SUNSHINE

forty-nine

It was going to be a long road to recovery.

--

The next couple days were a little rough for play, but she felt better and better everyday. She felt good enough to play, but she did not know if she would be able to play the entire ninety minutes. She kept stretching, kept icing and heating, and kept taking Aleve and kept her back taped up to try and take the pain away.

The game went as smoothly as they could hope, Casey able to play the first seventy minutes before getting subbed out and letting Ashlyn get some minutes during the tournament. It was a solid seventy minutes, she did not let anything in but also did not have to make a ton of big saves, which probably saved her back from anymore damage. By the time she sat down on the bench, she felt decent enough, but sat down on the turf anyhow so she could sit in a comfortable position.

They arrived back at the hotel that evening after a team dinner, and Casey was stuffed. She and Alex had wanted to go to the pool, but now they were so full they did not know if they would even be able to. Instead, they went back up to their hotel room and plopped down on their beds, laughing.

"What do you wanna do this evening?" Casey asked with a sigh. Alex sat up on her elbows and looked over to her.

"Let's go do something stupid." Alex suggested, and they both just laughed.

"Like what? We don't have a car to go anywhere and anything fun is too far of a walk." She responded, and Alex just groaned.

"Alright then, what about if we get Ali and Ashlyn and go to a club or something?" She asked, and Casey shrugged.

"You know me, I didn't bring anything nice to wear." She scoffed, and they both just laughed knowing it was true.

"Well what the hell are we gonna do? I'm bored and it's only six in the evening." Alex whined as she looked at her wrist, checking the time. "And we don't leave until the afternoon to head to LA."

"I'd suggest we go surfing but that probably won't do any good on my back." Casey said with a chuckle.

"There's not much we can do with your back." She muttered, and Casey threw one of her pillows at her, hitting her right in the head.

"We could just see if Ash and Ali wanna go buy another case of beer and we can go down to the pool." Casey suggested as Alex threw her pillow back at her.

"I mean I'm down with that. Once your back gets better we'll go surf." Alex said as Casey texted Ashlyn to see if they were down.

"We'll steal Ash, Ali, and Kelley whenever we go then." She said with a laugh. Ashlyn said they were down, so they all changed into their swimsuits and threw their clothes on over them to walk down to the liquor store to go buy a case or two for whoever was down there to join them.

"I just sent a text to the group chat to see if anyone was heading down to the pool." Alex said as they started walking down the street toward the corner store.

"Well what are we getting? Case of Budlight and a pack of Mike's?" Ali asked, and Casey shrugged.

"Megan and Kelley asked to get some Fireball." Ali interrupted.

"You guys are the ones with the experience, I'm just here for a good time." Casey said, and they all laughed as they walked into the liquor store.

"Good evening ladies." The man behind the counter said to them, and he gave Casey a weird vibe. The other three said hello, but she could not bring herself to do so. Ashlyn went and grabbed a case of Budlight, a pack of Mike's Hard Lemonade, and a bottle of Fireball. They went up to the counter and the man scanned their items and told them their total, his eyes never leaving the four of them. Alex decided to pay and they all sent her money through Cashapp, and then they left, taking turns carrying the boxes back to the hotel.