I'm not broken (RoyalChaos)

Chapter 28 - The best boyfriend

Chilled's perspective

"You coming?", Ze called, he was already taking off.

I didn't bother yelling after him, he was so enthusiastic about getting as much sight-seeing done as possible until we had to leave to get to the airport in the early evening. I smirked to myself, put my phone back in my pocket and bent down to pick up my backpack, which I had set down to calmly take pictures. Since my backpack was sitting on the ground to my left I automatically wanted to grab it with my left hand, but as soon as I lifted it up a sharp bolt of pain shot through my shoulder and I let go with a loud hiss. In one short moment of peace I had completely forgotten about the pain that haunted me with every wrong move of my left shoulder I made. I grit my teeth as multiple people around me stared at me and some even began to whisper. It was probably something along the lines of 'look at that guy having problems at that young age, I'm telling you, people these days don't exercise and go outside enough'. I couldn't exactly be bothered by it though, I just wanted to pick my damn backpack up and catch up with Ze who I had lost sight of already. I sighed deeply, fetched my backpack with my right hand and swung it on my back. Backpacks were designed to split the weight equally so that both shoulders had the same amount of weight to carry, but since that wasn't possible for me I had tightened the strap on the right side more so I wouldn't have to suffer while carrying a simple backpack. Ze was waiting for me at the corner of one of Miami's busy streets and smiled at me.

"You alright?", he asked and grabbed my hand as we carried on.

For a moment I hesitated and thought about not telling him so he wouldn't have to worry, but that wasn't going to make the pain more bearable, and it also wouldn't help our relationship if I kept hiding things that concerned him away from him.

"Not really", I then answered, "My shoulder still hurts like hell, if not even worse than last night. Our short swim might have helped with everything but my shoulder".

Ze frowned and stopped walking. "Does it hurt like normal sore muscles or what is it like?", he then asked.

I stopped as well and sighed. It hurt a lot, that was for sure. I hadn't even been able to put on a shirt on my own this morning, and had to ask Ze to help me, which had embarrassed me so much, no matter how often he told me it was nothing to be embarrassed about. But how did it hurt exactly? I moved my shoulder around a bit, tried to raise my arm but immediately had to drop it again because the pain tore at my muscles. It didn't feel like the normal sore muscles you got after working out. Even just taking deep breaths increased the pain by a bit. As I told Ze about it he didn't seem happy at all, quite the opposite, he looked deeply worried.

"We should take you to the hospital and have it checked", he muttered and pulled out his phone to check the time, "Our plane leaves in about six hours, I think that's enough time".

"No, it's gonna be okay", I interrupted him, "If it doesn't get better by tomorrow or the day after I promise you I'll get it checked but for now I'm just gonna have to deal with it, I don't want us to miss school because I bumped my shoulder against a table".

"But the pain you described me doesn't sound like it's just a simple bump, Anthy", he protested, "At least let me take care of you when we get back to the hotel. Speaking of which, I think it's better if we go back now, this isn't easing your pain".

"But you're not gonna be able to see anything from Miami, Ze!", I exclaimed, "Yesterday we had to leave because of me, I don't want you wasting another day because I have a stupid injury".

"I haven't wasted a single day because of you, Anthony", Ze stuck to his words in all seriousness and began tugging me back into the direction we had came from, "I'd rather stay at the hotel with you, making sure you're okay than dragging you along on trips that drive all the energy out of you. We can still go back here another time, maybe even for longer than a simple weekend. This was a trip for us two, for us to be close, and we're doing exactly that right now".