Bruises- Shane Madej

4. Road Trip!

-hey! sorry i forgot to put this in the intro, but I'm gonna change up the timeline here and make some episodes come earlier or later than others. thanks for reading!-

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It was a few weeks later. Ryan, Shane, and Maddie were driving to Vulture Mine in Arizona. 

Usually, they took an airplane, but it was only a 5 and a half hour drive, and Buzzfeed didn't want to spend a lot of money on tickets, so they were having a small road trip. 

Maddie sat in the back yet again as Ryan drove. 

However, today must have been her lucky day, because about 45 minutes into driving, Ryan said his head hurt so he sat in the back while Maddie got into the driver's seat. 

She connected her phone to the car audio and started playing some music by The Beatles. "Hey Jude" was on right now. 

Shane nodded. "Hm. You have good music taste." 

Maddie laughed. "Does that make you mad?" 

He shrugged. She smiled widely and turned up the song. 

As the time passed, Maddie looked into the backseat to see Ryan sleeping with his headphones in. 

Just then, "I wanna hold your hand" started playing and she smiled, turning it up.

"C'mon, Shane!" She smiled, singing along. 

He laughed and sang with her as they traveled down the highway, watching the desert scenery fly by. 

"Oh, I, tell you something,

I think you'll understand. 

When I say that something,

I wanna hold your hand!" 

Maddie laughed and just felt so carefree as she sang The Beatles with Shane at the top of her lungs. 

She definitely felt a lot closer to him now than she had before. Ryan's plan was working. However, Maddie didn't mind. Shane was a great guy and a really good friend. 

Eventually, they got bored of the Beatles and resorted to listening to the Mamma Mia soundtrack on low as they just talked about anything and everything. 

About an hour later, Ryan woke up and was asking for food. They stopped at a small diner somewhere by the border of Arizona and California. They were halfway there. 

Once they got back in the car, Ryan went back to sleep in the backseat. Shane offered to drive for Maddie and she happily obliged. 

After driving for another little while, Maddie got a call from her roomate, Hanna.

"Hello?" 

"Hi Maddie! I'm so sorry, but Bill knocked over one of your plants." 

Shane sent Maddie a confused look; he could hear the conversation. 

Maddie frowned. "Oh no! Which one?" 

"Lots of leaves, the flowers look like white leaves with yellow corn cobs growing out of them. It was in a green pot with stripes. 

"Those'll be my peace lillies," she sighed. "Do you think you could save 'em?" 

"How do I save them?" 

"Get a new pot, try not to harm the roots, gently put them in the new pot with new soil if needed." 

"Yeah, I'll try it. I'm really sorry, Mads." 

She shook her head. "It's ok, I'm sure they'll be fine." She switched her phone to the other ear. "Say hi to Bill for me!" 

Hanna laughed. "I will. I'll see you soon, Mads." 

"Yeah. Bye Hanna!" 

She hung up and sighed. 

"Who's Bill?" asked Shane. 

"My roomate's cat. He likes to try to knock my plants off their windowsills." 

Shane chuckled. "Yeah, a cat and things on windowsills isn't a good mix." 

Maddie nodded glumly. "I hope my peace lillies survive." 

Shane rolled his eyes. "I'm sure they'll be fine." 

"Hey! I take my plants very seriously!" 

"How do you even live with a cat? Like, isn't that kinda dangerous for you?" Shane glanced at Maddie. "I mean, they scratch people a lot."

She rolled her eyes. "I'm not a severe hemophiliac. If I take my Tranexamic Acid and put a good bandage on it, I'll be fine."

"Can you give me a genetics lesson on how you have that? Isn't it in boys most of the time?"

She rolled her eyes and sighed. 

"Maddie, don't deny me this learning opportunity."

Maddie laughed. "Fine. Buckle up, you're about to get the best biology lesson in your life!"

She started explaining.

"Okay, so, Hemophilia is passed down through the sex-determining  chromosomes. Girls have an XX chromosome and boys have an XY chromosome. Hemophilia is a recessive trait in the X chromosome."

"Mhm," Shane nodded, listening intently.

"So, in order for a boy to have hemophilia, he only has to inherit 1 diseased chromosome from his mother; he only has one X chromosome and if that chromosome has hemophilia, he will have hemophilia. That's why if I have any sons, there is a 100% chance that they'll have hemophilia; they get their X chromosome from me and both of mine are diseased."

Shane frowned a little, nodding.

"So, if a boy with hemophilia has a daughter, she will be a carrier, because she gets one of her X chromosomes from dad and one from mom. In order for a girl to have hemophilia, her dad has to have it, and her mom has to either have it or be a carrier."

"What's the case with you?"

"My dad has it and my maternal grandfather had it, meaning that my mom was a carrier. I had a 50% chance of getting the healthy gene from my mom and only being a carrier, but I got the unlucky end of the stick."

"Hm. I'm sorry." 

She shrugged. "It's alright. I don't really let it stop me from doing anything."

Shane smiled and nodded. "That's good. Thank you for educating me; I now feel like a hemophilia expert."

Maddie chuckled. "Yep, you're welcome. Use that information wisely."

He rolled his eyes, chuckling as he rested his forearms on the steering wheel and turned up the radio once again. 

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-hey guys! i know with that biology talk there was reference to there only being two genders: girls and boys. i just wanna say: if you identify as non binary or any gender separate from what your biological body is, i totally support you and you are 100% valid. i was just writing from a biological standpoint. however, gender dysmorphia is 100% a real thing and trans people born the wrong gender are 100% a real thing and i do not mean to invalidate them at all with the dialogue in this chapter-