Friday, August 12, 2011

Chapter Eleven

I have a feeling already that I'm going to get complaints on this one... especially since you have to wait until Sunday morning for the next chapter. I promise, I'm not really this evil in everyday life...

Soundtrack for this chapter? Have I ever mentioned how much I think country music is sexy??

 Let me Down Easy - Billy Currington  -- hint, you might want to watch the video, this man is beautiful.



“When does John get back from Long Island?  I’m getting tired of you randomly showing up at my place and insisting I get out and do things,” I playfully whined as Sam waltzed into my apartment.  “Besides, isn’t Cogs still in town?”

“John gets home Saturday and Cogs left for LA to find a place to stay for the upcoming season.”

“Don’t you have team things to do or don’t they want to see your mug until training camp?”

“I actually have something going on in Edmonton on Saturday, so I’m flying up there on Friday after our work-out.”

“Oh…” I said, trying not to sound disappointed.

“Don’t your parents live up there?” he asked, flopping down on my couch, next to me after he grabbed a bottle of water from my fridge.  He acted like he lived here and it was as if he did live here because I was constantly cleaning up after him.  It was as if he didn’t understand the concept of putting his trash in the waste-can or putting his dishes in the sink.  It was getting old.

“They do.”

“When was the last time you saw them?”

This was a topic I was less than thrilled to talk about because ever since I was given my death sentence in the hospital and my dad made it known that this was all my own doing, I didn’t exactly want to see or talk to them much.  My dad had been one of my biggest supporters growing up and now, well, not so much.  I sighed and looked over at him, kind of dreading his reaction.  “It’s been over a year.”

“What?!” he exclaimed and I cringed.  “Why?!  I can’t imagine not seeing my family for that long!”

“Race and Denise are my family,” I said quietly.

“You didn’t even see them at Christmas?  Don’t you fly or something?”

I shook my head and relaxed back into my couch, willing it to suck me in or something.  “I fly.  They fly, however we don’t really see eye to eye anymore.”

“Why?”

“You are nosey.”

“You’ve said that before and you should have accepted this fact by now.”

A small smile crept across my lips from this comment.  He was right.  I took a breath and began telling him the story of how everything went down when I told my parents I was going into the military and the aftermath that ensued after I had been injured.  By the time I was done, tears were streaming down my face and he was pulling me into him, trying to console me.  I felt like a drama queen.  “Ugh,” I complained in between blowing my nose.  “This is exactly why I didn’t want to go into this…”

“I’m sorry,” he said quietly.  “Do you want to come to Edmonton with me this weekend?  It’s obvious you miss them, it would give you a few days to spend with them…”

I blew out some air and began pulling myself upright again.  Being close to him messed with my head and heart way too much.  “Thank you, but no.  I don’t think that’s an overly awesome idea right now.  I’d rather see them when I can walk again.”

He nodded and seemed reluctant to let go of me. 

It was actually a good thing he was going to be gone for a few days because it was getting harder and harder to just be “the friend to hangout with when the rest of the friends were out of town.”  I was constantly dreaming of things that should not be dreamt about a guy that was clearly becoming you best guy friend.  But really, he wasn’t helping things at all.  So many times I thought he was going to kiss me.  Constantly, he was touching me when he probably didn’t have to be.  His scent seemed to be engrained into my clothing and my nose.  I was forever trying not to look into his eyes because I’d only end up staring into them for too long.  I had it bad and life was only going to become miserable when he left for Edmonton in the fall and I was left behind because the girl in the wheelchair was never going to be girlfriend material.  It’s not that I felt as if Sam was still treating me different because of my handicapped, in fact, he had clearly moved on from that, but besides the occasional date joke, he made no other verbal or physical motions to say he was interested in anything more than being friends.

Even though I found Danny’s forwardness to be unnerving at times, I at least knew how he was feeling.  With Sam, I just found that the word frustration easily came to my mind more often than not.




“So you seem to be spending an awful lot of time with Alex…” Denise smiled proudly when I stopped by to drop something off that Alex had for her.

“Yeah, I’ve been kind of bored since everyone is out of town this week,” I said in a nonchalant way, having already prepped myself for Denise’s onslaught of questioning.

“So???”

“So, what?”

“Do you like her?”

“She’s fun to hang out with...” I began, but was quickly cut off by Denise pushing a palm against my shoulder.

“Oh come on Sam!  You have a thing for her and you know it!”

I looked at my cousin and rolled my eyes, but I was unable to hide the smile I was afraid to show because I knew I’d give myself away.

“Have you kissed her yet?!”

“No.”

“Well, have you at least told her?”

“No.”

“Then what the hell are you waiting for?!”

I scratched my head and groaned.  “I’m still not sure if I want to get involved…”

“Is it because she’s paralyzed?! I thought you’d be over that by now!” Denise automatically assumed.

“No!  It’s not that at all actually.  I just keep thinking about how things were with Eden and how much I didn’t like the person I became when I was with her.”

“Well, Alex is definitely not Eden and I don’t think she’d allow you to become a different person because I’m fairly sure Alex likes you for who you are and not the rich, hockey player Eden liked you for.”

“I believe that.  Especially since she told me the other night that she isn’t even a big hockey fan,” I chuckled at the memory.

“So then really?! What’s the issue?”

“I’m not 100% sold on if Alex likes me that way…”

“Seriously?!”

“Has she told you anything?”

“Alex is very tight lipped on anything to do with relationships, so no.  I mean, she smiles when she talks about you, so I’m assuming that’s a good thing…”

I laughed and shook my head.  “See!  If you can’t tell then how am I supposed to tell?”

“You’re the guy.  I’m sure you’ll figure it out.”

“Ugh.  Thanks for the help, cuz.”

“Yup,” she smiled broadly and hugged me tight.





“Fletch, I really see some positive things going on here,” Dean said as we sat down going over my next goals for my exercise plan.  I met my first set of goals and now it was time to do more work on leg strengthening.  “How are you feeling?”

I sat back in my chair and looked down at my useless legs.  “I’m ready for the next step.  They’ve been aching a lot, which I’m assuming is from trying the parallel bars a couple more times this week, but at least I know they are there.”

“The more we begin on working on the muscle strengthening, the more pain you are going to feel with them…” Dean said straight up.

I nodded, finally looking back up at him and giving a close lipped smile.   “I know.”

“Well let’s get started!” Dean said in his contagious excited tone.  “I have faith in your Fletch.  You are doing everything right so far and I’m so proud of you.”

“Thanks Dean,” I smiled before he leaned in and gave me a hug.

I was cursing him by late-afternoon.  My legs were killing me, the aching was unbearable and no matter what I tried, I couldn’t get comfortable.  I was in a foul mood when Sam called.  I really wasn’t in the mood for company tonight, especially since I was becoming overly frustrated with everything.  “What do you want this time, Sam?” I said through my teeth as I rubbed my legs, trying to get out a cramp.

“You sound like you’re in a foul mood…” he chuckled.

“Well, you would be too if you were in the pain I am in right now,” I growled.

“What’s wrong?” he asked, his tone completely changing from joking to worry.

“It’s from my work-out today.  Dean said I would be in pain, but this is crazy.”

“Get on your swimsuit and I’ll be over to pick-you up,” he said suddenly.

“Sam…I am definitely not in the mood to go swimming!”

“Just get in your swimsuit.  I have an idea that will most likely help you.”

“Ugh.”

“See you in about 15 minutes,” he said, completely ignoring my complaints and hung up.

15 minutes later he was scooping me up and placing me in the passenger seat.  With as much time as I had spent in the seat, I half expected my butt to be imprinted into the seat by now.  I cringed when his arms went under my legs and he instantly noticed.

“Did you take anything?”

“Yessss…” I hissed.

“I might have some stronger stuff around the house if you’re interested,” he said, trying to be helpful.

“First, you shouldn’t be offering to hand out pain meds because you can get in trouble for that shit.  Second, I’m sure I have stronger stuff left over, I just hate taking them because they make me so sleepy and it’s too early to go to bed.”

“Fair enough.”

25 minutes later we were pulling up in front of a nice, single home in a newer development right outside of London.  “Is this your place?” I asked curiously.  Despite all our galavanting around and how many times he had been at my place, this would be the first time he had taken me to his.

“It is.  I bought it last summer,” he as he backed into the driveway.  “I am warning you now, however, that I am terrible at keeping a house.  Plain and simple I need a maid,” he grimaced.

“I would have never guessed,” I said sarcastically.

“What is that supposed to mean?!”

“You can’t even clean up your dishes at my place!  I’m actually a little worried about going inside.”

“I picked up around the place, so it’s not terrible,” he rolled his eyes before picking me up again.  He wrapped his arms around me; it was as if this was becoming second nature for us.  Before lifting me up, he whispered into my ear, “I’m sorry if I hurt you again, you can punch me later for it, but I’m hoping this helps.”

I was still giggling when he scooped me up and carried me into the house.  The place was a not a huge wreck, but it wasn’t tidy either.  It was obvious he needed an interior decorator because there was barely anything hanging on the walls except for a few hockey pictures and a couple framed jerseys.  I laughed to myself when I saw the huge 52 inch flat screen hanging on the wall and the discarded game controllers laying on the floor in-front of it.  Typical boy.  I thought he was going to set me down in the living room, but soon we were stepping back outside onto his patio.  It was then when I saw what his idea entailed.

“A hot tub,” I practically sighed.

“Yup,” he smiled at me.  “I’ll set you here on the chair so you can get undressed and I’ll quick go throw on my swimming trunks.”

Without thinking I leaned in and kissed him on the cheek.  “Thank you!” I cried.  “I have been so uncomfortable all day,” I admitted.

His green eyes sparkled and he just nodded before setting me down and running into the house to get changed.

Catch your breath, Alex.  When he comes walking out of the house in just his swimming trunks you are probably going to need all the air in the world to keep from passing out.  Things just suddenly got hotter.

5 comments:

  1. OH come on!!!!!

    Really, you leave it there... REALLY?!?!?!?
    I swear I'm going to spam your phone until Sunday when the post comes through.
    You're lucky I don't remember your password or I'd log in and read the next update just so I know what happens!
    You suck for ending it there. You're mean and.. not nice... and mean...

    Great chapter though!
    Is she going to see the photo?!?!?!?
    I hope so!

    Something's going to happen soon. I don't know yet if it's good or bad, but I can feel you building up to it!!
    I need more. Now.
    Not Sunday.

    This sucks.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Ok, I agree, not a very nice place to end! :) Maybe the hot tub will give them the kick in the butt they need to move forward. Hot tubs have a way of doing that...

    She won't see the picture yet, right? Isn't it in the bedroom? For some reason, I'm afraid for her to see the photo -- I have bad feelings about that. I don't think she is going to have a good reaction. I hope I'm wrong.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Oh no!

    That was really mean. How could you just end it like that? OMG. I can't wait for the next update!

    The next chapter is gonna be so good. Something really good or really bad is gonna happen. I agree with everyone!

    I'm just wondering... What picture is daroxygirl talking about? I think I missed something... Now I'm really curious...

    Anyway, can't wait for the rest :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. i can't wait until sunday to read the next update..that was some cliff hanger for sure lol.

    fletch's reaction when she sees the picture can only either be good or bad. i guess we'll know by tomorrow...really cruel ms. writer=)

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  5. I have to second (or third, fourth, or fifth) the above comments about leaving us all hanging!

    As for the picture, I have to agree with daroxygirl thinking that Alex isn't going to have a good reaction to it. If anything it is likely to trigger a trauma reaction, although that might be tempered somewhat if she has seen it before. I think I remember reading in an earlier chapter that she knew of its existence, but if she's never seen it before, it's going to be a shock that will take her emotionally straight back to that moment and to her relationship with Danny. If she has seen it before, then she's more likely to react with wondering why the heck Sam has a copy. It's also interesting to think about how Sam is going to react when he puts 2 and 2 together and realizes that it's Alex in the picture.

    ReplyDelete