The room seemed to be spinning, and I couldn’t exactly remember where I was.
“Don’t worry, honey, it’s only a fracture,” I heard Ms. Williams, the school nurse, shout from the back of the room.
Then I remembered everything that had happened up until that point—the obstacle course, the hurdle, and Rowan. Above all else, I remembered Rowan. Ms. Williams came over and gave me a plate of crackers, which tasted like they were about ten years old. She then left to retrieve my parents from the office, who had been called right after I gracefully fell face first onto the floor. My mom hurried in with a panicked expression on her face, mumbling about how clumsiness had always run on my dad’s side of the family.
Meanwhile, my dad sat in the corner of the room, examining a stack of newly released books that he was apparently considering carrying in the store. Straining to hear, I heard Ms. Williams tell my mom everything that had happened. Relief flooded through me as I heard that my ankle was only slightly fractured and not completely broken. However, I was disappointed to hear that I would be on crutches for a month. In an attempt to make the entire incident more bearable, I happily decided to consider the entire situation Athena’s fault, as I wouldn’t have even tried to jump the hurdle if she hadn’t paired me up with Rowan. Yes, it was all definitely Athena’s fault.
I arrived home in a wheelchair, with my mom pushing me and my dad carrying a new pair of crutches, along with some take-out Chinese. If it had been under better circumstances, I would have been happy about all of the extra attention. My mom rolled me inside, and I scooted my way backwards up the steps for what felt like an eternity. When I finally reached the top, she helped me into bed and brought me a plate full of sesame chicken. She explained that she was sorry, but they had to go back to the store for a prearranged book signing with some local authors.
As soon as they left, I grabbed my phone, eager to tell Jack all that had happened. He picked up on the first ring, sounding very distressed.
“Lily, what happened?” he asked. “Athena was telling everyone that you fell and broke your leg!”
I rolled my eyes, thinking about the smirk that had probably been on Rowan’s face as he listened to all the gossip.
“No, Jack. I only fractured my ankle. I’ll be back on Monday,” I said, trying to relieve the obvious anxiety in his voice.
“What happened?” he asked, sounding more suspicious than concerned.
I retold the whole story from beginning to end, leaving out the parts about Athena and how I’d met Rowan. Considering how much Jack seemed to dislike Rowan, I thought that omitting how I’d somewhat tangled myself up with him intentionally was probably best. Jack told me that he hoped I felt better, and promised to carry my backpack for me until I could walk again.
I ended the call, grateful to have such an amazing best friend, but also confused as to why he seemed to be so against the idea of my talking to Rowan. Jack had never had a problem with any of the other guys I had talked to before, and I couldn’t understand why Rowan was any different. I wasn’t even interested in him in that way. Granted, I’d only been around Rowan for about fifteen minutes, but he’d seemed like a somewhat decent guy, especially since he hadn’t made fun of me after I fell. Truthfully, he wasn’t that bad at all. If I’d met him under different circumstances, we would probably have become fast friends. In a rather strange way, he reminded me of so many of my favorite fictional characters. There was something about him that made him a classic and mysterious man, just like Mr. Darcy. Yet he was also gentle and understanding, like Colonel Brandon.
While comparing him to all of my literary heroes, I realized something else about him, something far more interesting. The one thing he had in common with all of the different characters I loved was that he appeared to be timeless. For some reason I didn’t yet understand, he didn’t behave like a modern teenage boy. Somehow he seemed older, more mature. Everything about him implied that he was a complete gentleman, but was also able to laugh at a good joke. In a way that fascinated me, he also seemed to be completely free of any influence from modern culture. I admired that he was his own independent person who did what made him happy, not what other people pressured him to do. It seemed as if Rowan Marx had stepped right out of one of my books and into my life, and that’s exactly the type of man I had been waiting for.
I returned to school on Monday, and as promised, Jack carried my backpack to all of my classes. We had almost every single class together, except homeroom and gym. While dropping my backpack off in the gym before heading to his class, Jack looked around the room, surveying the area. I thought it was strange, especially since he hadn’t done that in any of my other classes. After a few seconds of searching, he seemed to be satisfied and headed off to his next class. I hobbled into the gym, trying not to topple backwards with the weight of my backpack. I sat down on the bleachers and set my crutches down beside me.
Mrs. Foster walked over to me with her whistle in hand, as usual. “How are you today, Ms. Rhodes?”
“Well, my ankle hurts less than it did on Friday, but these crutches make my arms hurt worse than my ankle ever did,” I said.
She clucked her tongue, as she usually did when she disapproved of something and turned her eyes toward Rowan. He was walking out of the locker room, looking more attractive in his gym clothes than I did when I tried to dress up.
“Mr. Marx,” she shouted. “Would you be so kind as to keep Ms. Rhodes company for the remainder of time that she is incapable of participating in this class?”
Rowan, who was now standing right in front of me, smiled and said, “Of course. I’d love to sit with Lily.”
At that, Mrs. Foster blew her whistle, which made half of the class reach to cover their ears, and directed the rest of the class towards their task for the day.
“Well,” he said. “Considering the level of extreme awkwardness of our first encounter, I suggest we start over. I’m Rowan Marx.”
He held out his hand, smiling at me. I took his hand sheepishly and shook it, furious with myself for being so nervous.
“I’m Lily Rhodes,” I said in a voice that I hoped sounded confident. My inner self rolled her eyes, already annoyed with my obvious inability to communicate with another human. He looked down at my lap, where my hands were nervously clutching my copy of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.
“So, you like to read,” he said. “What types of books are your favorites?”
“Oh,” I said, surprised that he was interested. “I read all types of books, but I prefer classical novels.”
I smiled at him, noticing how strong his arms looked and remembering how he’d picked me up so easily the day I broke my ankle.
“But the Harry Potter books will always have a special place in my heart,” I said.
“Maybe I should wish to be Harry Potter then.” He smiled brightly down at me through his thick, beautiful eyelashes. He reached over and untucked a piece of hair from behind my ear and placed it gently along the side of my face. “I’ve always preferred a more natural approach to beauty,” he said.
Was he flirting with me? It was a bit of a shock. I hadn’t imagined that he, an exceptionally beautiful person, would ever be interested in someone like me. We continued to sit that way for the rest of class, talking, smiling, and laughing together.
Every day I lived my life exactly as I had before, except for gym class. Every day in gym class, I sat with Rowan on the bleachers discussing all sorts of things. We talked about literature, politics, and even laughed at Athena and some of the other popular kids when they made themselves look stupid. It was quite possibly the happiest, most enjoyable time I’d ever had. Rowan seemed to become more perfect every day. Each discussion we had, I seemed to discover another one of his amazing qualities. He was patient, kind, and had a sense of humor I absolutely loved. The most spectacular part, though, was the way he looked at me. Whenever I talked, no matter what it was about, he watched me as if I was the most fascinating thing he’d ever seen. He appeared almost mesmerized with my very existence, and truthfully, I couldn’t have been more happy about it. The only problem was, one day, my ankle wouldn’t be fractured anymore.