Disabled.

Forty

Previously

He was walking to his locker when he noticed Nadia passing him as she seemed to be making her way to her locker. And the moment he noticed, he couldn't stop himself from approaching her even though he had been avoiding her for two weeks. He walked behind her and held onto the push bars of her wheelchair when he was close enough.

She turned her head slightly and as soon as she appeared to have seen that it was him, she attempted to continue pushing her chair. But once again, he held onto the push bars. She sighed before turning her chair around, forcing him to let go.

"What?" she said, no emotion in her words. But in the moment, he had been so engulfed in his anger that he didn't notice.

"You told them to do it didn't you? Was it because I was ignoring you?!" he yelled at her. But to his annoyance, she only remained calm.

"What are you talking about?" she asked.

"You told your stupid ex-boyfriend's family to sue my family for the accident!"

She didn't say a word.

"Why couldn't you just let my family apologize? Why did you have to go and ruin everything?!"

He looked at her then; really looking at her. And that was when he noticed that his words had struck a cord. He saw a few stray tears fall onto her cheeks before she said,

"I didn't say anything to them; I haven't even talked to them for a few weeks," before she turned around and began to push herself away.

- - -

Forty

It was the next day and Nadia was seated beside her bedroom window as she thought about what Mason had said to her the day before. Over and over it played in her head, as if it was a broken record. And with each time his words passed through her mind, she found more tears falling onto her face.

What hurt her the most was the fact that he thought that she had asked Jackson's family to sue his just because he was ignoring her.

Was that all he thought of her?

She sniffled as she reached for a box of tissues on her bedside table to blow her nose. Just as she took out a tissue, her door opened to reveal her mother.

"Are you ready to go sweetie?" her mother asked her.

She quickly turned her head away from her, attempting to wipe her tears before her mother saw her. But it was already too late--her mother had seen the tears. She quickly walked to her and knelt down in front of her, placing her hands on her cheeks and lifting her head just enough to look into her eyes.

"What's wrong Nadia?"

Nadia forced a smile as she said, "it's nothing, I just got something stuck in my eye."

"Both of your eyes?" her mother asked, causing Nadia to chuckle slightly as she noticed that her mother had seen through her lie. Her mother smiled slightly.

"Nadia, please tell me what's wrong. I'm your mother and you can tell me anything," she pleaded. 

"It's Mason." 

And the moment she said his name, his words came into her head once again, causing her vision to blur as she felt more tears building up.

"What did he do?" 

"He thinks Jackson's family is suing his family because of me; he thinks that I told them to do it to get back at him for ignoring me," she told her mother. 

Her mother did not say anything as she wrapped her arms around her and pulled her in for a tight hug. Nadia wrapped her arms around her mother, allowing the warmth and comfort to surround her as she continued to cry.

---

Later that day, Nadia was getting ready to go for her physiotherapy appointment when her phone began to ring. She wheeled herself to her desk where she had left it and picked it up, answering it when she saw that it was Mandy calling.

"Hey Mandy," she said.

"Hi Nadia, how's it going?" Mandy asked. 

Nadia heaved a sigh as she told Mandy everything. But this time as she spoke, she found that she didn't cry when she remembered his words again. Talking to her mother about it must have been all she needed to help her through it. 

"I'm sorry for not being there for you when you needed it Nadia," Mandy apologized. Nadia shook her head as if she could see her.

"Don't apologize, your family comes first. By the way, how is your new nephew?" Nadia asked, trying to change the subject.

"He's so cute! But I really don't get how my sister went through such a long labor and when he came out, she completely forgot everything that she had just went through as she looked at her baby boy," Mandy explained. Nadia smiled to herself but didn't say anything as she remembered having thoughts about what it would have been like for her and Jackson to have a family in the future.

"Hey, Nadia are you still there?"

"Yeah, sorry."

"Are you busy today?" Mandy asked.

"I have a physio appointment in an hour but I'll be free after it's over, why?" Nadia said, her eyebrows scrunching in confusion. 

"I think we should hang out," Mandy said.

"But don't you have to be there for your sister?" 

"She won't notice if I'm gone. Our mom, grandma, and two aunts have been treating her like a queen so I don't think my presence is really needed to be honest," Mandy chuckled as she finished speaking, causing Nadia to also chuckle.

"Okay, if it's okay for you to leave, then sure."

"Great! Text me the address for your physio and I'll be there before your appointment ends."

"You don't have to come that far, Mandy. We can just meet at the mall or something."

"No, Nadia. I'll meet you at your physio so you don't have to go out of your way to meet me. And it'll also save us some time," Mandy convinced her. 

"Okay, I'll send it to you then."

"Awesome! I'll see you in a little bit, my mom is calling for me to make some formula for the baby."

Nadia smiled as they said their goodbyes before hanging up. And just as the call ended, her mother entered her room.

"Are you ready for your appointment?" 

Nadia smiled as she nodded her head.

"Yeah."

* * *

A/N:

Hello dear readers, after an eternity I have returned with another chapter! 

I'm sorry that it's such a short chapter. But I've had writer's block for so long and so when I was able to finally get something down, I decided to just go with that instead of trying to add more to it. But I'm planning for the next chapter to be longer and also more interesting! This one was more of a filler to set up the scene for the next one. But regardless, I hope you guys still enjoyed reading it! 

Also, thank you all very much for 19.5K reads! I'm honestly at a loss for words to express how I feel and so all I can say is, thank you all so much for giving this story the love that you've been giving it and for enjoying reading it as much as I have been enjoying writing it. There is a lot more to come so I hope you stay tuned!

As always, let me know your thoughts/comments/concerns/questions in the comments!

~candysweet101