I returned the crutches to the nurse’s office at the beginning of the fourth week of school. The morning I walked into Calculus without them, something happened.
“Look at you,” Crew said as I sat at my desk. “Walking all by yourself. Must feel good.”
“Sure,” I said indifferently. It did feel good, but I wasn’t going to give him fuel for conversation. Not that it ever stopped him.
“And now you don’t have the crutches as an excuse not to hang out with me.”
I winced. I had been dreading this moment. I thought Crew would lose interest by this point, but I was wrong. He seemed to love harassing me, and nothing I tried deterred him. He kept asking me out and wouldn’t accept a simple no as an answer. He finally relented when I used the crutches as the reason I couldn’t go out with him. It ma
