Finding My Feet

Chapter Fifteen

"Ready to go find out how much you've progressed?" My mom asks as she climbs into the car.
"Yeah, I can't wait to be out of these things," I say softly.
She smiles at me, stopping at a red light.
"You miss Sage?" She asks nonchalantly.
"Yeah. These two weeks that's she's been gone have been difficult but she has school so I can't really complain," I shrug.
"Oh."
"Out with it, what are you trying to get at?" I narrow my eyes at her.
"Sage told me what happened at the sleep over," she stops the car at the rehabilitation center. "And you honestly don't seem to be doing good."
"I'm fine, mom," I shake my head. "It's just one of those things. It was never meant to be and shit like that. I don't need help or anything."
She gives me a look and I force a smile out at her.
"Amber."
"Let's go mom, I'm fine," a lump forms in my throat as I open the door.
"I'm your mother," she murmurs.
"And I'm your daughter," my nose starts stinging.
"I know you well enough to know you're not fine, honey," she puts her hand on my shoulder.
"I am," my voice cracks and I close my eyes, willing myself not to cry.
"Close the door," she says and I comply. "Come here."
She wraps her arms around my shoulders, my face going into her neck as the tears pour onto my cheeks.
"It hurts," I sob. "It hurts so bad."
"I know," she cooes. "Let it all out."
"I thought he loved me," I bawl. "He was with her. He willingly cheated on me. He helped her and not me. He brought her to the house, mom. There's pictures up everywhere of them kissing. I thought he was my forever. It was one big lie. She said that I ruined everything. How did I possibly even do that?"
She rubs my back, squeezing me to her.
"Honey, I know this might not help and you've probably heard it tons before," she sighs. "But talk to him. Literally just talk to him. Without her, without your friends, without us parents. Just you and him. You'll sort something out."
"I don't even know if I want to anymore," I pull away from her. "It hurts so much. I don't want to be in love if this is what it feels like."
"This what you're feeling right now, isn't love. At all," she wipes my cheeks. "What you're feeling is disappointment, rejection and betrayal. Remember all the good times you shared with him? Where you laughed and smiled so much you thought your lips would fall off? Where you just wanted to kiss him over and over? When you and him went on that date for the first time? Now that's love. Don't mistake love for this."
I sniff, smiling at her and her wise words.
"You really think I should try?" I asked.
"Give it one more go. I'll even speak to his father," she offers. "I just want my baby girl to be happy."
"I turned eighteen just the other day. I'm not a baby," I giggle.
She pinched my cheek, making baby noises at me. I laughed, shoving her away playfully.
"Let's go in," I nod.
We make our way to the door and Jennifer greets us.
"Ready to find out what you can and can't do?" She grins and I nod. "Me too. I've been working with you for a long time now so I'm nervous for how far you've come."
"I'm sure she's just fine," my mom squeezes my shoulder. "I just need to make a quick phone call so if you'll excuse me."
"Go ahead," Jennifer says, leading me into the usual room. "Okay sit and we can take the braces off."
I flop onto the floor, undoing the straps of the contraptions and sliding them away from me. Jennifer helps me take the waist brace off and puts it with the leg braces.
"What can you move?" She asks.
I wiggle my legs and feet, bending my knees as far as I could feel.
"That's very good," she grins. "How is walking?"
"Well since I can bend my knees a bit, I can actually lift my legs so it's a lot easier than shuffling around. I barely use the waist brace anymore because my hips can support me enough," I say.
"So you've already moved onto the next step," she laughs. "No waist brace."
"So I'm progressing quite quickly?" I ask, smiling.
"I would say so," she nods. "Let's do some more exercises."
As we were exercising, my mom came back into the room and sat on one of the chairs, peeking at her phone every now and then for the next twenty minutes.
"I think that's enough for today," Jennifer says, lowering my leg to the floor. "You can leave the brace here."
"Thank you," I say, putting my leg braces back on.
Jennifer helped me back up as there was a loud ping from my moms phone. A smile worked its way onto her face and she grinned at me.
"Why so happy?" I raised my eyebrows, stepping towards her.
"You'll see soon enough," she shakes her head.
"You're not walking with your crutches either?" Jennifer asks and I shake my head. "Go progress."
I laugh and we high five. We make our ways to the centers doors and we stop at the reception desk.
"I want you back here in three months," Jennifer says, filling out an appointment form. "And I want even better progress than today, alright?"
I grin at her, nodding so hard that it felt like my head would topple off.
"Thank you very much," my mom says, opening the door and stepping outside.
I follow behind her after I've said bye to Jennifer and look towards the car. A black Cadillac Escalade is next to our car and I frown.
"I didn't see anyone else in there," I say to my mom, confused. "We must of missed them. Imagine me having a friend who's just like me."
"We'll see," she shrugs, a smile playing on her lips.
I walk to my side that is next to the other car and wait for my mom to unlock. I hear the person opening their car door and I shuffle out the way.
"Sorry," I mumble as I look towards the drivers side.
My mom is scratching in her handbag, glancing here every now and then.
"You wanna climb in?" The smooth voice says from in front of me and I snap my head towards him.
"Reegan?" I ask, dumbfounded. "What?"
"I'll explain a little later but just get in. Let's go," he says, smiling at me.
"Mom?" I turn towards her.
"Go, Amber," she smiles at me. "You deserve this."
I look back at Reegan before shuffling to the passenger side of his car and getting in. He gets in as well, quickly pulling out of the parking and speeding down the road.