Arranged •{ONC 2020}•

《 Chapter Fifteen 》

Recovery was painstakingly slow. After spending a week in the hospital, Wesley was allowed to return home. The first thing he did was eat a turkey sandwich from the Thanksgiving leftovers, and then he showered, with some help from Arnold.

At the hospital, Ashlynn and Wesley had talked things out—again. They both admitted their mistakes and were on better terms than before. The whole accident put things into perspective for both of them, and they realized they each had feelings they needed to sort out (not that they shared this with one another).

Ashlynn was more willing to spend time with him, for which Wesley was secretly grateful. Aunt Leah was great and all, but she talked his ear off while Ashlynn sat with him in comfortable silence.

The cuts on his face were the first to heal, although a few of them turned into scars. One cut a line through his left eyebrow, which he thought made him look tough and cool. Ashlynn vehemently disagreed with him—"You look like you lost a fight with a stapler!"—but deep down she had to admit that he did look kind of cool.

The bruises took longer to heal, and they were so bad he had to sleep on his right side until they were gone. His ribs looked like a tattoo artist tried do a tie-dye rainbow pattern and failed, miserably. And, with the damage to his lung tissue, he got winded pretty easily. Something as simple as walking up to stairs to his room had him gasping for breath, so Aunt Leah temporarily moved him to the guest room. Aunt Leah and María babied him—which he hated. Ashlynn showed up with books and sat with him in silence—which he didn't hate.

A week passed and Christmas was just around the corner. This meant that Ashlynn and Wesley had to start rooming together again. Wesley had healed enough to make it up and down the stairs without wheezing like an old man, so the family spent the day moving Ashlynn's stuff back into his room—again.

This time around wasn't nearly as awkward as last time, although Ashlynn brought two pillows to bed as a precaution. The last thing she needed to do was get clingy in her sleep and aggravate his wounds. But the extra pillow did little to help; she found it at the foot of the bed three days in a row and had been too close to cuddling way too many times.

The first night, however, had been incredibly tense. The toothbrush sleight Ashlynn had made several weeks ago was brought back, and the realization from both parties of different feelings had them feeling somewhat trapped. Ashlynn decided that Wesley wasn't all that bad, and after the accident, her previous grudge against him had all but diminished. It was hard to hate Wesley when he almost died trying to chase after her. It was even harder to sleep in the same bed with him.

Still, they muddled through it, and four days before Christmas, Jamison and his family showed up on the doorstep. This time they skipped interrogating Wesley and went straight to treating him like one of the family. A slightly twisted story, about how Wesley's girlfriend forced a kiss on him and then he desperately chased after Ashlynn, had been shared with them.

What happened between Ashlynn and Dylan was completely omitted, as Wesley and María were the only ones who knew. And, since she hadn't talked with Dylan since, Ashlynn was able to push the memories into her mind's trash bin, where they were left to fade into nothingness. She had already learned everything she needed to know from the lack of a spark, and burying the memories meant she could get rid of her guilt. She woke up one morning feeling at peace with everything, and that's how she knew things would be okay.

Wesley could tell Ashlynn felt more at ease around him. Despite the fake lovey-dovey show they put on for the family, there was genuine concern in her eyes when she looked at him. The face she had been making when he first woke up in the hospital was permanently etched into his mind—relief lit up her eyes like a Christmas tree and worry revealed itself in her creased brow. It was quite possible the greatest moment of his life.