House Rules

Chapter 3: Ground Rules

"This is the place." Danny says waving a hand towards the house. Monica only had her purse, cellphone, and the sundress she had on as her only belongings left. Mascara stained her delicate cheekbones. "We know it isn't much but it's got three bedrooms, the extra one we just use it as a lounge area, but we can move the chairs out and replace them with the pullout couch?" Danny explains pulling her towards the door.

I follow closely behind. I hardly know this girl and in a matter of a day she became a potential lady friend, my worst enemy, a friend and now my roommate? Geez, I know life is crazy, but damn give me a second to breath? I shuffle my way up the porch as Monica and Danny stand in the middle of the living room. I lean against the stairs that lead to the upstairs bedrooms. Monica's face and demeanor hasn't changed a bit since we first got here. She seems frozen. Understandable since... you know.

Danny quickly pulls her to the stairs and shows her his room, my room and the lounge room. I go to the kitchen and give them some space, I'm sure she would want some alone time anyway. I go to grab a bottle of water when, "Jesse!" A loud scream comes from Danny, I quickly dash my way back through the living room and to the stairs, slipping on the welcome mat by our door and stubbing my first three toes. I limp my way up the stairs until blood flow becomes regular in my foot.

I slide into the lounge room and see Danny holding Monica's purse with a look of desperation on his face. Monica is on the ground bent over holding her stomach, her face is red, she's breathing hard and fast. "Danny." I shot him a glare "get the hell over here." He shuffled over to me before I grabbed him by his collar and pulled him out of the room and shut the door.

"What the fuck did you do?!" I whisper-yell "Nothing! I swear I was just showing her the room and saying that it was all hers. She could stay as long as she needed..." he looked guilty, guilty for no reason that is. I take a deep breath and before I could say anything we heard Monica scream. I quickly threw open the door and ran to her.

"Monica! Monica hey! Hey! Look at me." I say placing my hands on the sides of her face. Her eyes were red all around, her cheeks wet from tears. "Hey, hey there. What's going on darling?" I ask with a worried smile "I can't breath. I can't. My dress feels like it's really tight on me. I can't breath." She says in a scratchy voice.

I look at Danny "go start a bath. Now!" Danny dropped the purse and ran to the bathroom. "Okay, Monica we're gonna get you in a bath and you can relax okay?" I say grabbing her shoulders to guide her to stand up. As we were about to take a step her legs gave out, I quickly wrapped my arms around her and held her up "I can't feel my legs..." she said quietly, I knew she was going to scream "Jesse! I cant feeling my fucking legs!" She yells grasping onto my torso. Her nails dug deep into my lower back and hip. I flinch at the pain but quickly steadied her so I could carry her.

"Jesse! I need to go to a hospital! A bath isn't going to fix my legs! Oh my god I can't walk! I lose my house and now my legs!" She yells hysterically. I simply keep a straight face and allow her to yell the nonsense she had to say. I set her down on the bathroom floor, Danny standing off in the door way. I let go of Monica to check the bath water, she was still screaming.

I heard a footstep. "Danny. Don't." I say not turning around. "My legs! Please! I don't wanna hurt anymore! Please just take me to the hospital!" She yelled. "Jesse! She's crying let me help!" Danny exclaims, I turn around "no Danny. I know what I'm doing. Now back up, don't touch her or you'll make it worse." Danny froze with a sad look. I glared at him until he stood back.

"Monica." I knelt down so she could look into my eyes. "You have to take off your dress." Tears continually streamed down her face as I said this. "I can't move! I can't feel my legs Jesse!" She yells in my face. I roll my eyes and stood her up, she regained "feeling" in her legs and stood. "Now take off your dress and get in the bath." She gave me a shocked expression. I was unsure if the look was for the request I made, or because I somehow blew her mind by making her stand again.