by Autumn Brown
“You weren’t that impressed with her the other day.” Todd said to her sternly as if reprimanding her.
Their voices grew softer as they worked their way up the bleachers. Darn it. Just when it was getting good.
I joined Sally and the other girls. I watched the game as Spencer played. He was doing fairly well tonight. I was cheering as hard as I could. I did a special flip for him when he ran with the ball. Everyone was cheering for him. It was really exciting. We won the game, so everyone lined up for our special hugs. When I came to Spencer, I hugged him and kissed him on the cheek. He smiled at me as if I’d given him the best gift in the world. Odd that he thought that much of the kiss.
“See you in the parking lot?” he asked as we parted ways in the line. He slid his hand down my arm and grabbed my hand, then acted like he didn’t want to let it go. It felt funny, but really good. It felt like he was finally making a move on me. I was ecstatic. Maybe he’d ask me out tonight. I hoped so.
“I’ll be there.” I called out to him as I was pushed to the next football player in line.
In the parking lot, Sandy and I waited on the guys to finish showering. While we were there talking, Patty and Denise walked up. They asked for a ride to the party. That meant that I would have to take them home as well. I knew the score. It also meant I would have to find them when it came time to leave, and probably walk them to the car, and hope they didn’t barf in it like DeeDee did last year. My poor car stunk for weeks after that.
We all waited on the guys to come out. When Spencer and Zane walked out, several of the other football players walked out at the same time. After the winning games, the football players were always in a really good mood. They congratulated each other and patted each other on the back verbally and physically. They jumped all over each other. I heard a lot of praise going Spencer’s way. Maybe carrying that ball a few yards was better than I thought it was. Cool!
Spencer and Zane walked up to us. Zane always tried to park near me, and he managed to get a spot right next to me tonight.
“Hi, girls.” Zane called out as he stood in front of us.
Spencer rubbed my arm with a smile. “Hi.” He said to me with a smile.
I realized that he probably didn’t know Patty and Denise. “Hi. Do you know Patty and Denise?”
He shook his head.
“We’ve seen him around, and we’ve definitely seen him on the field. Especially tonight.” Patty said, almost with enthusiasm.
“Well, Patty and Denise, this is Spencer.” I introduced them all.
Everyone said hi to each other, then Zane got antsy about leaving for the party. He was in a very good mood and ready to drink some beer to celebrate. Everyone laughed at him, then we all got into our cars and left for the party.
I followed behind Zane to the party. As I was following him, I saw headlights from an oncoming car. It kept swerving to our lane then back into its own lane again. I slowed down just in case. Sometimes guys played stupid games in cars that I didn’t want any part of. I’d never known Zane to play those games though. Usually he was really responsible with his driving.
Just then the car coming toward us hit Zane’s car head on. I screamed and slammed on my brakes. I must have turned the steering wheel at the same time, because my car started spinning in circles off of the road. Everyone in my car screamed at the top of their lungs. We kept spinning. As we were spinning, I could see Zane’s car and the other truck rolling in opposite directions, but both away from us.
Finally our spinning stopped. We were all shook up, but held in by our seatbelts. Somehow, we still had to pull ourselves off of each other. We all jumped out to go check on Zane and Spencer. When I got there, I could see that their car was really smashed up. I’d beaten everyone there.
“Call 911.” I yelled out to Sandy who was still running up to the car.
“I’m already on it.” She yelled back.
The other girls came running up as well.
“Oh my god.” Patty screamed out when she ran up closer. “Are they…?” she stopped.
The car was upright. I stuck my hand inside the broken window to see if Zane was breathing. He was. He shook his head, and started yelling out in pain. It hurt him to shake his head.
I ran around to Spencer who still wasn’t saying anything. I put my hand on his mouth to see if he was breathing. I felt breath coming out of his nose, but he was out cold. And, worse, he was cut up really bad. His face and his chest looked like raw hamburger meat almost. His shirt was almost shredded off of him. Part of his upper arm was bloody too. Where was that ambulance?
The scene was utter chaos. The girls were screaming and Zane was yelling about his leg being broken.
“Be still, Zane. Just don’t move.” I tried to tell him.
He kept cussing. Sandy, Patty, and Denise all tried to calm him down.
Should I call their parents? Yes, I should. I didn’t ask for Zane’s permission, I just dialed his mother. After several rings, she finally answered. I told her what had happened and told her where we were.
Patty went to check on the other truck to see if they were okay. It turned out to be one of the adults, Fred, who partied with us almost every week. He had a girlfriend with him. He was in pretty bad shape. His girlfriend got out of the truck though. She was fine, we thought.
I called Spencer’s home number. Janel answered. “Janel. This is Taylor. I…” I had no clue how to finish that sentence.
“What’s wrong?” Janel almost screamed into the phone, panicked.
“Spencer’s been in a car accident. The ambulance is on its way.”
“How bad is he hurt?”
“It looks bad, bloody. He’s not conscious. He’s breathing though.” I stumbled out the words.
Janel lost it and started sobbing.
Todd took the phone from her. “Where are you?”
I told him where we were, then he hung up the phone.
About twenty minutes later, the ambulance showed up, as did Todd and Janel. They came running to Spencer’s side of the car. When Janel saw Spencer, she started screaming and crying. Todd held her close. Everything was hectic. Paramedics were working on Zane and Spencer, and pulling them out of the car. Janel and Todd were next to Spencer, holding his hand. The girls and I were standing back, watching the whole ordeal.
“Was there alcohol involved?” one of the paramedics asked.
Everyone looked at each other.
“No. None of the kids were drinking.” I finally answered. None of them were, yet. “I don’t know about Fred though.”
“Where were you guys going?” Todd asked.
I thought quickly. “To Zane’s house. He wanted to show us a new game.” I usually didn’t lie very well, but I think I pulled that one off. I didn’t want Todd and Janel to know that we were on our way to a party to booze it up. Not that Spencer was going to drink, but I didn’t know if he shared that information with them or not.
The paramedics hoisted Spencer into the back of the first ambulance. They made Zane wait on the second one that still hadn’t made it yet. He was still yelling and cussing, still in a lot of pain. Janel rode with Spencer to the hospital. Todd followed in his own car. I waited for the second ambulance to get Zane, then I took the girls home. My car drove kind of funny but it drove. We had to drive really slowly.
--
The next morning, I had my dad look at my car. He found several loose lug nuts on the wheels, which he tightened for me. He usually made me change my own tires, but he was being nice to me today since Spencer was hurt. I headed off to the hospital. I didn’t usually drive in Phoenix very often, but I knew where the hospital was. I went in and found the intensive care unit, where the nurses told me Spencer was. Once I got up there, the other nurses told me that I couldn’t go in because I wasn’t family. I waited outside the unit in the waiting room, hoping to see Todd or Janel come out.
An hour later, Todd came out. I stood up to greet him. He reached out and hugged me. �
�Thanks for calling us last night.”
I nodded. “How is he?”
“He’s still unconscious. He’s going to be fine though. His face and his chest are really messed up. He’s going to need some plastic surgery, but nothing is broken, and there are no internal injuries. He’ll heal. He’ll be fine in a month or so.”
“I guess that’s good.” I said softly. I couldn’t think of anything else to say to him. I was always at a loss when it came to these kinds of things.
“It could have turned out much worse. Janel panicked because that’s how her sister and brother-in-law, his parents, died.”
“I know. He told me.”
“You two are pretty close.” He said. I could tell it was more of a question.
“We’re good friends, I guess.” I said. I wasn’t sure how to answer the question. I mean, we’d never even gone out on a real date.
“I got the feeling there was more there than friendship.” He said. It was another question, I could tell.
“So did I.” I said to him uneasily. I didn’t know him well enough to be talking to him about this stuff. “Maybe he didn’t think so.”
“He thought so.” Todd reassured me. “You’re all he’s talked about at the house for the last couple of weeks. It was good to see him so happy.”
I smiled. That was good news for me. “Can you tell him to call me when he wakes up? I’ll come back up.”
“I’ll do it.” Todd said then gave me a little hug. I hugged friends all the time, but it was awkward hugging a grown man. My dad rarely hugged me. We weren’t a hugging family.
--
A few days later, I still hadn’t received a phone call from Spencer or Todd. When I called the hospital, they said he’d been released already. I called his house, but no one answered. I left a message telling Janel to call me when Spencer came home, and that I hoped everything was okay. I always messed up leaving messages. I texted Spencer telling him to call me. Maybe if he was up, he would be reading his texts. At least he’d know that I was trying to get in touch with him.
Another couple of days passed, and I still hadn’t heard from him. I called Zane who was home already with a cast on his leg. His car was totaled. He would get a new one out of the deal, which he was really excited about. He said he’d heard from Spencer, but Spencer didn’t want to see him yet. Zane said he was in a lot of pain and didn’t want anyone to see his face.
I texted Spencer again, telling him to call me, or at least text me back. He didn’t answer. I sent him another text telling him to text me back. Then I sent that same text over and over like twenty times. He’d get tired of it and call me. That was the plan anyway. It didn’t work.
I came up with another plan. I knocked on his door with a bouquet of balloons and his favorite pizza from Pizza Hut. Janel answered. She smiled at me. It was a pity smile. I felt awkward already.
“He doesn’t want to see you. He doesn’t want to see anyone just yet.” She said apologetically.
“I know, but can you give him these? This is his favorite pizza. He eats all of it when they put it on the buffet.”
“I’ll give it to him.” she assured me as she took the pizza and the balloons from me.
“How is he?” I asked her.
“Physically, he’s healing. Emotionally, he’s upset, depressed, and mad at the world.” She answered honestly as tears started to fill her eyes. Her voice was cracking.
“I could watch a movie with him, play songs with him, and try to help him feel better.” I offered. I knew I was sounding a bit too much like an obsessed stalker.
“He doesn’t want to see anyone right now. He’s really concerned about how his face looks.”
“I can take it if he can.” I told her.
“I’ll tell him.” she said, then closed the door.
I felt like a door to door salesman being dismissed. I drove away. I couldn’t believe he didn’t want to see me. I mean how bad could it be? About that time, I received a text. It was from Spencer. I was elated to say the least.
Spencer POV.
Damn the luck! I was so depressed and so upset. I hadn’t felt this low since I’d lost my parents six years ago. For the first time in my life, I almost had a girlfriend. Then this happens. As if I wasn’t ugly enough with the birthmark on my face, I had to get it all cut and scraped up. The doctor did some plastic surgery to correct the big stuff, Janel told me. We’d have to wait to see how it healed before I could get more plastic surgery though.
This was going to be worse than walking around school with the birthmark. So far I was completely bandaged up. I was in a lot of pain still. My face hurt. My arm hurt. And my chest hurt. I was cut up pretty badly. I had a lot of stitches when you added them all up. They all hurt, even though I was already taking the pain pills. I wondered how long I would be in pain. I was really sore, too.
I’d come so far with Taylor. I really thought we were getting somewhere. I was about to ask her out the night of the car wreck. I would have had plenty of time alone with her at the party again. I’d already asked Todd if I could borrow his car for that Saturday night. I was going to take her ice skating at Metro Center. Zane said she liked that, and was pretty good at it. I was really excited about asking. I’d never asked a girl out. Now I probably never would.
Someone was at the door. Janel was taking care of it. It was probably someone sending flowers or a card. I’d told Todd and Janel that I didn’t want to see anyone. I didn’t. I was seriously considering home schooling now. I wouldn’t be able to play football any longer anyway, and I didn’t want to be seen at school.
Janel returned from the door with a bouquet of get well balloons, and a pizza. Who would have brought a pizza? That was a weird gift. I looked at Janel, reaching for the card on the balloons. I opened it. “Please call me, Taylor.”
“That was Taylor?” I asked Aunt Janel.
“It was. She’s persistent. Isn’t she?”
“She doesn’t know how bad I look.” I told her.
Todd walked up. “She’s the one that found you. She stayed with you to make sure you were breathing the entire time. She saw how bad it was.”
“It’s worse now, though, Uncle Todd. When she sees me now, she’ll run. I can’t take that.”
“I don’t know about that. She seems to be different from other girls somehow.” Todd said.
“She’s the only girl so far to look beyond your birthmark.” Janel said softly. She knew she was treading on thin ice mentioning that fact.
“You’re right. Maybe she won’t mind dating a monster, since she was already dating something close to a monster.” I said spitefully to my aunt.
“That’s not what I was saying, and you know it.” Janel reprimanded me. “You’ll never know if you don’t give her a chance. And, she’s practically begging for a chance with all the phone calls and messages and texts she’s been sending. And who else brought your favorite pizza?”
“My favorite?” I asked, opening up the pizza. It was beef and mushroom with a cup of ranch dressing tucked inside the box. My favorite. “How did she know that?”
“She likes you. She pays attention. Girls do that when they’re crazy about guys.” Janel said.
“I’m going to text her.” I said, determined to at least see this through. I needed to see if she was going to run. “Come back.” I texted her.
A few minutes later, Taylor knocked at the door.
Taylor POV.
I was ecstatic to get Spencer’s text. Finally he was going to let me in. I was at his front door in about two minutes flat. I knocked and took a deep breath. He opened the door, with his entire face bandaged. I couldn’t even see his nose, only his mouth. His chest was bandaged too. He wasn’t wearing a shirt, but there wasn’t much that wasn’t covered. I could see his stomach though. I tried like crazy to keep my facial expressions in check. Everyone had always told me that they could read me like a book by my facial expressions.
“You don’t look so bad.” I said to
him with a smile. Of course, I hadn’t actually seen him yet. All I saw was a lot of bandages. He had really nice abdominal muscles. “And, nice abs and shoulders.”
“Come on in. We’ve got pizza.” He said with a little laugh. I could tell by how short his laugh was that he was in pain and feeling very self conscious.
I walked in. Janel and Todd were at the table with the pizza. They said hello to me, as Janel pulled out another plate from the cupboard.
“Thanks for the pizza.” Janel said as she took a bite.
“You’re welcome. I thought it might cheer him up.”
“Hey, I think I finished my song.” Spencer said to me, excited. “I’ve had a lot of time to work on it lately.”