I Don't Deserve Love: Alternate Ending

Chapter 32: The Benefit of Being an Invalid

"No, no, no, no, a million times, no!" Auntie said emphatically, hitting her hand against the table to emphasize her point further.

"I'm already dressed, Auntie. My ankle feels fine," I said between my bites of omelet, finding her mini tantrum adorable.

"I don't care! The doctor said to rest for 72 hours. 72 hours means three days, Opal. You are not going to school today!" Auntie declared furiously but I blinked my eyes up at her pleadingly.

"But Auntie I already missed Friday because of the race, I don't want to get behind in my classes."

"You are the smartest kid I know, Opal. You can stand to miss one more day," Auntie said, folding her arms.

"Please, Auntie? I promise I'll be super extra careful." Auntie sighed and placed a hand on her hip.

"Why do you want to go so badly?"

"I don't want to spend all day in front of the TV and I don't have any books to read," I admitted with a small pout. That was only a partial truth though.

Ever since I had gone to the hospital I had been plagued with terrible nightmares of me reliving all of my worst memories. If I was alone all day then I would probably fall asleep and I just wanted to keep myself distracted as much as possible.

"I can just take today off work," Auntie said stubbornly and I frowned slightly. As much as I would love that, I couldn't allow myself to be that selfish.

"No, Auntie, you can't. You're working on a big project," I said sadly.

She chewed on the inside of her cheek and looked away; I could tell that she knew I was right but didn't want to admit it. Finally, she looked at me and held up a finger.

"On one condition. I am going to drive you to school and pick you up."

"But you've been working late because of your project," I pointed out.

"I can take a break around 3:30, you'd only have to wait around half an hour for me."

"But you never drive to work; you said it's cheaper to take the subway."

"I don't care. That's my condition." I sighed, but nodded, grateful that she was allowing me to go. "Good. Oh... Opal are you sure? You could hurt yourself even more if you don't rest enough."

"I'm sure, Auntie. I'll be fine, I promise."

She nodded unhappily but

"Be careful, okay?" Auntie ordered with a worried frown as she helped me out of the car and shut the door behind me.

I smiled and gave her a thumbs up before position myself better on my crutches. We exchanged a gentle hug and I watched from the sidewalk as she got back in her car.

"Have a good day at work," I called to her and waved as she drove away.

She had dropped me off earlier than usual so I could make it to class on time with crutches. I hadn't been able to bring myself to tell her that I could walk as quickly with crutches as my normal walk. I scaled the wide stairs leading up to the school easily and was surprised to see the hallway almost empty. I looked at my clock and chuckled. I had almost twenty minutes until school started. I made my way to my locker and loaded my backpack with all of my morning class textbooks since I didn't want to have to battle the crowd to get back to my locker until lunch.

Once I was all loaded up I looked at the stairs. These indoor stairs were a lot narrower than I was used to, but I shouldered my now heavy backpack and purposefully went towards them. At the bottom of the stairs, I examined them closely, placing one of my crutches on them to see how narrow they really were.