About five minutes later, I heard the doorbell. I hobbled over to the door (I was still in a bunch of pain) and opened it to reveal Tori. She looked more angelic than ever. The sun was shining just right upon her face and a gentle breeze waved her hair a little. I couldn’t help but return her smile.
“Hey Stephen. Feeling alright?”
“Eh, I’ve been better, but I’m doin’ OK. Why don’t you come in? We can talk in my room if you’d like.”
“Sounds like a plan.” she said as she entered and quickly slid off her shoes. I slowly led her up the stairs and turned to the right, towards my room. Tori was obviously impressed with the house. She was looking this way and that, looking at all the pictures and getting a feel where everything is.
“You have a really nice house, Steve. Very homey.”
“Thanks. I really like it.” I replied as I walked in my room. I was then horrified to see that there was a package of diapers just laying on the ground in front of my closet. I must’ve forgotten to put them back. I rushed to kick the plastic case into my closet as I tried to discreetly close the door to it. Why didn’t I check to see if my room was OK while I was waiting for her? I was convinced that she had seen the package, but when I turned around, she was still looking at a picture of my family on the wall opposite to my room.
“I really like this picture. Where was this taken.”
“In the Rockies.” I answered, relieved to see that she didn’t notice my blunder. “My family’s camped there like four or five times. We really like the mountains.” Tori finally dragged herself away from the picture and came into my room. She jumped into my bean bag chair as I hopped onto my bed. we made a bunch of small talk for a few minutes. It was nice catching up with what all happened socially the past few days. Then, it shifted to the topic I was trying to avoid.
“You know, Stephen. It was really brave of you to take that bullet for me… Thank you so much. If it would’ve hit me, I’d probably dead.”
“Oh. No problem.” I was starting to blush. “I would do it any day. And I’m not just saying that.”
“That’s what I like about you, Stephen. You’re always so nice to me. You’re always thinking of others before yourself.”
“That’s not true. I can be pretty selfish at times.”
“You’re also very honest, then.”
“Well you know me, Tori. I can’t really lie to save my life.”
“Yes, but you can push me out of the way to save mine.” she said, making me laugh. I did not really know what to say. Finally, Tori broke the silence again. “Can I ask you something kinda personal? You don’t have to answer if you don’t feel comfortable with it.”
“Yeah, sure. Shoot away.”
“Did the bullet leave any permanent injuries?” I was blown away by this question. She asked it, almost like she already knew the answer. Maybe she did know it already and just wanted to test how much I trusted her. Or maybe she really didn’t know and was just curious. I thought about not answering the question, but I figured that would be as good as saying yes. I decided to stick to my guns and deny it.
“Nope. Doctor’s patched me right up! I’ll be fine in no time!” It wasn’t completely a lie. My condition wasn’t permanent…
“That’s good. I’d feel really bad if it did.” she replied, confirming my hypothesis from before. “Mind telling me where exactly you got shot?”
“Nope. Not at all. It was right here, about two inches below my belly button.” I pointed to where the wound was. “Wanna see the mark?”
“Eww. That must be nasty.” She scowled at the thought, but then she got excited. “I’d love to!” I immediately got equally excited. I reached for my shirt and started to pull it up. Now, you may think that I’m really stupid, completely revealing my padded undies to her. The thought just didn’t occur to me. I was so entrance in Tori. She was giving me all this attention, and she seemed so interested on the topic. I wanted to do anything to make her think I was cool and tough.
It was only when I started pulling the front of my athletic shorts down far enough to show her the wound that I realized that the diaper covered it up. Just before I revealed my new secret, I pulled the shirt back down and the shorts back up. Tori looked back up at me with a questioning look.
“Oh. uh, Sorry Tori.” I said, trying to come up with a good excuse. “I wasn’t really, er, thinking. I’d be, um, exposing myself , uh, a little bit too… much.” It was rough, but it came out.
“Oh. that’s OK. I understand.” she said. She smiled, but I could tell she was pretty disappointed.
