Balance (Off Balance Book 1) (63 page)

Thirty-nine agonizing minutes later, I was brought back to an exam room. She checked my vitals and noted a fever. Like every doctor’s office, I was freezing and waiting impatiently on the paper-covered table. The pain was so intense in my back, I started rocking to find a way to ease it.

Knock. Knock.

A stout doctor waltzed in wearing bold, black-rimmed glasses pushed up high, resting on the bridge of his nose. He had a warm smile, something I desperately needed after Ms. Attitude in the waiting room and the way I was feeling.

No introduction, the doctor obtained some basic medical information and got down to business.

“All right Adrianna…Lie back on the table please. Let’s get a feel for what’s going on. It says here you’re a gymnast,” he looked down, then back up at me, squinting his eyes. “And training around fifty hours a week?” He paused, a crease formed between his eyes. “Is that right?”

“Yes, sir.” The doctor looked at Hayden like he was looking for confirmation.

He dropped the file onto the gray countertop, slapped on a pair of gloves and turned toward me. Instinctively, I moved my hands higher up on my stomach and the doctor pressed his fingers to my lower belly. I flinched when he gave a solid push, causing him to pause and look at me. I thought he was going to push through my stomach.

“That hurts?”

“A little bit.”

“When was your last menstrual cycle?”

Pursing my lips together, I tilted my head to the side and looked at the corner of the ceiling. I had to think about that for a moment. “About three weeks ago? My cycle is usually off, so I don’t keep track of it.”

“Are you sexually active?”

“No!” I shouted it like a fool. Clearing my throat, I answered again. “No, I’m not.”

Hayden threw his hands up. “And that’s my cue to step out.”

“And who are you, young man?”

“Her brother,” he lied smoothly, walking toward the door. “I’ll be right outside, Aid.”

“Thanks, Hayden.”

Once Hayden left, the doctor eyed me suspiciously.

His chin dipped to his chest and looked over his specs. “I’ll ask again since your brother isn’t here. Are you sexually active?”

“Yes.”

“Are you on birth control?”

“No.”

“Is there any chance you are pregnant?”

“No. I recently took the morning after pill so I’m good.”

“The morning after pill is not always effective. Have you considered going on birth control?”

My heart dropped into my gut at the mention of the pill not being effective. I stared, stone-faced at the doctor as a million thoughts ran through my head. This could not be happening.

“I…I only just became active,” I stammered. My jaw quivered and I fought to regain control of my emotions.

His eyes narrowed. “It only takes one time to become pregnant. Unless you intend to become a mother, we have a female doctor you can follow up with once you are feeling better who can perform a Pap smear if you’d like and go from there.”

“Thanks, I’ll think about it.”

The doctor applied more pressure this time, pressing down with both sets of fingers around my abdomen. My body tensed, my stomach flexing under his touch.

“That hurts really bad,” I gritted out, crossing my legs as if that would help.

“Sit up.” He listened to my heart, my back, and down my sides. As he pushed around near my spine, I grimaced in discomfort. When the doctor pushed on my side near my kidney, I went ramrod straight and sucked in an audible breath, wincing.

“Adrianna, I’m going to need a urine sample to rule out pregnancy and infection.”

My stomach dropped. I froze. A pregnancy test? I’d only had sex with Kova twice. There was no way I could be pregnant…I hoped. Fear seized my heart and my breathing became labored as I realized I needed to get my hands on another morning after pill soon.

“I don’t have to go, I went before I left,” I lied.

He tilted his head to the side. “Luckily I only need a little.” He handed me a small cup and said, “Three doors down on your left. Write your name on it and slip it through the window. Then come back.”

I grimaced, knowing what was ahead of me.

Walking down the bland, gray hallway to the bathroom, I closed the door behind me and took in the small space. Just thinking about having to pee was causing me fear as the urge struck me. Spreading my legs and squatting over the toilet, making sure not to touch the rim, I positioned the cup under me.

Expelling a heavy breath, I looked down at the cup perplexed. My urine was a murky brown. Definitely not what it should’ve been. Maybe I was dehydrated and needed to drink more water. Lately, I’d been cutting back so I didn’t have to use the bathroom as much. Guess that wasn’t such a great idea.

After I put the plastic cup in the cabinet, I washed my hands and walked back to the room. The pressure in my belly had dwelled to a low glow. Despite not wanting to deal with it at all, I’d take this pain over anything else I’d been dealing with recently.

A few minutes later, the doctor came back. I was feeling better and realized I probably could’ve skipped coming to the doctor’s if I had just gone to the bathroom and dealt with the pain instead of acting like a baby.

“Good news, the pregnancy test is negative, but your sample does show bacteria. I’m going to send it to the lab to be cultured. For now, I’d like to perform an abdominal ultrasound and draw some blood.”

My brows pushed together. “Why do we need blood work?”

“Just a precautionary. Even though the urine pregnancy is negative, we still like to follow it up with a serum pregnancy test to rule out a false negative. The morning after pill is not always effective,” he responded, head down and writing in his folder. My stomach churned at the thought. I knew no form of birth control was one hundred percent, but it never dawned on me until this moment just how big that tiny window could be.

Nearly thirty minutes later, I was stuck with a needle—four times might I add—since the nurse couldn’t get it right, and then lathered with warm gel. I had to squeeze the sides of the table as the ultrasound technician pressed on my abdomen and bladder. I was thin, weighing in around one hundred pounds soaking wet, if that. She should’ve been able to see everything and not need to push as hard as she did. When I asked what she was doing, she said looking for cysts because they can cause major abdominal pain. When she asked me to turn over, she scanned my kidneys.

The doctor walked back in and shut the door. Looking at me, he took a pen out of the pocket of his lab coat and grabbed a prescription pad. “It appears you have a kidney infection. It’s a pretty bad one, I might add. You could’ve had a reaction to the morning after pill that didn’t help stop the infection, and the severe cramping in your abdomen is most likely caused by the pill. I suggest refraining from taking the pill in the future and be on a more consistent form of birth control.” He paused and pushed his glasses up on the bridge of his nose. “Does it hurt to urinate?”

“It burns like you can’t imagine.”

“So you hold it in, then,” he confirmed.

I nodded.

“That’s the worst thing you could do—stop doing it. I’m going to prescribe you some antibiotics and a pain reliever. Take the antibiotics until they’re gone and the pain pill as needed.” He scribbled on his pad. “I’m also suggesting you take the rest of today and tomorrow off. A heating pad will help too.”

“Doctor, there’s no way I can take another day off. I just can’t.”

He ignored me. “If you’re not feeling better by the end of the second day, call me.”

“But I can’t miss another day. I have to go back tomorrow.” My heart thumped against my chest, anxiety taking over at the thought of missing another day.

He peered down his nose over his glasses at me. “I’ll write you a doctor’s note. If your coach has any problem with it, he can call me. Your body needs rest.”

I nodded to pacify him, ready to go home.

“Like hell I’m going to take another day off. Coach would have my head on a stick if I did that,” I said to Hayden once we were back in his car.

He chuckled. “Maybe it would be a good thing you did. That way you can rest up and not get set back even more. It will give you time off your foot too.”

“My Achilles isn’t going to heal in two days. It’s going to take quitting gymnastics completely for that to happen.”

“If that’s the case, then why did your coach water down your routines?”

I sighed. “To help heal the strain as much as possible and work back up to that level, I guess. They don’t want me making it worse where I have to actually take time off.”

He looked over at me. “You must hate that.”

“Like you can’t even imagine. I’ve tried so hard, put everything into being here, and I get hurt. That’s just my luck.”

We pulled up to the drive-up pharmacy and Hayden dropped off my prescription for me. We parked and went inside while it got filled. I picked up a heating blanket, another big bottle of Motrin, then sat down and waited for my medication when Hayden walked off. He was back in minutes handing me a bottle of juice and a box of medicine.

Looking down, I asked, “What is it?”

“Cranberry pills. I read in
Cosmo
they should also help with UTI’s and since it’s kind of connected, I figured why not. It’s all natural stuff so it won’t counteract your medication.”

My jaw hung open, my brows scrunched together. “Please don’t tell anyone you read
Cosmo
, Hayden. That’s so…not hot.”

He grinned. “It pays to have a sister who reads them. You’d be surprised the stuff you can learn in there.” He paused, pulling out his phone and did a quick Google search. “Most outrageous, psychotic tips
Cosmo
has suggested that will put you in the hospital.”

Our eyes locked and we smiled. “Let’s read it while we’re waiting,” I said.

T
he doctor had been right—my body desperately needed the rest. All this training had finally caught up to me. Overused, overworked, and not resting muscles properly probably added to my body shutting down and not being able to fight the infection. I had a fever all day long and well into the next morning until it finally broke. The painkillers were magical, and the agony I had been dealing with was finally starting to dissipate within twenty-four hours. Even if I had gone to gym, it probably wasn’t the brightest idea to train while on them. They made me loopy, which Avery got to enjoy when I face-timed her and filled her in on all that happened, sans the sex.

None of my coaches or teammates had called, except Hayden. Not that they would anyway. And truthfully, I didn’t know whether that made me happy or not.

Loneliness struck. Looking around, I liked my space and I was used to my privacy, but for some odd reason the solitude was hitting hard and beginning to upset me. My emotions were scattered about and frayed at the edges. I was going to break if I added one more thing to my fucked up lifestyle. Between training, school, keeping track of all the lies I told, I’d never had this much time to myself to reflect on my current state. Tears welled in my eyes as realization dawned on me at the person I’d become. A habitual liar.

My phone rang, distracting my thoughts. Picking it up, I glanced at the caller ID and a smile broke out across my face.

“Hi, Dad!”

“Hey, baby girl, how are you doing?”

“I’m okay. How are you?”

“Oh, you know, no rest for the wicked.”

I grinned. That was his favorite line. “Yeah.”

“So, Mom called me…” he trailed off, waiting for me to finish for him.

“I have a little infection, but I’m doing much better now. No need to worry.” I really didn’t want to go into detail about the kidney infection.

He released a stressful sigh. “Honey, I always worry about you. You’re my daughter, and with you not being home it makes me worry even more.”

My shoulders relaxed. “I know, but really, I’m okay. My friend, Hayden, took me to the doctor and then we went to the pharmacy afterward to get what I needed.”

“The doctor prescribed you some medicine?”

“Yeah, antibiotics and a pain killer. They’re helping tremendously.”