Mosdenea

Chapter 9--Shots Aren't Only From Doctors

Aaron ignored me week after week. About a month after the hurricane, he still managed to keep his distance from me. The only time he would ever talk to me was when I needed to see some of my drawings on the skyscraper. I asked him if I could meet his architect—he said no. So in full honesty, I'm not sure why he started to push himself away.

One the bright side, even though I know Aaron was trying to ignore me, he was completely in love with the building I created. He would try hard not to grin when I would show him my sketches and blue prints. It was slowly coming together, and truthfully the only time Aaron interacted with me anymore was just to talk about my drawings. It felt somewhat hurtful that Aaron was ignoring me. I could only guess why he was avoiding me, but it still didn't make me feel any better. It felt like he rebuilt a barrier between us. And Pierce didn't stop apologizing.

When the hurricane had finally subsided, everything was a mess. There were palm trees that were tipped over and branches were scattered on all sorts of streets. There was damage done to one of the neighboring buildings—a car had flown into their lobby. Then there was just the typical 'things are leaning in the wrong direction' sort of thing. Most of the aftermath was just seaweed, palm leaves, and a ton of junk that had been scattered everywhere.

We were in the car driving to school when Pierce mentioned it again. "I'm so damn sorry," Pierce hit his hand on the steering wheel letting out a frustrated growl.

By now his apologies were so frequent and random that it had me laughing. "Pierce really," I said after my laugh. "It's fine."

"It's really not," He hesitated. "I haven't seen Aaron that vulnerable in so long. I want you two to have something. Especially you Parker. You need to go out and have fun. All you do is study."

"Your brother and I aren't going to be anything," I confirmed.

Pierce looked at me for a moment before sighing, "Ok...I just want you to know though, he does like you."

I looked forward towards the interstate, trying to prevent the smile from forming on my face. My voice came out softly, "I know."

The hurricane trashed a lot of the community. Some of the palm trees had fallen over. On the news, the destruction was clearly shown. A lot of students on campus decided to go help Red Cross and the relief for anyone that may have lost their homes or faced the hardships of the natural disaster. After the month however, everything seemed to be back to normal. Florida is used to hurricanes so they were well equipped and prepared to fix anything that was destroyed.

Kellie, Jackson, Pierce, and I were all volunteers. It helped us get to know each other better but also, it was nice seeing people smile when we helped. Jackson talked to us about his love for basketball and how it started. Pierce told us stories of when he traveled Europe. I learned more about Kellie's family and like me—she's the youngest with three older brothers.

We talked about our pet peeves growing up. Like when the boys would leave the toilet seat up. "Or," Kellie said to me while we took our lunch break on the back of the pick-up truck where all the relief water was. "When you're forced to share something. I hated that. What's mine, is mine."

Obviously, we all weren't each other's only friends, but it was nice having this group. Pierce and I promised to go see Jackson play a few games once season would start again. Kellie admitted that she attended all the games to support him. It made Jackson blush and look away when Kellie started talking about how good he is.

Our volunteer work wasn't excessive. Which was great. We were able to drive to smaller towns and help out a whole day or two. A lot of the people on campus and other groups joined together, which meant a lot of the work was done quickly. So in no time, everything seemed to be back to normal.