FWB Friends With Baseball

Would It Be Cheesy?.

Jailyn~

"@JailynJames: Hey guys, apologies for the near radio silence since Tokyo. As everyone I'm sure has seen, I was taken out of the gold medal game due to a left ankle injury. Given the scale, I wanted to know exactly what was wrong before updating anyone on the status of that. This morning I got-" I hit tweet before adding another to the thread. "-An MRI which revealed that I completely ruptured my Achilles. There's a lot of uncertainty with this type of injury, and I'll be undergoing a procedure to repair it in the next few days. Not the ideal way to end what's hopefully just this season, but what can I do? That being -" Hitting send again, I add another tweet to the thread. This would've been easier as a notes app screenshot. "-Said. I cannot thank everyone enough for the support I've been shown. I'll forever be grateful for the experiences I've gotten and the experiences I've gotten to share with this team. I love all of these girls so much, and I'm so damn proud of what we've accomplished. A massive-" "-Thank you to Tokyo, and the Olympic Committee, for hosting these games and for every accommodation you've made for not only me but every athlete. If this is where things end for me, I couldn't be more grateful for my time here and for the opportunity to play on the biggest stage an-" "-athlete can. Thank you, thank you, thank you, to everyone who's gotten me to this point, and thank you to Team USA for the opportunity to be here. While there's a lot of unknown, I'm hopeful for what the future brings. Thank you, and I'm sorry this wasn't just a notes screenshot."

Hitting send on the last tweet, I ignore the notifications starting to flood in. This is crazy that I've just had to put that out there. There is no telling how this is going to pan out for me. That's the scary part, especially with openly admitting that to the world. Achilles injuries are hard to bounce back from, and I've only got about seven months to get back into professional athlete shape. Taking a breath, I run my hand through my hair as I glance to the boot holding my foot. Such a freak stupid injury that could very well be the end of my career. Scoffing at the thought of calling my one year professionally a career, especially only making eighteen grand, three grand of which only coming from winning a gold medal. As much as I love it, it's not the most sustainable living.

What am I supposed to do if this is the end for me? Go back to school, only just casually as a gold medalist? Even as hard as it was while I was training, I didn't plan on dropping out of my courses. Who's to say softball would ever be really sustainable for me? Especially without a ton of sponsorships and endorsements coming my way. While I had some buzz, what's that do for me when I don't even know how everything is going to play out? You can't endorse an athlete if they're not even able to be an athlete anymore? There's too much uncertainty right now, and it's going to drive me insane if I keep dwelling on it. The issue there is, I've got way too much time now being laid up, that there's no way to keep myself from doing just that.

It's going to be a long, long, next few months.

~~~~~

As hard as I tried, I only made it to about the fifth inning of Christians' game before dozing off. There's no real telling how long that lasts, though, as I'm woken by my phone buzzing on the coffee table. "Hello?"

"Shit, did I wake you up? Sorry JJ." Christian's very familiar voice comes through my phone.

"No," I say before clearing my throat, "Don't worry about it. I fell asleep on my couch watching your game." Pulling my phone away a moment, I see it's about twelve-fifteen am. "How'd it end up?"

"We walked it off in the tenth," He tells me, the excitement still lingering in his tone, "I walked and had a homer, that's about it.

"Nice," I tell him, yawning, "I was watching, but I fell asleep in the fifth."

"I'm kinda offended by that, not gonna lie," He tells me, obviously teasing.

Chuckling slightly, I smile to myself, "I'll try to do better tomorrow."