One Bedroom Apartment

Avery

Avery was walking back to their car after their meeting. They had just gotten their six-month chip and they were feeling proud of their accomplishment. They had talked about a few things in this session, and Avery had opened up about struggling a little bit more with their PTSD lately. Luckily, they weren't the only veteran in the group, but he at least had a support system and decent healthcare. The city was at least quiet today, and the walk back to their car was pleasant. Avery was a little too focused on their chip, thinking about going into work tomorrow when they walked right in front of someone's car.

Aw fuck. The driver came running out of the old pink mustang.

"Holy shite, I am so sorry, are you alright?" The person had run over to Avery, who had fallen over. She was short, had light brown curly hair, and she was wearing a long green skirt and a white crop top. She was holding out her hand to Avery. Avery blinked a few times, thrown off by how pretty she was.

"Oh no, I can't feel my leg," they said jokingly, straightening out their prosthetic. They took the offered hand, rising to their feet. They had a scrape on their arm and a bit of a bump on their knee, but nothing major. "I'm fine. I'm sorry, I should've been paying more attention. Are you okay?" They asked, still trying to get their thoughts together.

"Dinnae apologize to me, you're the one who's scraped up," she looked really nervous. "Um- wait here. I'm just gonna pull into this spot, I have a first aid kit," she ran over and quickly parked her car in the small area that Avery was just walking from. "I can take you to the hospital if you'd like?" She offered as she walked back over. Avery blanched, thinking about sitting in an ER for hours.

"No! I'm good with the first aid kit. I'm an ex-nurse anyways, plus I don't have health insurance," they said, laughing nervously. "No need to spend a grand on some band-aids and a pain killer. Do you- did I damage your car? I can try to get it fixed if I dented anything," they offered, taking the first aid kit. The woman walked them over to her car and opened the passenger door for them, and Avery gratefully sat down.

"No, you're big, but I wasn't even really moving," she shrugged. "I have pain killers. I work down at the shipyard an' I'm always getting my shite kicked in."

"No thanks. This is nothing, really," they started wiping the shallow scrape on their arm with one of the wipes. "I'm Avery, by the way. Figure you should know my name in case you wanna sue," they joked. She laughed.

"I'm Margaret, but everyone just calls me Maggie. Can I give you a ride back to your place or your car?" Avery waved her off with a smile.

"No, I feel terrible already! I'm already using up your first aid kit and taking up your time," they winced at the bruise forming on their knee where they hit the concrete, but at least the skin didn't split. "On second thought, my car would be great," they said sheepishly. Maggie smiled.

"I was also on my way to Starbucks, it would be no trouble at all to take the person I almost killed with me. Unless you're in a hurry to get somewhere," Avery thought about it for a moment. They didn't have anything else going on since they took the day off for their NA meeting, and Maggie was a pretty girl offering to get them coffee.

"Yeah, I think I'll accept a coffee in exchange for letting you hit me with your car," they said, trying to give Maggie their most charming smile. They threw away the bloody alcohol wipe and made a makeshift bandage for their arm so they didn't get blood all over the interior of the Mustang. It was older, but well-refurbished. Maggie offered them a little trash bag she had in her car.

"Great," Maggie smiled and went to hop into the driver's side. She passed Avery her phone once Avery was fully buckled in. "You can pick anythin'. I'm not too picky about music," she said, opening her Spotify. Avery took it and just pressed play on the most recently played song.