I wake up to my alarm going off. My competition is in about five hours. My stomach feels like it's in knots just thinking about it. I always wake up early on competition days because my mom makes me. She says she wants me to start the day awake from an early hour. I don't really understand but I just go along with it.
I check my phone to see a text from Alexa on my figure skating team.
"Competition day"
I reply and then head downstairs.
After a couple hours, I begin to get ready for the competition. I always have to be there an hour before the competition actually starts.
"You excited?" My mom asks as my whole family is all currently in the car.
"Nervous." I reply as I pause the music currently playing from my airpods. I always listen to music before competitions so I can get fully pumped up.
"You will do great." My little brother Eli, says.
"Aww thanks Eli." I reply.
After I put my skates on, I walk out of the changing room to see Leo and Aaron.
"Hey." They both greet.
"Hey." I reply.
"You nervous?" Aaron asks me.
"Yeah. A lot." I always get nervous before competitions. I get so nervous to the point where I can't eat anything at least five hours before because I will throw up. It's happened. Several times.
"Well I'm sure you'll do great." Leo replies.
"Ella c'mon, let's go." Coach says.
"Well I gotta go."
"You got this Ella!!" Leo and Aaron exclaim.
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"Now, skating for Revolution Skating Company we have Ella Mae Lambert!" The announcer states. This is when the nerves kick in the worst. The crowd begins to cheer a little. You got this, I tell myself as I get onto the ice.
I start in my beginning pose, waiting for the music. Once the music starts I begin moving. I am able to do all the jumps and turns leading up to the double axel pretty well. Most of the nerves have dissolved by now. My mind is focused on one thing and one thing only, the double axel. I jump up and get the first spin down, however I'm not quick enough to do the second spin and before I know it, I make hard contact with the floor and I fall right on my leg.
I open my eyes to a bright light. I look around me to see my mom, dad, Aaron and Leo. My leg is in throbbing pain.
"Ella." Aaron says once he notices I'm up. This causes my mom and Leo to look up too.
"Honey, are you okay?" My mom asks. I don't really remember what happened after I made contact with the ground.
"My leg hurts so bad." I complain.
"I know I know, the doctors will be in in a second."
We finally ended up leaving the hospital way later in the day. Turns out I passed out because of how hard I hit the floor. The doctor says it was my body's way of protecting me from the pain. I got an X-Ray and guess who has a broken leg?? Me. I have to wear a cast for 4 and a half weeks. The doctor said it wasn't too bad of a break. But it just seemed worse because it was on ice.
"Knock knock." I hear Katie say from the other side of my bedroom door. I've been laying in my bed since I got home tonight. There's not really anything else for me to do.
"Hey."
"Hey girl. I'm sorry about what happened. How's your leg doing?" She asks.
"Fine I guess, it just really hurts."
"I bet."
"You okay?" She asks as she could tell I was in a sad mood. I felt sad about the competition. I just didn't want to talk about it now. Not today at least.
"Yeah I just don't really want to talk about it today." I answer. She nods her head in reply.
"Well you know who was the first person to run onto the ice the second you fell was Aaron." Katie announces with a grin. I couldn't help the smile that came onto my face.
"Really?" I ask. I knew he was there in the hospital with me but I didn't know he was there the second I fell.
"Yeah he was really worried about you. I could tell." That statement sends a bunch of butterflies to go off in my stomach.
Katie ended up staying over late and we watched a bunch of movies. That's all I really can do at the moment.
The next day....
I wake up to see a text from Andrew. Did he hear about the competition or something?
Andrew:
Hey I heard about your leg. How are you doing?
I got to say, it did feel nice knowing that he cared enough to ask.
Me:
I'm okay, it just really hurts and there's not much I can do :( thanks for asking
I definitely feel as though I am becoming closer with Andrew and I am not complaining. The rest of the day included me reading a book I had in my room that I never read. I figured if there's nothing I can do, I might as well read and be somewhat productive.
As I'm in the middle of my book, I hear a knock at the door and then a second later, Aaron enters.
"Hey." Aaron says as he looks down at my leg with an empathetic look on his face.
"Hi. What are you doing here?" I put down my book.
"Just wanted to hang out with my favorite person and see how you're doing."
"I'm fine." I say. Every time I think about my leg it makes me a little sad.
"What's wrong?" Aaron asks as he notices the sad look on my face.
"Nothing." I lie.
"Ella, I know you. I know when something is up so what is it?"
"I just feel like such a disappointment. I feel like I let my whole team down. Everyone was counting on me and I couldn't land it. I just feel as though I'm not good enough." I rant. I hadn't gotten to fully process how I felt after the fall because I was too busy focusing on my leg but it feels nice to actually come in touch with my emotions.
"You did not let anyone down. You had so much pressure on you and to be fair the move you were doing looked really hard. Everyone messes up, it's inevitable." Aaron states as he comes and sits down next to me.
"I guess you're right. Thanks Aaron."
"You up for a movie?" Aaron asks suddenly.
"Sure. I am just going to need a little help getting downstairs." I begin taking the sheets off of me as I sit down on my bed. Aaron gets my crutches and lays them against my nightstand as he helps me up. I successfully make it to the top of the stairs. Now it's just the getting down part that's hard.
"Okay how are we gonna do this?" I ask as I look over at Aaron in disbelief. Aaron's in deep thought.
"Do you mind if I lift you up?" He asks.
"Uh- I guess." He then puts his hands under my thighs as he begins to lift me newborn style. I can feel his muscles tensing. He walks down the stairs and then places me on the couch. When I look up at him he isn't even sweating. He made that look real easy.
"What movie are we watching?" Aaron asks.
"Pitch perfect." I demand. I've been wanting to watch this for a while. I obviously saw it a couple years ago when it came out but I love re-watching movies.
"Okay." Aaron says without any hesitation. "You are the injured one over here."
As we're in the middle of the movie, my mom enters the living room.
"Hey Aaron." She is currently trying to put on her earrings and she is in a dress.
"Where are you going, all dressed up?" I ask.
"Me, your father and your brothers are going out to dinner. I figured you might be tired and not want to join us."
"Yeah. Well, have fun." Me and Aaron state as we go back to watching the movie.
Once the credits for pitch perfect 3 start rolling, me and Aaron look up at each other. Yes we just watched 3 movies already.
"Can we watch a horror movie now?" Aaron asks.
"Sure. Only because I chose the first movie. But you have to admit, Pitch Perfect is amazing."
"It wasn't horrible..." Aaron admits.
We're currently in the middle of the movie "It" and it's 9:30 at night. My parents came from their dinner a couple hours ago.
Aaron gets up to get a blanket.
"Do you want a blanket?" He asks.
"Yes please." I am a little chilly.
"There's only one here." Aaron says as he opens up the little blanket basket we have.
"My mom probably washed the others." I say. Before I know it, Aaron sits down next to me and puts the blanket over both of us. Our legs are now touching, obviously the non injured one. I couldn't help but get butterflies. I need to stop with Aaron. He is not into me and he's made that pretty obvious. It's like the littlest thing he does makes me feel so special even though I know I shouldn't because it's just in his flirty nature. Aaron is just one of those people who has a flirty personality and he genuinely can't control it. Well maybe he can....
I wake up suddenly to see my head resting on Aaron's chest. I must have fallen asleep. I look over to Aaron to see he did too. When I move my neck, it throbs a bit from the position it was in. I slowly grab my phone from the coffee table so I don't wake Aaron up. I check the time to see it's 10:50.
Aaron then begins shifting in his sleep and he suddenly wakes up. He looks around and makes eye contact with me.
"How long were we asleep for?" He asks with a yawn.
"Maybe an hour." I reply.
"Do you want me to go now?" Aaron asks. I suddenly yawn.
"Okay I'll take that as a yes."
"What are you doing?" I ask, noticing Aaron is just standing there, looking over to me.
"Helping you up to bed? Or should I just let you fly up on your own?" He asks sarcastically.
"Very funny."