Blocked (21 page)

I winced, remembering the hurt look on her face. She probably hated me now. Just like Mateo had stopped texting me after I’d yelled at him for not taking his blood sugar readings. Just like Coach had scowled when I’d stunk up the gym with my horrible hits the practice before I’d sustained my injury. Just like Dane had started going out of his way to avoid me. He hadn’t even come home between class and practice today. Not that I could entirely blame him. It had been two weeks since I’d found out about Nina’s abortion, and I knew I’d hurt him with my silence. But I had no idea what to say. How could he have done such a thing?

“So how’s your nutrition going, Lucia?”

I opened my eyes to see Tina looking straight at me. My heartbeat kicked up a notch. Why was she asking me that? “Really good.”

“It looks like you’ve lost some weight.”

Score!
I’d been worried about gaining fat without being able to practice. I certainly hadn’t wanted to negate all my hard work due to a stupid injury. “Yeah, well, I’m following the nutritionist’s advice.”

“Really?” Tina cocked an eyebrow. Her dark blond ponytail swung as she shook her head. “Whitney said you no-showed your second appointment.”

My throat tightened as I sat up. “Oh, no! I-I forgot about it, I swear. I’ll call her to apologize. Am…am I in trouble with Coach?”

She kept rubbing circles on my ankle. “Your coach doesn’t know you missed the appointment. Whitney only called me because she knew I was worried about you.”

“You’re worried about me?” I gulped.

“I’m concerned, Lucia. You need to reschedule your appointment.” The gel began to feel as hot as my face did. “What have you eaten so far today?”

“I had a banana after our lift.”

Her brown eyes blinked at me, like she was expecting more.

“…And, um…”
Think!
“…a sandwich for lunch.”

“What kind of sandwich?” She clicked off the machine and reached for a towel.

My face now blazed. “Why the hell does that matter?”

Her head shot up from toweling the gel off my ankle, and I realized I’d just snapped at yet one more person who hadn’t deserved it. I squeezed my hands together to hide their trembling, then swallowed. “Turkey. Turkey and cheese, on wheat bread. And, and I’m drinking lots of water.”

“That’s not enough.” Worry lines creased the corners of her eyes. “It’s nearing dinnertime, and you need more fuel in your tank than that. I want you to eat more, okay?”

I nodded.
Not a chance
. I grabbed my sock and rolled it on. “So can I play?”

She sighed. “You can warm up, then let me know how it’s feeling.” She pointed two fingers at her eyes, then rotated her wrist to point them at my eyes. “I’m watching you, Lucia. Watching to make sure you’ll be all right.”

Despite her threat, my shoulders drooped with relief. I could practice! When I hopped down from the training table, a woozy lightheadedness overtook me, and I swayed for a moment. Luckily, Tina had turned away. “Thanks, Tina.” I took deliberate steps out to the gym, away from her scrutiny.

A few teammates had gathered on the bleachers to watch the end of the men’s team practice, and I joined them. But a quick scan revealed the absence of my roommate. “Where’s Dane?” I asked Kaitlyn.

She shrugged. “Dunno.”

Nina leaned around Kaitlyn to look at me.
Whoops
. I hadn’t seen her there—I hoped she wasn’t mad at me for saying his name.

“Dane got kicked out of practice,” Nina said with a wide grin.

I guess if she brought him up, she must have been okay with it. But Dane got kicked
out?
“What happened?”

“Pete told me on a water break that Dane mouthed off to Phil. When Jason—he’s the assistant coach—when Jason got in Dane’s face to shut him down, Dane
pushed
him. He’s in truuhhh-
bull
.”

I covered my mouth with one hand. What had made Dane lose it? It was unthinkable to disrespect a coach like that. “What’ll happen to him?”

“Suspension, probably.” Nina snorted. “Maybe loss of scholarship. Not like his family would have trouble affording a state school, anyway.”

My
parents could definitely afford Highbanks without an athletic scholarship, but that wasn’t the point. It would be so shameful to lose my scholarship, and I knew Dane must have felt embarrassed, probably even devastated. I couldn’t believe it, but despite everything, my heart ached for him. Nina was sitting right here, suffering from what he’d done to her, and still I worried about him. Still I had dreams about my beautiful blond
gigante
. Really sexy dreams. I wished those dreams would stop.
Well, maybe not
.

“Whatever happens to him,” Nina said, her voice lowering now that the men’s team had finished and our coaches approached, “he deserves it.”

“Ladies.” Coach’s sharp tone set me on edge. “We have three days to prepare for the number-five team in the nation. If
that
doesn’t focus your energy for this practice, nothing will. This is the time for volleyball. I want you to leave behind all worries about classes…”

I could do that. I knew I should be worried about classes, but I could barely stay awake for them. Concern for my grades took energy I didn’t seem to have.

“…your families…”

That would be tougher, with my dad running for leader of the free world.

“…and all boyfriends, boys, boys who are friends, and anything of that nature.”

Yeah.
That
was impossible. Especially when my boy crush played the very sport that was supposed to elicit my unwavering focus.

“Madison, get us started on warm-up.”

I looked behind me and noticed Maddie and the rest of my teammates had arrived without my seeing them. Of course they were there. None of us was ever late to practice.

When I popped up, the gym spun, and I started to go down. I scrabbled for Kaitlyn’s arm and clung onto it until my dizziness subsided.

“You okay?” she asked.

“
Sí, estoy bien
.” My heart raced, and I glanced up to see Tina eyeing me from across the gym. It didn’t help that she stood right next to Allison, who stared at me with her own brand of perceptiveness, honed from years of law enforcement.

As my teammates and I hustled onto the court, Coach’s voice stopped me short. “Lucia.”

“Yes?” I forced myself to look at his face, which still felt unnatural.

“Tina said you’re cleared to rejoin us today.”

“Yes, Coach.”

“Our offense has missed your big arm. Make us proud.” He gestured for me to get going.

I nodded as I jogged to the net. In other words,
No matter how much your ankle hurts, keep going. Suck it up.
When I jumped for the blocking drill, my ankle didn’t hurt at all, happily. Unhappily, my legs felt like refried beans. Limp, wobbly beans. I barely cleared the top of the net—wait, they’d set the net at women’s height, right? My stomach tightened as I realized the problem wasn’t the net…it was me. Besides feeling too heavy to get off the ground, I was breathing so hard it felt like I’d just run ten suicides. This would be a long practice if I couldn’t force my body to get with the program.

Maddie started us on the footwork combination, and all I could hear was my rapid panting for air. My vision seemed to narrow, with blackness creeping in at the edges, and my lips felt numb. I crouched down to shuffle to one side of the court, then pivoted…

“Oh my God!”

I heard a voice from far away but couldn’t see anything.

“Lucia! Lucia, open your eyes.”

Who’s talking to me?

“Call nine-one-one!”

That’s Allison
.

“I’m on it.”

And that was Tina.

My eyes flipped open, and I realized I was on my back. About twenty faces crowded my vision. I had a sudden urge to vomit.

“Get back!” Tina hollered, then her face hovered over me. Allison’s curly blond hair made an appearance, too.

“Are you okay, Lucy?” Frank’s widened eyes popped up over Allison’s head. I’d never seen him look scared before.

It took an inordinate amount of energy to speak. “I’m fine.” I lifted my head an inch, but Tina grasped my shoulders.

“Stay down, Lucia. It looked like you hit your head.”

Now that she mentioned it, the crown of my skull
did
throb with each heartbeat. “Oh.” I lifted my hand to massage it. “What happened?”

“You collapsed during warm-up. Did you faint?”

I tried to keep my eyes in focus.

“Did your ankle give out?” Allison asked.

I was pretty sure my collapse had nothing to do with my ankle. “Yeah.” I closed my eyes and willed myself to keep speaking. “There was this shooting pain, and then I woke up with everyone hovering over me.”

Allison nodded, and she and Frank straightened.

“I’ll go meet the ambulance,” Frank said.

“
Ambulance?”
My heart thundered, and I tried to get up again, but Tina held me down. She frowned as she looked into my eyes.

“It’s protocol when an athlete loses consciousness. Does your head hurt?”

“Just a little where I hit it.”

“Headache? Dizziness?”

I answered no to both.

“What day is it?”

“Uh, Monday?”

“What’s the date?”

“September seventh. Why are you asking me this?”

“Standard questions. I’m going to tell you five words, and I want you to repeat them to me.” She leaned forward. “Book, monkey, geology, foot, cat.”

With her expectant look, I had no choice but to comply by parroting the words. She made me repeat the list back to her two more times before a couple of guys in navy blue uniforms entered my field of vision.

The process of lifting me on a gurney—those EMTs were stronger than they looked—seemed to take forever and was completely unnecessary. I knew I could’ve walked out of there.
Claro
, I could’ve rejoined practice if they’d let me. But by telling them my ankle still hurt, I’d shot myself in the foot.

Coach appeared beside my gurney as they wheeled me toward the exit. I expected him to be angry with me for missing yet another practice, but he didn’t sport his usual frown. “Go get taken care of, and we’ll check in with you later,” he said.

I nodded, and for some reason his light pat on my shoulder made me want to cry. As sucky as it was to have zero control over my destiny, I felt safe for the first time since I’d arrived at Highbanks. The sheet draped over me was warm, and a gurney felt like the right place to be, given my intense fatigue. Then I noticed Allison talking to her wrist.

“How ’bout we pull the sheet over her head?”

I realized she was conferring with Frank over the comm-link. When she exhaled a loud sigh as we neared the door, I asked, “What’s going on?”

“He didn’t like that idea. He said it would make them
more
predatory, if they thought you were dead.”

“Who are
they?”

Allison paused. “I’m sorry, Lucia—we tried to avoid this. But the ambulance chasers are living up to their name.”

The EMTs pushed open the double doors, and my senses flooded. Blinding sunlight and flashbulbs, jostles and bumps into my gurney, shouted questions in my face:

“Lucia, why’d you collapse during practice?”

“Are you sick?”

“How long will you be out?”

“What do your parents think about this?”

I groaned as I imagined my family watching Fox News video of paramedics rolling me out to an ambulance.

My mother was going to
freak
.