Chapter 9: The Return (EDITED)

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The air seemed boiling hot for winter, limiting the air I could force through my lungs. I pushed myself to move faster, going harder despite the strain in my aching body. Physical therapy was the worst.

Luckily Will came with me, or I wouldn't have been able to do those torturous exercises. He'd reminded me several days ago that the next semester was starting on Monday, which completely freaked me out. After I screamed internally for a moment, I realized if I was going to be able to go to class I'd need to be able to move a little better, hence the physical therapy.

Will was currently standing at the end of the hallway in our apartment. I was walking down it with no support, which is one of many exercises my physical therapist told me to complete. He smiled at me, dimples peeking out which only happened rarely. His brown eyes were trained on mine, sparkling. I couldn't stand to look at his handsome face anymore without distraction, so I yelled out at him.

"I need a distraction! Tell me something I don't know about you." I panted, trying to breathe as I walked down the hall.

He seemed thoughtful for a moment before he blushed, red dotting his tan cheeks. "Alright, but only because you're doing so well. My full name is...Thurston William Tucker, III."

My gaze shot up to him, surprise literally knocking me off my feet. I fell hard on my butt, at least glad I didn't hurt my ribs again. Will ran down the hall to me, kneeling as he reached for me. He grabbed my elbows gently, looking me over closely.

"Are you okay? Are you hurt anywhere?" He asked, face concentrated.

I couldn't answer due to the laughter threatening to explode out of my aching chest. I was doing my best to hold it in, making my lungs hurt. He finally looked at my face and all the air finally released out of my body in a full laugh. He glared at me until it died down, which took a very long few minutes.

I finally took a deep breath, still smiling in the face of his frown. "I can't believe that's your name."

"I thought you'd really hurt yourself. Next time, how about you lead with 'I'm fine' okay?" He grumpily mumbled, turning away.

I grabbed his arm, stopping him. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scare you," I made eye contact with him and made sure he knew I meant it, then broke away once he nodded in acceptance. "But you have to admit, that's an awful name. Way worse than that nickname you gave me." I smiled, chuckling.

His expression grew mischievous. "So does that mean I'm officially allowed to call you Annie whenever I want now?"

I grimaced, but nodded. "With a name like Thurston, you can call me whatever you want. Not like you didn't call me that anyway." I mumbled that last part to myself.

He finally stood up, holding out a hand to me. I grabbed it and he helped me stand gingerly before suddenly sweeping me into his arms. I exclaimed my surprise and disagreement, but he wouldn't put me down again.

"Hold still. You've had enough exercise today. It's time to go home." This was his only reply to my demands he put me down.

I eventually gave up trying to convince him and let him carry me back out of our apartment complex's office building and back to our building. He never wavered, acting like I weighed nothing. I couldn't help but wonder if this was a product of more than just going to the gym frequently.

Finally, he reached our apartment, setting me gently on the couch before walking to our fridge and grabbing a water bottle. He walked back to me quickly, handed me the water, and sat next to me. His breath was even, and he showed no signs of being any more tired than he was before he'd carried me almost a mile.

"How aren't you tired?" I couldn't help but ask out loud.

"Hm?" He turned to me, realizing what I'd asked. "Oh, I just work out a lot." He disregarded my question easily, like the answer was that simple.

"Uh huh, I'm sure that's all it is." I muttered, dropping the subject before taking a sip of water. "So, your name is obviously a family name. Your dad thought it was a good idea to pass it to you?" I asked casually, almost missing the angry expression that flashed across his face.

"Yeah. He was a real...idiot." He grit his teeth and grabbed the remote, effectively ending the conversation.

Over the rest of the week, Will and I worked on my physical recovery until I could walk down that hall with a degree of ease, all by myself. I never brought up his family again, and all was well between us.

Once Monday came, I decided to go with my crutches so I hopefully wouldn't be exhausted by the end of my school day. I had three classes to attend, and I'd spent my free time this week reading the syllabi and getting the textbooks. All of my professors were new except for Professor Thatcher, who had taught my biology class last semester. I was honestly glad to have a mostly clean break. Hopefully nobody would make a big deal of my return.

I was thrown out of my reverie by Professor Thatcher welcoming us all to class. I pulled the desk tray up in front of me and got my notebook out. As I was moving to grab my yellow notebook I knocked my crutches over. I reached down with my not-broken arm to pick them up when I saw a pair of boots stop beside me. I looked up to see one of my classmates smiling at me.

"Hey, why don't you let me help you with that?" She crouched down and helped me straighten the crutches up. Her shoulder-length wavy fire-red hair and her blue eyes seemed familiar. It only took me a second to remember her name.

"Thank you so much. It's Lindsay Smith, right? Weren't you Reagan's sister?" Her smile slowly faded.

"Yeah I am--was. Though I don't usually lead with that. Mind if I sit here?" She motioned to the seat next to me and I nodded.

"Oh, sorry. I didn't mean to bring up any pain. I just wanted to say sorry about what happened." I swallowed the bitter-tasting guilt and tried to seem normal.

A dark look crossed her face briefly before she gave me a tight smile. "It's no problem. It's not like it's your fault she's...gone."

Her words hit me like a hot coal. It was my fault she was gone. But, I hadn't told anyone that. I kept my composure and tried to pay attention to opening my textbook up to the correct page. Suddenly, I became strangely aware that a lot of people were looking at me. I saw a lot of eyes flash in my direction and I couldn't help but feel that all the quiet chatter was about me.

"Alright everyone, let's get started," Professor Thatcher boomed, naturally loud voice silencing the room. "The first item on our list today is to welcome Miss Annalee Bloom back. I know we were all extremely concerned about her welfare. She seems to be on the mend, thank goodness." He smiled at me cordially and I felt all the eyes on me again.

The professor quickly got on with our lecture for the day, leaving me grateful not to be in the spotlight longer. I felt red with embarrassment and I could hardly concentrate on taking notes. I was too self-conscious to think about anything. I tucked one of my curly flyaway hairs back behind my ear and doodled thoughtlessly for the duration of the lecture.

At least I was still pretty caught up with my homework. Even though I hadn't been in class for a couple weeks I'd still been doing all my assignments and readings. All my professors had even been recording their lectures just for me as a special accommodation. So far, they had all been very welcoming and helpful. I guess it was because I was the center of attention, so I got special treatment. None of my professors would have done nearly so much to help before my attack.

I felt someone's gaze on my face. Looking up, it was a few guys across the room. They kept looking at me and whispering to each other. I straightened my spine; no need to let anyone know I felt uncomfortable with the attention. Lindsay tapped my shoulder.

"Yeah?" I looked over at her eager face.

"I hope you know nobody's saying anything bad about you," she whispered, face tilted toward me. Seeing my confused expression, she nodded toward the guys looking at me and continued, "everyone is just really glad you're ok. Everyone I've talked to thinks you're really brave to come back and keep going like nothing happened." She smiled sincerely at me.

"Oh, thanks. I just don't love being the center of attention." I smiled back, blushing.

Her smile widened into a grin, "Yeah I could tell. Hey, why don't you come to a little start of term party my friends and I are throwing tomorrow? It won't be too wild or anything. Just come, have a few drinks, laugh, meet some people and have a good time." I looked at her in surprise. I'd never been invited to anything like that before.

I paused, wondering if it was such a good idea to be around the source of my guilt. Then I realized she didn't know I was guilty, and I should be doing everything in my power to make her happy, even if it was by going to a silly little party.

"Sure, I'd love to." I smiled, hiding the pain.

"Great! It's at 7 at the old Semmer Mill down on 3200 North. It'll be great having you."

We exchanged numbers and just as our conversation was ending so was the class. Lindsay stood up and excused herself, saying goodbye. I was supposed to stay and speak with the professor for a moment about my make-up work, so I just sat as the whole room emptied out.

I could not believe that had just happened. That never happened to me. People did talk to me, but that was pretty much effortless. She was actually EAGER to get me to come to that party. Like she knew of me, like I was visible and important. My smile could not be concealed. I was excited for the party, even with the weight of the self-hatred I was carrying. But to go I'd have to have someone take me. I still wasn't driving myself anywhere. Maybe I should invite Becca. We never really did anything together.

"Annalee," the professor called to me, throwing me out of my reverie, "would you mind coming up to my office?"

"Of course." I grabbed my crutches and followed.

We discussed my transition back to class and various other boring, yet important things. I couldn't concentrate as well as I wanted to because I was thinking about the party. Once I'd finally broken through the guilt I couldn't stop thinking about how fun it would be to get out of the apartment and out of a school setting.

Once the professor and I were done talking I walked out of his office and right into someone's hard chest. I was so surprised I dropped my crutches and nearly fell to the floor.

"Woah, you okay?" A familiar voice asked as warm hands caught me by my shoulders. I looked up, surprised.

"Jaime! What are you doing here?" I exclaimed, finding my balance as he bent and picked my crutches up.

He stood up straight and handed my crutches over. "You caught me," he answered with a sheepish smile, "I was worried about you your first day back at class. I wanted to make sure you were alright. He flashed me another breathtaking smile and I felt my face warm. He was worried about me.

"Aww, that's so sweet of you. But don't you have work?" I asked, firmly situating my gray crutches under my arms.

"No, actually I took the day off. I was wondering if you might want to do something together today. You know, so you could see me in daylight and have proof I'm not a vampire." He winked at me, making me laugh.

"Oh good. I was actually starting to wonder." I smiled widely, teasing back.

"What do you say? Would you like to get lunch with me?" His smile widened, his green eyes boring into mine.

"Yeah, sounds great! And actually..." I bit my lip, contemplating nervously, "there's this party tomorrow I got invited to. Would you want to come with me?" I looked up at him shyly. I wasn't sure he'd want to spend that much time with me in one day. He didn't hesitate to smirk at me, a new look entering his eyes.

"Annalee Bloom, did you just ask me out?" He raised one eyebrow, smoldering. I suddenly became aware he was moving closer to me, backing me up against the wall.

"Ummm...yes." Breathless, I could hardly get the word out.

He studied my face, and I suddenly felt the wall at my back. I couldn't back up anymore. I took a sharp breath in, watching his smoldering face look me up and down. He leaned to one side of me, putting his hand against the wall near my face and bending toward me until our faces were only a few centimeters apart.

"I would love to." He breathed in my face.

He smelled so good, like mint and rain. I was trying hard not to stare into his eyes. I was afraid it would be ridiculously obvious how much I liked him, and he wouldn't want me anymore. But he was making it so difficult with all his smoldering looks and his intoxicating scent. Pretty soon I was going to start hyperventilating if he didn't stop looking into my eyes like that. And he just kept moving closer until...

"Annie?" Hearing my name tore my eyes away from Jaime. It was Will, walking toward us. "Oh, hi." His voice fell a bit, clearly not so happy to see Jaime.

I took the opportunity to slide away from Jaime slightly, inexplicably embarrassed at how we looked.

"Will, what are you doing here?" I normally would have smiled seeing my best friend, but just then I was a little flustered.

Will's familiar, handsome face looked strained as he forces a small smile. "I actually just wanted to make sure you were alright. It is your first day back after all," He grimaced, "What brings you here Jaime?"

I looked back at Jaime, surprised at the hard expression on his angled face. He was smiling but his eyes were narrowed into a glare directed at Will. What had gotten into those two? I couldn't help but wonder if Jaime was picking up on Will's hostility and was bothered by it.

"I came here to check up on Annalee as well. We were just about to go to lunch."

We stood in awkward silence after that for a moment until I couldn't take it anymore.

"Why don't you join us Will?" They both looked at me with surprise: Jaime with eyebrows nearly popping off his forehead, Will with a genuine little smile.

"Yeah, sounds fun." Will replied quickly.

We turned and walked out of the building, heading up the street to a little cafe on campus. We walked pretty much in silence and I couldn't help but contemplate whatever weird thing was going on between Jaime and Will. I mean, Will had always acted weird about Jaime but now Jaime was acting weird too. It made me wonder why. I mean, the only common thing between them was me.

We finally arrived at the cafe after what seemed like years of silence. I had one man on either side of me and I looked between them, wondering if asking Will to join us was a mistake. Well, it was a mistake I'd have to deal with. We went in, grabbed a seat and each got our food. Except for a few polite words to each other, nobody really said anything at all. I kept looking between Will and Jaime. They were being much weirder than normal. I had to figure out exactly what was going on. Once we'd finished, Jaime turned to me smiling and offered to take me back to my apartment, saying he wanted to talk with me before our date.

"You guys are going on a date tonight?" Will asked suddenly. The look on his face did NOT match his casual tone.

"Actually we're going to a party at the Semmer Mill tomorrow night." Jaime said, stressing the we just a little too much. A glint I wasn't sure I liked entered Will's eye.

"Oh great! Becca and I were going to go to that too! I guess we will see you guys there."

"Fantastic. Well, Annalee and I are going to go. It was great seeing you. We'll see you later." His face dropped into stone. His mouth straightened into a thin line and he grabbed my arm a little too roughly, dragging me to my feet.

He and I walked in silence to his car and after the strangeness of the past hour or so I couldn't help but dread the party tomorrow. I had a feeling things were only going to get weirder.

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