One Day at a Time

My eyes felt too heavy to open them. The only thing I was most concerned with was the throbbing headache that felt like it was throughout my whole body. There were faint voices speaking; I heard my name a few times in the conversation. A door creaked open and I could see the room get a little brighter through my eye lids. Whatever I was laying down on suddenly sank in some.

“Hey,” a voice whispered into my ear. “How’re you feeling?”

My eyes opened slowly and I blinked to focus on the person next to me. The face I was making must have been really confused because I heard them chuckle. I then heard a clicking sound and a dim light lit the room.

“Oh, light,” I covered my eyes. “Turn that off, please?” I heard the light click off and I uncovered my eyes and squinted them to focus on the person next to me.

“You’re alive!” They raised their arms in the air. I could finally see who it was. Joe grinned when he saw relief on my face when I realized who he was.

“Yeah, I’m alive. Maybe not happy, but alive,” I sat up slowly on the twin size bed I was lying on. “Uh…how did I get here?” I asked and felt the back of my head near the other bump I had; there was a second bump there.

“About that,” he started and handed me a sandwich bag filled with ice with a wash cloth wrapped around it. I placed it on the bump and sucked in air fast, feeling the pain run through my body. “You just sort of blacked out. One second you were talking to my parents, and then you were knocked out on the floor.”

“I fell off the chair?” I smiled to myself.

“Well, yeah. Sorry,” he said and looked to me for forgiveness.

“What are you sorry?”

“You kinda almost did a face plant. I would’ve felt even worse if you had busted your lip or nose instead of hitting the back of your head.”

“Ah, it’s no big deal,” I waved at him, trying to dismiss the thought from his mind. “Besides, nothing could be as bad as the other ni—.”

I stopped myself before saying too much. Joe’s head tilted slightly, his expression full of curiosity. It bothered me for a moment, the look on his face. I knew it wasn’t the right time or place to say something, or even the right person to say it to.

“Uh, I think I should probably get home,” I said, breaking the awkward silence between us and slowly got up from the bed. Still feeling a little dizzy, I used the bed as my balance and walked over to the opposite corner of the room where my shoes were. I slipped them on and grabbed my jacket.

Joe rose from the bed as well as soon as he saw me stumble a little. His arm was wrapped around my waist as soon as I was about to lose my footing.

“See?” He laughed a little to himself. “Told you I wouldn’t let you eat the floor.”

I grinned slightly, feeling a little more embarrassed as the realization of me fainting came to mind. We walked back into the living room where everyone had been enjoying a movie together. Joe sat me down next to Denise, who looked at me with a worried face.

“You okay, Alexa?” She asked and rubbed my arm.

“Yeah,” I replied and continued to hold my ice pack to the back of my head. “I’m just a little bit dizzy, that’s all.”

“Well, you’re welcome to stay for a while if you don’t feel comfortable being home alone,” she assured me.

“Oh, no, that’s fine. My friend Jenn said she’d stop by later to hang out with me over night. But thank you so much for having me over,” I smiled. “And I’m sorry I didn’t get to try your dinner.”

“Oh!” Denise jumped up from the couch and grabbed a small plastic bag from the kitchen bag that had something with a boxy shape to it. “I thought I’d save you the trouble of making dinner later tonight or lunch tomorrow, so I put aside some food for you.”

She handed the bag over to me and I set it down in my lap. It was still warm, so maybe I hadn’t been knocked out for too long. Joe walked back into the living room, jingling his keys in his hands.

“Ready?” He asked and offered a hand to help me up and took hold of the bag of food. I nodded my head and stood up.

“Thanks so much for the food,” I directed towards Denise. “I’m starving! And it was really nice to meet all of you.”

“You’re welcome over anytime,” Paul waved goodbye to me. Everyone else joined in with him in waving to me.

I followed Joe out to the car and he helped me into the front seat carefully. He walked around to the driver’s seat, separating the car key from the two house keys hanging next to it. He started up the car and sped off down the road back to my apartment. I held onto the bag of food on my lap and stared out the window, feeling too awkward to even say something.

“So,” Joe interrupted the silence. “I am really sorry about before. You’re not gonna sue us or something, are you?” He asked in an almost completely serious tone. His grin said otherwise.

“No, I don’t think I’ll sue you,” I looked over to him. “But I might ask you to pay my medical bills.” Oh my gosh, did I really just say that? I looked back out my window and shut my eyes tight.

“Hah!” He knocked on the steering wheel lightly a few times. “Yeah, I guess I owe you that, right?”

At that moment, I was hoping for a complete subject change. To my luck, my phone began to ring. I pulled it out of my pocket and held a finger up to signal for Joe to hold on a second.

“Hello?” I answered.

“Girl, what the hell? Where are you?” Jenn’s voice came through my phone loud, making me pull it back from my ear. “I’ve been calling for the past hour!”

“Jenn, calm down. I’m on my way home right now.”

“Ugh, fine. Hurry up. I’m inside already.”

“Wh-what? How? I didn’t give you a key, Jenn,” I said curiously.

“Uh, duh, Alexa,” she said in a matter of fact tone. “Spare key? Ring any bells? It’s taped to the bottom of your Welcome mat. And, by the way, not only is that the most obvious place in the world, but how come I didn’t get a key?”

“Okay, I’m hanging up now. I’ll be back soon. Bye,” I said before hanging up on her.

“Ah, Jenn. I should’ve known,” Joe laughed. “She’s so loud on the phone, isn’t she?”

“Um, definitely,” I agreed.

The rest of the ride home wasn’t too bad. We didn’t talk much. I stared out my window, counting the cars that passed by us. It was starting to get darker and I watched as the sun was setting through the door mirror. We arrived back to my apartment and Joe helped me out of the car. He helped me up to my place and we stood there for a moment.

“I really do appreciate you taking care of me today,” I swung the bag of food lightly.

“It’s no problem; really,” he answered. I twiddled my thumbs before looking back up at him.

“Well, I should go,” he pulled out his phone and skimmed through a few things. “Can I have your number? I just wanna keep up with you; make sure you’re okay.” I nodded my head and took his phone to type in my number. “Okay, then. Hope you feel better. See you later.”

I waved as he left and leaned back against the wall after he was out of sight.

“Oh gosh…” I whispered dreamily to myself and slid down to the floor with a stupid smirk on my face.