Some Kind of Normal

“She’s outside with her father.” My mom’s bottom lip started to tremble. “Thank God she was there when it happened.”

Yeah. Awesome that she got to see that.

“We’re in Baton Rouge, at the hospital.” She was fussing with the blankets. “Daddy and I came as soon as Everly called, and Taylor, she’s here too.”

My head still felt fuzzy, my eyes were sore, and my tongue felt like it was ten times too big for my mouth. I was pretty damn sure I looked like hell, and I found myself reaching for my hair, just to be sure, because after my initial prolonged hospital stay, I had nightmares in which some big-ass orderly shaved my head and kept all my hair.

“It’s nearly three in the morning, but the doctor says if things look good, we can take you home after he checks on you. About eight, I think. He says the seizure happened because your medication needs to be altered, so once that’s fixed, you’ll be good as new.”

I felt like laughing, because really, that was a joke. Good as new was the old Trevor. The one without a TBI. But I didn’t want to think about that, because it was just depressing as hell.

“Can Everly I see?” I asked instead.

My mom kind of pursed her lips, like she wanted to say no, but then her eyes softened a bit and she nodded. “I’ll get her, but you need to take it easy, okay?”

I nodded, and that was exhausting. God, it felt as if I’d been to football practice ten times over, and I was the douche who got tackled every single play.

Man, I hated hospitals. I thought the day I walked out of Twin Oaks Memorial, I’d never be back. Pretty naïve of me, I know, but still. A guy can only hope. What a joke to find out that all the hard work I’d done over the last year had been for nothing. I was defective, and it looked like I would always be defective. Trevor Lewis. Freak of nature.

“Hey.”

Her voice was soft, and there was a bit of tremble in there. I sat up straighter and tried to crack a smile, but I’m sure it came off as more of a lopsided grimace.

“Bet you never thought you’d see me in a dress,” I said, voice hoarse and not really sounding like me at all. Man, if I looked as bad as I sounded, she should be running away as fast and as far as she could.

But she didn’t, and I felt something like hope flare inside me.

Everly’s eyes were huge and her skin was pale and her dress, that hot little dress she’d worn to dinner, was covered in mud. She crossed the room and sat on the bed beside me, a smile on her face that didn’t quite reach her eyes. She looked tired and sad and so damn beautiful that it made me crazy. I wanted to grab her up and hold her. I wanted to touch her hair and smell that spot at the base of her neck. I wanted to kiss her until she made that sexy little sound at the back of her throat.

I wanted to do it all, and yet I did nothing.

“You kind of rock a dress,” she said. “Especially a pink one.”

I glanced down. Wow. The shame just wouldn’t go away.

“Good to know,” I managed to say. “I’ll make sure and wear one the next time…we are, uh…together.” What the hell was I doing? Where was I going with this? What girl in her right mind would want to hang out with a dude whose brain wasn’t quite right and who’d had two seizures in the space of a few weeks?

She reached for my hand and brought it up to her face. “I just might hold you to that, Trevor Lewis.”

I shook my head. She was so soft and warm and perfect. “Why are you still here? I don’t get it.”

“You don’t have to get it, because it doesn’t really matter now, does it? I’m here because I want to be. I’m here because I care about you.” She leaned close and kissed the corner of my mouth. “Trevor, I’m here because you’re here. Where else would I be?”

I rested my forehead against hers, mostly because I was wiped out, but damn, the girl felt good.

“Oh, man. Even here you’re sucking face? Jesus, Trevor, is that all you think about?”

I glanced around Everly and spied my sister Taylor standing at the end of my bed. She must have been crying, because she looked like a raccoon with her Goth eyes and smudged liner. But her attitude, it was all there, and I was kind of glad to hear it. That was normal. She was normal.

“What else is there to think about?” I joked.

Everly fake-punched me.

“Hey,” I said. “Next time you do that, I’ll have to think up some form of punishment.”

“That is, like, the lamest line ever.” Taylor was now sitting on the other side of the bed, inches from me and Everly.

And Everly was smiling. “Yeah, but it just might work.”