One Way to Graduate

"I'm sorry, you don't deserve this."

"AGH!" Nora let out in another short burst, frustrated. No, she didn't, but if she had the time to spell it all out, she would've told Ethan that seeing Vicky's true colors was better than going on for the summer, chasing a false friend and being disappointed, as she had done last summer, and the one before that. It was better to know.

It still stung, regardless. Less with the friend she had found tonight, but it still stung.

With nothing more to say, Ethan ran his hand over Nora's hip, angular but warm, touching her somewhere that would soon be off-limits again. "I guess we better get you dressed." he whispered, and slipped himself out of her, eliciting a moan and the most hurt expression he had seen from her yet as the sudden sensation rolled another lock-up through her body. It rattled her for half a minute, but the first thing she typed after her eyes were free was, "Get back here."

Ethan was holding her again in moments, stuttering a "yes, ma'am" that was far less light-hearted than he had intended. "But don't we need to get you ready?"

"Yes. But." She typed on, "My mom can wait. She caused this whole mess."

Ethan nodded. "I mean... I wouldn't call it all a complete disaster." He ran his hands over her naked body again, spooning her tightly as she writhed and practically purred, eyes half-closed before begrudgingly flicking her eyes down, then up at the screen. 'No,' she had to admit... "But I am still in piss." Nora let speak with a wince.

Her tablet's auto-grammar didn't know what to do with these new, salacious words he had given her, and Ethan barely held in a chuckle, earning him a 'you know what I mean' look from Nora, but he had no intention of making fun. Or criticizing her mom.

Honestly, Ethan had said all he could about his sister, but Nora's mom was obviously a whole other story; one he kept his mouth shut about. The whole lie had been wrong... but with good intentions? A girl as shallow as his sister would have never invited Nora, and then what? No party? No this? Besides, whatever he could've said, it wasn't his place.

He sighed and let his head sink into the pillow aside Nora, her eyes flitting all around the screen he had set up above them, and he watched her, mesmerized again, as she sifted through folders and menus, perusing notifications for any word from her mom, any missed texts.

"Here, let me help." Ethan sat up on the edge of the bed, surveying the debris around the once-tidy room.

Among the pile of discarded wheelchair parts and clothes, Ethan found her phone in the leggings he had ripped off so hastily, the chunky old cell phone no worse for wear after the toss it took. Cuddling up to Nora, her body restless but warm, he typed in 1·2·3·4 and sure enough, there were a handful of increasingly-nervous texts which Nora asked him to read out loud while she flicked through her Connect settings to see why the alerts hadn't come through.

7:13pm -- "I'm just down the street at Formaggio's if you need anything! 😋"

7:45pm -- "Are you having a good time, sweets? 🤡"

7:46pm -- "Make sure to ask for a beer! 🍻"

7:46pm -- "Just one!!! Split a cup with Vicky!"

8:52pm -- "I'm stopping by home. You have fun, party girl! 🥳 When do you need a ride?"

9:02pm -- "Soon maybe? 🌝"

9:25pm -- "Well? Just cause Greta isn't here to keep you on the program doesn't mean I want to stay up all hours. Love you! 😙"

9:42pm -- "You alive in there? 🤨 You didn't leave your chair, did you?"

9:51pm -- "If you don't get back to me, I'm going to worry your dynavox is broken. 🤯"

10:01pm -- "Eleanor. Answer immediately."

Nora rolled her eyes dramatically-enough for him to get the gist, 'See what I have to deal with?' before adding from her screen, "You should see when I go to summer camp."

"Damn, well that escalated quickly, Eleanor." Ethan poked her. "Hmm, maybe I should call you that from now on."

"NNNNNNggggg!" Nora's spasming arms suddenly looked like they were ready to fight, elbows out, tight fists trying to escape the DIY belt. "Don't you dare." her tablet recited as she squealed.

"But it just rolls off the tongue, Eleanor!"

Typing in between piercing glances, Nora looked like she was going to burst with all the words that were backed up in her throat. "Say it again. I dare. You. Next time you put penis between my hands. Maybe I am not being careful. Fuck-ing guy."

Ethan just admired the naked girl drooling on his pillow, twitching, threatening him with a good time.

"Oh, so you're down for a 'next time'?" He leaned over and kissed her cheek as she gasped, her mock anger turning into a broken giggle as his strong hand cupped her boob, not letting either of them be coy about it. They had been there, done that.

She admired him carefully, eyes locked on his while her head wandered side-to-side, chest happening to arch right up into his touch, happy her body was on the same page for once.

She glanced upward, just to make sure he heard her loud and clear. 'Fuck yes.'

Holding her tight, Ethan was more confident than ever before that he did not want this to be a one-night stand. "Good. I did say I'd take you to the movies, didn't I?"

"AAAhhhh-ggaa," Nora flicked her eyes up again. 'Yes, you did.'

A smile pulled on Nora's open mouth as she pictured just the two of them in a dark theater, and where Ethan's hands could go.

Coincidentally he was thinking the same-- The phone vibrated again in his hand, breaking the pair apart.

"Oh shit," he said while reading. "She's heading here now. Time to go."

"Damn." Nora typed as her host scrambled. "And I never tasted the bribery beer."

"Next time," he assured her with an affectionate grasp on her little fist. "It tastes better without all the betrayal and such.

"Uuuuh-huh," Nora had to take his word for it.

The two rushed as best they could -- which is to say Ethan was rushing as Nora lay on the bed, passive participant of each step, chatting about what he needed to do next and speculating if a party invitation for 'robot girl' was worth one or two kegs. Ethan wanted to say she was worth more than that but wasn't sure if that would be a compliment, so kept hush as the girl twisted and deliberated.

He had sent a message for Nora telling her "Mommy" that the tablet got disconnected, and they would be a bit, and got a prompt reply, "Thanks Vicky. I appreciate all you do."

He bit his tongue about that.

Where Ethan didn't rush was cleaning Nora up. He took a pack of wipes from the well-stocked bag behind her chair and ran them between her legs, front to back. Even though he had been wearing a condom, there was more to clean up than he would have expected, seeing as his past partners all usually slipped out of sight to the bathroom. Not this time. Here he was part of everything, and he got a taste of the caretaker life looking down at Nora's detached gaze. He dared not tease or taunt, or stroke too leadingly as he wiped her up. Other than the unique contents of the mess, he assumed this was just another day for her.

But it wasn't another day to her, not really, this was the day she had sex. This was the day a boy she happened to really like was taking the responsibility to care for her, all the way -- soda, meds, and bodily fluids; the trifecta -- yet still made her feel wanted and desired, something she had worried might be a fantasy. Sure, Nora let her attention drift -- out of habit, mostly -- but her heart wanted him to tease, to keep this warm. But what was 'this'? Wiping her privates? What was the line between caretaker and lover for a girl as disabled as her? What was realistic? Another question she had no one to ask, and no time to suss out. She let him work, busying herself with collecting all the words for what to do next.

He unwrapped a new diaper and put the plastic in the bin under his desk, over top of the old diaper and the used condom. That combo was going to get him some questions if he didn't throw it out discreetly, but that was an issue for another time.

Though she was never as quiet as when he made sure her special underwear was sealed right, Nora did grow less and less talkative as Ethan pulled on her leggings, making sure to tuck in the pink diaper, then rolled up the ends to secure her ankle braces before covering those with her socks. He snapped her bra on just before taking a moment to slip back into his jeans -- hiding away the tool she had been sneaking glances at -- and finally moved to unfasten the ad-hoc tether/belt her wrists were tied up in.

All this time her arms had been trying to get free, body twisting and arching ever since Vicky had interrupted her post-coital haze, but somehow Ethan's idea had held firm, and Nora had to admire his ingenuity. Her body was random and persistent, and she knew it would be safer for everyone once she was back in the chair with them tied down. More practical. But they had to get her shirt back on first, and her nervous apprehension did nothing to help ease things as Ethan wrestled first her tense arm and then the wild one into her sleeves, Nora watching helplessly as her body fought him at every step to get the green shirt back on, moaning indistinct apologies.

"I am sorry." She typed as soon as he had lifted her back into the chair and fastened the majority of her bars and pads back in place, her body once more in the safe, soft, molded seat made to keep her from bending any more out of shape than she already was... each brace and bracket another reminder of what she needed to get by. What confidence she had worn while naked in his arms was falling away, revealing hints of the same-old Nora in her little rolling prison.

"Hey," he interrupted her spiral of worry while wrapping her angry fist in a brace and strapping it down to her tray top. "I had a good time, and you didn't hurt me at all. No need for sorries. Besides," he added, prying her fingers open to grip the padded braces, strapping that one down too, "You put up a good fight, I needed the workout."

Her head shook side-to-side in the rest, doubtful. She tried to capture a mental picture of the lanky boy, shirtless as he stepped away to survey the room for the rest of his own clothes and anything of hers he had forgotten. Once again locked into her chair, she tried to capture something to remember tonight by.

To Nora, it felt like a mile between them all of a sudden, like everything the two of them had done was suddenly history. She had to let him know, to ask, to make sure...

"EEEEyyyyaaaahhh..." she called to him, and sure enough he was there in a heartbeat, kneeling by her side, yet still separated by the chair's framework of metal and plastic.

Nora began on-screen, "Ethan. I do not want to be alone. You have shown me something that I cannot ignore now. Please... " she paused, mid-sentence. A drop of drool fell from her open mouth to her chin to her chest, her tongue twisting, but Ethan wiped it up before it could run down her cleavage. He brushed her hair out of her eyes and set her glasses on the bridge of her nose. And smiled. Like it wasn't a big deal.

"What is it?" he asked, setting a cloth on her breasts like a bib, just how he had found her.

Nora erased her whole pre-composed text box and instead wrote, "How do I know you are not just being polite about movies and design and next time. I know tonight was not planned. Do not be polite. Ethan."

Taken aback by the sudden bout of insecurity which had been growing in plain sight, the boy kneeling before her glanced quickly at Nora's mouth, then -- with two strong hands and no hesitation -- closed it for her and met her on the lips, kissing deeply. It was his only way of stopping this regression, reminding her what they had just done together; how they had stripped bare, and how just wrapping themselves back up -- in either t-shirt and jeans or full orthopedic bracing -- couldn't erase that.

Caught off-guard by the honesty, it worked. Nora's spastic body shook in its many tethers and braces and bonds, the memory of him cradling her still alive on her skin, underneath it all. Her hips ground into the seat, an ache inside firing up again, as Ethan held the last part of her that wasn't tied down. Now that was something to remember tonight by, she thought.

Ethan felt her body shake, of course, but focused instead on what he could feel of her, before parting and opening his eyes. "Is that... explicit enough?" he hushed, suddenly realizing he had never made a promise like this. Unspoken but true.

Ethan couldn't say what the summer would bring. He didn't even know where she had been accepted for college, or how long he would stay in Rainier. But he was honest that there would be a next time. "Still worried?"

Nora hummed between his hands, and flicked her eyes downward. 'Not anymore.'

Ethan nodded and fetched her phone from his pocket, glancing at the time. Together they had gotten her wrapped and ready in 20 minutes; he would have to ask later how he stacked up compared to the pros. He made sure to put himself in her contacts before sending a follow-up to her mom and tucking her phone in her leggings.

While the doorway was tighter than Ethan realized, Nora driving out without banging up the walls wasn't what he was worried about, it was the vultures outside.

Getting to the living room, the party had thinned out. What few were left were passing a particularly pungent joint around their family's scrappy little firepit on the back patio. Vicky and Suzy on the other hand looked absolutely miserable, half-drunk and gossiping on the couch. Suzy saw them first and actually smiled, before it turned too sappy to be sincere.

"I hope you had a good first party Nora! Too bad Ethan's night got ruined taking--"

"GO FUCK YOURSELF." The electronic words rang out full volume, stoic, resolute.

The girls looked aghast at the confidently-drooling Nora, then at Ethan standing behind her handlebars like he was somehow responsible for this, but he just sported a wicked grin while his sister lost it!

"You can't say that to--"

"GO FUCK YOURSELF."

The three simple words repeated, cutting Vicky off, and Ethan noticed some heads had poked in from the backyard, snickering at his sister as she stood there, speechless.

Ethan just admired Nora rising above it all; only to see her eyes -- dry and fearless -- weren't even on her shocked classmates, but instead the closed front door. Apparently she wanted to go out with a bang, but dramatic exits were tough to come by when you had no free hands and wanted to prioritize your comedic timing. Ethan slipped around her and opened it up for her to roll through to the cool night air, while he just gave his best "you deserved worse" look to the girls and closed up behind him.

Shocked by Robot Girl's sudden bout of confidence, they didn't follow.

Once out front he burst out laughing, and Nora gasped out her own broken laugh while she typed, "That felt good."

"I can't imagine, I mean I could feel it! Honestly! Hey, you should keep that sailor's mouth on the down-low, though. Your mom might disable it again."

Sure enough, he saw the van pull up in front, as if he timed it that way.

"Let her." Nora typed. "She cannot take what happened tonight."

Ethan took a deep breath of the air full of wet pine and promise, and bent over to kiss her on the cheek, before whispering, "You're right about that."

Nora's mom got out of the van with a, "Hey sweetie!" and came around to open the back and pull down the ramp, while Nora drove herself down the narrow path and Ethan followed, trying to stand a bit straighter. "Did you have a good time? Who is this?"

"Eyyyyyaaaaah," she moaned, rattling her braces on the tray top, and he couldn't help but smile, before realizing that was his cue.

"H-Hello Mrs. Wilkins, my name is Ethan. Vicky's brother." he said, shaking her hand. "Can I help you with the ramp at all?"

The older woman sized him up for a second, with a hint of a smirk and a flickering light in the eyes, and Ethan wondered if kissing her daughter on the front step had been his best decision, but she didn't mention it. "Oh... sure, that would be nice. Let me show you how."

Together they got Nora up into her van -- Nora drove by eye but her chair needed a small push at the top -- and Ethan helped her mom tie the chair down with hooks on the floor, before saying his goodbyes, a last touch on her wild arm as he closed up the back and watched the van pull away for the night.

He turned back to the house, the music finally turned down. He had quite the mess to clean up.

It was two miles on the bumpy rural roads before Nora heard her mom speak up over the radio. "So, Ethan seems like a gentleman. Did you two have a good time?"

If Nora could've bit her lip she would've. Not knowing what to say, she eyed a number of pages but could only assemble a weak, "It was cool."

The eyes that met her in the rear-view mirror knew something had happened, and knew how to read her. Nora's blushing cheeks said it all.

Nora watched her mom reach back from the driver's seat before she felt it -- oh no -- the tickle of fingers on her feet, making her shake and gasp. Ethan had forgotten her shoes!

She sat there, with a tablet full of words and even a few new ones, but had nothing to say to explain herself. She didn't even want to explain herself, and it took another mile for that to become clear.

"Well, we should probably have him over for dinner so he can bring them back."

The End