Anything but Ordinary(19)

She set the fan down at her side and turned her face up to the sky. She was here on earth, wasn’t she? She was better off than she had been a month ago. She looked down at her feet, so pale in strappy sandals against the green grass. She needed sun. She needed exercise. It was time to accept that things were different, but she could be different, too.

“Bryce, honey!” her mother called to her from where their van was parked. “Let’s go!”

She looked at her family, her mother next to the SUV, her father at the steering wheel, and Sydney, her long legs stretched across the bucket seat, closing the door. They might not be as happy as they used to be, but they were there, together, and Bryce was awake, alive, walking toward them.



Back on River Drive, Bryce stepped down the stairs and let out an “Ahhh” at the air-conditioning. She moved slowly across the basement tile in her bare feet and stripped off her damp tank top and shorts, tossing them in the hamper in the corner of her room. She opened her closet. Nothing but everyone’s old clothes and a pair of skis.

Clothes, she added to the list. Sun, exercise, and clothes. She chose an old tunic of her mother’s from the seventies. Nothing fancy, Bryce thought as she pulled the white cotton over her head. Literally, just clothes of my own. The tunic was short on her but it would have to do.

“Bryce!” her father called down the stairs. Bryce groaned. Her name sounded loud and short when her father yelled it, as if he were yelling “Go!” at diving practice.

“What?” Bryce yelled back.

“Carter is here!”

Carter. She sat on her bed. Oh god, oh god, oh god, Bryce thought.

“He’s just gonna come around back,” her father yelled.

“No!” Bryce yelled.

“What?” her father yelled.

“Never mind,” Bryce said. It was pointless, she saw as she came out of her room and spotted Carter through the glass doors, making his way down the hill. He stopped at the pool, staring down into the water. Her father had cleaned it recently, and it was back to its pristine turquoise blue.

Bryce took a deep breath. What should she say? “Why?” was the only thing she could think of.

Carter had picked a leaf and was crouched over the pool with it, trying to help a floating bug to safety. Bryce jiggled her arms a little bit to relax, like she used to do on the platform before she dove. She swallowed and walked through the doors onto the patio.

“Hi,” Carter said, looking at a spot above her head.

Bryce could see that he had just come from the hospital. He was still wearing his ID badge on the pocket of a worn button-down shirt, through which she could see the lines of his upper half. He was lean and long and solid, all the way from his broad shoulders down to the waist of his khaki cutoffs.

“Hey,” Bryce said, trying not to smile.

“How are you feeling?”

“Great,” Bryce responded. He was now staring at his feet. Bryce continued, “I mean, physically. I’m sore, but…good.”

“Good,” he echoed.

“Yeah,” Bryce said, looking at him pointedly. He still avoided her eyes. Was he going to say something about the other day? She wished he would make a joke. This clean, formal version of Carter was making her nervous. “Am I due to go in for a checkup or something?”

“Kind of,” he said. “Remember when you made me take you to that restaurant?”

Before Bryce could nod, he continued. “I forgot to tell you. Before I left, I told Dr. Warren where I was going. She said it was a good idea. Didn’t seem to think you’d be coming in much on your own. So. She decided to work something out where you don’t have to go all the way to the medical center, if you don’t want to.”

“I don’t want to,” Bryce said quickly. “I definitely do not want to.”

“There ya go,” Carter said, shrugging.

“And instead…”

“I will be checking up. On you,” he said slowly, almost one word at a time.

“Is that standard procedure?” she asked, tilting her head, smiling.

He squinted off into the distance. “Not really.”

Bryce made her way over to the edge of the pool, where Carter’s bug was crawling away. “You know, if med school doesn’t work out, you could always find work rescuing drowning insects.”

Finally, a small laugh. “At least then I wouldn’t be tempted by beautiful patients.”

Bryce froze, looking at him.

“What happened the other day was completely out of line. I apologize.”

“That’s okay,” Bryce said, but cursed herself immediately afterward. She should say something more—well, more official. But she was distracted. Carter had said she was beautiful. He had just gone ahead and said it. “Apology accepted,” she added.

“And it wasn’t professional,” Carter went on, taking a breath. “Not only was it unprofessional, it was inappropriate. You know, to what—to what you were feeling at the time.”

“Right,” Bryce said. But she didn’t mean “right.”

She looked at him. His brow was unfurrowed, but his head was still down. “So.” He looked up at her and forced a smile. “Do you remember what ‘checking vital signs’ means?”