by Autumn Brown
“Cool. Can I hear it?” I asked.
“You can hear it, if you sing it. I can’t really sing. It hurts to even talk.”
“Ouch. Did they give you some pain pills? Sometimes it’s okay to yes to drugs.” I teased him as I sat down at the table to eat pizza.
“I’m taking them. It still hurts.” He said. I could tell that it did hurt him to talk.
“You can text me.” I said to him, offering an alternative to talking.
He tried to smile, but that hurt his face too.
“And, just text me a smiley icon when you want to laugh about something.” I joked with him. I felt so badly for him. Even eating pizza was painful for him.
After we finished the pizza, we went to his room. I sang the finish to his song, which I loved. I thought of an alternative to the last verse for it though. I sang that, and he liked it. Then he thought of even better ending. It was a collaborated effort. It was a lot of fun. He showed me how to record the piano on his keyboard. Mine wasn’t nearly this fancy. Then we recorded the string section that went with it. Then he played it all back at once. It was so cool. It was almost like a real band was there with us.
I picked up his microphone and started singing the song for him. He sat on the bed watching and listening. I danced around and acted like a real country music star. I embellished some to be funny. I had performed in a few talent shows over the years. Todd and Janel walked in. I stopped, embarrassed because I was acting so crazy and goofy.
“Don’t stop.” They said. “We wanted to hear his song.”
I took a deep breath and started over. I could do this. It seemed to be cheering Spencer up quite a bit. He was actually trying to laugh at me without smiling. They really liked the song as I sang it. It was a great song, but I probably sounded so gay, because it was obviously a song written from a guy to a girl.
I finished up the song. “That sounds so cool.” I said to Spencer. “I could definitely imagine hearing that on the radio. Only with a guy singing it.”
“I like it. I think I’m going to work on that ending some more. I want it to be better.” He said, excited. He took the music sheet and worked on it some more.
I sang the new words for him and played the new music. It did sound better. It flowed better.
“I like it.” Janel said.
“That’s your best song yet, Spencer. Are you sending it in?” Todd asked.
“As soon as I finish and record it.” Spencer said.
That sounded so cool to me. I wanted to be here when he recorded it. I liked being part of it, even if only in a small way.
Todd and Janel left the room, leaving us alone. I sat beside Spencer on the bed. “So are you coming back to school soon?” I asked him.
“I don’t know. I hate it when people look at me.” he said.
“You should be used to that.” I blurted out. I knew I shouldn’t have said it the second it came out, but it was too late now.
“You’ve got a point.” He halfway laughed.
“Zane’s coming back tomorrow. He’ll be on crutches for a few weeks.”
“Did you go see him?” he asked.
“Yes. He looks okay. Just a few scrapes on his face and chest and arms. But other than that, he’ll be fine. He’s happy he’s getting a new car.”
“Is your car okay? I saw your car spinning around as we were rolling. I was scared that you were going to start rolling too.”
“It’s fine now. It drove really funny at first, but then Daddy tightened the tires back on for me. It drives really good now.” I told him.
“The other guy is dead.” Spencer said sadly.
“I know. I went to his funeral.”
“You knew him?” Spencer asked.
“I did. He was Jose’s big brother, Fred.”
“Fred was Jose’s brother? I didn’t know that. Their last names weren’t the same.”
“Half brothers. Fred had his mother’s last name.” I tried to explain the weird family history to him after that. Fred and Jose didn’t grow up together. His father had a few illegitimate children before he married Jose’s mother. Fred and Jose were close though. It was horrible at the funeral. Jose cried. Shelly was there for him though. All of the kids were there. Fred had been one of the guys every week to provide the kegs at the parties. Funny that I didn’t know that until he died.
“Hey, did you do your History assignment for yesterday?” he abruptly changed subjects on me for some reason. He must really like History.
“Of course.” I said to him. I always did my homework. And I always did it early.
“You wrote your essay on the reasons for the Civil War already?”
“No. We didn’t have to do that.” I said to him. “He didn’t assign that. Why did you think he assigned that? He never assigns the essays at the end of the chapter. Not for our class anyway.”
“Janel said he did. He wrote it down.” Spencer grabbed his History book and his notebook. He showed me Coach Snideman’s handwritten note that said “Essay #2.”
“I’ll ask him tomorrow for you if you want. Hold off on doing it. He was probably trying to impress Janel. He gets nervous around the pretty moms. He never assigns those, dude.”
“I’ll wait to do it then.”
“I’ll text you tomorrow from school to let you know. I have History first period. I guess you won’t be coming to the game Friday night?”
“No. I really miss the games too. I finally get to play, then I get benched for this.”
“You’ll be back playing in a month or so. Won’t you?” I asked.
“Hopefully.”
“We missed you Friday. Brian was still kind of hurt and he didn’t do nearly as well as you did last time.” I told him.
“That’s good to hear, not that he’s hurt, but…oh never mind.” He said.
I looked down at his chest. There was some blood seeping through his bandages. “Are you supposed to be bleeding?” I asked.
He looked down at his chest. “No. I probably need to take care of this.” he said. The way he said it was in a tone that was asking me to leave the room, maybe even the house.
“Do you want me to leave? Or just step outside?” I asked him uneasily.
“Just step out.” He said to me, then called out to his aunt. “Aunt Janel. Can you help me with this bandage?”
I looked up to see Janel coming in his room. Spencer was taking off his bandages where it was bloody. “Let me get the kit.” She left the room and returned with a kit full of medical supplies. “I’m a nurse.”
I stepped outside the room on the other side of the wall. I heard them talking about how bad it looked so I looked inside to see for myself. “Whoa!” I said. I wasn’t surprised at the injuries. I was surprised at his chest. He had an amazing chest. Probably the best one on the football team. Sometimes they ran with their shirts off, and no one had a chest that impressive. Not even Jose, and he was voted best body in our yearbook this year.
“It looks bad. Doesn’t it?” he asked me. “But it looks worse than it feels.”
“You’ve got a lot of stitches.” I said as I walked inside the bedroom. It was probably okay for me to be in here now that I’d seen it all. I stared as Janel taped the cuts together better where the stitches had come apart. It was kind of disgusting now that I’d seen the stitches. I was too preoccupied with his chest a minute ago.
“All finished.” Janel said. “Do we want to put the bandages back on it? Or do you want to go without a shirt for a while and let it air out?”
“I’ll do without for a while.” He said.
Janel turned and walked out of the room.
Oh man. I was in trouble. I should probably go home now. That chest was too distracting, and making me rethink my decision to remain a virgin until I got married. Funny, but no other chest had done that to me before. I continued to stare at his chest. Wow. Perfect. Muscular.
“I can put on a shirt. This is too gross for you.” he said, apologizing as he stepped
up from the bed.
I grabbed his hand as he was about to pass me. That shocked him. I stepped up in front of him. “That’s not why I’m staring.” I said softly. I stepped up on my toes and kissed him gently on the lips, making sure that I didn’t hurt his face.
He took a deep breath as he looked at me. He let it out, then he kissed me. It was a really soft kiss. He smiled at me, then quit smiling quickly. “Ouch.” He whispered.
“Sorry.” I said, laughing at him.
We sat on the bed again. He looked at me. I couldn’t read his face, because I couldn’t see his face through the bandages. He tried to smile again, but he quickly released it. “I’ve wanted to kiss you since the first time I saw you.” he confessed.
“Why haven’t you, then?” I asked.
“When I first saw you, you were dating Jose.” He explained.
“You saw me last year, and didn’t say hi to me?” I asked incredulously. “We could have been friends all this time.”
He laughed. “Then you dated Zane, and I couldn’t even think about it then.”
“What about after that fifteen minutes was over?” I teased him.
“I didn’t think you’d be interested in me.”
“In your first full sentence to me, you told me that you weren’t even remotely interested in me.” I said snidely.
“Are you still mad about that?” he asked. “I was upset. I thought you were being mean to me.”
“By being nice to you?” I asked.
“It happens. Girls get dared to ask me out sometimes.”
“Holy shit!” I said. I couldn’t believe that there were girls out there that could be so cruel. “I wasn’t dared. For the record.”
“I figured that out after Zane tore into me that day.” he said. “I was so happy that day. Almost as happy as I am today.”
“So I cheered you up?” I asked him, teasing him.
“I am completely cheered up now.” he returned the teasing as he rubbed my arm. He slid his hand down to my hand, then latched onto it.
Chills shot through my arm. I stared at our hands entwined. I loved that sight. I loved it so much that I raised my head to him and kissed him again. He tried to kiss me better this time, but it hurt his face. He pulled back.
“Sorry again.” I told him. “I’ll let you alone now and quit attacking you.”
He rubbed my leg. “Just tell me I was better than Dwayne.”
I laughed at him. “Way better than Dwayne.”
Todd walked by and looked in as he passed, then he took a few steps back and stood in the doorway. “Definitely not allowing this door to be shut when you two are in here alone.”
I laughed at him. Spencer tried.
“Do you two want something to drink?” Todd asked us.
“Sure.” I said. “I have to go in a little bit though. I have to feed the calves.”
“Cool.” Spencer said as we walked to the kitchen. “I wish I could help.”
“Sure you do.” I teased him.
“I do. It was fun.”
“You’re such a city boy.” I teased him again.
Todd laughed at my comments. We sat in the kitchen with Todd and Janel popping in from time to time. As I walked out the door, Janel came with me.
“Thanks for coming today. You really made him feel better.” she confided in me.
“I’ll be back tomorrow.” I told her as I jumped in my car then left to go feed the calves.
The next day I asked Coach Snideman about the assignment that he told Spencer to do. He told me to tell him to forget that one. He thought Spencer was looking for extra credit for some reason. I texted Spencer from History class to tell him the news.
“Thanks for finding out for me. Are you coming over tonight? Janel said you were.”
“I am, unless you don’t want me there. I’m coming right after practice. Do you need anything? I can stop and get another pizza.”
“How about a Sonic #2 burger?”
“I’ll bring it with me. But no onion rings, or I’ll be ranking you under Dwayne.”
“Funny!”
That was fun. For some reason, things with him seemed like a friends with benefits type of relationship. I liked it. After practice, I ran by Sonic and got us a couple of burgers, and some fries. He opened the door for me before I could knock. His face was only half bandaged today. The side that wasn’t bandaged had a few cuts on it, but it wasn’t too bad.
“You’re looking better.” I said to him. “Less like a mummy.”
He laughed at me. I could tell that he wasn’t in as much pain as he was yesterday. “Thanks for the burger and fries.” He said as he led me to the kitchen. He poured us both a glass of Coke, and then sat with me at the table.
I smiled as I chowed down on my burger and fries. “Are you feeling better?” I asked him.
“I am. What do you want to do today?” he asked.
“Actually, I was hoping we could do something really wild and crazy.” I teased him.
He laughed. He knew I was teasing.
Janel walked in the kitchen. “Hi Taylor. How wild and crazy are we talking? He can’t do too much until he gets better.”
“I was joking about the wild and crazy part.” I quickly said. “I really needed some help on that last Calculus assignment. Zane said he was really good at Calculus.”
“I’ll help you.” Spencer offered.
“Are you flunking?” Janel asked.
“No. I’ve got an A, but I want a higher A to bring up my GPA. Zane said Spencer has a ninety nine in there.”
“Yes he does. He’s the guy to help you with Calculus.” Janel bragged.
“I brought my book, but I left it in the car. I didn’t want to just assume that you’d help me out.”
“I’ve got my book in my room. You don’t need yours. What are you having trouble with?”
“The special functions. The Gamma mostly but the hyperbolic one is giving me some grief too.”
“I can help you.” Spencer said. “No wonder Zane came to me instead of you on those. He usually goes to you on everything.”
“I let him down this time. I don’t know why those are so tough for me. Usually I catch on pretty quick, but I feel like such an idiot when Mister Phillips is trying to teach me these.”
“My teacher in Riverside taught me some tricks. I’ll teach you.” Spencer said.
Janel left the kitchen, after she was satisfied that we were actually talking about Calculus, I think.
“Thanks. I appreciate your help.”
We went to his room and worked on my Calculus. Spencer really knew how to derive Gamma functions. I was impressed with him. I sat on the floor by the bed, so I could see the book better as he explained the function to me. I liked listening to him and being close to him. I was so glad that we were finally getting together.
“Do you think you have it now?” Spencer asked as he finished up his tutoring lesson to me.
“I think so. You made it a lot easier than Mister Phillips did anyway.” I told him.
I stood up to sit on the bed beside him.
“Do you want to play some music now? Or watch television?” he offered.
“I probably better go. I’ll get in trouble if I stay out too late on a school night.” I told him.
“So you just came over to use me for my brain?” he teased me.
“I brought burgers.” I defended myself playfully to him. I almost punched him in the stomach, then decided that wouldn’t be too nice, since he still had stitches. “Oops. Sorry.”
He laughed at me, then leaned over and kissed me. I’d been waiting on that since I walked in the door. I started to kiss him back really well, when he pulled back. It hurt him to kiss me still.
“Sorry.” He apologized. “I guess I’m not much fun still.”
“You’re fun.” I assured him. “Do you want me to come over tomorrow after practice?”
“Sure.” He said excitedly.
“What can I bring you tomo
rrow to eat?” I asked him.
“Arby’s. Barbecue roast beef.” He said.
“You got it.” I said. I knew exactly what he was talking about. We’d eaten lunch several times together and I was getting to know what he liked and what he didn’t. I walked to the front door with him right behind me.
