Authors: Rebeca Ruiz
“Finish the game, there's nothing you can do for him at the hospital.” I tell him. “I'll be with him.” I could see the worry on his face. He was going to fight me on this, but then stopped. He knew I was right.
“Okay.” He nodded and something dark came over his eyes.
The cart sped off to meet the ambulance. James had opened his eyes and I could see just how much pain he was in.
“You're going to be fine.” I say. I was unsure though. His leg looked bad, and I hadn't looked at it for more than a second.
“I don't think I will be.” I hear him say quietly, I don't think he wanted me to hear that, so I pretend that I didn't hear it. I know what he's thinking.
This injury could be the end of his soccer career. The one thing he loves most. Now for sure he'd be out for the rest of the season.
Chapter Four
Mathew Pennington
My knuckles were bruised from punching the guy who stepped on James. It was after we won the stupid game, so they couldn't penalize me for it. He didn't even try to fight back and I'm glad. I got my anger out with one punch.
I got to the waiting room, where I saw Mr. and Mrs. Masters. It's crazy how much beauty Presley got from her mother. Mrs. Masters was always so kind to me, and I could see that she was crying into Mr. Masters arms. I look around the mostly empty waiting room, and I don't see Presley here.
I go up to Mr. Masters. “Hello, sir.” I shake his hand. I managed to change into my soccer sweats after taking a quick shower. I wanted to be the first one here, I knew the rest of the team would be here soon.
“Matty.” Mrs. Masters looks up.
“Is he in surgery?” They nod.
“His fibula is shattered. They're repairing it right now, he will be out for the rest of the season, possibly won't play next season either depending on how physical therapy goes.” Mr. Masters says.
“All we can do is pray.” Mrs. Masters says. The Masters have always been religious people, but my family isn't. We respect each others beliefs and actually get along great.
“Where is Presley?” I ask.
“She's in the cafeteria. Would you mind keeping her company?” Mr. Masters asks. I nod.
“Sure thing. Come find us if they come with any news.” He nods and I head out toward the cafeteria, following all the signs.
I spot the blonde right away, and see that she's alone. Why wasn't her boyfriend here? Didn't he care about her brother?
I sit across from her. She doesn't notice, she's in her own world. Presley is looking down, her hands on the table and I reach out, startling her.
“Hi.” She says, pulling her hands back.
“How are you doing?” I ask her.
“I'm fine.” Her make up looks intact, and her eyes aren't red. I can see that she hasn't been crying. Something tells me that she's one to hold things in until she is alone.
“Where's your boyfriend?”
“I don't have...” Then she realizes who I'm talking about. “He's my friend. We have a small thing but it’s nothing serious. I've never had a boyfriend.” I feel relieved that Finn Riley is not her boyfriend, he's a dick. I could understand why he would have a friends with benefits thing with her.
Wait. “What do you mean you've never had a boyfriend?” She's fucking gorgeous. If she wasn’t James’ sister I would make her mine in a second.
“I've been single all my life. I mean unless you count this one time in preschool when I got married to a kindergartner. To be fair, I think it ended in a messy divorce, I got the swings, he got the slides.” I smile. She's funny. It's not often you get a woman who is beautiful and funny.
“It does count. So you like older guys?” She starts to blush. “How is it even possible that you've never had a boyfriend?” I won't drop the subject.
“Guys don't really look at me like that. Finn is pretty much the only one who has looked at me like that.” She shrugs. What?
“Trust me when I say, we look at you like that.” If she wasn't red before, she definitely is now. Can she not see what she has to offer? “The only reason you may think that is because Finn likes to scare them away.”
“Okay I'm done talking about my nonexistent love life.” She says, marking her boundary. She looks up at the clock and then back at me.
“The surgeon said it would be about two hours. One more to go.” I could see that she was worried.
“Did you eat?” I ask her, I was going to try to take her mind off her brother, for the next hour. She didn't have to worry. James would be fine.
“No. I'm fine though.” I've noticed that she says that a lot.
“Come on.” I encourage her. “What can I get you?”
“A Mountain Dew would be great.” I give her a look.
“That's not food.”
“I'm honestly not hungry.” I get up and go inside the little shop in the cafeteria. I get a bunch of stuff, nutrition bars, cookies, two sandwiches, and two Mountain Dews. I would eat whatever she didn't, I was hungry.
I place the tray of food between us and she goes for the Mountain Dew and a sandwich. I knew she would be a little hungry.
“Do you have any other siblings other than Ashton?” She asks after she's eaten about half of her food. Presley doesn't look at me, and I hope that she will because I want to look into her clear water blue eyes.
“I do. I have one more older sister.” One which doesn't talk to us anymore, she ceased all contact with us years ago. The other one, Ashton, is a year apart from me and she just graduated from NYU, and she is recently engaged to her British boyfriend, Braxton.
“Are you guys close?” I nod. I don't feel like going into detail about my other sister Megan because it was a long story.
“Which countries did you visit?” I ask her. She looks surprised that I remember the comment about her traveling.
“I was in England for a few months, I worked while I was there as a free lance photographer. I made enough to go to Ireland then I went to France then Spain and then finally Italy before I went back to London for some more work.” Her eyes lit up even more as she talked about her travels. I could see that she was proud of herself.
“You're a photographer?” She nods. “What do you like to take photographs of?”
“I love catching people off guard, when they don't even know I have the camera pointed at them. There's something genuine that I capture, they're not trying to put on a face that's not them. I capture the realness.” I nod. “Sorry, I don't know if I'm making sense. Sometimes I just ramble and my mind works faster than my mouth.”
“You're making sense, don't worry. I completely understand.” I was being honest. I understood her. I have just gotten a snippet of her genuine self as she talked about photography. I wanted to know more about her, understand more. Find out why she harmed herself behind closed doors, find out if she was in more pain than one could understand.
“What about you? Do you have any hobbies or loves?”
“Soccer and my families business.” My family owned the biggest bakery and catering business in the world. We sponsored celebrities, we hosted many of their parties, which in turn got us invited to many of them as guests. I've met more A-list celebrities than I can count on two hands.
I wasn't going to tell Presley that because something told me that it didn't interest her how many famous people I've met. She's different, and I don't believe all my tricks would even work on her. I would have to try something new.
Chapter Five
Presley Masters
My parents let Mathew and I stay in the recovery room with James as they went to go fill out paperwork, and get some dinner. James was still asleep, Mathew was asleep on the recliner as well, I was sitting next to James. My mom has been crying all night. She used to cry when we got colds as kids, or even a scratch on our knees, she's very emotional and caring and I love her because of it. That’s the reason I can't tell her about my self-harm. It would kill her.
It started when I got to the boarding school. I saw some girls with the cuts, and when I asked them, they said it's an easy way to release stress, it was a trend I didn't want to be a part of...or so I thought. One day in my sophomore year I just felt so depressed because I was far away from my family, I saw them for a month in the summer, a few days for Thanksgiving, a week for Christmas. It was a year round school. I looked to my razor blade for answers that night, and I still have evidence of that night on my thighs.
It was easy to cover it up at school. I've never been one to be good with friends, especially girls. I always felt inferior and I hated drama, gossip was not my forte, I was always talked about. Anyway, no one cared enough at school to find out or ask. At home I just wore sweaters and stayed in my room as much as possible. Then I traveled for almost a year, if strangers saw the cuts, I couldn't care less. To be honest, I didn't do much cutting in the past year maybe twice I gave in. Now I was at SU, a place I didn't want to be.
I caught movement from the corner of my eye, I saw James stirring. His leg was up in a stilt, metal holding his bones together. If I looked at it too much I started to feel sick.
“James.” I whispered. He opened his eyes and he looked at me.
“
What time is it?
”
He asks. Although visitor time was over at the hospital, my parents managed to pull some strings so I could stay and also Mathew.
“
It's almost midnight.
”
I watch as James looks at his left leg.
“
What did the surgeon say?
”
“
You'll be out the rest of the season, you have a lot of rehab to do.
”
James and I were always straight with each other. I knew he didn't want to me to sugarcoat this.
“
That guy shattered your fibula, they put in rods, and you'll have to wear a boot and be on crutches for a few months. Surgeon said you could do soccer camp in the summer if your rehab goes well, and he believes you'll be at full capacity when next season starts.
”
James was covering his face with his hand, I couldn't see his expression. I think I saw some relief. He could still play next season. Soccer was his life.
“
You should go home, PB.
”
He calls me PB because my full name is Presley Beth, second name comes from my great grandmother. We had this joke when we were little, we used to call ourselves PB & J because we were inseparable, but those times are long gone.
“
I'll take her.
”
Mathew says. I didn't even realize he had woken up. I don't look at him longer than a second because there is something so hot about how he looks when he's just woken up that is flustering. This school year was going to be hard.
“
Thanks, man.
”
I hug James and I let them talk for a bit before I go in the waiting room to get my parents. I could see my mother fighting off the sleep, and my dad was staring at nothing. They were exhausted.
“Presley Beth.” My mom says. She's the only one who calls me by my full name. “Is he awake?” I nod.
Everyone says I look like my mother, she is absolutely stunning. I am not. I don't know how people compare us.
“He just woke up. You guys should go in the room with him. Matty and I are going back to campus.” They stand and stretch their bodies out a bit.
“We'll call you if anything happens. Drive safe you two.” I could feel the hairs on my neck stand up as my body realizes Mathew is right behind me. What is it with him? Why do I feel this way around him? I've known him for a day.
Get your shit together, Presley.
I let Mathew lead the way to his car. My car was back at my dorm, Finn drove it back for me earlier. He wanted to come to the hospital, but I told him not to.
“Hospitals creep me out.” I hear Mathew say.
“Me, too.” More like I fear them. I fear ending up at one of them. I fear the day someone finally realizes how fucked up I really am.
We don't really say anything the rest of the way back. It's not a weird silence, it's a comfortable one. He takes me to my dorm and we're parked in front of my building. I could see the hallway lights on. Every room was dark, including mine.
“Don't be so worried. Your brother is going to be okay.” Mathew says. He grabs my hand. I can't let myself think it's anything but a friendly gesture.
“I know.” I do know. I'm worried because I don't know if
I
will make it a night without cutting this week. The urge to cut is unbelievably strong, I'm just bubbling over my limit right now. “Goodnight, Mathew.” I give him a small smile and he smiles back at me.
“Goodnight, Presley.”
A few days ago, I was invisible. These past four days I've had so many girls come up to me to confirm that I am James' sister, and then ask me how he is. I say he's doing great and then they try and make conversation with me. I didn't know he was so popular. He'll be getting out of the hospital on Thursday, two days, and I hope that's when the madness will stop.
“Mind if I sit here?” I look up to see a pretty redhead with eyes that look purple in the light. I think she could be wearing contacts, but they look so real.
“I don't mind.” She sits down and I see her eyes are just a shade of gray I've never seen before. Very distinct.
“I'm Odessa King, but you can call me Dessie. I just started here two days ago.” I gave her a look, school starts a few weeks ago, and she explained. “I was on the wait list, and I just got in. I have a lot of catching up to do.” I notice a bit of an accent.
“Where are you from?” I ask her.
“Nashville, but my parents are from Chicago so I have a weird accent.” It was like she knew that's was why I was asking. There was something down to earth about Dessie. She didn't look like she was trying to impress boys here, but I could see all the guys staring at her. I smiled.
“Sorry, I didn't even introduce myself. I'm Presley Masters, I'm a freshman here as well.” She smiled wide.