Memory Lane

Chapter Four

"If we couldn't laugh, we'd all go insane." - Robert Frost

Memory Lane: Chapter Four

Portions of our walk required us to cut through sections of the woods that flow through Bennington. In our drunken states, neither one of us feared walking through the forest in the dark. And, despite the situation that led to it, I didn't mind the walk.

It was nice for Allen and I to catch up and speak candidly without him fearing he would say the wrong thing to me. I did what I set out to do at the party: ensure I'm seen as nothing but Laura Laurier. Even Allen has started to view me less as his victimized little cousin and more as his friend.

Jesse was wrong in his estimated time it would take us to walk home. Saying twenty minutes was generous. Because of my legs, it took us over a half hour to walk back from the party.

Ever since the surgeries and skin graft, my body has not been able to keep up with day-to-day activities the way it used to. A simple walk requires more effort than my legs can handle and exhaustion settles in quickly. It's not to say that I can't do the same things I could before, it just requires more time and I have to take things slower.

Despite it being nearly nine months since the accident, I'm still in recovery and will be for a lot longer. Aunt June has been there to help me continue to set up my doctors visits back in Wallingford and she's already taken off of work the days that I have to go back for my check-ins. If I keep up with my daily skincare tasks and continue to go to my routinely doctors visits, there's a chance my legs could go back to normal. However slim, I'll take any chance I get. I don't want to look in the mirror every day for the rest of my life and be reminded of the greatest nightmare I'll ever have.

Now, after sleeping away any alcohol left in my system, I'm relaxing on the window seat as I sort through my schedule for the first day of school tomorrow. The top of the sheet has large bold letters outlining the school's name: Mount Anthony Union High School, the only one in the town. Bennington may not be a small town, but it's small enough to only require one school. Allen and the girls were kind enough to introduce me to a fair amount of my new classmates at the party, but with how much alcohol was floating around, I'm doubtful most of them remember their small interaction with me.

A knock at my door pulls my eyes away from my schedule and Allen gently pushes it open, and I try to avoid laughing at his clearly hungover appearance. One of his pajama pants legs is bunched up to his knee, his shirt was clearly thrown on inside-out last night, and his hair is sticking up in various positions. Allen grunts at my bright ceiling light, running a hand over his face and through his hair. Despite sobering up during our walk home last night, Allen still had one too many shots and is paying for it now.

"Good morning."

"No so loud," he groans, lifting both hands to massage his temples with his eyes squeezed tight. "Let's try to whisper this morning, yeah?"

I put my hands up in an apology, still trying not to laugh.

"In about an hour," he starts, his voice groggy and in desperate need of water, "the girls and I are going to go to lunch. Kendall forgot to get your number last night, so she called me about ten times this morning to make sure I invited you and gave you her number."

He lifts his phone from the doorway for me to see, unlocked to reveal many missed calls by the same contact. He tosses me his phone, mumbling about how I need to put her number in mine, still rubbing his temples. Then, he shuts off the light in my room and sighs out of relief.

"That's better," he says, catching his phone when I toss it back, barely having it reach him.

"How are you getting the car keys back?"