Allie
After I barely made it through another full floor routine, I hobble out of the gym after I've made another physio appointment and start walking back to the apartment.
It's around 6:30 when I open the front door and I'm hit with the reminder that tonight's pasta night.
"Hey! You're home late. Everything okay?" Kyla asks as she moves to strain the homemade pasta she has whipped up.
More mess for us to clean.
But it makes Kyla happy cooking for people. It's her love language.
"Just had to book another physio appointment, that's all."
She frowns, wanting to ask why but the front door opens revealing two hungry looking hockey players.
I've completely avoided Noah as much as I can when I'm home, but luckily for me, we train such different hours that he's gone in the mornings and I'm gone in the afternoon and evenings.
Shucks.
Noah's green eyes narrow on my outfit.
He's been living with us for 2 weeks and he was yet to see me in anything other than a shirt that doesn't go to my knees.
I'm wearing a gym suit and shorts but his eyes move down to my black knee brace.
It's not hard to miss. The brace goes from the middle of my thigh down to my shins. It's big and bulky, but that's what two ACL and one MCL surgeries on the same knee will do to a person.
Make them wear a ridiculous knee brace 24/7 that may as well be a plastic leg.
Almost a third leg at this point.
"How are my favorite girl's doing?" Seth barrels past Noah, who is still looking at my knee like its a fucking bomb, and grabs me into a tight side hug before completely devouring Kyla.
They look at each other with such passion and longing that could easily be love.
Seth whispers something into Kyla's ear that makes her cheeks go pink as she wraps her arms around him tighter and nuzzles her head into his chest more.
There's a tingle in my nose that forces me to look away and move to the kitchen to dish everyone up some food.
"When's your guy's next game?" Kyla shuffles her seat closer to Seth on the other side of the table from Noah and I, who couldn't be sitting any farther apart.
"Tomorrow."
Everyone else seems happy with their food, getting second portions while I'm stuck pushing around barely a handful.
My stomach feels heavy as I glare at the pasta and I feel helpless as I raise the bowties to my mouth.
Why is everyone watching me eat?
Dizzy. I feel dizzy.
My skin turns clammy. The room gets hotter.
God, this is fucking useless.
I abruptly push my chair back, the legs sounding like nails on a chalk board.
They all turn to me, shocked at my outburst.
"Allie? Is everything okay?"
How the hell did Kyla get in front of me so fast?
"Great."
I go to walk past Noah, who's watching from where he's remained seated.
1,
2,
3 steps before my right knee gives and I catch myself on Noah's chair.
Fuck.
It's a good thing I booked a physio appointment, I guess.
There is so much pain in my knee that I don't realize Noah standing, gently holding the hand that was leaning on his chair.
"Don't touch me!" I rip my hand from his grip, a single fucking eyebrow raise the only reaction I get.
My breathing is coming in short, the world spinning around me as I hobble down the hall. The urge to scrub my skin so hard where he touched me becoming more and more.
I want to punch that damn eyebrow so hard that he-
"I'll help you get the brace off." Seth slips an arm under my shoulder but I quickly rip myself away, saying,
"Kyla. I need Kyla. "
His lips push together, his cheerful eyes turning sad.
Not less than 5 seconds later, Allie comes into my room, locks all of the three locks on the door and carefully helps me strip off my knee brace.
The good thing is that my knee is only a little swollen and purple.
Halleluiah.
Kyla pierces her lips together as she stares at my knee, clearly concerned for a little swelling.
"Hold on, I'm going to get you an icepack."
---------------------------------------------------------
Noah
"Don't touch me!"
It's like my touch physically hurt her, burned her skin.
Her eyes are wide, her eyelashes clinging to unshed tears before she limps down the hall.
Seth follows after her, only to come back a few seconds later with anger on his face as he gestures down the hall to Kyla.
"Let's clean up." He tells me, swiping few dishes off the table.
I grab the rest, stopping at where Allie was sitting.
Her bowl, still full of pasta, lays completely untouched.
I've noticed she doesn't eat.
At all.
And she trains close or more hours than Seth and I.
"Is-um. Is Allie okay?"
Seth doesn't glance at me as he bites out, "Yep."
"Are you sur-"
"As much as I loved her parents, I hate how they ignored her pain-"
Kyla bursts into the kitchen, eyes widening as she meets mine, like she forgot I was here as she rambled.
Loved?
"How's her knee?" Seth breaks the awkward silence.
"It's swollen. Purple."
My body moves before I know what's happening, reaching the freezer and grabbing a gel icepack.
"I don't know if you should go in there-" Seth calls out, his voice echoing down the hallway.
When I open the bedroom door, she's lying on her back with her right knee propped up by a pillow. Her eyes shoot open, freezing as she watches me stride across and kneel down beside the bed, placing the icepack on her knee.
"Do you have any sort of compression?"
She blinks, processing the words.
"Bedside drawer."
I reach around the drawer until I find a compression brace, before trying to slip it on.
"I ca-can do it myself."
Her eyes are full of fear as she stares at my hand that hovers over her foot.
Nodding, I hand it to her, watching as she flinches to slip it over her knee.
I note the three, long scars that run along her knee, probably from surgery.
Walking to the door, I turn around to say something, anything to her, but she has her eyes closed, a few tears streaming down her temples.
And for some reason, I want to go wipe them away.
But instead, I turn and walk out.
CZYTASZ
Not So Alone (West Coast Campus Book 1)
RomansI had to flee. To escape. I couldn't take the pain of people telling me to be okay. That I was a survivor. But what about me being a victim? All because a few people refused to hear me when I said no. Now I carry around pain, fear, a disgusting fe...
