He's my teammate

21 - Reunions & Decisions

August 2024

It didn't take long for Arabella to figure out what her next steps were. After saying goodbye to Lando at the hospital and accompanying her brother home to Hoorn, she made the decision to head back to the townhouse she had lived in, the last place that she remembered calling home. It took some time to get her car out of storage and make sure that the insurance, registration, and everything else was in order.

Her brother helped, although reluctantly. Mostly by watching and pointing, sometimes he'd give an explanation as to what she had found among the boxes in the storage locker, other times he just shrugged claiming he had no idea. It was a weird feeling, going through things that she recognized as her own, next to things she had no idea where they had come from.

After packing up a few things into the back of her SUV, and a final call to Dr. Andrews for her brother's sake, she was on the road. All alone. And for the first time since Arabella woke up from her coma, she felt completely and truly alone. However, she wasn't in a way that made her feel lonely or sad, it actually made her feel quite free. She finally felt in control. Control of the car, the destination. She could stop at as many small towns as she wanted or play whatever music she wanted. She controlled everything, and for the first time in what felt like a long time, she felt like she had control over her life as well.

It felt amazing.

As she pulled up to the townhouse, she hadn't known what to expect. Even though everyone had kept most of their things there, they didn't stay there 365 days out of the year. All of them had other arrangements that were closer to family, friends, or just their favorite mountain or training course. This was just the home that Red Bull had allowed them to rent out to make it easier for them to train with Red Bull coaches, and trainers and get access to whatever else they might need as pro athletes.

She parked her SUV on the street since both pads in front of the two-car garage were taken. Just sitting there, she could practically smell the inside of the garage. There was no room for cars since it was filled with snowboards, equipment for tuning, spare parts pretty much everything any of them had as far as equipment was concerned. There was even a set of wooden jumps that Seb had made to put in the backyard.

Then there were the sounds. As her eyes shifted towards the large bay windows along the front of the house that looked into the living room, she could practically hear all the noises that had gone along with living with five roommates. Four of which were boys. There was the stomping and yelling of grown men, but also the bickering of children as they played each other in video games or were fighting over the last of the bacon at breakfast.

As she watched the windows, she caught someone walking past, probably around from the stairs. He was tall, broad-shouldered, but that could be any one of them. They walked around to where she remembered the couch being, reaching over he disappeared from her view only to reappear a few moments later. Stepping out of the car, she walked around to the back and opened the hatch reaching for the first bag she found, and throwing it over her shoulder.

"Bells?" Someone called and she turned from the back of the car to see Seb standing in the doorway.

"No fucking way." Another voice came and another head poked out of the doorway pushing Seb out onto the front step. "Benny!" Vlad yelled back into the house. "Get out here."

It wasn't until the heavy steps and the swearing in German came from inside the house that made her feel like she had come home. When Benny appeared in the doorway his face was angry, as it usually is, but then a wave of confusion and shock, and then he was barreling out of the door, knocking over Seb and Vlad in the process.