Chapter 5

Chapter 5: Wheeling

"Excuse me?" 

I gaped, turning to mom for some help but she was looking at me expectantly and I realized that she probably knew already. 

"I'm going to take care of you," he repeated, looking more determined with every passing second.

"Wait a minute," I shook my head, "Uh no? It's not your fault." A stranger saying he'd take care of me when it's not even his fault? No way. 

"Honey," mom interrupted, "If it hadn't been for his bag, none of this would have happened."

I categorically refused, "No, mom, he's innocent and I'm not going to chain an innocent person to m.," 

"I'm not innocent!" Dylan suddenly exploded. Shocked and confused, everyone shut up. His breathing had quickened, cheeks flushed and he looked everywhere except at me. What did he just say? 

He cleared his throat, "I mean, I can't be innocent, I indirectly caused this." Oh. We all seemed to relax but he was clearly acting weird. There was no reason to get worked up over such an issue. I tried to reason with him thinking that he was probably tired. After all, everyone was dead tired and needed some sleep. 

"Let me help you," he sighed and I knew that he was really sincere, "Please, it's the least I can do." 

Not having the courage to protest, I simply fell back and closed my eyes, "You do what you want, Dylan, I'm not going to force you." End of discussion.

"Thank you, Hope," and he smiled a beautiful, genuine smile. I nearly slapped myself for thinking he was handsome despite my weak and dizzy state. Grabbing his coat, he strode to the door, "I'll be coming tomorrow."

 Once he was gone, mom said, "Hope, he's a young man working as a part-time tutor and he wants to help with the hospital bills."

"What?" If I could screech, I would gladly, "You're making a part-timer pay the hospital bills when I have saved up money?" I knew that mom's job as a seamstress wouldn't cover even half of the bills but I had taken up many part-time jobs during high school and the total should make up for it. I didn't like the idea of making someone whom I didn't even know pay the bills let alone take care of me. 

"What your mom means is that the guy insisted to pay a quarter of the sum and he's got huge persuasive skills," Tina explained. I slowly nodded, teachers were pretty authoritative and he had exploited that several times already. I had no intention of using a blameless tutor to make ends meet. 

"Whatever, I'm going to try to discourage him tomorrow. I also have persuasion skills," I winked and started laughing but ended in fits of dry, painful coughs. God, what medicines did they give me. Completely alarmed, they tried to make me drink some water but I choked out most of it. 

"You should rest some more," mom ran her hand soothingly over my head and I relaxed. 

Yeah, I should.