What Did I Tell You?

Chapter 9

After Tarja was discharged with a broken leg, damage to the floating ribs on her left side, and stitches in her left arm, things were very different from the way they had been before, to say the least. Floor, who had been living with Simone ever since Tarja's accident,since she didn't like living alone, came home to take care of Tarja. As Tarja couldn't walk and could barely move at all on her own, she needed someone strong to help her, and Floor was perfect. Alissa came over to their apartment almost every day, but a week passed, and Tarja still didn't remember her. Another week, and still no change. Alissa grew moodier and moodier. She stopped coming as frequently. At first she would sometimes bring Tarja things, candy or flowers or something like that, but then she stopped doing that, especially since Tarja didn't seem to like getting presents from someone she didn't really know. And Tarja's moods got worse, too. She hated the fact that she had to sit still all the time. She longed to walk, instead of being carried everywhere by Floor, to run, to dance, to play the piano (which she couldn't do because she couldn't bend her left leg to fit under the edge of the keyboard), to do everything she used to do before the accident. Because she was so bored and tired of sitting still, Tarja grew sulky. Floor tried to be patient with her, as she knew it had to be very hard for Tarja to sit and watch Floor walking around on her own two feet, and be unable to even go to the bathroom on her own. But her patience wore thin after a while. She grew annoyed with Tarja, and would sometimes snap at her to stop whining or snapping at Floor.

"Quit sulking!" Floor ordered one afternoon, setting a tray on Tarja's lap. "I made you lunch, now eat it!"

"I don't want food," Tarja said grumpily.

"Well, you've got to eat!" Floor said. "Do you want to get better or not?"

"Of course I want to get better! I'm just not hungry," Tarja snapped. "Quit bothering me!"

"I'm just taking care of you because I love you," Floor said. "And I want you to heal up. But you can't do that if you don't eat. You've barely eaten anything today, and this isn't the first time this has happened. You didn't eat much yesterday, either."

"Cause I wasn't hungry! If I want food, I'll ask for it. Stop hovering over me!" Tarja answered angrily. "My leg's hurting again, can I have my painkillers?"

"Yeah, I'll go get them," Floor said. She left the room and came back with a pill. Tarja sipped some water from the glass on the tray, then swallowed the medicine.

"Thanks. I'm sorry I snapped at you. It's just...I'm so sick of sitting still all the time, and my leg hurts, and stuff. And my stupid memory is gone, which just makes it worse. I know there's a lot I don't remember, and I hate that. If I had, or have, a relationship with Alissa, I want to remember it, you know?" she said, looking up at Floor, who put a hand on her shoulder.

"Hey, it's okay, I understand," Floor said. "No big deal. I know you're not mad at me."

"I'm mad at this," Tarja said, gesturing to her leg. Floor nodded.

"I understand. I would be, too. Come on, you wanna play a board game?"

The next few days were even worse. Tarja cursed and yelled about stupid things, not just at Floor, but whenever something went wrong, like she dropped her book or spilled something. Floor got tired of having to calm her down and pick up whatever she had dropped, and after a while, she started acting the same way as Tarja. Once they got in an actual fight, which they both felt bad about afterward, but it was like they couldn't be patient with each other any longer.

"This has to stop," Floor said, sitting down on the couch next to Tarja, after getting in an argument with her over which TV show to watch.

"Agreed," Tarja said. "I'm so sorry. I don't want to fight with you. You're my best friend, Floor." She blinked back tears. "I'm worried our friendship's gonna be ruined if we keep this up."