Sincerely, Emily ✓

12 • I Said Fleshy!

"OLIVER, YOU'RE —hey! Do you not see the front door in front of you?!"

One of the biggest mistakes of my life was letting Oliver push my wheelchair. Technically, I was able to push it by myself by rolling down the wheels, but Dr. Grey insisted that I needed help to adjust first.

Ollie was the first one to volunteer, of course, and being the good "friend" I was, I didn't call out any arguments. (Clearly, I was stupid.) However, since he couldn't possibly stay over in the hospital for the remaining few days before, that job belonged to Mom. 

But now I was here, in front of my house's doorsteps. I had just returned, and some of the Grants — Oliver, Tom and Jessie — heard the news and went over to help me.

They were all casting me these small smiles. Was that meant to be supportive or insulting? They kept staring at me — or was it the wheelchair? Oh, God. I should stop overthinking. I shrunk back awkwardly, suddenly feeling uncomfortable by their little examination.

Then I noticed the way Jessie and Tom were looking at me. Something was quite different about their smiles — the familiar friendliness (yes, Tom was capable of that) was concealed by something else. I couldn't figure it out, but there was just something else that told me their smiles wasn't one-hundred percent the truth.

I didn't think about it further, though, when Oliver began pushing my wheelchair. 

"Sorry, Woods," he muttered. "You're a lot. . . uh. . ."

Slowly, I turned my head towards him. "A lot what?"

"A lot. . . fleshy than I expected."

I stared. "Did you just call me fat?"

"I said fleshy!"

"Same thing," Jessie sang.

I raised my eyebrows, challenging Oliver. He gave out a frustrated groan and turned to Tom, who was back to his usual habits of phone-dependency. "Tommy! Help me out here!"

Tom looked between me, Jessie, then finally at his brother. "Against those two? No thanks."

Jessie and I gave each other gleeful high-fives, resulting in Oliver abruptly pushing me forward and almost knocking me down. Instead of getting annoyed, I laughed — happy at his own irritation.

Once we were all inside, the living room was ours. Oliver and Tom — like the gentlemen they were — instantly flopped on the sofa. Jessie flashed them a look while she and Mom helped haul me up and placed me next to them down on the sofa.

"Gee, thanks for the help, boys," Jessie mumbled, sitting beside me.

Somehow, Oliver heard it. "You're welcome."

It was then I realised that our sofa could fit four people. Huh. Who knew?

Mom came back to the living room and to my surprise, with a giant, blueberry cream cake with, literally, cherry on top. But my eyebrows scrunched up. A cake?

"What in — " Then it hit me.

She only made me blueberry-flavored food when it was. . .

Oh, no.

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY!"

Oliver, Tom, Jessie and Mom — along with Mr. and Mrs. Grant, Raph and Jake, who came out of nowhere — jumped up and basically gave me a heart attack.