Wheelchair Accessible

Part Sixteen

The next few days were spent in the hospital. Normally, I would've been eager to get out of that place, but I found that the strong antiseptic smell was tolerable when I was with Shawna.

Her parents and siblings would be there, too, sometimes, and we'd play a boardgame as usual. Allison usually visited after school, bringing her flowers and cards signed from her classmates.

It wasn't a surprise to me that so many people knew her. If there was anyone who could draw people in like moths to a flame, it was Shawna. But the sheer amount of people that not only knew her, but cared so much about her-- writing inside jokes with their well wishes, sending her favorite snacks, and stopping by to see how she was doing.

I was honestly a bit overwhelmed, as Shawna politely introduced all of her visitors to the random guy sitting in the corner of her room, and I wasn't even there all day. I didn't know how Shawna did it. How could one person be friends with so many people? But she was, and you could see how much she delighted in every person that came to see her, and how much they were delighted right back.

 When I asked her about it, Shawna simply shrugged and said, "The best thing for you to share with the world is yourself. That's all I'm doing."

She really was incredible, and I obviously wasn't the only person who had realized that.

Finally, the doctors said she was ready to go home. Shawna's dad teased that they really just wanted to get rid of me... but either way, I was glad that she was home. 

"Another one!" Shawna cheered, stretching her arms above her head as the credits rolled after yet another Disney princess movie. She was sprawled out across the couch, her legs resting across my lap, as we had been for the last several hours.

She was lucky I liked her so much. 

I drummed my fingers against her leg, "I gotta go."

Her eyes swung over to me. "What? Why?"

"Football practice."

She dropped her head back against the armrest and groaned, "You'd really rather go and slap some dude's butt's than watch a movie with me?"

"Of course not. But I promised Coach I would play one more game before I was done." Only a few more days. 

"Wait, what do you mean?"

Pausing, I realized that I hadn't actually told Shawna about everything that had happened the day of the accident. I had been a little preoccupied with the whole emergency / professing my love thing. "Oh," I looked over, not quite meeting her eye. "I uh, quit the team."

She gasped, which was a little more dramatic than the situation entailed. "You did? How'd everyone take it?" 

I shrugged. "Coach wanted me to stay, I said no, but he convinced me to play in this big game against our school's rivalry team in a few days." She stretched out her hand towards me and I took it, pulling her up so that she was sitting, before I added, "Will was pretty upset, actually." 

"Why?" she grumbled. "Because he has to find someone else to take his rage issues out on?" 

"I think he has college scouts coming to watch him. I don't know, it seemed really important to him. "

"Hm." She looked thoughtful for a moment. "Why'd you quit?"

"Because of you. I figured since you're so demanding of my free time, I'd need to quit my extracurricular activities to find more time in a day.' 

Her jaw dropped. "Mark! Why would you--? You shouldn't have... I don't want to be that girl-- that's not what I wanted for--"

I cracked a smile, cutting off her rambling. "I'm kidding. I quit because I wanted to. I don't even like football that much anymore, remember? This is me giving myself a chance to start over. Just like you said."