Wheels of Steel, Book 2

by Pepper Pace

  “Mom, today is the day that you have to let me be a man. The keys.” He wasn’t sure if she would do it, but eventually she pulled it off the key ring. She thrust them to him and he took them gently.

  “Mom, I love you, and thank you again.” She looked at him sadly and then reached down and kissed his cheek.

  “Okay. You’re a man so…” She turned and headed for the elevator. He almost told her that he was going to walk again. But today he’d had his limit of drama, so he said nothing.

  Joyce lit a cigarette as soon as she was outside of the hospital. Yeah, her son wanted to be a man, but when the going got tough—like when his girlfriend vomits blood--then it’s ‘Mom what should I do?! Mom help me because I fell into a glass table and there’s blood everywhere, Mom I’m afraid…’

  She snorted bitterly. He wasn’t ready to be a man just because he was living on his own and having sex and he and his girlfriend were playing at being adults. As a matter of fact, they both needed her now more than ever. She would be there for her son even if he didn’t ask, even if he didn’t know it, just like always. And she had another key.

  Jason turned his wheelchair and saw Belinda standing in the hall right before him. He almost jumped.

  “When was the last time you ate?” She asked.

  “I haven’t.”

  “It’s after noon. Let’s go to the cafeteria and get food.” She looked over her shoulder. “Besides, you don’t want to be in there with Robin’s mother. I just talked to the nurse and they are giving her that blood transfusion. When her Mom finds out she is going to be pissed.”

  His lip twisted at the mention of Robin’s mother. His stomach was empty, so she had a point. “Alright, let’s get the others. They’re probably hungry, too.” Belinda placed her hand on his shoulder to stop him.

  “Jason...I didn’t mean to make her upset last night. I feel like shit. I didn’t mean what I said.”

  “What did you say?”

  She blushed. She hadn’t left the party with anyone, though she could have. In the end she took a cab home and hoped that Peter would think the worse. She awoke this morning feeling like someone had slapped her silly. She listened to each message but he said nothing that interested her so she didn’t respond. Then there was that last call from Jason, and she was sure that this was all her fault.

  She remembered exactly the words that she’d told Robin last night. She’d basically thrown their new friendship out of the window.

  “I told her that I was done with you all. I was drunk and hurt and I didn’t mean that.”

  Jason had asked Peter what the two of them were arguing about and he admitted that he was not interested in being in a relationship with her. He liked being with her, he liked the dick treatment, but he didn’t want a love relationship with anyone. He just wanted to have fun. Jason knew this about his friend; was not surprised that he felt that way. He was, however, surprised that he hadn’t made it clear to her—now he’d screwed and lost a friend.

  “Patty, Robin didn’t get sick because of that. You heard the doctor talking about how long she’s had these ulcers. You didn’t give them to her.”

  “Yeah, but I made her worry.”

  Jason gave her a wry smile. “We need to all stop trying to take responsibility for her being in the hospital. Now let’s go eat-”

  “Jason. I saw the look on your face when her Mom said what she did.”

  Jason’s expression fell. “She’ll never accept me. She looks at me worse than any of the others ever have. She doesn’t see that I’m in here; a real person inside of this body.”

  Belinda did something that she had never done before. She moved and carefully sat on his lap. He gave her a surprised look. He smiled and closed his arms around her body. He considered something that he had never considered before; Patty needed to be touched too. She smiled then placed her hands on both side of his face and looked at him closely.

  “There is absolutely nothing wrong with you, Top. You are talented, smart, and the people that know you, love you…the people who don’t just need to learn you. Don’t let her or anyone else bring you down.” He watched her feeling touched. It wasn’t like her to speak like this. He placed his hands over hers.

  “The same goes for you.” Her eyes flinched and he could see her already beginning to retreat. “He messed up big time letting you go. But don’t let that force you to be someone you’re not, okay? Because I don’t want to lose my friend.”

  Belinda listened to every word Jason spoke. She finally placed her lips on his forehead and stayed there. Jason brought his hands around her and relaxed, releasing the tension from his body with each calming breath.

  ***

  Betty kept checking her watch and looking over at the receptionist area. Amberly had folded herself into one of the plastic chairs, knees bent just below her chin and arms grasping her legs in a way that only the very thin could do comfortably. After a moment of consideration, she stood and made her way over to Robin’s mother. Peter looked at her in surprise wondering what in the hell she was up to.

  “Hello.”

  Peter had been checking the door wondering where Jason and Belinda had gone off to, and now his attention was focused on Amberly, amazed at her courage or stupidity for approaching the mean-looking woman.

  Robin’s mother looked up at her with thinly veiled annoyance. “Hello.”

  “I’m Amberly Buckley. I’m friends with your daughter.”

  “She’s never mentioned you.”

  “Well we just met when she took on Jason as a client.”

  “I see.”

  Amberly stood there awkwardly before gesturing to Peter. “This is Peter and the other girl is Belinda.” Peter raised his hand and waved courteously.

  Betty gave him a curt nod of her head before checking her watch again. She sighed in exasperation. “What is taking that doctor so long?!” She stood up and brushed past Amberly out to the receptionist’s desk. She saw the boy; Jason and the big girl who was sitting in his lap. Uh huh…Well that wasn’t kosher; not at all. She ignored them and demanded to know how much longer it would be before she could go in and see her daughter.

  “Well she is having a blood transfusion. It shouldn’t take longer than an hour, maybe only forty-five minutes more.”

  Betty’s mouth dropped open in disbelief. “What! But I said no to the blood transfusion!”

  Jason craned his neck around to see Mrs. Mathena’s rant and Belinda slipped off his lap knowing that the older woman would completely misunderstand. Amberly and then Peter headed towards them and the four of them watched her explode at not being consulted.

  “But the patient is twenty-one. The doctor doesn’t have to consult with you-” The receptionist tried to explain.

  Mrs. Mathena rolled her eyes. “I think the doctor just asked me to leave the room so that he could coerce my daughter into doing that dangerous procedure. If she catches AIDs or hepatitis-“

  “Ma’ame, I can appreciate your concern but you are going to have to keep your voice down, this is a hospital.”

  “Well I want to talk to that doctor.” She said, though in a quieter voice.

  “Well I will let him know.” The Receptionist said curtly.

  Jason looked up at his three friends. “Let’s go…somewhere; anywhere.”

  Chapter 16

  Because Robin was going to be nearly an hour with the blood transfusion they decided to hit the McDonald’s around the corner. He had a brief seizure while in the elevator and afterwards they continued to the van. He had opened his eyes to see his three friends watching him before Belinda just moved behind his chair and pushed him outside. He wondered what Robin’s mother would have thought had she seen it. For the first time in a long time, some else’s opinions worried him.

  “God, Top.” Amberly spoke as they crowded into the van. “She’s mean. I tried to talk to her and it was like approaching a brick wall.”

  Jason nodded. “We should have told her before all of t
his. Shit, now it just got sprung on her and she just thinks the worse.”

  “Still no excuse for her to be a bitch.” Belinda muttered. She settled into her seat in back and strapped in. Jason watched the way that she and Link pretended to ignore each other. In the restaurant when girls invariably noticed Link’s All-American good looks and giggled behind their hands, Patty’s mood darkened and if she spoke it was in angry, one word responses.

  Amberly and Jason looked at each other. Though he was still not quite sure how he felt about the things that had happened between them, he knew that he needed and appreciated his friend’s more than ever. In Link’s favor, he at least pretended to ignore the gorgeous girls that were trying to get his attention. The tension that had developed between the four of them was something new and each was very aware of it.

  Amberly finally spoke. “Look, we need to make a decision right now. No bullshitting.” Her use of that word caused everyone’s brow to rise in surprise. She gave them each a stern look before her eyes rested on Jason. “Are we going to stop being friends?” He pushed back his hair behind his ears and looked at her honestly.

  “Well…I need to understand something.”

  “Okay.” Amberly responded.

  “When you told Robin about our pact…why? Why did you have to mention it?” Belinda was finally pulled from her funk. She watched the two of them with interest. Amberly’s expression was surprised.

  “Well I told her because she told me that if I didn’t tell her about everything that happened between us, she would find out from you. I had one chance to lay my cards on the table if she was going to trust anything I had to say.” Her expression became pained. “Did you want me to hold that back? So that you could end up telling her later, and then she could think that I was just being…” She shrugged her small shoulders in defeat. “At the time I just thought that was the right thing to do.”

  Jason sighed. “It was.” He understood now. It had just been her way of coming clean with everything. There was no reason to keep punishing her. She was trying hard to stay friends despite everything; despite his nasty attitude. “I want to stay friends. Your friendship is very important to me.”

  Tears came to her eyes and she looked away in embarrassment at her show of emotion. “Cool.”

  “Cool.” He said.

  The two of them looked at Belinda and Peter who remained quiet for an uncomfortably long time. Peter finally cleared his throat.

  “I never wanted to stop being friends.” He stared at Belinda who leaned back in her seat and crossed her arms. “I’m sorry that I hurt you. I didn’t…I’m sorry.”

  “Fine.” Belinda said after a short pause. She unfolded her arms and straightened in her seat. “I don’t like being called Patty. Please don’t call me that anymore; any of you.”

  Jason was the first to nod. Peter nodded next.

  “Of course.” Amberly spoke. “And don’t call me Tramp Stamp again…even though no one ever did…but still I hate that name!”

  Peter shrugged. “I’m still Link, that’s going to be my stage name when I make it big!”

  “Actually, More Love is still growing. People are asking me for CD’s more than ever…what are we going to do about it?” Belinda spoke. The plan had been to stop selling the old music and only focus on new stuff but Jason and Link hadn’t produced anything new to record. Jason liked music and making it but…did he want to focus all of his attention on it was the question. He wanted to be with Robin now more than he wanted to make beats.

  “We need to consider that WOS music is what will make us successful--independent of the group.” Peter spoke while chewing his burger and slurping his drink. His mood had greatly improved since Belinda had agreed to continue being friends.

  “We better get back.” Jason said. He’d only eaten his fries and one bite of his burger. He was anxious that Robin not think that they had completely left. And while he knew that Mrs. Mathena was Robin’s mother, for some reason he didn’t want to leave her alone with that woman.

  Chapter 17

  When the transfusion was over, Robin felt tons better. She hadn’t recognized that over the last few days her strength had slowly began to fail. She seriously had no idea that anemia could have such an effect on one’s body. But now she felt a lot better. As stupid as it might seem…this all seemed to have been a blessing in disguise.

  Jason’s mother had apologized and Robin could see that she sincerely didn’t harbor anything against her. As a matter of fact, this event allowed her to see how she and Jason truly felt about each other. Things seemed to be looking up. Belinda had shown up and walked straight to the bed and gripped her hand. ‘I’m sorry. Don’t be mad at me.’ And they had hugged. Robin realized that Belinda was the first real girlfriend that she’d ever had. Other school friends were just people to talk to or eat lunch with, but it was different with Belinda. She really liked the girl. And as far as Amberly, she would reserve judgment, but was happy that she had shown up despite the fact that Jason was giving her the cold shoulder. She still had the courage—or nerves to come around. Whatever…it took guts.

  She had even been happy to see Mama…at first. And then she could clearly see that she hadn’t accepted Jason. Robin hoped that Mama would come to accept her boyfriend. But she knew that it would be a fight; a fight that her mother had no hope of winning. Jason was one of the few things that Robin was willing to go up against her mother’s hard words and temper.

  The door opened and she braced herself when Mama entered the room, if for no other reason than that she looked neutral. She had seen this look before. Mama would try to slip her anger in between caring words.

  “How are you feeling, baby?” Mama asked while sitting on the bed.

  “So much better, Mama.”

  Mama took her hands. “Well I wish that you hadn’t let them give you that damned transfusion.” Here we go…

  “I feel so much better though.” Robin smoothed the covers over her legs. “And Dr. Sarma said that I can go home in another hour.” He wanted to make sure that she wasn’t experiencing any dizziness.

  “Well, it’s too late to worry about it now. I just wouldn’t want to take any chances that you could catch someone else’s blood disorder!”

  “Mom, it will be okay. The nurse told me exactly what to expect. I feel comfortable with it.”

  “Hmph. Well I wouldn’t have done it.”

  “Yes, I understand.” She tried not to sigh in frustration.

  “So, you’ll come back to the house and relax-”

  “No. I’m going back to my apartment.”

  Mama just frowned at her, her brow creased heavily. “Robin, don’t be ridiculous. I’ll take you back to the house and you can sleep in your old room-”

  Robin did sigh. “Mama, I just want to relax in my own bed-”

  “And what if you black out? What if you get sick again?! Robin, I swear sometimes you just don’t consider all of the consequences for your actions. Someone needs to be there to keep an eye on you.” The door opened and Jason and others came in.

  Robin ignored them for a moment as she gave her mother a long look. “Then I’ll go home with Jason. He can watch me.”

  Betty Mathena’s mouth opened and closed. “Well…what about you sleeping in your own bed?” She seemed to suddenly understand the implications of her sleeping at Jason’s house and her face burned red. She stood up. “Fine, Robin. Do as you want.”

  Robin was just getting ready to relent and tell her mother that she’d stay wither her, when Jason gave her a stern look. “Robin, you’re more than welcome to stay with me.” He turned to the older woman. “I’ll take care of her.”