Woven

Aly: Chapter 13

Aly sighed and turned off her tablet. She had exhausted all of the games on it and now all it did was bore her. The only thing that was ever a different experience was the group chat, though no one was on, so naturally, she was reluctant to pretend taking care of a simulated farm was fun. She checked the time, which was 6:52, Friday night. Grandma would leave soon to get her own dinner.

She rubbed her neck. It was still sore, but it was feeling a lot better. She straightened her gown and wrapped her blanket around her. Aly didn't want to get out of the bed to just walk around the room for a few feet. That was boring. Besides, they made her get up and walk this morning, so what was the point of stretching her legs if she would just have to get out of bed anyway in the morning? She hugged her stuffed animals, old things that hadn't left her side, even in the transition from home to here. Supposedly, they would also go with her to the mental hospital once a bed opened.

Aly shuddered at the thought. First of all, she'd have to sleep in someone else's bed for who knows how long. Again. Second, those places kind of scared her. A mental hospital? As if she were some kind of insane person. Maybe they would send her home and forget about her. Who knew? Not Aly, that's for sure. She worried one way or the other, since she'd never had a pleasant experience with doctors.

She heard a knock at the door. Another doctor or nurse? She didn't know if she could handle any more of them. However, the door didn't open almost immediately, so it couldn't have been personnel. In fact, Grandma had to get up and open the door. When it opened, Aly forgot about everything on her little bed and leaped out of it. She practically tackled her visitor with a hug. He chuckled and hugged her back.

"Easy, Aly; I'm not as young as I once was."

"You keep saying you're old, Zach, but you're not even an adult yet."

Zach rolled his eyes, "Yeah, and you're not even twelve yet." He turned to Grandma, "I'm not too late, am I?"

She shook her head and smiled, "No, not really. I was going to head out, but I can call a member of staff if you want to stay longer."

He nodded, "If you could when you leave, that would be nice."

Aly pulled him over to her bed and sat down. He sat down on her left. She noticed the bag he was carrying and pointed to it, "What's in there?" Zach almost always brought presents when he visited. And they were always exactly what she wanted or needed. A new stuffed animal, food, books, all of them useful.

"What, this? Nothing important," he claimed.

"I don't believe you."

He laughed, "Okay, you caught me. These were really hard to hunt down, but I managed to find some." He reached into the bag and pulled out a package of some weird kind of pastry. He noticed something on her face, "Canelés, made without rum, of course, so they're gonna be more savory."

"Is that what they look like?"

"Yup."

"And you're obsessed with them because of that anime you watched?"

He sighed, "Yup. I still can't believe one of my most otaku friends still hasn't watched it."

Aly pointed to her tablet, "It's kind of hard when your only source of entertainment is that hunk of metal."

Zach snickered.

"What?"

"Nothing. Just that you calling it a hunk of metal reminded me of another show and..." he smiled broadly. He always had that face when he was remembering a private joke with himself.

"Which show?"

"Even if I told you, you wouldn't get the reference."

"Maybe if you told me, I'd watch the show and then I'd get the reference," she reasoned.