“Fucking nothing. Sitting on my ass probably. It’s all I do these days.”
Huck laughed. “I’ll come over and beat you at Xbox this weekend.”
“Sure about that? I have a lot of practice time right now.”
He nodded. “I’m sure.”
I chuckled at his confidence. He wasn’t beating me.
“Okay, man. Whatever you say.” I started hopping about as I lost balance slightly, my crutch slipping. “Fuck’s sake. I’ll catch you later. I need to get home.”
“Cool, take it easy, man. Talk to you later.” Brogan slapped me on the shoulder as they headed toward Coach’s office.
An hour later, I pulled up to my house. Drew, being the greatest guy in the world that he was, had loaned me his driver, Ralphie, to help me get around, seeing as I could do fuck-all by myself these days but still needed to get to my daily PT and check-up appointments. I’d never had a driver before, always preferring to drive myself, wanting my independence, but Ralphie had been around the pair of us for so long now that I already trusted him implicitly.
He got out and pulled my crutches from the back seat, handing them to me as he opened my door.
“You good, Clevs? Do you need anything?”
I got out of the car with the aid of my crutches. “Nah, I’m good. Thanks, man. Thanks for ferrying me around. Sorry it’s so boring these days.”
He laughed, loud and deep and dad-like. I didn’t know how old Ralph was but he was definitely much older than us. And he’d spent too many nights to count driving Drew and me back from bars with an assortment of women. But since Drew met Emerson that had stopped dead, because even when they hadn’t been together he couldn’t see anyone else but her.
“Not boring at all. It’s been good to see Drew settle down.” He looked at me with a raised eyebrow. “It’ll be you next.”
I scoffed, but then wasn’t sure why. Because since Emerson had come along I’d never seen Drew happier, even when he’d been really fucking happy, she had brought it up a level I didn’t know existed. Like Golden Retriever level happy. And I kind of liked it. I liked seeing him happy.
I started moving up the steps to the front door one at a time, while Ralph stayed next to me. “Who the fuck is going to take me on?”
“Just takes one, Felix.”
“Well, there’s only one I want to talk to right now.”
“Exactly.”
I laughed at him. “Not sure it’s the best sign, Ralph my man, seeing as she won’t fucking reply to me.”
He gave me a look that told me I didn’t know what I was talking about. “You’ll see.”
“Okay, enough cryptic chat. I’m freezing my balls off out here and I’m hungry.”
He walked down the steps and got back in the car, saluting me as he did. “Call me if you need anything. Same time tomorrow Clevs, take it easy.”
I pushed the front door open, letting it close behind me, taking myself through to the kitchen and propping up mycrutches so I could shrug myself out of my thick winter coat, and finally sit down at the kitchen counter.
It really was a fucking ball-ache.
My stomach rumbled.
I stretched across the countertop for my new favorite toy, a NASA-approved, long mechanical-claw-grip thing which Drew had bought me so I could reach what I wanted without getting up. And because the first week I’d had it I’d kept forgetting it wherever I’d been, he’d bought me one for each room.
From where I was sitting, I’d figured out if I angled it just right, I could reach into the fridge and lift most things out. My housekeeper had also started moving stuff to the front of the shelves to make it easier for me. I’d actually become quite adept at very precise, tiny movements.
I’d absolutely kill it in Space.
I pulled out a container, hitting the jackpot with Freddie’s home-made lasagna, which, luckily, was even better cold. I also grabbed a bottle of water, then a fork from the drawer and dug in.
I wasn’t the type of guy who needed constant entertainment, I liked my own company, but fuck me, when you couldn’t actually move much, life was pretty limited. And boring. Especially when it took fucking forever to do the most basic of tasks. I wasn’t kidding when I told Huck I had a lot of practice time for Xbox, because between that and Netflix, there wasn’t much else to do. In fact, I think I’d finished Netflix already. I was thankful the weather was so cold right now and I didn’t really want to go outside anyway, because if this was the summer and I had to sit and watch everyone in the pool having fun, I think I’d probably murder someone.
