Caleb

Chapter Six - When She Came Back

CALEB'S POV

      Every day since her accident I’d visited Ciera in the hospital. I wanted to go when I though nobody else would be there, so we could talk about anything, so I usually showed up about an hour before visiting hours were over. It didn’t leave much time to talk, but I felt as if I were there for too long we’d run out of things to talk about and it would be awkward. We never ran out of things, but some moments were awkward. There were moments when I could feel something for her, and I wasn’t sure I wanted that. Our worlds shouldn’t collide. Girls like her aren’t welcome by my friends, and though I hated it, I’d never done anything about it. When we were talking, though, it felt natural. The conversation flowed freely. Because football practice ended around six thirty, I could go home and freshen up before I went to see her. Once we talked about how she was jealous because I could go home. I felt bad for her, so I tried to change the subject. We ended up talking about her ex, Victor. Guy was a real jerk. She thought she’d picked a good guy, but he cheated on her, six times, with three different girls. I told her if I’d ever be in her hometown I’d find him and deck him for her, but she just laughed.

“Victor may be a jerk, but he’s extremely weak for how big he looks. I don’t want anybody to get hurt for something that happened years ago,” she said, confusing me. She didn’t want revenge, like most girls I’ve known would have. At that point, even I was angry enough to hit him. But she didn’t want him to feel pain like she had, she was just glad he’d moved on and probably forgotten about her. Her forgiveness sparked a soft smile on my lips and I reached for her hand, squeezing it gently.

“You’re a very different girl, Ciera.” I said quietly. Ciera blushed.

“Is different good?” she asked, worried about something, but I couldn’t tell what.

“Different is great.”

            Now that she was out of the hospital, I could forget about it all. Or so I thought. I went back to school three days after her accident. You could read all about it in the school paper, the newspaper, even see it on the news, though they got most of the details wrong. They all declared me a ‘hero.’ I didn’t want to be a hero; I was just doing what was right. About a week after the accident, everything died down. Then Ciera came back and it all started again. I was glad she came back, though, because that meant I didn’t have to face it alone. During gym, after I’d won the dodge ball game for my team, I asked Mr. Ringwald if I could sit with her. Of course he said yes, so I jogged over to where she was sitting.

“Cherry, what’s up?” I asked, sitting on the ground beside her feet. She drew her gaze away from Marcy, who was now playing dodge ball, and locked her eyes onto mine. They were still that light sky blue, but then I realized I saw a ring of gold around her pupils, and flecks of green, brown, and hazel within them. They were even more beautiful. She smiled cautiously, waving slightly at me.

“Gym,” she said, like she said the day of her accident. I flinched, remembering. She told me she didn’t remember much of that day, but I remembered it all. She raised her eyebrow at me, and I smiled apologetically.

“Me too,” I said.

“How are you feeling? Have you remembered anything yet?” I asked, curious to her well-being. She laughed quietly, sadistically.

“No, I haven’t remembered anything else. I’m feeling just peachy,” she responded, patting her leg gently, then going back to twiddling her nervous thumbs. I chewed on my cheek to keep from saying something without thinking.

“You said hadn’t remembered anything else. So you remembered something?” I knew she had remembered things, we’d discussed it, but she’d never told me exactly what she remembered. She said she remembered the smell of the blood, the bumps in the road on the car ride. She didn’t tell me if she’d seen or heard anything.

“Yes. Just the same stuff though.” She replied, looking away again.

“Like what?” Her thumbs stopped moving.

“You’ve never asked that before…” she whispered, more to herself than to me. I wondered if she remembered being hit, or feeling herself slide across the gravel. By the look on her face, it was something that troubled her.

“Does it change anything if I ask?” I asked tentatively. Her entire body froze and after a moment she turned to look at me, her hair falling over her shoulder as she leaned down with her elbows on her knees.

“No… I don’t think it really will. I don’t really want to tell you becauseI know it won’t change anything.” She answered, her voice monotone and her eyes locked onto mine. For some reason, something felt wrong in my chest. It felt like a football had just been drilled into my stomach, then kicked into my chest.

“I-I…” I stuttered, failing to think of anything else to say on the subject. My brows furrowed, and I looked away, following some of the dodge balls with my eyes. I turned sort of toward her and saw her face soften. The way my brows furrowed changed, confusion becoming me.

“What?” I asked, waiting for an explanation. She shrugged, giving me none.