BOOM.
I shoot up out of the bed, sweat rolling down my whole body. My heart is racing, and my knee has a dull ache, indicating I was thrashing in my sleep. I haven’t had a nightmare like this in a while.
Come to think of it, I haven’t had one since I met the gorgeous green eyes of my Sunflower. I normally dream of her luscious body below me. I’d much rather wake up with a bonerand my heart thrashing because of lust than reliving the moment that ruined my life.
Taking a look around the room I’m in, I realize that I am in the guest room at Graham’s house. I finally can get my breath to even out, and I climb out of bed. My knee decides the moment that I put my foot on the ground to stand up, it doesn’t want to bear my body weight this morning. Let’s just add insult to injury this morning, shall we?
While I limp over to the closet to grab my knee brace, I hear Graham’s distinct five-knock pattern on the door. It is something that he has been doing our whole lives. Or at least since I was old enough to understand what it means.
Graham is only a few years older than me, so we grew up practically inseparable, that is, until Dee and him decided to join the Marine Corps. After visiting him during graduation, I decided that I was going to follow in my big brother’s footsteps.
“Yo, Little H!” Graham calls out from the other side of the door.
“Come in,” I call out to him.
I hear the door open while I am still in the closet, and Graham lets out a laugh.
“Here comes my little bro coming out of the closet.” He wraps an arm around me and pulls me towards him, causing me to shift more weight onto the bad knee, and I almost take us both out.
”Fuck dude!” Graham calls out while he steadies us both on our feet.
“Sorry, I had a rough night’s sleep, so I think I tweaked the knee a bit.” Limping over to the desk chair to sit down and strap the brace around my knee. ”What can I do for you?
I sit back in the chair, and he flops down in my bed, making himself at home. His hands are behind his head, lounging like he didn’t barge in here first thing in the morning just to hang out.
“Are you just here to babysit, Graham?”
”Nope, was wondering if you wanted to go down to the gym or something?”
In other words, yes, he is here to babysit me. To make sure that I am not letting myself slip into the darkness and the pain.
“I don’t think I’m doing much working out today until this knee figures itself out.”
“K, what about going into town and grabbing lunch?”
”I just woke up, what do you mean, lunch?”
”Cal, it’s like noon.”
Shocked, I snatch my cell off the bedside table. Fuck, I didn’t plug it in last night. I quickly plug it in and give it a few moments to get a little juice back before I try to power it on. The moment the main screen loads, the clock shows it is quarter to twelve.
We pull up outside of Grant’s, and Graham parks his truck before I climb leisurely out. My knee is able to hold more of my weight, but I still think I’m going to be in this brace again for a couple of days. Walking in the door, we are greeted by Molly.
“Hey guys!” She tries to look behind us, looking for someone.
“Hey, Mols.” Graham gives her a quick high five, and I just laugh.
“Just you two?” She asks. I can’t decide if she’s disappointed or confused.
“Ya,” I answer.
“Y’all sit wherever ya want. What do y’all want to drink?” Molly heads back behind the bar.
“Beer,” Graham calls out as he heads to the table we normally claim.
“Whiskey…neat.”
There is no one else here today. It is a weird time of day, and it’s during the week. I will enjoy the peace for now. Slowly, I lower myself down into the booth while Molly brings our drinks over.
