took the key out and turned to me, beaming.

“That. Was. Amazing.” he said breathlessly.

“Heh, yeah, amazing,” I mumbled, trying to calm my breathing down. “At least you didn’t crash into anything.”

“Thanks!” he said. He swung his legs out of the car and trotted around to me. He picked me up cradle style again, but failed at pulling me free. “Leah? Let go of the arm rests.”

“Oh,” I mumbled, glancing down at my white knuckles that were constricted into a death grip. “Sorry.”

He carried me through the sliding doors, into the pristine sky blue world of United First Hospital Emergency Room. He set me down in a padded plastic chair as he checked-in in the most awkward, “erm um” way that could be managed, even by a gangly teenager.

I gave Sam a sideways glance as he fell into the chair next to mine. He smiled at me, and without meaning to, I burst into laughter. He rose a confused eyebrow at me and I calmed myself down enough to speak.

“I’m sorry, but you have to admit, this is funny. Of all the ways to break something...” I shook my head. “God. We’re going to have to come up with a killer excuse for Mom and Dad.”

He shrugged and slumped his head. “I don’t see what’s so funny about me breaking your bones.”

I stopped mid-chuckle. “Oh no no no,” I said hastily. “You’re not allowed to blame yourself. I forbid it. Things happen, bones break, life goes on. It’s not even that big of a deal, see?” I flashed a smile again, and he returned a half-hearted, corner of the mouth smile. I sighed. It was the best I was gonna get.