Wheels of Steel, Book 2 (28 page)

“Oh I think we got it.” She said. “Now Amberly and I work our magic on it. You can leave now, girlie. And thank you. It’s going to be perfect.”

Robin rubbed her moist palms together. “That better not appear on YouTube un-digitized; ever.” She said seriously.

“It won’t, it won’t. We’ll give you the original.” Amberly said quickly.

“Okay…I guess I’ll see you all tomorrow.”

“Yep. Thanks Robin. This is so much better than…um, well-”

“Shut up!” Amberly yelled. “I’m not that bad of a dancer, honestly. I was just hamming it up.” She eyed Robin. “What are you wearing for the Halloween party?”

She shrugged. “Do we have to dress up?”

“No, but there is a costume contest.”

“I have a secret look!” Belinda said excitedly.

“Don’t even ask, she won’t tell.”

“No, it’s going to be so good.”

Amberly grinned. “I’m going as Cruella Daville. I even have the wig. I’m going to put on some crazy makeup! I’m definitely going to win this!”

“I’ll see what Jason thinks.” Maybe it would be fun to dress up.

“Last year he went as Sideshow Bob from The Simpsons.” Amberly said.

“But everyone thought he was Ronald McDonald.”

“Yeah, he was pissed.”

“Yeah,” Amberly laughed. “He was like, ‘Ronald McDonald doesn’t have freaking dreds!”

“Jason had dreds?”

“I put fake ones in.” Belinda said. Man, she would have loved to have seen that. These friends had such a history together. She was so happy to be able to share in that. Robin left, promising to see each of them the next day.

Her cell phone rang as soon as she got into the car. It was her mother wanting to know if she had heard the tests results back from the biopsy. Robin had promised that she’d call her as soon as she did. They chatted for a few moments, thankfully not about Jason.

By the time she got to her house, Robin had no energy to go anywhere or to do anything but to crash into her bed.

***

Jason frowned and checked his watch. It was after eight. How long did the girls need Robin? “Bro, let’s take a break. I need to call Robin.”

Link checked the time. “Yeah. What are we going to do about eating?”

“There’s food in there.” He dialed Robin’s cell but got no answer. He left a worried message. “Babe, what are you doing? Give me a call…love you.” He glanced over to see if Peter had heard, but he was preoccupied with digging through the refrigerator for food. He decided to call Belinda.

“Hey, what’s up? You guys still working on the video?”

“Amberly and I are.”

“Well where is Robin?”

“Robin? Well we only needed her for about an hour. She left ages ago.”

Jason frowned. “Okay…”

“She’s not at your place?”

“No. She’s not answering her cell either.”

“Okay…Jason, look, don’t worry. She is just probably sleeping or something.”

Jason took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Thanks, I’ll talk to you later.” He hung up quickly and tried her cell two more times. Fuck, was she asleep?! Was she in a car accident? Maybe someone snatched her and dragged her off…

“Fuck!” He yelled. Peter looked up, a piece of bologna hanging from his mouth.

“What?”

“She’s not answering.”

“Jason…sometimes that happens. Sometimes girls don’t answer their phone. It’s okay, budd-”

“It’s not okay if you just rushed your girlfriend to Emergency just a day ago!” Jason snapped. Peter gobbled up the remainder of the bologna.

“Let’s go.” He said while wheeling past Jason and to the door. “You know where she lives, right?”

“Yeah!” Jason said excitedly. He quickly strapped on the braces and picked up his crutches. Robin had porch stairs so Link would not be able to come inside. He stood and his joints screamed. He made a pained face and Link frowned.

“Top, what’s wrong with your legs?”

“They hurt. Let’s go.”

In the car Peter got them going. He looked over at the younger man as he drove. “Top, what’s up with your legs?”

“My joints.”

“Shit.” Peter knew the seriousness of this. If Jason’s body locked up then the only way to unlock it was through surgery.

“Have you talked to a doctor about it?”

“Yeah I have an appointment with an orthopedic specialist Wednesday.”

He let it go after that, seeing the look on his friend’s face; the only thing Jason was concerned with was Robin. But Peter feared that his hip would disconnect, or his knee. Any of these things would create excrutiating pain for his friend. He just didn’t want to see it happen again. One time was enough. Before the Baclofen it had happened. He’d heard a grown man scream for the first time.

They pulled up in front of Robin’s apartment building. This time Jason didn’t have to wait for the lift to lower him. He hurried out of the van. He had tried calling her several more times but still got no response. Jason limped up the stairs. He almost fell backwards because he was moving too fast. Each time he bore weight on his legs, pain radiated up his body. By the time he got to the elevator sweat was streaming down his face.

He got to the second floor and tried to still the panic. He should have asked Peter to drive around to the parking lot on the side of the building. He didn’t even know if her car was there. She might not even be here. And if she wasn’t then…well he would just have a full blown fit. He hadn’t had one of those in ages and it was probably due. It seemed almost that life was going too well; so of course something would have to happen to mess it up. He found a girl that made his heart beat like crazy—so it only stood to reason that she would die in a fiery crash, or bleed to death of a freaking perforated ulcer!

He reached her door and practically bammed on it. He paused. No sound inside. Now he felt sick. “Robin?!” He bammed on it again.

There was a faint sound of movement and then the door swung open. Robin was standing there as if she’d just awakened from a deep sleep. Her shirt was wrinkled and she had the imprint of folded material on her cheek.

“Jason-?” She began in surprise.

“Robin! I was freaking terrified! Why didn’t you answer your phone?”

“Oh my god…I’m so sorry baby! I…my phone is in my purse. What time is it?”

Jason’s heart was beating a mile a minute. “Late.”

She turned to hurry back into the apartment. “Let me get my things…I’m so sorry baby.”

“No. No no no.” He said adamantly. Robin turned and noted the angry look on his face. “I want you to go back to bed. By the time you get to my house, it will be almost time for you to leave anyways.”

Her shoulders collapsed. “Baby, I’m so sorry. I overslept.”

“I know.” He said in a short, abrupt manner. “You must have needed the sleep. Go back to bed.” He turned to leave.

“Jason!” She hurried after him but he continued to walk. “I’m sorry.” She whispered. He was really angry at her.

He pressed the down button for the elevator. “Robin. If you are rushed to Emergency, wouldn’t you think that it would be a good idea to keep your cell phone in reach?” He gave her an angry look. “I mean…wouldn’t you think that if you should want to take a nap that you would perhaps, set your alarm clock? One of the two?” The elevator doors opened and he entered the small compartment.

She followed him quickly barefooted. “I…wow. That was…mean.”

“I’m not trying to be mean.” He said. “I just think its common sense that you’d keep your cell phone where you can hear it ringing.” The doors opened and he swung his legs forward and moved quickly out of the elevator. Robin followed more slowly.

“What…are you saying? That I don’t have common sense?”

He moved carefully down the stairs. “I’ll see you tomorrow Robin.”

“Oh, no you didn’t!” She said angrily.

He paused to glance at her. His lips were straight angry slashes in his face. “I didn’t say it, you did.”

“You didn’t deny it!”

He shook his head. “I’m not going to argue with you.” He turned back to the van. Peter’s surprised face could be seen watching them.

“Thank you for your understanding, Jason!”

He turned to her again. “It’s after nine o’clock. I don’t know where my girlfriend is. She’s prone to get drunk and leave with strange men, or to bleed to death and just pretend that she’s not. Yeah, Robin, I lack understanding!”

Robin gasped. Peter’s mouth dropped, he looked from one of them to the other, and then he pulled off quickly with Jason staring after him in shock. Peter had just left him! What the fuck?! And Robin was staring at him with squinted, angry eyes. And he knew that he was wrong for what he had just said. He should have never said that. He didn’t mean it. He didn’t mean any of it.

The anger washed away as quickly as it had reared its ugly head.

“Robin…”

“You’re an asshole!” She turned and ran back into the apartment.

He looked after her and thought about that long walk back up to her apartment. “Oh for fucks sake…” Well he deserved it. It took him five minutes to get back to her apartment. The door was understandably locked.

He knocked. “Sweetheart…?”

After a moment the door opened. Her eyes were angry. “If it wasn’t for the fact that your legs are hurting you, I’d leave your ass out there.” She snapped.

How did she know?

“You think I didn’t see the way you were limping?” She opened the door for him to come in and he did.

“Robin, I’m sorry-”

“Just take of your pants.” He looked at her in surprise. “So that I can rub them!” She pointed to the armchair. “Sit there. I’m going to get the baby oil.”

Jason sat heavily in the chair. His legs hurt too bad for him to stand any longer. He unbuttoned his pants and by the time Robin returned with the baby oil and a towel he was pushing them down his legs. She knelt down on the floor and carefully pulled them off completely. Jason looked at her hurt and angry expression.

“I’m sorry, Robin.”

She glanced at him. There was a strange acceptance on her face. “For what?” She picked up the baby oil. “You said the truth, so…nothing to be sorry about.”

He frowned and shook his head. “I was just pissed because I was worried!”

She gently lifted his leg and began to rub the oil onto his skin. She said nothing. He reached down and tried to take her hands. She slipped them out of his grasp and began to rub his thighs firmly, digging her fingers deep into his muscles. He winced.

“Too much?”

“No.” She was doing it right. It just hurt.

“Your knees are red and swollen.” She gave him a worried look. “Do you want some ibruprofen?”

He nodded. She hurried to the kitchen for bottled water and then to the bathroom for the bottle of pills. She opened the bottle and shook out three pills for him. He took them carefully, swigging down the water.

“I’m not mad at you.” She whispered. “You were just scared. It’s alright.”

He stared at her sadly. “I don’t know why I say such stupid things. I think…that I just said the worst thing that I could have ever said to you, didn’t I?”

“I can think of a few things that would be worse.”

“Robin, in calculus, you write down the answer for me; what I tell you to write.”

“Yeah.”

“You start writing down the answer even before I tell you.”

She shrugged. “Because I know what you’re going to tell me to write.”

He stared at her. “Sometimes you write down things that I wasn’t going to tell you to write. You are always right, and I would have been wrong. I’m pretty sure that you could write out the entire solution.”

She shook her head quickly. “I’m just doing what I see you doing-”

“That’s all learning is. There is nothing stupid about you! I swear to god that I didn’t mean to suggest that you weren’t smart. Robin, I think you are so smart.” He said honestly.