When I woke up the very next morning I remembered everything that occurred the day before and groaned. My eyes wandered to my foot. It was elevated and had a cast on it that went up to just below my knee. The doctor had found a break in my leg and broken bones in my foot after looking at the x-rays again. I had flipped out at him, yelling at him and calling him an idiot for not finding it the first time. I reached for my phone with my good arm, 10 A.M. I looked at the wall clock hoping that my phone was wrong. The clock said the same thing. I wanted so badly for time to speed up to tonight. There was nothing to do. Charles was taking the train and he would be somewhere in Iowa by now. He would need a ride. I thought about asking my friend Sarah but she wasn’t home from college yet. An idea popped into my head when I saw my dad walk in.
I gave a mischievous smile and spoke, “dad?”
His eyes went from side to side and he raised his eyebrows like he was worried, “what?”
“I’m glad you asked. Ok, so Charles is coming and he is going to need a ride from Peoria to get back here.” My dads face went back to normal and he smiled.
“And you want me to go pick him up; don’t you know that I would do that?”
“Thank you daddy, I don’t want him to have to find some weirdo to ride with or take a bus or something.” My dad cut me off.
“Rose, don’t worry, I just said I was going to pick him up,” he chuckled. “I better get going. I’m going to be making a few stops along the way.
“Alright, I’ll see you when you get back.” He stood up, kissed the top of my head and left. It was almost noon and there was still a lot of time left. I couldn’t get up and walk around. What was I going to do? A few minutes later, after thinking, my eyes slowly closed and I fell asleep.
÷
A shuffling noise woke me and my eyes slowly popped open. I saw a very tall, brunette, muscular man moving the chair bed next to my bed. My eyes stayed glued to him for a while. I looked at the wall clock, almost 8:30 P.M. When he turned around and looked at me his face lit up and he set is stuff down and came over to me.
“Rose.” Was all he said. A smile crept onto my face and he put his hand on my arm. Then he spoke again, “I’ve missed you. Your dad didn’t tell me anything, so you get to do all the talking.”
I chuckled, “let’s get this done and over with. Me, my parents, sister, and uncle were going to the store to buy me the newest laptop. We were going across the intersection when a semi truck was trying to come to a stop but the brakes didn’t work. He hit us, obviously, and we went rolling. The air bags on the passenger side went off. My uncle was in that seat. He was killed,” I paused. “It’s entirely my fault.”
His eyes searched my face, “Rose, it wasn’t your fault, it was the truckers fault.” He grabbed my chin and made me look at him. “It really isn’t your fault. Rose, I’ve known you for years and to see you unhappy really makes me worry. Do you remember how happy you were when we first met?” I was startled by the question.
I nodded my head still looking at him, “yes, I was the happiest person alive. But when it was getting close to our four month mark in our friendship it got really difficult. I became unsure; I thought it was a mistake that I had gone to camp that year.” He let out a sigh.
“I figured that out. I’m very glad you went. Anyways, I don’t want you to be unhappy again, you can’t afford that.” I hated to admit it but he was right.
“Charles, I don’t like saying this because I think it will make things awkward between us and-…” He cut me off and let out a laugh.
“Don’t make excuses, just straight to it,” he said seriously with a smile. I blushed; I was still learning what and what not to do.
“I’m happy we met too. The first few months of our friendship, did you ever think anything, like about me?” I shyly asked.
He cleared his throat and put his arms on the rail and his head on them while looking at me, “if you mean did I know you liked me, then yes. I figured that out when I asked you if there was any guy you liked enough to be your boyfriend and you answered yes. Then I was sure you liked me when you asked me if I liked any girl enough to date her. Your curiosity was bugging you,” my face became worried, them his smile faded. “But you talked about John and his writings. So I asked you if you liked him. I felt bad for doing that.”
With my good hand I mused his hair. “I never liked him, and somehow I knew you knew I liked you. My family always teased me about you. So I forced myself not to like you anymore. That didn’t last too long.”
Like I knew he would, he laughed, “Well I’m glad it didn’t last long.”
My eyes grew wide and my body flooded with worry, “Charles, what is that supposed to mean?”
He touched my cheek with his hand, “it means I’m not going to leave you, ever!”
