The air between us went completely still.
'Okay,' I thought. 'This is weird now. This is definitely weird.'
I just sat there, not sure what to do with my hands or where to look. I ended up just staring at the ground in front of my feet. The silence just kept stretching out, and it felt like if I didn't say something soon, we'd be stuck like this forever.
"Hey," I said finally, my voice sounding a little rough. "It's really okay."
She didn't answer right away, which just made me feel more awkward.
"I mean it," I added, glancing over at her. "Don't worry about it."
She was still looking at her lap, twisting her fingers together. "I'm still sorry," she said, her voice was really quiet. "I don't know why I did that. I just made things weird again."
'Yeah, you kind of did,' I thought, but I wasn't going to say that out loud.
I let out a breath and tried to think of something, anything, to fix this.
"No, you didn't," I said, and the words just came out. "It's... it's been nice, actually. Talking to you like this."
She finally looked up from her hands and over at me.
"I'm not just saying that," I continued, because I realized it was the truth. "I haven't really... I can't remember the last time I just sat and talked to someone. It's been years, probably."
I looked away from her, back at the ground. It felt strange admitting that to her, or to anyone.
"I'm usually just by myself," I said with a shrug. "It's just easier."
She was quiet for a long moment, and I figured I'd finally managed to scare her off for good. I was about to say something like 'we should probably go,' when she finally spoke.
"I think I get that," she said softly.
I looked at her again, surprised. "You do?"
She nodded, giving me a small, sad kind of smile. "You saw my friends earlier. Selma and Becky. It's always like that. It's all about who you're dating, and what parties you're going to, and what you post online." She sighed. "I'm with them all the time, but I feel alone a lot."
I just listened. I didn't know what else to do.
"When we were talking a minute ago," she continued, "about music and books and stuff... that was nice. I don't really talk about things like that with them."
We just sat there for a bit, in a silence that felt different this time. It wasn't awkward anymore.
"Well," I said, a small smile forming on my face. "We can be alone together, then."
She actually laughed at that, a real laugh that made me smile too. "Yeah," she said, nodding. "Yeah, I'd like that."
I stood up slowly, grabbing my crutches from the side of the bench. The ache in my ribs was still there, but it didn't seem as bad now.
"I should probably get home," I said. "My parents are going to call soon and I should probably be there to answer."
"Oh, right," she said, standing up too. "Of course."
She hesitated for a second. "I'll, uh, walk with you to your corner, if that's okay."
"Yeah," I said, feeling my own smile get a little wider. "That's okay."
We started walking away from the park, and the only sound for a second was the scrape-scrape of my crutches on the ground. I kept my eyes focused on the sidewalk in front of me, trying to make my legs and arms work together without falling on my face.
'Just act normal. She's just a person.'
But she wasn't just a person. This was Nina Shoka. Thee Nina Shoka, who I'd only ever seen from across a classroom, surrounded by her popular friends. And I was walking next to her.
"So," she said, breaking the silence. "That assignment for Mr. Davies... did you finish it?"
I almost stumbled. 'She's asking me about homework?' I thought. 'We're just going to talk about homework?'
"Uh, yeah," I said, trying to keep my voice steady. "I did it a couple of days ago, before... you know."
"Oh, right," she said. "I still have to do the last two questions tonight. I hate his assignments, he's always so vague."
'This is completely insane,' I thought, as I kept limping along. 'A week ago, I was pretending to be a philosopher and getting ready to be roadkill. Now I'm talking about history homework with the girl I saved.'
"I know what you mean," I said. "He wants you to read his mind half the time."
"Exactly!" she said, and I could hear the smile in her voice. "Like that question about the economic impact on Athens. What does he even want us to write?"
I actually knew the answer to that one. History was another one of those subjects that just made sense to me.
"He's probably talking about the grain shipments," I explained, trying not to sound like a know-it-all. "And how the war messed up their trade routes with the other city-states."
I glanced over at her, and she was looking at me with this surprised expression.
"Oh," she said, stopping for a second. "That actually makes a lot more sense. I was just going to write about them spending a lot of money on soldiers."
"Well, that's part of it too," I said with a shrug.
'I'm explaining homework to Nina Shoka,' my brain repeated. 'What is happening with my life?'
"Thanks, Kofi," she said after a minute. "You're actually really smart, aren't you?"
The question caught me off guard. "I'm not... I just read the chapter, that's all."
"No, really," she insisted. "You did that chemistry test in like, twenty minutes in the hospital. Everyone was talking about it."
'They were?' I thought. 'People were talking about me passing a test?' That was a new one.
We walked in a comfortable quiet for a little bit after that.
"This is my street," I said finally, stopping at the corner and gesturing with one of my crutches.
"Oh," she said, stopping next to me. "Okay."
There was a little pause, and for a second, I thought it was going to get weird again.
"Well," she said, shifting her weight from one foot to the other. "I'll, uh, see you tomorrow at school, then?"
"Yeah," I said, a small smile forming on my face. "See you tomorrow."
She smiled back, then turned and started walking down the street. I stood there for a second, just watching her go.
'I'm seeing Nina tomorrow,' I thought. 'As a friend.'
The idea was still completely wild to me.