Graduation Night, continued...
“Roger, I just want to know one thing. And I want the truth.”
It had been hard for Adam to make the call to Roger. He might have called the police first, but he knew now from experience that they wouldn’t do a damn thing. Adam was angry as hell at Roger, but more than that, he was hurt. How could Roger, his best friend of seven years (even if those seven years were ten years ago), have gotten him locked up in a psych hospital? Before now, he would have trusted Roger with his life. Now he didn’t know what to think anymore.
“Adam?” Roger’s voice cracked on the other line. “Uh hey, where are you?”
“I’m home, no thanks to you.” Adam counted under his breath, trying to control his anger. “Don’t act like I don’t know what you did...”
“Adam, I’m sorry...”
Adam took a deep breath and asked the question that had weighed heavily on his mind ever since he had woken up with restraints on his wrists: “Roger, tell me the truth: did you want to just knock me out?” He paused. “Or were you actually trying to kill me?”
Roger was silent for a long time. “I made a mistake,” he finally said, his voice breaking slightly.
“You fucking piece of shit,” Adam spat. Roger had always been a bad liar and Adam could tell from his voice that whatever he had ingested in that coffee shop was meant to end his life.
Adam felt sick. After all these years, after everything he had done for Roger, how could he do something like that? It seemed so hard to believe. Roger, his buddy. Roger Jacobson. Rog, the other kid who got stuck on the bench during softball in 6th grade gym when neither one of them got picked for a team. They bonded by laughing at the other kids’ lousy fielding skills. In the span of an hour, they became close friends.
They were both big baseball fans and they made a habit of watching games together. They stretched out in front of the TV together, eating nachos with jalapeno cheddar sauce and trading baseball cards. Neither of them were great athletes and they enjoyed talking about the sport more than playing it. They could both rack off every record set in baseball without blinking an eye.
In high school, Adam still watched games on TV, but his main interest changed to girls. And to his own amazement, the girls seemed interested back. Unfortunately, Roger was relegated to admiring the fairer sex from afar, but he never seemed all that jealous. Adam and Roger now had enthusiastic discussions about which girls had the best tits or best ass, although it was usually agreed that Maggie McConnelly was the winner in every category.
During Adam’s sophomore year of high school, he got sick as hell with mono. He was laid up in bed for two full weeks and every single day Roger came by after school and kept him company. Even when Adam was too sick to hold up his end of the conversation, Roger stuck around and watched crappy sitcoms with him. Every day for two weeks, Roger was there.
“You fucking piece of shit,” Adam repeated.
Roger didn’t say anything. There was nothing to say, really.
“I want Maggie McConnelly’s home address,” Adam said finally. “I know you have it.”
“What?”
“I want you to tell me where Maggie lives, dickweed.”
Roger seemed stunned by this. “But... why?”
Adam sighed irritably. “Roger, I don’t want to talk to you right now. I don’t want to have this little conversation. I just want you to tell me where she is. I love her and I want to see her.”
“Adam, there’s something you should know about Maggie…”
“What? Did you think I wouldn’t like her anymore just because she gained a little weight?” Adam snapped.
“A little?”
“I don’t care.”
“But what about Brynne?”
“Brynne doesn’t mean anything to me. Not compared to Maggie.”
Adam waited for Roger’s next excuse. The only thing that kept him from slamming down the phone was Maggie McConnelly.
“Okay,” Roger said finally. “I’ll go get her address.”
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Adam sat at the entrance to Maggie’s building, contemplating the task before him. There were three steps to get to a platform so that he could buzz Maggie on her intercom. Three fairly high steps that there was no way Adam could get up on his own.
It wasn’t like this problem never came up before. One step he could handle okay. He had learned to do a little wheelie to get up a single step. Two steps were very difficult, depending on the amount of space he had. Three steps—impossible.
Adam scanned the street for passers-by that looked like they might be willing to lend a hand. Before now, he might have asked a woman, with the hopes of getting her phone number, but that was the last thing on his mind right now. Adam picked out a husky man in his thirties.
“Excuse me,” Adam said to him. “Do you think you could help me get up these stairs? It’ll just be a minute.”
The man glanced at his watch. “Uh, sure. No problem. What should I do?”
Adam instructed the man to tilt his chair back slightly and pull him up from behind. He held tightly to the armrests, praying the guy wouldn’t fuck it up and drop the chair. The man looked very proud of himself at the top, probably feeling that he had done his good deed for the year. “You need help getting back down?” he asked.
“Nah,” Adam said, but as the man walked away, he realized the intercom was going to be hard to reach too. If only he could stand, even for a few seconds, it would have made life so much easier. He locked the wheels on his chair and grabbed onto one armrest to push himself up as high as he could go. The tip of his index finger was just long enough to reach the button for Maggie’s apartment.
Maggie’s roommate buzzed Adam inside and thank god there was an elevator to get to the third floor. It was an ancient machine that creaked threateningly when he wheeled inside, but it held up for the duration of the ride.
The doorbell for Maggie’s apartment was also out of reach, so Adam simply slammed his palm against the door a few times. A cute girl with short hair pulled the door open and her eyes widened when she first saw him. “You’re Adam?” she asked.
He nodded.
“I’m Audrey,” she told him, breaking out into a broad smile. “Come inside.”
Audrey explained that Maggie didn’t know he was here. She had locked herself in her room yesterday and Audrey said she heard her crying. Adam felt pangs of guilt when Audrey told him that. The last thing he ever wanted to do in his life was to make Maggie cry.
Audrey led Adam down the hallway to Maggie’s room. The door was shut. “Good luck,” Audrey said to him, placing a hand on his shoulder. “Just in case she gets difficult, you should know the door doesn’t lock.”
“Thanks,” Adam said.
Adam took a deep breath. This was it. His last chance with Maggie McConnelly. He knocked on the door.
“Leave me alone!” Maggie cried from within the room.
She didn’t even know it was him yet and already this wasn’t going well. “Maggie, it’s me. It’s Adam.”
“Go away!!” she screamed.
This wasn’t going well at all. Adam reached out and turned the doorknob and the door opened slowly. He heard Maggie screaming no, but he pushed the door all the way open. And gasped.
What he saw inside the room was like nothing he had ever seen before. Maggie’s obese frame was sunk into the bed, a bathrobe covering her nightgown, her eyes red and puffy, her lips smeared with chocolate. All around her on the bed and covering the floor was food. Pies, cakes, potato chips, cookies, donuts. And where there wasn’t food, there were boxes that had once contained food. Adam had never seen so much junk food in his whole life.
As he stared into the room and Maggie sobbed into a tissue, he felt a sense of anger rising within him. Maggie was sick. She had a disease and this... food was consuming her. The food had turned her into what she was. He looked at her and he could see within the folds of what had once been apple pie and chocolate chip cookies that she was the same girl she had always been. She was fighting against the food and she was losing badly. She was fighting, but she was all alone in her fight.
Maggie needed him. She needed his help, before the food killed her. His eyes filled with tears at the thought of what had been done to his sweet little Maggie. Nobody cared about her enough to help her. At that moment, he loved her more than he ever had in his entire life.
Adam tried to wheel into the room, but it was difficult because of all the food containers on the floor. “Maggie, I want to talk to you.”
Maggie screamed at him, “Get out!” She threw a chocolate donut at him and it hit him square in the chest. She began pelting him with cookies and he shielded himself best he could with his hands.
“Maggie, come on,” he pleaded with her. “Just... hear me out.”
“Is this what you wanted to see?” she snapped at him, gesturing at the food surrounding her. “You wanted to know for yourself how I got to be such a fat slob? Well, now you see. So you can leave.”
“Maggie, that’s not—”
“Get out, Adam!” she sobbed. “I can’t take this! I don’t want your fucking pity!”
“That’s not why I’m here,” he said softly, struggling with the wheels on his chair. His left wheel had gotten stuck in a cake.
Maggie struggled to her feet. “What—do you feel bad about what happened yesterday? Don’t feel bad. I don’t blame you. It’s what I expected from you.”
Her words stung him. Was that really what she expected from him? Clearly, it was. That was the reason she had avoided him for so long. But he had hoped she knew him better than that. “I don’t know how you could say that,” he whispered. “I have always been there for you, Maggie. Every time you ever needed me, I was there.”
“You were there,” Maggie corrected him. “Back when I was skinny and pretty. Look, I know you feel guilty and you came to apologize, so just get on with it and get out. I’d really rather be alone.”
Adam rubbed his eyes before a tear could escape. He didn’t want Maggie to see him crying. Not now. It was time to tell her the truth. “Maggie, I love you.”
Maggie stared at him a second in complete shock. Finally, she shook her head. “Fuck you, Adam,” she managed to say. “You’re such a fucking liar. What are you trying to do, anyway?”
He swallowed hard. “I’m trying to tell you... I love you. And... I want to be with you.”
Maggie closed her eyes and sunk back down onto the bed. She grabbed a set of fresh tissues and began sobbing hysterically into them. “What’s the point of this?”
Adam reached down and did his best to dislodge his wheel, then pushed himself forward. He put his hand on her cheek, so much more full and round than it had been eleven years ago. He drew her face out of the tissues and she looked at him with those same beautiful eyes, filled with saltwater like the day she had found out Derek was cheating on her and he had come to comfort her. He remembered how she had looked up at him that day, so hurt and rejected and needy—he had wanted more than anything in the world to kiss her and tell her he would make everything all right, but he didn’t want her like that, vulnerable and on the rebound.
Now she needed him again. But after eleven years of waiting, all his self-restraint was gone. “I love you, Maggie,” he said again, and he kissed her. A soft, simple kiss. Two lips pressed together, lingering for a moment, then pulling away.
Maggie wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. “I don’t deserve you, Adam,” she sniffled. “I... I’ve treated you like crap all these years. I was never there for you. I just broke your heart over and over. I deserve to end up like this.”
Adam stoked her cheek. “Just say it.”
“Adam...”
“Say it.”
“I love you too,” she said.
Adam would have pounced on her if he could have. He transferred from his wheelchair into Maggie’s bed, pushing food onto the floor as he moved. His legs were keeping him from doing what he wanted to do to her. Once he was comfortably on the bed, leaning against the pillows so that he didn’t fall over backwards, they fell into each other’s arms, exploring what had only moments before been unfamiliar territory. Adam fumbled with her bathrobe, pulling it open as she nearly ripped off the buttons on his shirt.
As Adam slid his hands up her nightgown, cupping her massive breasts in his hands, he remembered back at her sister Becky’s wedding, how they had slow danced and he had felt her breasts against his chest. Wanted so badly to touch them, but she’d just slap him.
Maggie pulled Adam’s shirt off with shaking hands. She had wanted this for so long. She remembered back during the summers in high school, they had gone to the beach together a couple of times. Adam was too young and too slim to have the sort of chest the guys in magazines had, but she thought he was very cute, even with his ribs showing a bit and only soft golden hairs. Adam didn’t have a chest like a teenager anymore—he had dark hair on his chest now and solid muscles in shoulders and arms, although she could still see his ribs. He had a scar across his abdomen where the surgeons had opened him to stop the bleeding. The muscles faded going down to his stomach and he had a bit of a gut. She touched his belly gently.
“Can’t feel that,” Adam said to her.
“I’m sorry,” she said, her eyes filling with tears.
“You don’t have to be sorry.”
Maggie blinked. “No, I mean, I’m sorry I wasn’t there eleven years ago. When it first happened. I could’ve told you I loved you then.”
“It’s okay,” he said, swallowing hard. “At least... you’re telling me now. Maggie, you don’t know how much I’ve wanted this.”
“So... um, can you...?” Maggie’s hand went down to his zipper and answered her own question. “Oh. Wow.”
Adam grinned. “What can I say? You drive me crazy, Maggie.”
Maggie shook her head. “You really want me?”
“Oh god, Maggie. You know I do...”
“I should tell you,” she began, “I’ve never... um... I’m still sort of... a virgin.”
Adam’s eyes widened. “No way!”
“Yeah, thanks for not making me feel uncomfortable.”
“Sorry. It’s just that... you’re like the most gorgeous girl in the world. How could you still be a virgin?”
Maggie gritted her teeth. “I weigh 350 pounds. Take a guess.”
“Yeah, but... aren’t there fat fetishists out there looking for hot girls?”
“Adam, I swear to god, if you don’t shut up, I’m going to make you even more crippled than you are now.”
“God, I missed you, Maggie.” Adam winked at her. “I always knew I was going to be the one to deflower you.”
Maggie had worried how the dynamics of sex with Adam would work. After all, he couldn’t be on top because he would just be limp on top of her. And her weight prevented her from riding cowgirl. But they found the perfect position, on their sides, holding each other. Adam gently stroked her hair as he carefully, slowly slid his dick inside her. Maggie squeezed her eyes shut, trying to push away the pain and focus only on the pleasure.
“You okay?” he asked her, his brow furrowed with concern.
“I love you,” she gasped.
She felt so grateful to have her first time be with Adam, a man she trusted and loved. He was patient, gentle, and wonderful, slowly working his way inside of her, frequently checking her face to make sure she was doing okay. None of those other jerks who had tried to get into her pants would have treated her this way.
Finally, all of him was inside her. He began pumping the best he could, using his arms to move his body, and she moved against him. She still felt pain, but there were also waves of pleasure mixed in. As he kissed her, she could see the thick line of sweat on his brow. “Adam...” she murmured.
“I love you,” he whispered, between breaths. “Oh Maggie, I...”
He came then, biting his lip hard, pressing his body tightly against hers. He moaned and then went limp. “I couldn’t hold it,” he managed to say. “I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay,” she said, stroking his wet face. And it was.
“Don’t worry, Maggie,” he said. “I’ll make you happy. I know how to make a woman happy.”
He slid his finger into her still tender pussy. She was dripping wet, from his cum and from her own juices. He worked his hand into her most sensitive and private areas, and she realized with surprise that he knew her body better than she did. He watched her face, adjusting his fingers based on her reaction. The sensations intensified until she could barely stand it anymore and then she exploded in her first orgasm ever.
“Oh my fucking god,” she breathed.
Adam raised his eyebrows. “Maggie McConnelly, was that your first orgasm?”
“Possibly,” she admitted.
“I have to say, I’m kind of shocked.”
“I don’t know,” she murmured. “I guess... I never felt comfortable enough with myself to really masturbate.”
He looked into her eyes. “Do you feel comfortable with me?”
“Adam,” she said softly, “I think this is the happiest I’ve ever felt in my whole life.”
“Marry me, Maggie.”
Adam cursed himself the second he said it. He knew he shouldn’t have rushed her like this—Maggie was famous for not responding well to pressure. But it was what he felt at that moment and he had to say it. He loved her more than anything else in the world. He didn’t want to be with anyone else.
Maggie shook her head. “I... I don’t think you know what you’re saying.”
She was trying to give him a way out, but it was too late. He wasn’t sorry he said it anyway. He wanted to marry her. He knew it the day he first met her, fourteen years ago. He reached down into his pants on the floor and pulled out the bracelet she had tried to give back to him. “I want you to have this,” he said. “It was my graduation gift to you.”
“It doesn’t fit anymore,” Maggie told him.
“Yes, it does,” Adam said. “I, uh... had it adjusted.” Yesterday he had gone to a jewelry store and laid out a lot of cash to get it done in time for today. Of course, he had money now, so it wasn’t like when he was eighteen and saved up for months to buy her the bracelet in the first place. But it was the thought that counted.
Maggie took the bracelet and slipped it onto her wrist. Her eyes filled with tears. “Adam...”
“Please be my wife.”
Maggie gently fingered the scar across his abdomen. That was where they had cut him open after the accident. Adam remembered being told they had taken out his spleen to stop the bleeding, but it wasn’t something he missed much. He had a smaller scar across his spine, where they had gone in to assess and set the broken bones, but found that the damage was too extensive to fix. Adam couldn’t feel the scar on his belly, hadn’t felt it when they took out the staples, hadn’t felt it when it became red and infected. “I won’t lie to you, Maggie,” Adam said to her. “I’ve got health problems. I mean, I’m a paraplegic. This wasn’t the first time I’ve been stuck in the hospital, but usually I’m a lot sicker. This isn’t making my case any stronger, I guess. But I want you to know the truth about me. I don’t want to trick you into being with me.”
“I know,” she said softly. “The real truth is, you’ve never been anything but wonderful to me the entire time I’ve known you. You’ve never lied to me like I lied to you. I should have told you the real reason why I didn’t want to get together.”
Adam touched Maggie’s round face. “I can understand why you didn’t. And I was a total schmuck to you at the hospital. I’ll never forgive myself for that. Never.”
Maggie took a deep breath. “Okay, I’ll marry you.”
He stared at her in disbelief. “You will?”
“Yes.”
As Adam kissed her, he started crying. He couldn’t help it—it was the happiest moment of his entire life. This was what he had wanted most in the world, even more than he wanted to be able to walk again. He was going to marry Maggie McConnelly. And nothing could ruin this.