Pinky-promise Vol 2 (Iwaizumi Hajime x Reader)

[9/10]

Iwaizumi

I'll be perfectly honest. I thought I was dying. When she held my hand, and then slowly pulled it to her lap and played with my fingers, my heart was beating so hard, I was scared I had tachycardia. Her hands were soft against my rough palms, but I felt even she had remainders of blisters the racket made. (Bff/N) seemed so happy, too. She was talking a lot, which was still very unusual for her. She never spoke this much with Oikawa.

I was very happy to see the two speak, and I was even happier when I saw them in the park a few days later, both bawling their eyes while hugging. I wasn't happy that they were crying, don't get me wrong, but I was happy that they were replenishing their friendship. I only imagined what I would do without Oikawa and my stomach twisted oddly. He annoyed me, sure, but he was my best friend. We grew up together, no one knew me as he did, and not having him around would be too weird.

"Iwaizumi-kun?" I don't think I ever heard the voice that called me in the hallway that day. I turned around and my eyebrows furrowed as a very unfamiliar and a very worried person stood there. She had her hands clenched in fists, one pressed against her chest and the other reached towards me. "Yes?" She took a deep breath to calm herself, and then took a step closer. "It's (L/N)-san. She's... She's having a panic attack. She called for you." My whole body shook with fear. I felt fire spread from my legs upward and I grabbed the girl's shoulders shaking her. "Where?" She was startled by my behavior but told me where she was, anyway.

I dashed past her and towards the bathrooms, not caring if I pushed someone on my way there. I burst into the girl's bathroom, quickly ordering everyone to leave.

She was sitting on the floor by one of the stalls, her hand clenching the shirt on her chest, gasping for breath, but failing. Tears were flowing down her face and she was repeating my name with each breath. I crouched in front of her, taking hold of her hands, trying to capture her attention. "I'm here. I'm here, you're safe. Everything will be fine." It took her a while to open her eyes and look at me. She wanted to sob my name out one more time but I shook my head, hushing her. "Let's breathe together. Come one, follow me. Deep breath in." And I started counting. I counted and took deep and even breaths, still holding her hands, periodically squeezing them to bring her back to reality. My head was starting to spin from the breathing, but I had to push through for her. It took some time before she was able to match the depth of my breaths. Tears were still pouring out of her eyes and she tried closing them a few times, but I called her, holding her attention. Her hands were trembling and after her breathing normalized to some extent, I asked her to squeeze my hands periodically, too. That seemed to help.

Once she was able to breathe on her own, I sighed and sat down, still holding her hands. "I'm so sorry. You missed your class." She started crying again, immediately breaking the pattern in her breathing. I had to pull her slightly to return her to counting. "Hey, I would quit this college if I had to. Don't ever apologize to me for needing help." It was a brief moment of silence, she leaned her head against the stall, but still stared at me in the eyes. It was like she was scared of looking away now that she was slightly better.

"A car hit me." Her voice was hoarse and I was sure I misheard for a moment. I wanted to ask her what she was talking about, but she continued speaking. "Right before the Spring Tournament. I was returning home from practice. Last one before the tournament. I was thinking about things I had to pack when a drunken idiot lost control over his car and crashed into me. Well, not exactly. I froze in my spot when I saw the car coming straight for me, and had the street light not been there I would have been dead, but he crashed into it. The shards went everywhere. The door flew off and hit me. My leg was fractured in two places, and I had a huge piece of metal in my calf." Her voice quivered, and she closed her eyes, pushing more tears down her cheeks. I was frozen in place. What happened to her was absolutely horrifying. I had trouble processing what she was talking about.

"It damaged my nerves and I had to do physicals for months before I could walk and run properly. But I couldn't play tennis anymore. I had to give up my only dream." She continued, the way her voice was shaking made me want to cry, too. "I had to be homeschooled until I was good enough to walk. When I saw you here, everything came back. And then you asked about tennis, and I couldn't deal with it. I'm sorry I didn't tell you. I'm sorry I ran away. I'm so sorry. I just... I wasn't ready to accept it, and saying it aloud to someone meant acknowledging that it happened." I had no idea what to do. I was so lost. I was an idiot. Completely silent, stuck in place, holding her hands, but from the shock, even my grip was failing me.

I knew I had to do something, I knew I had to say something. She needed me to do something, but I couldn't. I remember the only thing that was going through my head was how I wanted the person that did it to her to suffer in the worst possible way. I blamed that person, I blamed karma, I was so angry. I was angry that a person as beautiful as (L/N) lost her dreams because of someone's irresponsibility.

In the state of frozen disorientation, I didn't even notice the broken look she gave me, or when she let go of my hands. Nor did I notice when she apologized for telling me and ran out. Only when the door slammed shut did I snap back to reality, actually. But it was too late.