Can You See Me/Can You Hear Me

Helping Hands

A week later, Evan found himself in his mom's car. She drove into the school parking lot. The doctor told them to let him rest for a week before sending him back to school.

The boy looked at his arm. It was still sprained, but it hasn't been hurting as much so Evan decided to unwrap it. It made walking up and down stairs a lot easier.

The car stopped and Evan unbuckled his seatbelt. He stared at the building. Students were filing into the school, most were in groups. Evan swallowed and pushed the car door open. He said a quick goodbye to his mom and slammed the door shut.

He got to the curb and looked at it. There was ice near it and one wrong move could send him to the ground. He carefully placed the crutch on the curb and hoisted himself up. He stumbled a bit and automatically reached an arm out to hold something.

He accidentally grabbed a girl's shoulder. He mumbled an apology and started making his way to the front doors. The sound of students talking and laughing filled his ears. His eyes glazed across the hallways, taking in everything. He shifted so his backpack wouldn't fall off his shoulder.

He searched the crowd for Connor, wondering if he was there. A tap on his shoulder made him turn around. He lifted his hand to greet Connor, but the person in front of him wasn't Connor.

"Hi Evan!" the girl exclaimed. She bounced on the balls of her feet. "How was your break?" Evan opened his mouth to respond but the girl beat him to it. "Mine was great. I got all of my homework done on the first day so I could spend time with my grandmother. She helped me create filers for the fundraiser." Her eyes traveled towards his bulky leg. He had carefully put on a pair of large sweatpants over his cast. "Oh my god, what happened?"

"I uh, there was a crash—"

"I hope you heal soon." The girl rocked a bit on her heels. "I heard from Zoe who heard from Connor that you can see now."

Evan nodded quickly. "I— yeah, it's weird— not weird, I didn't mean that, but I'm just. I'm not used to it."

"That's understandable. If you ever need help with anything, I'm usually available during lunch." The girl walked off before Evan could reply.

She had seemed familiar but he couldn't remember where he'd heard her voice. He was about to look for Connor when another voice called out to him.

"Evan!" Jared's voice came from next to him. Evan jumped and looked to his left. Jared was walking down the hall that lead to the gym and art rooms. "What the hell, man? You haven't answered my— oh." Jared caught sight of his cast. "Shit man, what happened?"

"My mom didn't tell you?" Evan asked. He very badly wanted to shift his weight to his other foot, but he would have to deal with the pain until he sat down.

"If she did, I don't remember," Jared admitted. "Although you'd think I'd remember how you got all banged up."

Evan pursed his lips. "There was a car crash."

Jared's eyes went wide. "Wait, again?"

Evan winced at the memory Jared brought up. He looked around at the student body as they filed into the classroom halls. "I can see."

"Shit really? Congrats." Jared put his hands on his hips. "I'd love to stay and chat, but class starts in ten minutes and I'm on the other side of the building." And with that, Jared walked off.

Evan watched as he left. He wanted to call out to him, that he needed help with classes. Just because he can see, doesn't mean he knows where to go. He didn't remember what numbers looked like, let alone large room numbers. He remembered the basic ones, but they were blurry too.