5. MAX
MAX
Lucas was a great roommate, considerate and friendly, but things didn’t go perfectly smoothly as I settled in over the next few days.
Neither of us had given much thought to my ability to take care of my own hygiene in the limited space of his apartment until the first time I had to pee, when I realized a little too late that I either needed to make peace with using a bedpan like I had in the hospital—and man, fuck that—or allow him to sling my bare ass onto the toilet, because I couldn’t get my chair close enough to the toilet to transfer.
We managed the transfer, awkwardly avoiding each other’s eyes, but it was humiliating for both of us, though he claimed that he was used to naked people needing help at his job and didn’t mind.
To my later shame, I snapped at him then that maybe he was used to it, but I sure as hell wasn’t.
He merely pressed his lips together, nodded, and said a quiet, “I know.”
After that it got a little easier as we established a system and I got better at transferring in and out of my chair on my own; by the third day, I was able to pee by myself, though it required wedging my chair tightly into the space between the toilet and the sink and then trying not to bang my knees on it as I transferred.
Unfortunately, the third day was also the day when I couldn’t stand my own stench anymore and decided I needed a shower.
I was under strict instructions from the hospital to not submerge my bandages or get too wet before the staples came out, and even if I could cover them, I was at a complete loss as to how I was supposed to shower with both legs out of commission.
Did I just...sit in the bottom of the tub under the water, like a child?
But the hospital had stressed that I was not to submerge my legs, and that felt too close to submerging them since I didn’t know how fast his shower drained.
“Argh,” I growled, flinging myself against the back of my chair as we both stood there eyeing the shower. “This is never gonna work. Fuck.”
“I can’t believe I didn’t think of this,” he said, sounding like he was directing the comment more to himself than to me. “How did I not realize you’d need a shower stool?”
“A shower stool? Those exist?”
He nodded. “Oh, absolutely. You’d just have to transfer from the chair to the stool and then back; I’m told it’s actually really relaxing to sit while taking a shower. I just don’t have one, because I’m an idiot who didn’t prepare for you. Can you wait an hour or two while I run out and get one?”
I looked down at myself and winced at the visible grease and grime covering my skin. The nurses had wiped me down plenty of times, but sponge baths only went so far. I still felt grimy in places that wipes never quite seemed to reach.. “Uh, I guess?” Not like I had a lot of other options.
Lucas wrinkled his nose, clearly thinking, and then brightened.
“Actually, I think we can make do with one of my kitchen chairs for one shower. I’ll order a real shower chair to be delivered tomorrow, but for now, I’d rather you be able to feel clean than keep my chair pristine.
” He pulled out his phone and I could see him opening the app and starting a search.
A minute later, he slipped it back into his pocket.
“There. It’ll be here by ten tomorrow morning. For now…wait here.”
He slipped past me and out of the room, and within seconds was back, dragging a wooden kitchen chair and a box of garbage bags. He slung the chair into the stall shower, carefully centering it, then looked at me. “Will that work?”
“Yup.” I pulled off my shirt and dropped it onto the floor next to my chair. Lucas, moving automatically, picked it up and dropped it into a hamper I hadn’t seen. “Oh, sorry.”
“No problem.” He smiled at me. “Now let’s get those dressings covered. Pants off.”
I blinked at his matter-of-fact attitude, and I must have hesitated too long, because he frowned. “Or did you want to do that yourself? Did they show you how?”
They had, even if the reality felt different than the simulation. But surely I could figure it out. I wasn’t a fan of the idea of sitting there, naked as the day I was born, while the other man worked on my legs. So I nodded with what I hoped was confidence. “Yeah, I’ve got this.”
“Ok, I’ll leave you to it, then, but give me a shout if you need help.” We nodded at each other, and he left the room.
I finished stripping, being sure to wheel over to the hamper to dump my pajama pants and underwear, and then I picked up the garbage bags and the medical tape that had been sitting on the vanity counter. Yeah, I could do this. All I had to do was wrap and tape.
Five minutes later, I had the world’s messiest coverings on my dressings and had used the entire roll of tape. But it was done, so I was calling it good enough. I’d improve with practice.
I wheeled over to the shower enclosure to start the water. I could just reach the controls, and I got the water going without trouble. Lucky for me, Lucas’s shower was pretty basic and not one of those high-tech ones that required an engineering degree to operate.
It was when the water was hot that I realized I didn’t know how I was going to get from my wheelchair to the shower chair.
The OT had covered it, but this shower did not look like the wide open one in the hospital.
If it had been a tub-combo shower, I might have been able to get my chair close, sit on the edge of the tub, and transfer, but without that waypoint, that strategy wasn’t going to work.
I thought about it for at least a minute, trying to do mental calculus that would make this work, but I came up empty. I was going to need help.
While bareassed with garbage bags on my legs. Because this was apparently my life.
Sighing, I called, “Lucas?”
A pause, and then, “Yes?” from the other side of the bathroom door.
“I hate to do this to both of us, but I think I need help getting into the shower. Can you come in?”
A longer pause, and then the door opened and Lucas entered, only to stutter to a stop at the sight of me sitting naked in my chair. “Oh,” he said faintly. Then, visibly gathering himself he nodded. “Right. Ok. How…do you want to do this?”
Luckily, I had spent my time in here considering exactly that. “I think if we move the chair to the edge, and you can support my weight against you for the, like, foot between my chair and the shower chair, you can just dump me into it. And then at the end, we’ll do it in reverse.”
He considered that, squinting between me and the shower chair, then nodded.
“I think that’ll work. So I’ll just, uh…
” He scooted the chair over, then stepped closer to me and reached out an arm, hovering it over me uncertainly.
I nodded reassuringly, and he slipped an arm behind my back and one under my thighs.
And then I was momentarily airborne, stifling a gasp, but before I could react more than that, Lucas had set me gently onto the chair in the shower, soaking his upper half in the process. “Ah, shit,” I said, catching his sleeve as he pulled back. “Sorry, I didn’t think about the clothes thing.”
He looked down at himself, then shrugged. “I’ll change shirts.”
I winced. “Better not, until we get me back out of here.”
“Oh, right.” There was a moment of silence and then Lucas nodded at me. “Can you reach everything you need to shower? Shampoo, soap? I know my setup isn’t exactly optimized for sitting.”
I looked around the shower cubicle, noting a soap dish at what would have been waist level had I been standing and bottles of shampoo and conditioner sitting on a shelf at what would have been shoulder height.
I stretched up an arm experimentally and managed to snag the shampoo, toppling it to the ground.
“Damn.” I couldn’t bend over to get it without overbalancing and probably falling. “Could you just…?”
Lucas smiled and bent over, retrieving the bottle and handing it to me even though it got him wetter. “Do you need the conditioner, too?”
I ran a hand over my short hair and shook my head. “Nah, I’m good. If you scoot me back into the stream, I think I can take it from here.”
“Awesome.” He gave the chair a gentle push, being careful not to unbalance it and dump me out. “I’ll be in the living room; just shout when you’re ready to come out.” He turned and was out of the room before I could reply.
I allowed myself a moment, just a moment, to feel bad that I’d just made the poor man carry my naked, grimy butt and then drench himself into the bargain.
I did not allow myself a moment to reflect on how nice it had felt to be pressed against him for that moment I was in his arms, because that would be creepy.
My dick twitched, and I reached down and gave it a closed-fist thump. Now was not the time, and my friend-slash-caretaker was not the proper target.
I sighed in resignation and concentrated on washing myself. I had truly been gross, and I already felt better for getting all the medical adhesive and hospital ick off myself. I was sure Lucas would appreciate his roommate not stinking up every room he entered, as well.
I might have luxuriated a little too much in the hot water, because it was noticeably cooling off. Shit, I hoped Lucas hadn’t been planning on showering too.
I scooted forward enough in my chair to reach the shower controls and turned off the water, immediately shivering at the transition from warm water to cold air. “Lucas?” I called, pitching my voice to hopefully be heard in the other room. “I’m ready.”
A few seconds later, there was a quick knock on the bathroom door and then Lucas cracked it and stuck his head in. “Did I hear you say you’re ready to come out?” He grinned. “I thought you might have decided to live in there.”
“I gave it serious consideration. And yes, I’m ready.”