Us Mutants Prefer the Term "Special"

x1x

"Aspen, come on!" my friend, Kiely, called to me. We had just gotten to school from winning the state football game. We were cheerleaders, but we were still as happy for the win as the players.

"Nah, I'm waiting for my brother to text me back," I told her. She drove away with another one of our friends and of course when I saw her car pull out of the parking lot, my phone buzzed.

Wilbur: K we're done. We're waiting outside

As I finished reading the text and attempted to call my parents to pick him up first, someone else's car pulled up and they honked.

"Hey, babe," Tyler had greeted. Instantly, a smile came on my face. He was wearing his dark blue button-down, varsity football shirt and even though it was dark, the lights on the ceiling of his muscle car casted the perfect light on his attractive face. We had been talking as the term dating for a couple months now, but prior to that we were best friends for years. "Need a ride?"

"Yes, actually," I said and then he reached across the front seats to open the passenger door. I took a seat and then closed the door to allow him to drive off.

"Are we picking up Wib?" he asked as we sat at the light that was at the exit to the school.

"Yeah," I smiled, happy that he always knew things about me that I didn't expect. It meant he listened. He started to drive to Babe's, the restaurant my brother and his friends always went to during football games, and I thought about how perfect Tyler was. I was two grades younger than him, but we had been friends for forever since we lived by each other and our parents were friends. The only thing I'd want to change is our debatable relationship status. I didn't want to wonder anymore.

"Text him saying that we're close, but there's still traffic," he said. I did as he said and sighed. He glanced at me as I did that and coasted on the road. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," I lied. As much as I was constantly worrying about what we were, I was confident that I couldn't be heartbroken by it.

"Penny, come on," he lightly smiled. I shook my head and looked out the window at the celebrating teens and civilians in the area. I felt him nudge me and I looked over to see his puppy dog eyes as we still slowly pulled up to the light. "We both know you're gonna tell me."

"Maybe," I laughed and then he temporarily dropped the subject. We got through the light, down the street and when we were a street away from the common hang out, I saw my brother outside with his friends from a distance, but we had hit traffic. I texted Wilbur to start looking for Tyler's gold car, but of course we got stopped at another light and I found Tyler's hand fall into mine. I looked down at our enveloped hands and then finally built up the nerve to kiss him. When I pulled away, I saw his green eyes darken into an onyx color and then the light turned green and he drove on, but as I blushed and looked away, seeing my brother nod to us right before we would cross and enter the parking lot, something coursed through my body. We waited for a break in the cars and that time was longest only because mine and Tyler's hands intertwined and had me feeling happier beyond belief. We started to slowly turn into the parking lot, but then in a split second, I felt the shock of two things; for one, my Deaf brother screaming my name to such frequency to break glass, but that job was already completely after the roar of a separate engine collided into us.

***

Thoughts of Tyler and Wib and even the state football game flooded my thoughts as a light was coming into focus. In a matter of moments, it all went black and then I found myself fluttering my eyes open to a plain, white ceiling.

Beep...beep...beep.

It wasn't as slow as the tempo that had seemingly been playing through my dreams for a while. I looked to the right and saw a heart monitor with perfect ratios and rhythms. Why was I in a hospital room? I felt perfectly fine.