“I didn’t think of it like that,” she admitted.
“Sometimes it takes an outsider to help you gain some perspective.”
A knock on the door interrupted them and Adrianna was hopeful that Jack had returned. It was the pizza he ordered though and Adrianna paid for it and then gave it to Heather.
“Here,” she told her. “Payment for the good advice.”
“Why don’t you come over and eat with Trevor and me,” Heather offered. “My mother should be dropping him off any minute.”
“Thanks, but no,” Adrianna told her. “I’m gonna go see Jack.”
Chapter 7
Adrianna didn’t knock upon arriving at the door to Jack’s apartment. Instead she just pushed it open, knowing somehow that it would be unlocked, as if he had been expecting her to show up. The truth was, Jack was not expecting Adrianna to show up at all, but he had been hoping.
He was found on his living room sofa, still in the dark blue jeans and light blue t-shirt he had left her in. He was reclining on the piece furniture, its edges frayed and the armrests flattened from years of abuse, with his long legs stretched across the expanse of the worn cushions. Though he reclined, the only indication he was at rest was his bare feet, for his body was taut with anger and worry and, if he were going to be completely honest, the pain of rejection. He had heard Adrianna enter, but he sat silently, leaving the scowl on his face he had worn since storming out of her apartment. His eyes followed her when she entered the room, though he didn’t say a word. He just kept the scowl on his face and left it there when she stood before him; left it there when she climbed upon the couch to nestle herself between his legs.
She pressed her cheek against the soft denim at his thigh, staring at the black screen of the television across from them. In it, she could see their reflection, two bodies, which despite the tension between them; lay languidly like a pair of sated lovers, comfortable in each other’s presence. It wasn’t until Jack’s hand finally came down to rest upon her head in his lap that Adrianna began to speak.
“Four years ago my best friend, Rachel, and I were in a horrible car accident. I was driving us home from a party and we were hit by a semi-truck. The driver had been on the road too long and fell asleep at the wheel. He ran a red light and just plowed into us.”
This having been the first time ever retelling the entire story, Adrianna was sure her voice would waiver and she would cry. On the contrary however, her words were slow but steady and her tears remained at bay. Her fingernails ran through the lines in Jack’s jeans as she continued.
“My car was ripped in two, that’s how hard he hit us. Three vertebrae in my back were crushed as well as two in my neck.”
She paused for a moment as the memories of that night came flooding back and the sudden pain in her belly caused her breathing to hitch. Her eyes closed to help her manage.
Jack tried to offer some comfort by moving his hand now in soft strokes against her hair and when Adrianna didn’t continue he asked, “And Rachel?”
She didn’t need to answer, for he felt all of the muscles in her body tense but still she shook her head slightly and replied, “She didn’t make it.”
He breathed out a heavy sigh, one that conveyed he understood how much it must have hurt to have lost a friend. After that, he stayed quiet again, not pressing her to continue until she was ready.
“I spent a total of somewhere around thirty-two hours in surgery over the course of ten days to repair the damage to my back and neck. Then I was in the hospital for about three months while I recovered. You’ve seen the scar on my back.” Adrianna took Jack’s hand and brought his fingers up to her forehead, about an inch above her left eyebrow, to one of the two dimples set permanently in her skin. “These are from the screws that held the halo brace in place for the ten weeks it took my neck to heal.”
Jack’s fingers brushed back and forth across the damaged, puckered skin a few times before smoothing Adrianna’s bangs into place. They then went back to run through her hair.