Control

Chapter Three

"Rachel!" I call out to my best friend who is walking with her boyfriend who happens to be my other best friend.

"Hey, do you have practice?" Rachel asks me.

"She's a cripple she can't do shit!" Liam makes fun of me.

I make a face at him. "Funny!" I say sarcastically. "No, I have physical therapy." I say to Rachel.

Rachel frowns at me. She's upset because of what her dad said to her this morning, and she told Liam, but he doesn't understand. How could he, he doesn't normally deal with things like these.

Liam holds Rachel's hand tightly. It's a fear that she's going to slip away from him-not as much physically as emotionally, I see it in his emotions: fear.

I raise one eyebrow at him. "You okay?" I ask Liam, and then move my eyes from his eyes, to their hands, then back to meet his eyes.

"Yes," he utterly snaps at me, "I'm fine."

Rachel looks at him with concern, but before I get involved in this any more, I turn to Rachel.

"I've got to go to my locker and then catch the bus, have fun at practice, call me if you need anything." I tell her. I turn to Liam, "that goes for you too."

Before they say anything, I head to my locker and push my way through the maze of people, which is actually very hard and painful when you only have one good foot.

"Annabelle!" I hear my name being called.

I turn around and immediately smile. "Hi," I say to Lucas, "how are you?"

"I'm great, thanks for asking, how are you?"

"I'm well." I answer him, still smiling. I notice he is smiling too.

"Is this where your locker is?" he asks me.

"Yes." I respond. "Where's yours?"

He points to the next wall. "Right there." He points out.

"And we've never met until now... huh that's weird." I state.

"Yeah I agree." He says. "So anyway, what are you doing today?" he asks me.

"Physical therapy and homework!" I say, sarcastically excited. "How about you?"

"Homework, yay!" He throws the sarcasm back at me.

We talk for a little bit about school and classes, but then we realize that the hallways are almost completely empty and that we both have to catch our buses.

On the bus, I sit with my junior and senior friends. Allison, a senior starts talking about her boy drama and her friend drama. Her and Kathleen get in a fight, make up, and then start crying. The usual.

My phone buzzes, I look to see a text from an unknown number saying "Hey its Lucas" and I smile.

I respond "Hey its Anna" and then put my headphones in for the rest of the bus ride home, occasionally responding to Lucas. No, actually I constantly respond to him, smiling at every text.

I get home and start my geometry homework, which is unusually a very short assignment, so I finish in a matter of seconds. I run through my class schedule in my head trying to think of what other homework I have, but then realize I have none. I check my phone and see no response from Lucas. I sigh and then look at the clock. It is time for me to go to physical therapy.

"Mom, let's go!" I holler towards my mom.

I wait in the car.

She gets in the car, it is a silent drive, but physical therapy is only three minutes away from the house.

She drops me off at the front, and I go inside. The elevator I have to take to get to the physical therapy unit reminds me of Grey's Anatomy, one of my favorite TV shows.

I walk down the hall, which seems like it is a mile long. I hate walking in the boot, but it is less painful than walking without it. My phone buzzes, Lucas is calling me. I answer the call.

"Hello?" I speak into my phone.

"Hey, are you busy?" Lucas asks me through the phone.

I sigh. "Actually, yes. I'm about to walk into physical therapy. Did you need something?" I feel bad having to decline him.

"Nah, I just wanted to talk." He says, kind of soullessly, turning words that could make my heart beat a mile per minute in pure joy into words that make my heart quickly beat out of panic.

"Can I call you after?" I ask, hoping for a positive answer.

"Sure." His mood seems to lighten up a bit.

"Okay," I say, "I have to go now, I'll call ya later." I tell him.

"Okay, bye." He says and ends the call.

I walk into physical therapy smiling; he just wanted to talk. My insides have melted. I work with my physical therapist on exercises for strength of my ankle and then I ice it.

After physical therapy, I text my mom telling her to pick me up and call Lucas. He picks up almost immediately.

"Hey, you didn't forget about me." He says.

I chuckle. "How could I?"

"That is true. I am a very hard person to forget." He says, flattering himself.

I laugh, "whatcha up to?" I ask.

"Nothing, just talking to you."

Lucas and I talk for almost two hours, I learned so much about him. We talked about important things, non-important things, and anything that makes up conversation.

As usual, after physical therapy I am exhausted. I fall asleep quickly after I eat dinner.