I Can See You

Reminder

Reminder

"I don't know why I'm locked in a room with you!"

"Izzy, please, you are beginning to worry people."

I pull on my hair.

"Zoey. I am perfectly fine. I'm doing as I'm suggested. I make conversation. I walk during physio. I am working hard-"

"Izzy, you are working for almost 12 hours a day, rarely taking breaks."

My eye twitches, "what are you suggesting?"

"That you are bottling up how you feel and putting it out through your workouts."

I don't know what this woman wants from me.

"Izzy, when's the last time you cried?"

I chortle, "I don't cry."

"Everyone cries."

I shrug, "two years."

"What was it about?"

I give her my dullest expression. "My father struck me in my face."

Zoey flinches, and I can't help but laugh.

She composes herself, "may I ask why he did so?"

"I told him I was an adult who is responsible in my craft and who can take care of myself. I said he never listens to me and how I feel, and one thing leads to another."

"Have your parents ever done something like that before?"

I grin, "in my Junior year of high school, my mother bashed my face in with her fist, and she broke my jaw. I had to have my mouth wired shut. The woman is crazy. And the reason for that one. I accepted the chance to work with an Olympic trainer."

"I thought you said your mother usually doesn't have a say in your-"

"Oh, she doesn't. The lady has hated me since I was four."

Zoey looks at me almost like she's scared, "Izzy, are you really okay?"

"I can handle myself! I should be in there, yet they locked me in here with you!" I snap.

She sighs, "Izzy, we think it's time for you to go home."

"Why?"

"The effects of you immediately being removed from your regular environment seems to have taken a toll on you."

"How?"

"For one, you are so stubborn-"

"Please, I've been stubborn all my life."

"You haven't been in contact with the world for about six months. Do you know what has been said about you?"

I scrunch up my face, "what are you talking about? I have no social presence."

"Your boyfriend has quite the following."

I dislike when she tries using him against me.

I don't reply. Zoey pulls out her phone.

Mari has over 890 thousand followers on Instagram.

"He used to post three times a week. One of those posts usually had you in it. The last thing about you was that 200-metre race."

I remember telling Mari I was fine doing a couple of challenges with him for his page. I didn't know he'd regularly post about me.

I take Zoey's phone.

I see things like when Mari and I had an eating competition. Those spicy noodles were amazing.

Then there a video of me pulling weights on a field. Not knowing Mari was sitting on top of them.