The Hitting Zone-Chapter 1205: V4 ch53

"Congrats!" Dave threw his arm around my shoulders and dragged me out of the way of the door.

I grinned and showed him my official permit.

"See? I knew you could do it." He patted me on the head. Soon he let go of me and pulled Noah, who was coming out of the room. "You pass?"

Noah grinned. "Easy-peasy."

Dave pulled him into a loose headlock and messed up his hair too. "Mom and Dad will have to start looking at cars. You kids will be driving yourselves to school in no time."

"It takes six months." I reminded them. "That was a question on my test."

"Just before the new year." Noah grinned. "Not too bad. I bet Mom will drive us until Kyle gets back after his season ends. I doubt he'll let us drive his car though."

Alisha came out with a smile and we surrounded her next as she showed off her permit. "What a relief! But let me tell you, I had some ridiculously hard questions. For a second, I thought it was over for me."

I smiled. "Yea. I had a couple hard ones too. And very easy ones. And some that I only knew from reviewing this morning."

"Guys, one of my questions was about the driving time for someone who had their license, but wasn't 18." Alisha rubbed her forehead. "There were only three choices, one was ridiculous. And I just picked between the remaining two. I was still wrong. I was being conservative and said 7am to 8pm. But it was like 5am to 11pm. Shoot. Why have any time restrictions at all?"

Dave laughed. "That's called a curfew."

I recalled the time we got caught out and about after a party the twins took us too. "Yea, it's definitely not allowed to be out after midnight when under 18."

"That wasn't as nearly as tough as my question about when to fill out a report of traffic accident occuring in california (SR-1) form." Noah complained as we all started to walk back to Dave's car. "Spoiler alert, it's not when you fail to pay your registration."

Dave laughed. "Okay, you're still not using all your common sense. Didn't you hear what you just said? When to fill out a report of a traffic accident? That's not related to your registration at all."

"How am I supposed to know that?" Noah asked, shrugging. "I thought it meant you got into a car accident without being properly registered."

"You wouldn't report that to the DMV." Dave explained. "A cop would just write you a ticket for that and they'll report it to the DMV."

"Okay so it makes sense when you put it that way."

"What was the write answer?" Alisha asked.

"Something about having been in a collision with over a thousand dollars in damages." Noah shrugged.

"I hope I never get into a car accident." Alisha shivered. "My dad had a friend die in one when he was in college and he still talks about it."

"If the twins can drive without getting into any accidents, then I have complete faith in you." Noah said with a grin.

"You punk." Dave knocked on Noah's head.

Back in the car, we talked about our test questions some more, like what was hard and what was easy. It was clear that all of our tests were different. I'm sure they had different versions to avoid cheaters. On our way back to Alisha's, Dave decided we would stop and pick up the pizza in order to save on the delivery fee and tip. He parked and got out of the car to go get the food.

"Are you texting Kaylee to come over?" Noah asked Alisha, who was looking down at her phone. "Or does she need a ride? We can pick her up on the way."

"She said she would be dropped off by Marie." Alisha answered. "She said she might be a little loopy because she just took a painkiller."

"Better than being in pain." Noah shrugged.

"She's been taking painkillers for almost a month now." Alisha pursed her lips. "I just don't have good vibes about it."

"She had two serious surgeries." Noah defended. "That's basically a reset button. As long as she's taking it for pain she's feeling, I don't see a problem with it."

"Didn't you pay attention in health class? It's easy to become addicted to opioids after a few weeks." Alisha said. "I'm just worried that this will happen right before our very eyes."

Noah twisted all the way around to look at me. "What do you think, Jake?"

"Me?" I pointed at myself.

"You have the most experience with hospital stays and pain. At least more than either of us. What's your opinion on painkillers?"

I shrugged. "It's not like I was responsible for taking a pill whenever. I had a nurse come into my room at designated times. Later, they would ask if I'm in pain. I would nod or shake my head. The end."

"You didn't feel high?" Alisha questioned.

I shrugged. "I didn't feel anything. Which was good. Broken ribs really hurt. Honestly, it just made me tired. Which was good. Sleep was hard to come by." I paused. "Maybe we can tell someone? Like our parents? Your parents? They would know how to approach this."

"Nah." Noah quickly disagreed. "They would make a bigger deal out of it than it is. You guys just don't know Kaylee like I do. Just wait until later."

"Wait for what?" I asked.

"Wait until I say something to her. Guarantee she'll stop taking them right away." Noah said with a smile.

"You think you can just goad her into not taking her painkillers?" Alisha asked in disbelief.

"Yea. Of course. She's easy to rile up." Noah shrugged. He spotted Dave coming back with boxes of food. He sat back on his butt and opened his door just in time.

Dave stacked the food on his lap. "Careful. It's hot."

I didn't know how Noah planned to approach the topic of drugs and addiction to Kaylee until later in the afternoon. Long after Dave had left us four on our own. We were sunbathing in Alisha's backyard, making plans to swim the next time we came over. Probably over the weekend.

"Let's go watch the A's play on Sunday." Noah suggested. "It's a day game so no parents should get upset."

Three pair of eyes looked at Kaylee, knowing that it would be her parents that would get upset.

"Yea, it'd be a good reason not to go to church with them." Kaylee grinned. "Make sure to pick me up first. As early as you can."

Noah laughed. "You might not know, but Jeremy lets us go really early to his games to watch the batting practice. Plus, we gotta give you the behind the scenes tour. We'll be gone before they even get up."

"Do we invite Marie?" Alisha asked.

"I'll see if I can get away with not having to bring her." Kaylee shrugged. "It's more an issue with her than my parents though. Since the accident, I feel like she hovers. Don't do this, don't do that. Keep your arm dry. Take your pills. It's obnoxious. Mom doesn't even nag as much."

Noah stood up and stretched, walking closer to Kaylee, looking at her arm, no longer in a sling. "It's looking good. Why take the painkillers if you don't have to?"

This was it. I looked at Alisha and she looked at me at the same time. We exchanged a knowing look before focusing on Noah and Kaylee.

This 𝓬ontent is taken from fгeewebnovёl.co𝙢.

"Of course I have to." Kaylee rolled her eyes. "It'll hurt if I don't."

"How would you know if you keep taking them?" Noah asked, folding his arms across his chest. "You keep holding yourself back like this and you won't see any improvement."

"I'm not holding myself back." Kaylee sat up. "I'm doing what I'm told. Take a painkiller every four to six hours. Marie is the one that has me on a schedule."

"It's been weeks since your last surgery." Noah pointed out. "You still needing pills can't be a good sign. Maybe get it checked out again."

"We could do that Sunday too?" I offered in a small voice, afraid she would get mad. "We'd be in the area."

"I don't…know." Kaylee frowned, looking down at her right arm. "Maybe I should. An early checkup. Make sure it's going better than the first surgery. The pain-" She shook her head. "I might be just nervous to feel the pain again. Like what if it's not going away?"

"Stick to Tylenol until Sunday." Noah suggested. "If it's not enough, then you have something to say to the doc."

Kaylee looked to me. "Can Jeremy arrange it? I don't want Marie or my parents to know."

I didn't ask why. I just pulled out my phone and sent Jeremy a text. He would be prepping for a game right now, but he would get back to me later.