The Promise by Rachelle Friedman

Author:Rachelle Friedman
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: skirt!
Publisher: skirt!
Published: 2014-04-27T12:00:00+00:00

After that, my friend who was having a hard time with the accident began to call me daily, and during our talks she would always apologize profusely. The media blitz intensified, and she appeared to sink deeply during the day. During every call I’d tell her about all the great things that were happening. By the time we hung up, it felt like she was hearing it and it was sinking in. I soon realized that the lift was always temporary, and that by the next day, her despair would reemerge. I felt so sad for her and was deeply concerned. I could tell that a one-second event had really bled into her being. I think she distracted herself at work, but in quiet moments it was harder on her. I could relate; it was like that for me in rehab.

Eventually, I began to worry our friendship might never be the same. I did not want the accident to get in the way of what would have been a fun-filled girly visit, like the ones we had shared before the accident, but it did. The accident loomed large. Up until then I really thought each and every day she’d turned the corner. One afternoon, seeing me in the wheelchair at my home really upset her. It was before we had had the place remodeled and was the first time she’d visited me there, when it was more difficult for me to get around. Someone had carried me upstairs before her arrival, but I had no way to get down on my own. That meant that she and I would have to stay up there together for the entire day. She hadn’t seen how limited I was before that day. She had to experience what I was living, and she really felt it.

At first we tried to make casual conversation, but it was strained. It was awkward and forced. I wouldn’t say the visit was fun; it was uncomfortable. Not that I was uncomfortable being around her—it just felt sucky being with a great friend with this accident looming there between us. She was hiding what she was feeling, I think for both our sakes. She didn’t want me to feel bad for her, and she didn’t want to face all that was happening. I feared she hadn’t even admitted to herself how much pain she was in. She was a pretty strong-willed person; she and I were alike in that sense. She was putting on a brave face for me, but there had been a lot of denial. I think she just pushed it all down at the beginning. I knew she had guilt, but I thought she could manage it. Maybe she even ignored the stress of what it was doing to her and just thought it would go away.

So at the end of this long, weird day, Chris, my mom, his parents, my friend, and I were going to a restaurant for dinner. It was the Lone Star Steakhouse near my house.

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