𝑨𝑳𝑾𝑨𝒀𝑺 - 𝘢𝘳𝘵 𝘥𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭𝘥𝘴𝘰𝘯

BREATHE . 11

* ˚ ✦

CASSIE SAT ON ONE OF the benches in the empty locker room, one similar to the one she sat in before her match with tashi a few years ago, red lockers, hospital room smell, same everything.

the girl sat with her phone in her ear, twisting her small c necklace between her fingers, "so, dad likes her?" cassie asked her brother. daniel had been seeing a very lovely girl the past few months, her name was hallie and she was the sweetest girl.

she had long, brown and blonde highlighted hair and large brown eyes, she was also a very talented dancer. "yeah, i mean, it's hard to tell because he's a miserable bastard but, he didn't pull me aside or ask her what her what her 'intentions' are so, progress." he spoke from the other end of the phone, cassie chuckled lightly.

"speaking of hal, sorry i couldn't make it to the match, i didn't wanna miss her show, and i know family furst but-" cassie politely cut him off, "dan it's fine, i've actually never seen you in this cheery of a mood for a while." cassie smiled, running a hand over the top of her ponytail.

"i mean atleast you'll have patrick there?" daniel reassured, cassie sighed at this, rubbing her forehead as she replied, "yeah, no, i think that's done now" cassie answered bitterly.

"oh shit." daniel replied in a monotone like voice, "wow, i can hear the sympathy from here." cassie quipped, "no, no- i hope you're okay, do you have any friends coming to watch?" the boy asked, cassie thought for a millisecond before daniel answered the question for her, "oh the blonde kid! the one that practically dates patrick, what his name again?" he asked, cassie snorted out a laugh at his words, "art?" daniel exclaimed, "yeah! yeah, that's the one, he's cool." daniel spoke. the two had met a handful of times when daniel had came up to visit cassie.

cassie sighed, "well. i better go for my match." she rubbed her eyes, "good luck fuckface," daniel wished, "thanks you little shit" cassie laughed, hanging up the phone and placing it in her locker, she let out a large huff of air, about two hours ago patrick had stormed out of her room, cassie was quick to brush off the thought, leaning her forehead against the locker to calm herself down.

⋆·˚ ༘ *

art made his way to the bleachers in the court, scooting past a few people to get to a seat. as art sat down, one of the announcers  had started the announcement for the match but there was no sign of patrick, "and now, your 2002, 2005 and 2006 NCAA champion, give it up for stanford women's tennis." art furrowed his brows and took his phone out his back pocket to text him. "the match is about to start, where are you?"

the group of girls playing for stanford walked out, moderate applause as they walked out and the scattered, "come on stanford!", cassie walked behind the girls, her face robot like as the crowd cheered at her, she looked up to the stands and scanned for a familiar face, she managed to clock art on his phone, but to no surprise of her own no patrick.

arts phone pinged in his pocket, it was a text from patrick which read: "had a big fight, not coming." art narrowed his eyes at this, he sat still for a moment before shoving his phone back in his pocket and leaning back in the seat, draping his arm over the empty chair that sat beside him.

"and now, maria foster from pepperdine," the commentator spoke, "and from stanford, cassie whittman." as cassies name was spoke everyone clapped, cheering the girl on.

cassie and maria played wonderfully together, cassie hitting the ball with the same precision and force she always does, which was reciprocated by maria.

cassie was taking any stress out she had on todays game and it was evident, well to art at least. the boy sat with his eyes slightly slated from the sun, watching as cassies face was that of an intimating one as she played against the girl from pepperdine.

cassie was doing well, maria hit the ball and cassie sprinted toward it, as she did so the crowd went silent.

as cassie went to lunge toward the ball her knee cap had popped out of place, for it just being a dislocated bone ut was gruesome. cassie fell to the ground, cradling her knee as she screamed a loud "fuck!" as she fell.

everyone in the crowd stood up, a few covering their mouths with their hands in shock as cassie laid on the ground quietly crying and holding onto her knee for dear life.

at this, art went into fight or flight mode. he quickly scrambled his way out of his seat and practically jumped down the stairs to the bleachers, running down onto the court for cassie.

one of the people along the side lines of the court came beside cassie, "cassie. you're okay. you're okay." encouraging her to lay on her back, cassie just cried in response, the immense pain from her leg obviously wasn't going to help her listen to the woman trying to help her.

art quickly ran down to her, he jumped over the net and quickly ran to the girl, sitting down just in front of her head and placed his hands behind it, keeping it up, he grimaced as he saw the state her knee was in, obviously, not saying anything he lightly rubbed her head.

"look at me, cassie. look at me, okay?" art spoke softly as first aiders surrounded cassies side. "just breathe, just breathe, breathe." art encouraged the girl, anything to get her to not look at or not think about her knee. she gripped his forearm tightly as the crowd behind her watched the event unfold.

⋆·˚ ༘ *

cassie sat in a hospital like room in the college on a long leather chair, "it's torn up pretty bad, but we wonr know for sure until we get the x-rays." cassie heard one of the doctors speak, she sat with teary eyes, threatening to pour out, her arms clasped above her head.

art sat at her side, face distraught as he was staring at her heavily bandaged up knee which sat propped up on a small white towel.

cassie let out laboured puffs of air, trying to distract herself from the fact that her bones were practically in the shape of an 'L' right now. her ears peaked up as she heard frantic running down the hall way, accompanied by squeaking from shoes.

fuck my life. she thought

patrick almost ran past the room, stopping himself as he came to walk in, as soon as cassie saw him she had anger written all over her face, art stood up from his seat as he saw him enter  "i'm sorry-" patrick started, cassie immediately sat up. "out." she growled at him, "listen cassie!" patrick tried, "get out!" cassie yelled, "cassie!" the two bickered for not even a second before art yelled at patrick, "patrick, get the fuck out!"

patrick's face read confusion as he looked between the two and scoffed, before waking out, shaking his head as he kept the room. art sighed, rubbing his face as he sat down beside cassie again.