Page 108 of Before We're More Than Friends
“That isn’t steel,” Hayden said, already sitting with his second s’more. The dude made them the way people made candy in a factory. “You told me it’s made of thermoplastics and other stuff.”
“Well, it’s strong enough to beat you up.” Caleb flexed his prosthetic arm. “Stronger than my old one.”
“Is it okay to ask what happened?” Kami asked.
“Well, you already asked,” Caleb said, but his voice was light. “You see, Hayden got bored once?—”
Hayden groaned. “You’ve used that one way too many times.”
“I like the dragon story,” Mollie said as she burned her marshmallows to a crisp. “The one where you saved the beautiful princess.”
“I thought he saved a girl from Oliver’s dungeon,” Bella quipped, blowing out the fire on her own marshmallows.
“Gosh, that one is the worst,” Oliver said, shaking his head as he sat with his stick. “How did I even manage to chop your arm off in the first place?”
Kami and I exchanged an uncertain look. I’d thought about asking Caleb about his arm before, but I didn’t want to be rude. Plus, it hadn’t occurred to me often because Caleb acted no different than the rest of us. If anything, he was the most confident in the group.
Caleb laughed. “Okay, okay, real story.” He cleared his throat. “I got an infection from a failed stunt during freshman year. It’d gotten to the point where the only option was to amputate my arm.”
Kami gasped. “That’s terrifying.”
“It was the worst day of my life.” Caleb held up hisprosthetic arm. “But it’s all good now. I adjusted well to physical therapy and was back to playing the keyboard after a few months.”
“That’s great,” I said, hoping I wasn’t saying the wrong thing. “I’m sorry about the accident, though.”
Kami smiled. “Yeah, I’m glad everything worked out.”
“I wouldn’t say everything,” Caleb said, his smile dipping. “But I got through it. I’m happy where I’m at now and have the best friends.”
“Aw,” Sienna said. “You do love us.”
Caleb shrugged. “Sometimes.”
Around twenty minutes later, after eating a few more s’mores, I leaned back in my chair and faced Raina. “I think I made a mistake.” I clutched my aching stomach.
Raina giggled. “You’ll learn next time. Hayden learned the hard way.”
Hayden groaned, also leaning back in his chair and holding his stomach. “I thought we weren’t allowed to talk about that.”
“We’re not,” Oliver said.
“Can we hear another dragon story?” Mollie asked. “Or an Oliver story.”
Oliver sighed. “And why do I always have to host these things?”
“Where else would we have them?” Hayden asked.
“Caleb’s backyard is literally the size of my house.”
“It’s actually bigger,” Caleb said. “But at least my mom won’t check on us every five seconds here.”
While everyone else talked, the pain in my stomach subsided, but I didn’t want to sit here anymore. I got up from my chair and stretched.
“Where are you going?” Raina asked.
“Need to take a walk,” I said.
“Me too.” She got up from her chair. “Walk together?”
