Chapter Forty - Sebastian
I’VE LOST TRACK of how many times the medics have shone a light in my eyes. Owen is hovering in the corner of the training room, and I’m livid. After I passed out, they brought me back here to do a full assessment. Owen was only able to come back once the game was over, and he told me we won by a field goal. A fucking field goal. We were up by two touchdowns before I went out. “I’m fine, I just stood up too fast,” I snap, moving to get up off the exam table. One look from Lyndsey has me staying right where I am.
“Walker, I don’t think I need to tell you that this is all standard protocol. We have to make sure you don’t have a concussion. You collapsed on the field after getting hit. I shouldn’t have to tell you how serious that is.”
“Lyndsey’s right. You need to get checked out,” Owen agrees gruffly, crossing his arms as he leans against the wall.
I don’t think I have a concussion. I know that I blacked out or whatever, but I’m fine.
Coach C walks in, radiating about as much unhappiness as I feel. There were penalties called, and we still won, but I mean, come on. We should have blown this team out of the water. “Lewis, get your ass up on that table next to Walker. Malik is going to come look at you when he’s done checking on Tyler and Ryan. I saw you favoring your left leg. And I’m assuming she belongs to you guys,” he says, motioning to Thalia, who is right behind him.
Her green eyes are red and swollen from crying. Oh fuck.I’ve been so pissed off about not getting to go back in that I didn’t consider how much seeing me go down would have scared everyone. Now I feel like an ass.
“Coach, I’m sorry. I should have stopped her sooner,” Owen starts to apologize, and now I’m lost. I guess the confusion on my face is caught by Lyndsey, who frowns.
“Fill this form out while I go help Malik. I’ll be back in a few minutes. Carl, will you make sure he stays sitting? I don’t need him passing out again.”
I set the clipboard down next to me. “It’s fine. She’s not going to get in trouble. She only made it a few feet before Price caught her,” Coach says, rubbing his temples before looking at Thalia. “You don’t step on my field again, got it?”
She nods quickly, and I piece it together. Lia ran onto the field. I know I shouldn’t, but I’m kind of flattered she tried to do that. Thalia walks quickly to my side, hugging me tightly. I wrap an arm around Thalia protectively. I didn’t mean to scare her.
“How are you feeling?” Coach asks, and I tap my fingers on my knee rapidly.
“I’m fine. I could have finished the game.” Actually, I’m sore as hell, but I still could have done it.
He gives me a look of annoyance. “No. If you were fine, you wouldn’t have collapsed on the field. I don’t care if we would have lost that game. There’s no way in hell I was letting you step back out there. I wouldn’t be doing my job if I had.”
I look over at Owen for help, but I’m not going to get any from him once I see the stony expression on his face. “What happened to your leg?” I ask Owen, and he shrugs.
“I slipped on the wet turf, and it’s tight now. I need Malik to stretch it out. Thalia, let him go so he can fill the papers out,” he snaps harshly. I give Owen a scolding glance because he really doesn’t have to be like this when she’s clearly upset.
I drop my voice to whisper in her ear. “Love, I’m fine. I promise. Why don’t you go find your parents, and I’ll find you after I’m done here?”
She looks up at me to see if I’m telling the truth, and I feel terrible seeing the worry in her emerald eyes. “Do you promise?”
“Yes.”
Thalia’s reluctant as she unravels from me. “Right after?”
I smile because while I know there’s nothing funny about this, in a few weeks, I’m sure I’ll give her plenty of crap about how worried she is. “I promise, go on.”
She disappears the same way she came in, and I roll my shoulders, feeling how tight I am already. I pick up the form and start to check boxes because if I don’t have this done by the time Lyndsey gets back, she’ll chew my ass out.
I have a slight headache, but that’s expected after hitting your head? There’s no ringing in my ears, and I’m not experiencing any sensitivity to light.
Malik and Lyndsey take longer than I thought they would, but I lie back on the table while Owen and Coach C talk about today’s game. They’re discussing the last quarter after I came out, and how the team essentially fell apart. It makes my blood boil that we almost lost today after having such a big lead.
I should have seen the lineman coming, but I didn’t. I don’t really remember getting up and collapsing either.
Lyndsey takes the clipboard from where I had it sitting next to me, scanning over it. “Did you answer this honestly?”
“Yes,” I say shortly, sitting up feeling disgusting because I just want to shower.
“How does your head feel? Does anything else hurt?” she asks, looking me over quickly.
I try to keep my sarcasm to a minimum, but I’m pissed off. I don’t know how many times I have to say I’m okay before they believe me. “I feel like I got hit by a train, so of course I’m sore. Nothing is broken,” I insist, and Coach is quick to interject.
“Check his shoulder, please. It looked like Walker might have landed on it,” he adds, crossing his arms over his chest. I resist the urge to roll my eyes.
Lyndsey lifts my left arm up, moving it around at different angles to ask me what hurts and what doesn’t. I comply because I know it’s going to get me out of here sooner. She starts poking around at the muscles, and I grit my teeth as she hits a particularly sore spot. “Does that hurt?” she asks, and I shake my head. Lyndsey then pushes her fingers in harder on the back half ,causing me to try pulling out of her grip. “Liar, take your shirt off,” Lyndsey demands.
“No, just hurry up so I can leave.” Owen snorts, and I glare at him. I didn’t notice it until she started poking at it, but now it’s throbbing. She bristles up, grabbing a pair of scissors before I can react to cut through the fabric. “That’s my shirt!”
“You had the opportunity to take it off and chose to be a stubborn ass. My job is to help you, so let me help you.” And then she moves my arm again. “Can you really not feel this?” I try to turn and look to see what Lyndsey’s looking at, but based on the look on her face, I’m not sure I want to see.
Coach comes over to see what she’s looking at, and a spike of fear runs through me. The draft is only a few months away. I can’t get hurt now. Owen is looking over at me with concern as Malik tapes his ankle. I don’t know what to even think right now. We both know what a shoulder injury means for any kind of professional career. “Walker, take your damn shirt off, and let her look properly.”
I pull the rest off carefully to keep my shoulder from moving since they’ve effectively scared the shit out of me. “What is it?” I ask in a much calmer tone than the one I’ve been using. They seem a lot more concerned about my shoulder right now than my head. Should I be concerned?
Lyndsey starts to test different stretches, and I’d be lying if I didn’t say some of them felt like hell. The adrenaline must have been masking the pain, and now that things have settled, it’s starting to surface.
“I don’t know. Your mobility isn’t catching—which is good—that means there isn’t a tear. I think it’s just going to be a deep bruise, but we won’t know until it finishes bruising and the swelling goes down. Just to be on the safe side, I don’t want you doing anything with it for the next few days. You need rest: no lifting, no running, and certainly no practicing,” she says firmly, looking at Coach C, who nods his agreement.
“We have a bye week and then two more games before the bowl games start. Will Walker be okay to play by then?”
Malik hands Lyndsey a bag of ice, and she starts securing it tightly to the back of my shoulder using plastic wrap. “I need to clear him first. I’m concerned that he blacked out, but he isn’t showing any of the major signs of concussions, so I don’t think Sebastian has one. Just keep an eye on him. If he takes it easy like I’m telling him to, then he should be good to play. The key word is should,” Lyndsey says, shooting me a look that terrifies the crap out of me.
Got it, I need to follow her orders.
“You don’t need to tell me twice. Thank you.” I look over at Owen to see his ankle taped tightly and a set of crutches. “What about Owen? I thought it was just tight.”
He waves me off and stands up with the help of his crutches. “It’s a sprained ankle. The crutches are overkill. I’ll be fine in a few days so it looks like we get to be bench buddies.”
Coach shakes his head, cursing under his breath. “What the hell am I going to do with you two?”
“I didn’t exactly plan on getting hit today,” I say, grimacing as I adjust the ice on my shoulder. “How did that guy even get through? I never saw him coming.”
“Ryan injured his knee before halftime, so I pulled him for the second half, replacing him with Peters. Somehow, Peters got confused about the formation we were in and who he was supposed to be blocking,” Coach explains, clearly having replayed what happened multiple times.
After we’re excused from the training room, I toss my destroyed shirt away. Owen crutches alongside me as we head toward the locker room. “Are you actually okay?” he asks, and I look at him, annoyed.
“If another person asks me that question, I’m going to lose it. I’m fine. Are you?”
“I’ll survive. Bash, you really scared everyone today. Stop being such an ass to everyone trying to make sure you’re fine,” Owen warns as I hold the door open for him.
I inhale deeply, trying to calm my mind because he’s right. I am being an ass. “I’m sorry. I’m just stressed.” The locker room has cleared out.
He stops at his locker, a few down from mine. “I bet, but stressing about it isn’t going to do anything. You can’t change what happened today. You heard Lyndsey; after a few days of rest, you’ll be back to normal.”
“I heard her say, we won’t know more until the swelling goes down.”
“Whatever. I wonder if anyone caught Lia on film trying to run onto the field. If she weren’t so lazy, she might be faster than me,” he muses, and I look at him skeptically.
“How far did she make it?”
Owen pulls a clean shirt over his head. “Chris was paying attention and caught her after only a few feet past the sideline. I pulled Thalia off the field to pass her off to my parents so Chris could scramble together a few plays with Evan while they carried you off the field on a stretcher. I knew Lia had balls, but that was another level of stupidity. Just like you making out with her during halftime.”
“Dude, ignore Chris,” I say with a short laugh, flipping him off. “I didn’t purposely run into Thalia at halftime. It was a happy coincidence. Kind of like how Blake’s family only lives thirty minutes away from campus, and you didn’t stay at the apartment last night.”
“Not all of us live with our girlfriend and her brother.”
He has a point there.