It's difficult to find the way everything fits into place once it's broken, even if a surgeon gives you a pretty significant first push. Alexia's recovery is progressing with hope. Her knee is responding well to rehabilitation, but she doesn't feel...
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Alexia's POV
Mapi had accompanied me. I would have never asked her, and she would have never refused. Silently, she simply came to fetch me and forced a smile as I took my first clumsy steps with borrowed crutches. And I was immensely grateful, especially when the elevator doors opened and behind my friend's body, I could see a giant camera pointed directly at me.
She was the first one to step out and the only one of the two to look at them. I passed by her, following the direction dictated by a hand on my back, and as I found myself being the first face of the entourage, I looked to both sides, still avoiding direct contact with the lens.
"Where do I go?" I asked, trying to sound natural, as if the presence of the media at that moment didn't disturb me the way it actually was.
Once again, a hand guided me along the path I should follow, and I continued, clumsily, slowly moving forward.
Everything was in deafening silence, allowing me to hear the tapping of the crutches against the tile and feel all the stimuli of abandoning concentration, perfectly clear to torment me in the days to come.
"I'm going to keep an eye on you so you don't escape. I know you already."
I smiled. It wasn't the biggest smile I had ever displayed in my life, I couldn't even say for certain that it qualified as a smile, but my lips curved and my eyes squinted for a moment. She always knew what to say.
And just as that fleeting moment ended, I felt the sound of the crutches again, this time against the pavement.
"I wouldn't go too fast, you know, as if to escape."
She didn't say anything else. She followed closely, looking at me carefully. I continued in the lead, gradually advancing each time the camera allowed me to pass. There was a van waiting for me. I couldn't even manage to get in by myself. Things didn't look good.
