“Mia, I’m pretty much incapacitated and naked under these covers.”
“You are?” she raised an eyebrow and sounded intrigued, as her hand crept towards the edge of my blanket, only to be stopped by a chiding Nora.
“Yes. Because of this...” I gestured to the sling holding my arm in place “ ... I can’t put a shirt on. And if you look down, you’ll see that bag of pee hanging on the side of my bed.” She looked down, but didn’t react to it in any way. “So, I also can’t put any shorts on. Which is probably a good thing, because there is a hole in my leg, and I haven’t had a shower in three days. So, any clothes I’d put on right now would probably have to be burned tomorrow.”
“Ew! Way to paint a picture.” she laughed in fake disgust.
“Think about that the next time you walk into an invalid’s room without knocking, and be glad I didn’t have to use the bedpan yet! My point is, I appreciate you visiting, I really do. But this also really isn’t the kind of experience I want to share with people.”
“I don’t care about that, don’t worry.” she dismissed my entire speech.
“Well, I DO care. This is ... uncomfortable for me.”
“OH MY GOD! You men are all the same!” Nora suddenly shouted, and I was taken aback about how similar that sounded to when Mia had said those exact same words to me in the car once.
“What?” Mia asked, now clearly confused.
“I’m sorry, Timothy, but this is ridiculous.” Nora said before turning towards Mia. “He’s embarrassed, Honey. He doesn’t want people to see him being laid out.” Abruptly, her tone softened considerably, and she turned back towards me. “There are people who care about you, you know?”
Now Mia was looking between me and her mother in total bufflement. Either she was irritated that her mother cared about me as well, or Nora had not told her about the meeting with my father the day before.
“I appreciate that, but I’m not used to it. Can’t we do this when I’m a little less exposed, and maybe even able to walk again?”
“Are you sure?” Nora asked, in a sickeningly caring tone that irritated Mia even more.
“Yes, very sure.” I assured her, and she looked like she was trying to assess if I actually meant it.
“Alright.” she sighed. Then continued in a ribbing tone. “Come on, Honey. Let the Man suffer in silent solitude.”
“Fine.” Mia reluctantly agreed. “But you call if you need anything. Promise me!”
I blinked at her for a moment, and then nodded.
“Good!” she smiled, gave me another soft kiss, and then moved her head to the side to whisper in my ear. “Fair warning, though. This isn’t because you stepped in front of me to catch that bullet. The hug before you got into my panties should tell you as much.”
I could only shake my head, as I watched the two of them leave my room.
Chapter 19
Even though Nora was openly mocking my decision to refuse visitors while I was incapacitated, she and the rest of the Millers seemed to respect it. Which I greatly appreciated, as it would be another two days before the doctors decided that I would get my catheter removed and be allowed to use the bathroom. My ‘silent solitude’, as Nora had called it, was interrupted in the afternoon of the following day when I received an unexpected text message from Ava.
“hey kathy asked if I could give her your phone number”
I stared at her message for a full minute before I decided to reply.
“Who TF is Kathy?”
“girl from cheer team bout my height red hair”
“No idea who you’re talking about. So, no.”
“why would she ask for your number though”
“Don’t know, don’t care. Just don’t give my number to other people.”
Of course I knew who Kathy was as soon as Ava gave her description. It was the girlfriend of the guy who made fun of me for only having slept with one single girl. The guy I put down for thinking he was God’s gift to women, simply because he knew how to throw a ball. His girlfriend suddenly asking for my number did not make me excited. No matter what the two of them had planned that would require my phone number, I wanted no part in it. I was more concerned about Ava’s inability to use punctuation in her texts, than the remote possibility of hooking up with Kathy.
It didn’t end there, though. About two hours later, when I was just trying to distract myself with a little work on my laptop, I got another text from Ava.
“mindy and laureen are asking for your number too”
“Who TF are Mindy and Laureen now?”
“other girls from cheer team”
“Only girls from the cheer team I know are You, Mia, and Joan. That’s it. Answer is still no. Don’t give my number to other people.”
“mindy wants 2 know if U R seeing someone.”
“Tell her that I am, so she stops asking.”
“Why are they asking me for your number and if you have a gf. what happened”
“We played Truth or Dare at Mia’s. Things escalated. I’m a Sex God now and their boyfriends can’t compare anymore.”
“Yeah right” This was followed by a multitude of eyeroll and laughing emojis. At least she took it with humor.
This wasn’t good. Mia had suggested that my popularity might have gone up after her friends saw me push Campbell out of the room, which would probably entail a significant improvement of my school life. Though, at that moment, I had other scenarios on my mind.
If Ava asked her friends why they wanted my number, they would surely tell her about what really happened at Mia’s. Consequently, she should be able to guess that I was in the hospital. At that moment, I would learn whether or not the rest of the family somehow shared Aaron’s renewed resentment towards me.
But, thinking about it, Ava did not ask about where or how I was. So, either her friends hadn’t told her yet, or she really didn’t care. Or, maybe, she did know, but had also learned about my wish to not be on display, and they simply chose to respect that. But if that was the case, why wouldn’t she even ask how I was? Thinking about it further, though, I remembered Aaron showing up because the hospital called him. If he knew, the rest of the family should know as well. That was days ago, so I should have heard something by now, but maybe this was the logical outcome after they had seen how reluctant I was to let them help me after being stabbed?
My thoughts kept circling around that question, making up countless possible explanations for this situation. All the while, I couldn’t even decide how I would feel about any of those possible explanations. Only one thing I knew for certain: The family seeing me this helpless was something I wanted even less than Nora and Mia seeing me like this. I couldn’t tell how long I sat there, lost in my thoughts, until I was abruptly brought back to reality by the dulled sounds of distant explosions.
After looking around confused for a moment, I realized that it was pitch dark outside and colorful sparks were visible in the distance, partly obscured by the treeline. Then my phone went off, announcing the various New Year’s greetings. Last year, I had gotten those solely from the people at work, so I was expecting the same now. To my surprise, now I got messages from the people at work, all of the Millers, almost my entire family except for Aaron and Logan, and a few girls I had met at Mia’s party. Apparently, someone had given out my number.