"JADYN MADDOX SUMMERSKILL, YOU ABSOLUTE WALNUT, GET BACK HERE!"

Jadyn could hear his older sister screaming his name from the upstairs window. He turned to look up at her from where he stood at the mailbox and waved the letters in his hand. "I just wanted to get the mail! I'm fine, Marni," he called up to her, only receiving a scowl in response. With a sigh, he trudged back up to the house as he sorted through the bills and spam. "I'm not a ******** invalid," he muttered to himself.

Just because he had been in an accident on his motorcycle didn't mean he was incapable of living his life afterward. Sure, he was missing some memories but he could still walk and talk. He could still dress and feed himself. Marni had treated him like he was made of glass even before the hospital had released him.

Okay, if he was being fair, he could fully understand why his sister was spazzing out about this so much. Considering the last time Jadyn had been in a vehicular accident, their parents had died. And when she made it to the hospital after they had called her, he was in surgery. And he had been in a coma for a week. And he still had a cast on one leg.

Another sigh left him. Yeah, he wasn't being fair to his sister at all. Marni was standing at the door to the house when he made it back up the couple steps of the porch. "Sorry, Marni," he grumbled. "I just needed some fresh air."

"Yeah, well, you could have stuck your head out of your window," she huffed at him. "Get back in the house and put your leg up. The doctor said you're not supposed to push yourself. You have to give yourself time to heal, you stubborn little s**t." She ruffled his hair affectionately before taking the mail from him and moving so he could come back inside. "What do you want for dinner tonight?"

Jadyn followed his sister inside and turned toward the living room. If he was restricted to the couch, at least he could play video games. "I don't know. What do you feel like making?" He loved Marni's cooking. She was so good at it, which is why she had pursued a career as a chef. It helped that Jadyn ate pretty much anything that was put in front of him.

At his answer, Marni just rolled her eyes and went into the kitchen to cook. Jadyn flopped onto the couch and lifted the lid on the storage coffee table in order to retrieve his controller. It was weird, he swore he should remember something to do with his video games but nothing ever seemed to trigger a specific memory. It was frustrating, knowing that he was missing memories and unable to make his mind cough them up.

He supposed that he would just have to suck it up. Settling back onto the couch cushions and propping his leg up on a pillow, he booted up the console and chose a game to play. A racing game, and one of his favorites. This one included motorcycles and he had painstakingly customized one to look like his own bike.

Well. The one he had until some a*****e ran a red light and trashed it. Now his poor Roxy was a hunk of twisted metal at some junk yard. He grumbled to himself again and started the game. Maybe racing on virtual Roxy would make him feel better.

After a few rounds where he won almost every race, Marni walked in with a steaming plate of food. "Mom's spaghetti," she said and smiled, offering him the plate.

"Mmm, smells great! With shaved parmesan?" he asked, looking up at her as he accepted the plate.

Marni snorted and rolled her eyes. "Duh." She sat down heavily in the chair that sat diagonally between the television and the couch, watching her brother as they ate. She let the companionable silence go for as long as she could before she set her empty plate down on the coffee table. "I want to talk to you about something, Jade."

Jadyn cut a glare at her for using that particular nickname. Something about it irritated him, but he brushed it off. "What is it?" He shoved another bite of spaghetti in his mouth as he waited.

"I don't want you to get another bike." She had never liked him riding one to begin with but now that he'd had an accident, maybe he would see it her way.

"No. I'm not going to let this scare me off of riding. As soon as this cast is off and I'm fully cleared, I'm getting another bike." Jadyn was adamant about that. He loved riding and he wouldn't give it up, not even for his sister's peace of mind. He was reckless sometimes, but he wore all the protective gear when he rode and kept an eye on the traffic around him. Most of the time.

"Jadyn! You could have died! It was dangerous before, especially knowing how you ride most of the time, but now that you've been hurt it's even more so." Marni tried to reason with him. It scared her before, having heard about how easy it was for a rider to die in an accident. She couldn't lose her brother, especially not the same way they'd lost their parents. "Please, just think about it. I want..." She sighed and leaned forward, holding her head in her hands and bracing her elbows on her knees. "I need you to be safe, Jade. I can't lose you, too. Okay?"

The plaintive look on his sister's face made him sigh softly. "Alright. I'll think about it. But no promises." Riding was the only time he ever felt entirely free from everything, and he missed it greatly. He couldn't wait to get back on a bike and had already been looking at what was available locally. Not that he'd be able to ride for another couple months. "I'm careful, Marni, I'm not as reckless as you seem to think I am."

Marni nodded and sat back. That was the best she was going to get out of her stubborn and hard-headed brother. "Okay," she said. "Love you, dumbass."

Jadyn chuckled softly. "Yeah, love you too, jerk."