Part Sixteen:
A Little Clarity
I dropped the volleyball in my hands, not giving a single damn in the world where it went as I ran for Milly. She was falling down faster then I could get to her, proving that the kick had been a decent one. But, it wasn't the slight dizziness that had worried me when she had started to fall, but the way her skull seemed to ricochet against the vinyl floors, knocking her out cold.
"Milly," I shouted, wishing desperately that I had been able to get to her in time to lessen her fall.
Jack had caught the tail end of what happened, and was by the smaller girls side in seconds. A few other students began gathering around, a few of them worried, a small amount of them in plain shock, and a lot of them whispering amongst each other.
"Move," I breathed, pushing a pair of senior boys out of the way to get to her. Jack was crouched by her side, his hand underneath her head, supporting her from lying on the solid floor. I sank to my knees, sliding slightly on the vinyl before coming to an abrupt stop on the opposite side of her.
"What the hell happened?" Jack snapped, though I don't think he meant his angered tone at me.
"Let's just get her the hell out of here," I grumbled before turning to a few of the people around us. "Give us some space, for fuck sake!"
"Trevor," Jack whispered. "Try to calm down. We gotta wake her up."
A slight whine earned my full attention, and I snapped my gaze back to the girl being cradled in Jack's palms. She blinked her eyes opened, trying her best to roll on her side as her mouth formed a frown of distress. I half expected her to cry out in pain, or at least wince or squint from the trauma of the blow. Only, Milly didn't do any of those things. She kept quiet, trying—but not trying very hard—to open her eyes and at least just see where the hell she was.
She looked up at the blue eyed boy who hovered above her.
"Trevor?" she whispered, and a part of my heart, a very selfish part, almost let a grin break out on my lips at the sound of my name being the first to slip past her lips.
"Jack, actually," the dark haired boy corrected, chuckling awkwardly.
"Jack?" she mumbled, trying her best to sit up on her own. Jack held her down, though looked up at me in concern. "Who's that? Where's Trevor?"
"She's got a concussion," I stated, jumping in, eager to get Jack away from the girl I so badly wanted to help—and actively ignoring the look of hurt on his face upon Milly not recognising him in her state of confusion.
"What the hell is going on here?" Coach asked, pushing the crowd of teenagers apart and situating himself in the centre of the circle. "What happened to her?"
"She was knocked out, sir," I stated. "Only for a second or two. I'm taking her to the nurse right now."
"Trevor?" she mumbled, her eyes struggling to hold contact with my own.
"Good idea," Coach agreed. "Don't leave her side until we know she's okay."
"Is it okay if I go too, sir?" Jack asked, chewing on his lower lip with angst. "I feel partly responsible as I was the one teaching her to play."
Coach nodded once before jerking his head in the direction of the double doors. Neither Jack or I wasted a second in helping Milly sling an arm around each of our shoulders before lifting her gently from the ground. She tried to keep her head up for a second, before letting it loll against my shoulder heavily, her eyes fluttering closed.
"Open your eyes, Milly," I warned, pinching the skin of her cheek with my free hand. She let her gaze flicker up to my own. "Focus on me, okay? Don't close your eyes."
"I'm tired," she admitted, scrunching her eyes shut tightly before snapping them back open.
"I don't care," I huffed. "You can't sleep right now. You've definitely got a concussion and we need to get you to the nurse."
Jack let his gaze switch between the two of us, seemingly deep in thought at the way Milly so willingly listened to my instructions. She didn't take her eyes from me for the rest of the walk to the nurse, only allowing them to close once more, Jack easily snapping her out of it by reminding her to "look at Trevor," which she did without complaint.
She was placed in the chair of the nurses office immediately, and though the nurse tried to insist that Jack and I go back to glass, we both made it perfectly clear that that wasn't about to happen. There was no way either one of us was leaving her right now, which she figured that out pretty quickly, before getting to work on calling an ambulance.
Paramedics arrived within twenty minutes, and in that time, Milly had sipped on a cup of water and tried her best to stay awake by talking to both Jack and I.
After five minutes, she had remembered who Jack was, which she apologised about profusely, and after ten, she remembered where she was and what happened.
When EMT's arrived to inspect her, Milly explained what had happened before sitting like a champion as they poked and prodded away at her exhausted figure. She smiled at me lazily as they checked her blood pressure, then blushed when I sent her a wink.
I was beyond relieved when the paramedics had left without Milly in the back of their ambulance, and instead declared that she was good to go home, as long as either Jack, her mother, or myself took her, and then proceeded to monitor her for the rest of the night. Although, that last point had been exclusively for her mother who was on her way, and less for my best friend and I.
"Jack," Milly whispered, earning the attention of the exhausted boy. "You can go back to class. I'm fine now. Thank you."
"Are you sure?" he mumbled, cocking his head to the side with a pout.
Milly nodded sweetly, pulling her lip between her teeth as she supressed a smile. "Yes. Thank you for keeping me company and also for taking care of me back there."
He smiled warmly, gathering his belongings and preparing himself to leave. "Any time, Mills. Try not to get hit in the head next time we play volleyball, though, okay? Scared the hell out of me."
She giggled. "I'm sorry."
"Don't be."
I tried my best to keep my temper at bay, not wanting to say something that could ultimately upset Milly, but deep down I wanted nothing more then to put an end to their little moment. The second Jack was gone, I was bringing my chair closer to Trevor's side, ready to have a minute with her all to myself.
"So," she smirked, cocking an eyebrow in my direction. "What was that about?"
I frowned. "What do you mean?"
"Please," she deadpanned. "I've never seen you hover over me like that. You hardly let Jack come closer then five feet to me, not to mention the death glare you sent him as he left."
Sighing deeply, I gazed up at her with a mixture of emotions behind my eyes. I was beyond nervous to admit why I didn't want Jack to be around her, but I guess after the morning she'd had, she at least deserved to know. "Honestly, Milly, I don't like seeing him so close to you."
"What?" she mumbled. "Why not? Wasn't that the plan a-all along?"
I hummed in response, nodding my head. "I'm just being protective. I don't want him to hurt you."--I took a deep breath before continuing--"It's still the plan, if that's what you want."
Milly turned her gaze elsewhere, though gave no verbal reply.
After a few moments of silence that was growing increasingly uncomfortable as I struggled to find words to say, Milly ground her teeth, seemingly contemplating whether or not she should speak as I looked up at her through my lashes.
"H-hey Trevor," she stammered, and I gave her my full attention instantly. "Remember t-that one time that we w-woke up together, um, you know."
My face paled. I did remember, I remembered a lot. In fact, I remembered all of it. From the drunken kisses I had left on various parts of her body to the way I had tossed her underwear across the room, guiding myself lower and lower until I reached the place she was begging me to go. I'd kept it from her for some time, because what had happened that night hadn't lasted long at all. In fact, I'd placed one kiss to her sweet spot before she pulled me back up, and declared in her intoxication that we play truth or date. Of course, in my own state of bliss, I had completely agreed, and she had then proceeded to take of all of my clothes without a thought, allowing me to run my hands over her already exposed body before falling asleep in my arms.
I couldn't blame her, really. She wasn't trying to be a tease that night, she was simply just beyond the point of drunk, and so was I.
"I remember," I declared.
She cleared her throat. "S-so do I."
Letting my eyes snap to hers, I chewed on the inside of my cheek as I waited for her next words.
"Do you remember what happened that night, you know . . . Between us?"
I couldn't lie to her. Maybe if it were still June or July, I could have gotten away with it, but not now. Not even a little. "Yes."
Her eyebrows furrowed in deep thought. "How much of it?"
"All of it," I choked out. Her heartbroken gaze was on mine in seconds. "I'm sorry. I didn't want you to be mad at me, or distance yourself more then you already had. It was easier to just keep it from you then make you uncomfortable. I know it was wrong of me, but I wouldn't have lied if we had done more. I just figured that with how close we are now that it . . ."
"It's okay," she mumbled, her voice gentle and sweet and far too forgiving. My heart was in shambles. "I'm n-not mad at you."
I took a sharp breath. "You're not?"
Milly shook her head, her eyes wide as she gazed up at me sincerely. "I'm a little sad that you didn't tell me, but I'm just glad you haven't told anyone else."
"You know I'd never do something like that to you," I admitted, reaching out to briefly grip her chin between my finger and thumb. She giggled lightly, leaning into my touch. "You're my . . ." I paused. What was she to me? She was my what? Friend seemed too underwhelming, and girlfriend was certainly off the table. I chocked back my fear. "You're my favourite person in the whole wide world."
With a sigh of relief and an adorably shy grin that she'd been gifting me with more and more as the days went by, Milly whispered: "Thank goodness. It feels so good to know what happened doesn't change anything between us--oh, and, you're my favourite person in the whole wide world too."
I chuckled, reaching out to ruffle her hair playfully.
She frowned at my actions. "I take it back."
"No you don't," I grinned, noticing out of the corner of my eye her mother arriving at the nurses desk just outside of the clinic room. "Your ride is here, pretty girl."
Milly craned her neck to catch a glimpse of her parent signing a pile of paper work, her lip finding it's way between her teeth. "I don't wanna leave you just yet."
"You'll see me tomorrow," I confirmed. "Go on, get out of here while you can. Go put on one of your adorable oversized t-shirts with some fluffy ass socks and binge foreign horror movies for the rest of the day."
"You know me so well," she smiled, standing slowly from the bed and reaching for her belongings--which had been dropped to the office by our coach after class--from the space beside me on the floor. "It's terrifying."
"I quite like it," I admitted, pulling myself out of my own chair and reaching for her hand one last time before Milly mother burst through the door and took her away from me. "Mean's I'm the closest person to you. I'll be waiting by your door in the morning, Little Z."
She chuckled drying at Jack's nickname for her from the party. "I much prefer the other nickname I got that night thank you very much."
I rolled my eyes playfully, before making my way out of the nurses office and towards my very last class of the day, laughing under my breath at the sweet girl I was leaving behind.
Racking my brain, it took me a few moments too long to realise what nickname she had been talking about. A nickname neither of us had remembered until that very moment. A nickname I loved the sound of a little too much.
Trevor's Girl.