“Stupid buttons.” I muttered to my reflection in the mirror of the dressing room I was in at Men’s Warehouse the next day. As promised, Evan had taken me to get suits for the wake and funeral. We had thought about going to my old house to see what I had already, but ended up deciding against it. I wasn’t quite there yet. Evan was being really patient with me, but it was incredibly difficult to try things on with a monstrous brace over your leg. I was currently struggling to button the pants I had on, because the brace beneath the fabric was making them tight on one side, and not so much on the left leg.
“Max?” Evan called from outside the door. “Are you okay in there?”
I contemplated lying to him, but decided honesty was probably the best option at this moment. “No.” I mumbled.
“What’s wrong?” He asked, and I cringed at the concern in his tone.
I sighed. “I can’t get my pants on. They don’t fit over the brace.”
Evan was quiet for a minute. I began to mentally berate myself for telling him something so embarrassing. What was he supposed to do about it? Put my pants on for me? How awkward would that be? That was exactly what I needed, but it was entirely too weird to ask him to do that for me. “Let me in.” He finally said.
“What?” I asked, confused.
“Just let me in, Max.” I did as he said and opened the door. I had moved into one corner of the bench in the small dressing room. Add on Evan’s impressive size, and the dressing room was beginning resemble a clown car. He inspected me for a moment before snapping his fingers. “We’ll just have to put the brace on the outside.”
“I don’t want people to see it yet.” I mumbled.
Evan nodded and sat beside me, our shoulders barely fitting along the short bench now that we were side by side. “I know it’s a huge adjustment, Max, but I want you to know that we are all standing behind you 100%. If you want to wear shorts tomorrow and Saturday, let’s go over to Abercrombie or something and get you a nice new pair. No one will care if you don’t want to wear a suit.”
“Meghan would murder me.”
He just laughed. “You know as well as I do that her bark is bigger than her bite. If you want shorts, then let’s get some.”
“I don’t want to stress her out even more.” I told him. “Can you help me get the brace off?”
“Absolutely.” He stood and went to help me get up and balance on my good leg. Once I was stable, he glanced up at me. “Um. How are we going to do this?”
I laughed at the awkwardness of our situation. “I think I can get these off, but I’ll have to do that sitting down.” I pulled the suit pants down, making sure my boxer briefs stayed firmly in place. I silently thanked my lucky stars that I wasn’t wearing something that could increase the odds that my brother-in-law would get an eyeful of my junk. Once I got the pants down, I settled back down and Evan helped me pull the pants back over the brace and let them sit around my ankles. The next task was to tackle the brace. The plastic and metal contraption had a series of buckles and clasps that were beyond difficult to get undone. I glanced up at him before we took it apart. “I think maybe we should just buy the pants and we can have Meghan help me with the brace part tomorrow.” I told him with a laugh. “I have no idea how to take this off.”
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Following My Sister's Rules
Ficção Adolescente17 year old Max Miller has the perfect life--he's starting off his senior year with great friends, a position as the starting quarterback on his school's football team, and all the gorgeous girls in LA just seem to flock to him and his charming ways...
