Page 7 of If Everything Was Easy

“Fine.” She rolled her eyes. Deep down, I knew her feelings were justified, but I just couldn’t face them.

“Why don’t you sign my cast?” I pointed over at my desk. “There should be some markers in the drawer.”

Ashley marched over to the desk, and squealed in delight. “We are going to pretty this thing up.” She clapped as she lifted a pack of multicolored Sharpies from the drawer. She skipped back over to the bed, and carefully sat down. “What color should I start with?” She held them in front of me.

“Blue. I like blue.” I laughed.

She made a funny face as she removed the cap and leaned down. After a few seconds, she sat back to admire her signature. It scrolled along my calf. She then proceeded to make little flowers around her name in all the other colors in the pack. “There.” She smiled with pride. “I’ll get the rest of the girls over here soon. You’ll have the prettiest leg on the team.” She clapped before slipping the cap back on her marker.

“Thanks. It does look better.” I admired her work. It still hurt like hell to really move any, but the flowers and her bubbly script helped in a way.

“I’ll be back later this week when I have a break. You, get some rest so we can get back on the field. I need someone kicking my ass on the daily.” She grinned as she stood.

“Thanks, Ash. You always know what to say. I’m sorry it’s going to be so lonely without me there.”

“I got that covered.” She winked as my phone started ringing. When I looked at the screen it was a Facetime, from her. “Answer it.” She giggled.

“Hey.” I clicked on the screen. “What are you up to?”

“I’m heading home from a friend’s.” She grinned on the screen. “I’ll call you back.” She disconnected and then stuffed her phone in her pocket before looking back to me. “I can Facetime whenever, and then you are there with me.”

“You are too much.” I laughed.

“Maybe” —she shrugged— “but I got you laughing, so I did my job. I’ll call you later.” She did a little finger wave before leaving.

As the door closed, I reached over for the pain pills and after swallowing two, I slid down, and let my eyes drift closed. It was the first time since getting home that I didn’t feel like breaking something.

Chapter 5

Ava

It’d been a week, and I’d like to say that I felt better about things, but that would be a lie. The simplest tasks took me forever to complete, and I needed my dad or Madi to pretty much do everything for me. I had crutches, and now that my leg was starting to get on board with this whole recovery process, I could use them in small doses. It hurt to stand for more than a few minutes, so I spend most of my time sitting on my ass getting fat. For some reason, my dad thought food was the answer to everything. I told him if he kept it up, he was not going to be able to help me anymore, I’d be too heavy. He laughed until he realized I was serious.

“I think I wanna go on the porch,” I called to Madi. She was moving about in the kitchen, cleaning up from lunch.

“Ok, give me just a minute,” she called. She soon appeared, wiping her hands on a towel with a smile covering her face. She was always happy, more so since she married Dad, but I saw a real change over the years since I was little.

She came over behind me and released the brake on my chair. When we reached the front door, she propped it open before pushing me outside. “How’s this?” She turned the chair so I wasn’t facing the sun.

“Perfect. Can you grab my phone and maybe a water, please?” I smiled as the fall air surrounded me. It smelled different at the beach. The salty sea air was still there, but there was a different scent added. One of crispness and this woodsy smell that I couldn’t really describe. It was just fall.

“Be right back.” She disappeared inside only to reemerge with my items. “Just yell, or call when you want to come in.” She patted my shoulder and then went back inside. I saw the look she gave me. I knew without asking that she was picturing my mom. I didn’t know much about Mom’s last days, but I knew that she and Dad saw them in their minds this last week as they took care of me. I mean, I looked just like her. I’d seen the pictures to know that much, and even though I was going to heal and be fine, I knew that all of this was bringing that pain that they’d both put behind them right back to the front of their minds.

I took a deep breath and leaned my head back. I stared at the porch ceiling before closing my eyes. “Why’d this happen to me, right now?” I whispered. “I thought you’d protect me?” The breeze blew. I knew it was an answer, but I didn’t know what it meant. This happened a lot. There was a breakdown in the communication, but when I was little I seemed to be able to figure it out better. I don’t know if I was just young, and made things up, or if I just listened better then.

It was in that moment that my phone chimed. I glanced down to see Danny’s smiling face. I hadn’t talked to him since he left after my birthday. I didn’t know if I even wanted to. My stupid heart began to race with excitement and even though my brain told me to ignore the call, I stupidly answered it.

“Hello?” I tried to hide the excitement. I wanted him to tell me he was sorry for not calling me when I got hurt.

“Hey.” He sighed. “We need to talk…” He voice trailed off. The line was quiet. Part of me knew what was coming, but the other part didn’t want to believe it.

“About what?” My voice trembled, betraying me.

“This isn’t working.” He swallowed. “I mean, I like you, but I can’t be worrying about you while I’m here. I need to concentrate on my job.”

“Why would you worry? I’m fine. Not that you would know since you didn’t call me back.” Anger bubbled up as I tried to hide the pain. Part of me knew we were heading in this direction months ago, but I’d been lying to myself to try and wait it out. We were really good together when things started out, and I didn’t really know when things changed or why.

“We’ve been over this. I have to work. My job is stressful, and I don’t have much down time. I call when I can, and I come back to see you as much as possible. This is what I mean. It’s not working, and I can’t do this anymore.” He seemed angry now too, but it seemed to be directed at me.

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