Saturday, August 6, 2011

Chapter Seven

Well... I have a bunch of chapters written... so look for updates every other day or something along those lines... :o)

You could be my unintended
Choice to live my life extended
You could be the one I'll always love
You could be the one who listens to my deepest inquisitions
You could be the one I'll always love

I'll be there as soon as I can
But I'm busy mending broken pieces of the life I had before
Unintended - MUSE

Chapter 7

I was more than a little apprehensive about going to the movies with John.  It had nothing to do with being nervous around him though.  He was becoming a close friend, and quickly.  He was so easy to talk to and never made me feel like I was different.  In fact, hanging and talking with him brought the old me out at times, the happy girl I used to be when I was in the Army.

The thing that worried me was the simple fact that I had not been out on a “date” since a week before I shipped off to Afghanistan and that was with some guy Sarah insisted on hooking me up with.  He was some hot exchange student from Australia and it was a night of hot sex and toe curling orgasms.  The guy was a competitive swimmer and a model.  It was probably an understatement that I had been spoiled for life just after one night.  Obviously this night would not be involving sex.  I’m sure sex was the last thing people thought of when they saw me in a wheelchair and honestly, it was the last thing I thought of, which was sad since I was only 22 years old.  Of course it didn’t mean I didn’t want it, but I personally did not think about sex when I was around John.  He was simply the companion that Denise said I needed in my life.

I guess I was more nervous for John than me.  Here was this very active guy, a professional athlete for shit sakes and he was going to be out with some girl in a wheelchair.  No doubt people were going to stare.  Unfortunately, I had come very used to the stares, but new friends might not be so apt at handling it.

The doorbell rang just as I finished pulling my hair back in a sleek pony-tail.  I took a deep breath and wheeled myself out to the hallway, yelling, “It’s open! Just come in!”  I still needed to grab my purse from the kitchen.

“Hey Alex!” John called down the hall cheerfully.  “Wow, this is a really nice place!”

I smiled at his enthusiasm.  He really was an up-lifting soul.  “Yeah, they were just built not that long ago and I am the first person to live in this apartment, so no one had a chance to trash it, but me.”

When I turned around, I found him already standing in my kitchen, a smile beaming on his boyish face.  “Hi,” he said again.  “You look great.”

I looked down at my short-jean shorts and light teal v-neck shirt and shrugged.  “I think you are just getting too used to seeing me in my crummy work-out clothing.”

“Well, you look good in those too,” he remarked with a wink.

I reached out and smacked him playfully with my purse.  “It’s just nice to see you own more than gym shorts and cut-up t-shirts.”  He looked like a laid-back preppy in a pair of dark-washed jeans, sandals, and a white polo shirt.  His hair even had some product in it to tame thick mop on his head.

He laughed at this and quickly walked ahead of me to open the door.  “Your chariot awaits my princess,” he motioned towards his Ford Raptor, trying to hide the smile he had from knowing how much I hated the whole princess thing.

“I’m going to kill Dean for telling you guys that story,” I grumbled as I wheeled my way down the sidewalk.





“I can’t believe he took her on a date!” I whined as I slammed the cue stick against the cue ball to break the 4th pool game Cogs and I had played.  I needed a night out of the house and the Billiards Hall seemed to be like a good place to have a few drinks and forget about the thoughts that seemed to be gnawing at me ever since I talk to Johnny.

“Sounds to me that you either have some kind of gay lover thing for Johnny or you are feeling sorry that you didn’t man up and ask her before he did…” Cogs retorted with a raised eyebrow.

I looked up from the combo I was lining up to shoot and glared at Andrew.  “I’m not gay and I am not sorry I didn’t ask her out tonight.”

“Then stop talking about it!” he exclaimed before taking a sip of his beer.  “You’re being a complete baby about this.  You should just ask her out.”

“I don’t want a girlfriend.”

“You don’t want to fall for the girl in the wheelchair,” Cogs threw back.

“It has nothing to do with her being in a wheelchair,” I growled before slamming my pool stick down on the table after missing my shot.

“The fuck it doesn’t.  You are a walking contradiction, Gagner.”

I took a deep breath to calm myself, but it didn’t seem to help as I walked over to him and stood in his personal space so that he could hear everything I was about to say.  “You know what it is?  Her attitude.  She doesn’t want people to treat her like she’s handicapped, yet when I said something to her about going back to her nursing career, she commented about how she was basically useless if she couldn’t walk.  So either you want to be treated like it or you don’t.  Also, It pisses me off that I’ve been more than nice to this girl and for some reason she refuses to even act like I am alive sometimes.  I give her rides back and forth to the gym everyday and she still feels the need to talk to John more than she talks to me.  Never mind the fact that I constantly catch her checking me out…”

Cogs just shook his head and went to play his turn.  “I wish you could hear yourself.  Did you ever think about how hard it must be for her to go from a very active person to being stuck in that chair?  I’m sure she feels like a death sentence and is probably dealing with some crazy depression because of it.  And maybe she talks to John because he treats her like the normal person she is.  You didn’t really do that the first night we met her and her friends at the bar.  John was the first one to strike up a conversation with her.  You just stood there like an ass, barely apologizing for tripping over her and staring at her like it was the worst thing in the world.  Even now you make comments about her being ‘the girl in the wheelchair,’ instead of just thinking of her as Alex.  Maybe once you get the whole handicapped thing out of your head you will be able to move on.  As for her acting different around you…did you ever think that maybe she is nervous around you because she has a thing for you?  Just think a little a bit dude.”

I stood there with my beer in hand just staring at my friend.  Am I really that oblivious to things?





“I think I’m going to have to go home and play every N*SNYC song I can find on You-Tube now!” I proclaimed as we left the theater.  “Or maybe just every JT song in hopes to find more pictures of him shirtless,” I continued.

John laughed and shook his head like he didn’t want to hear my swooning but immediately said, “I’m sure I’ll be Googling pictures of Mila Kunis all day tomorrow and ordering a poster for my room.”

I laughed out loud.  In fact I don’t think I had laughed so much as I did just in one evening.  Dinner was entertaining just for the simple fact that we went to a pizza joint and John ended up getting sauce down the front of his white polo shirt.  Of course our waitress, who was a really pretty girl, couldn’t stop looking at it every time she came back to our table, causing John to blush everytime.  It was just used as ammo for the rest of the night.

“So are you ready to go home or would you be interested in going to one more place with me?” John asked before opening the door to his Raptor.

“If I say no, are you going to make me find my own way home?” I asked with a raised eyebrow and a smirk.

“Maybe…”

“Where we headed?”

“Cogs and Sam are at the Billiards Hall…”

“Sam?” I asked, suddenly feeling a little nervous again.

“Yeah…I think he’s a little shit faced because he’s been sent me text messages all through the movie,” he informed me as he scooped me up to put me in the passenger seat of the truck.

“Sam, shit faced?” I asked, slightly amused and now definitely on board to see this because I had a sneaky suspicion this was going to be funny.

“He doesn’t do it often, but I think he’s a little pissed off at me,” John murmured right before closing the door and walking around to the other side of the truck.  As much as I was tempted to ask him why Sam would be pissed off at John, I didn’t ask.  I only knew these guys for a week and I didn’t want to be the nosey girl.  I had enough drama in my life.





“JOHNNY!” I yelled loudly as he and Alex came through the door of the Billiards Hall.  The place wasn’t packed, so my voice echoed that much louder off the hardwood floors and walls, calling even more attention to myself.  I was trashed for lack of better terms and I was fairly sure I was seeing not one but two of Alex looking very cute for her night out with John which just crushed the knife deeper into my gut.

“Couldn’t put the leash on him tonight, Cogs?”  Alex immediately piped up as her and John got over to our pool table.

“Nah, he was in rare form to begin with,” Andrew laughed as she giggled.

“What?!  No hello for me?”  I pouted.

“Hi, Sam,” she looked up at me with a humored smile and shook her head.

“Fletch,” I nodded.  “Are you up for a game of pool?”

She looked over at the tables and then back at me.  “Hope you’re ready to have your ass handed to you.  Cogs, you want to be my partner?” she asked easily.

“Fuck yeah,” he laughed.  “Do you need a drink before we start?”

“Just a Ginger Ale please…I gave up drinking after making too many drunken declarations on things I just couldn’t do while being drunk; like playing pool drunk and losing miserably.”

John and Cogs laughed as Alex gave me a look of challenge.

“You think I’m going to lose because I’m trashed?”

“Yup,” she said simply as John and Cogs walked over to the bar.  “I’m fairly sure you can’t even see straight, seeing how dilated your pupils are right now.”

“Dilated?  Is that fancy medical jargon meant to throw me off?”

“You are already off,” she shook her head.

“Did you and Johnny have a nice date?” I blurted out.

She nodded her head and smiled.  “Yes, I did.”

“You would have had a better time with me…”

“Excuse me?”

“Nothing.”

“Huh.”

“What?”

“Never mind.”

“You don’t make sense,” I grumbled.

“Are you giving my date a hard time?”  Johnny suddenly piped up loudly into my ear, causing me to jump about 10 feet.

“Let’s just get this game started,” I exclaimed and threw an arm around his neck.

10 minutes later, Alex and Cogs had cleared the table and I was left sulking and feeling very dizzy.

“How did you do that?”

“I’ve played a lot of pool over the years, Sam,” Alex said cheerfully as I plopped down next to her.  “Here, have some of the water, John just brought over for you,” she said in a nursing/motherly tone while handing the big mug of ice water to me.

“I’m gonna puke tonight,” I moaned.

“Yup.”

“Why are you being nice to me?”

“I don’t think I’ve ever really been mean to you,” she said quietly, looking curiously over at me.  Maybe it was the over abundance of alcohol that I had on board or the fact that we were sitting in close proximity for longer than the 10 minute drive to her place, but she looked even more beautiful than ever and I felt like it was getting a lot hotter in the room.

“You don’t talk to me like you talk to John.”

“You make me nervous.”

I laughed at little at this and moved in closer.  “Funny, because it seems you do the same to me.”

“It’s either that or you aren’t comfortable with me being in this wheelchair.”

“I’m not,” I said, the alcohol making me completely and brutally honest.

She bit her lip and nodded, no look of emotion showing on her face except for a possible tear that escaped before she could turn away and tell John she was ready to go now.  I just sat there, the room spinning out of control around me and watched them leave.  Unfortunately I wouldn’t really remember much the next day until I got a voicemail on my phone from John saying that he would just meet me at the gym on Monday because he was going to pick-up Alex by himself.

6 comments:

  1. aww sam! i don't know whether to commend the guy for being honest (whilst intoxicated) or to hate him because he is.

    so looking forward to fletch and sam getting together. too bad for john though coz this is inevitable lol. again, great update=)

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  2. I'm sad for John, who's been nothing but nice and funny. And the hair product is a very necessary touch. Plus didn't Alex have a great time on the date too? Don't go for looks alone, Alex. Team John!

    Ah well, with daily updates I'm sure you'll convince me otherwise, and since the story's already written, my two bits aren't changing anything.

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  3. I was really enjoying drunk Sam, then bam! all of a sudden I felt like crying for Alex and Sam. :-(
    Need more soon, please.

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  4. Loved Cogs's speech to Sam -- very true. I thought for a moment Alex and Sam had a breakthrough, then Sam opened his mouth. I love the way you have all the characters in your stories interact. Sometimes I want to hug them and other times I want to scream at them. I look forward to the more frequent updates!

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  5. Asdfhujl;adfkgjh!

    Okay, I just made a noise that was somewhat similar to that.
    Ugh... frustrated...

    Cogs' speech was great! And yay it got Sam thinking! But dammit Sam for opening his big. drunken mouth and ruining it.
    In his stupidity, he didn't explain himself. Not that he probably would've been able to anyway, in his state... but... ugh.

    He's ruining his own chances.
    Stupid boy.

    I don't think that John will sweep her off her feet though, so to speak. Because I don't think she sees him in 'that' way. Not from the way you made them sound in this chapter.

    Maybe I'm just reading into it what I want to though... hmmmmm.

    I think they, Sam and Alex, need a big, blow out fight. At Sam's place. So she can see the picture. And they can yell and holler and get everything out there, in the open.
    And then he can kiss her.
    Yes, I think this is a good thing.

    But you are the writer, and I know that however you take this, it will be great*

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  6. Omg. I totally have to agree with MelTing; Team John! Unfortunately, I think we apl know that the story isn't gonna go that way... Oh well, I can't wait for your next post :)

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