You /DRIVE/ me crazy | HAHAHA | Crusty

[Crysta Ericson]

<sup>{ www.polyvore.com/crysta_outfit/set?id=78766555 }

‘Are you sure you’re ready for this Crys?’
‘Fuck off Matt, I’m ready for anything’
‘Yeah but this is your first time driving on a road and it’s kinda busy and…’
‘Shut up and let her drive dude!’
‘Thank you Tyler’

Crysta held her hand up for her older brother to high-five, and Tyler leaned forward from the back seat, slapping his palm against hers with a huge grin on his face. Matt, on the other hand, just sighed and shook his head, buckling himself in to the passenger seat.

-

It had been about a week since the School shooting, and it would be wrong to say that things had returned to normal, but Crysta was trying hard to act like it was. Rusty had been in Hospital since the shooting, seeing as he was shot in the leg, it would have been pretty remarkable if he’d have been out earlier. There had been a couple of surgeries, and Crysta had only visited him once, on the actual day of the shooting, because he needed his rest, or so the nurses told her. But today was the day! Rusty was finally being let out of Hospital, and Crysta was picking him up, with a car!
Crysta had never felt any need to learn to drive, she was never interested in cars, and frankly she thought public transport was pretty great, but the day after the shooting she talked Matt in to teaching her all that he knew. It was tough, and it turned out that Crysta was not a natural, but she picked it up after three days of driving around the same Taco Bell parking lot. Seeing as she didn’t yet have her license Matt had to be in the car at all times, and seeing as Tyler had nothing else to do with his life, he’d insisted in joining them on their journey to the Hospital.
To everyone’s surprise Crysta only almost crashed four times and they arrived at the Hospital unharmed. Matt and Tyler stayed in the car as Crysta basically skipped her way to Rusty’s hospital ward, holding a ‘It’s a girl!’ balloon, because … Why not?</sup>

[Rusty McConaughey]

Two days ago had been the first time Rusty had stood from his hospital bed. His leg had been suspended in a sling, and two days earlier it had been let down and his physical therapy began. He didn't need much, which was remarkable, but by the end of the first day he was already moving around the room in crutches. Crutches. He thought he'd never have to see those blasted things again. But of course, here he was, on them and running around slapping people's ankles like a madman.

Today, having been on crutches for 48 hours, Rusty deemed himself more than ready to go home. Crysta and her brothers were to be picking him up any time now, and he'd gotten himself dressed about three hours before. The hospital had given him a brand new pair of tan cargo shorts, but his shirt was the same from when he first arrived. Somehow it didn't smell. Well, it might've. He was just used to how all his clothes smelled, dirty or not. Either way, it was just a plain gray tee shirt and on his feet were his trusty black Vans.

"Are you sure you're feeling alright?" the nurse was asking as she took her time exiting the room. She'd asked him maybe seven times if he felt ready to go home and was sure to tell him over and over again that he was more than welcome to stay longer.

"I'm fine!" Rusty moaned in an annoyed tone, as this was possibly the millionth time he'd responded to her. "Yes she'll be here soon, yes I'm fine, no I don't need any orange juice." Finally, the nurse left and just in time too because then came Crysta. She was carrying a balloon. Its a.. girl? "Oh my god that's so sweet of you!" Rusty said in an overly sappy voice as he looked at the balloon, then at Crysta. His face was quick to go from silly to sincere, though, as she neared. He wanted to hug her but what with these crutches... he just stayed where he was and smiled. Laughing a bit, his grin grew and he said, "Hey," in the smoothest way possible.

Rusty was more than ready to go home.

[Crysta Ericson]

<sup>'I know right', Crysta replied, smiling a little and biting her lip as she glanced up at the balloon, without hesitation she moved swiftly forward and tied the balloon string around a little plastic bit that stuck out from Rusty's left crutch. It felt really weird to be with Rusty again, and although it had only been a week or so since they'd last seen each other, it felt like months. It was hard to suppress all the emotions that could be linked to this moment. All the emotions of the shooting, the anger, the sadness ... The nauseated feeling that Crysta often felt when she thought about it for too long ... It would be silly for her to cry now, so she tied to knot of the balloon string and looked up at Rusty with a huge grin on her face, that only felt slightly forced. Then, trying to be gentle, she wrapped her arms around Rusty's torso and hugged him tight, breathing in his somewhat gross smell, but she didn't mind, she was just glad to see him again.

'I learnt to drive for you', Crysta said as she pulled back from the hug, looking up at Rusty with a scowl, as if the whole thing had been his idea, 'It was hard, and I almost ran over a squirrel'.</sup>

[Rusty McConaughey]

Rusty felt bad that he couldn't really hug Crysta back. He did his best to balance on his good leg and sort of half wrap his arm around her back. But that didn't work too well. So in the end, he just ended up putting his chin on her shoulder. That was sort of a hug, right? Definitely.

"You learned to drive?" Rusty said in an excited voice as he backed his head up from her shoulder and smiled wide at her. "Oh my god, I'm so proud!" He was almost laughing now as he kissed her forehead. As soon as his lips left her skin, though, a very sudden zing of emotions shot from his mouth to his throat and down his spine. How on earth had he almost forgotten that they were dating? I mean, he hadn't forgotten that they were dating.. it was just that not seeing her and all sort of just made him feel like they were only still friends. Having her so near now made things so much better, though. "You didn't drive here alone, did you?" he asked in a bit of a worried tone, but he kept the smile in place to assure that he was only slightly joking. "Also.. lets leave as soon as possible. I'm about to go mad staring at these white walls."

[Crysta Ericson]

^{Crysta smiled and laughed when Rusty said he was proud of her, she felt pretty proud of herself too.
'Nah, Matt and Tyler are in the car', Crysta said in reply to Rusty's question, she pulled a face. It would be a lot cooler if it had been just the two of them, but without Matt in the car she'd probably forget how to drive at all. So it was definitely better to have her brother there giving her driving confidence.
'Yeah, we can go now, Hospitals give me the creeps', Crysta replied, she spun on her heel and began almost jogging down the hallway, without giving a second thought to the fact her boyfriend was on crutches and probably couldn't jog with her.
'Do you need any help, or a wheelchair or...?', Crysta was walking backwards now, her concerned eyes fixed on Rusty, unsure of what to offer him.}

[Rusty McConaughey]

Rusty snorted when Crysta took off down the hallway. He wasn't sure why he expected anything else, that was very like her to just go for it. And when she turned back and offered him a wheel chair, he only laughed. "I got this," he said through a smile as he started after her. "This isn't my first time on crutches, yknow?" he reminded her, remembering the crash with Carol. It took a minute, but Rusty was soon at Crysta's side at a relatively regular pace.

"Can we go get food too?" he asked a bit later when they were rounding the corner and the main entrance came into view. "I'm so sick of orange juice and canned peaches. I could really go for a hearty burger or something. That'd be great."

[Crysta Ericson]

<sup>'Yeah we can get food, like from anywhere you want, seeing as you got shot in the leg and stuff...', Crysta kind of trailed off towards the end of her sentence, she had meant it to be a joke, but it was probably to soon.

'So, yeah, car ...', Crysta pointed at the car which was parked up with her two brothers lounging in the back seat staring intently at Tyler's phone. Crysta had to admit it was a little lame that Matt had to be in the car with her, Tyler, well, he just wanted to be there, but it was equally lame. It had been a week since she'd seen Rusty and now she couldn't even be alone with him ... Not for now anyway.</sup>