The Pointe Of The Game

Chapter 6

Olivia Beckham

He drove me all the way home holding the ice on my wrist. I was so embarrassed that Charlie had to witness my fall. And then the fact that he had to take care of me afterward. Well, he didn't have to, but if I didn't let him he probably would've beat up the entire male population of the school. He looked like he wanted to murder.
When we get to the house Sofia and her nanny are already there. Crap. Ms. Ava, she insists we call her, is very strict about us being on time to pick Sofia up. She will give us 15 minutes after she rings the doorbell for us to get here. If we don't she'll leave Sof on the doorstep. Trust me she's done it before.
Charlie pulls into his driveway and I get out and walk across our yards to where Ms. Ava is standing with little Sof. Charlie is following behind me. I get over to where Ms. Ava is standing huffily "Thank you, and sorry we were a little bit late Ms. Ava" I say as I reach out to take her, she shifts Sofia so she's out of my reach. "If you weren't hanging out with your boyfriend, you'd have been on time wouldn't you?" She spits out bitterly.
I wince, taken aback from her harsh words.
She untangles Sofia from her arms and shoves her in my direction then walks away. I immediately grabbed her so she wouldn't fall and felt a sharp zing of pain in my wrist and was about to drop her when suddenly someone's hands came around me and grabbed the her. Breathing heavily from panic, I tried to grab her from where Charlie was holding her when he says, "No you hurt your wrist. Remember?" He maneuvers around me to get a better grip on the baby and starts walking towards my house.

I actually forgot that I had hurt my wrist because I was just trying to make sure that Sofia didn't fall. But now that the adrenaline is wearing off I'm starting to feel the pain. I start walking up to the house holding my wrist gingerly . I must've pulled a muscle, because I've felt this kind of pain before. It's not a really bad pain, just like someone's constantly twisting your wrist in a way it's not supposed to go.

I enter the house and call for Charlie. I know he knows his way around the house at least a little bit because I've had him over a couple times over break. "In the kitchen!" he answers.
Walking in the kitchen, I casually hold my hands behind my back. Charlie's busy making a bottle of milk for Sofia. He's holding her in the crook of his elbow and she's contently staring at his face, trying to grab his sweatshirt strings. He hands her the bottle and she starts to drink it.
He looks up at me and scans my body, looking for my wrist. When he sees it's behind my back, he sighs "Let me see". I shuffle over to him, looking at the ground feeling like a disappointing child. He turns around to put Sofia in the high chair behind us. Once she's secure, he turns back around. He looks into my eyes then down to my wrist. He moves my hand and gently pulls my sleeve up to look at my wrist. It's all red and angry looking and almost twice the size of what my wrist normally is. It'll be fine by tomorrow. I grimace as he turns it over in his hand to look at all sides. "Do you have a brace?" He asks me. I shake my head. Surprisingly the amount of times I hurt my wrist and I never actually need a brace. Granted I've never actually hurt my wrist, just pulling a muscle is probably the most I've ever done. I think  my wrist will be fine though. "One second," he says as he pulls out his phone, unlocks it, and starts doing something I can't see. "I'm going to call someone real quick. He's basically a doctor. His name is Lincoln but we call him Link." He clicks the call button on his phone and it rings for a second before someone picks up.
"Hey what's up Charlie?" Someone says from the other side of the phone "Hey, I've got a friend who hurt her wrist and I wanted you to take a look at it." Charlie says. He flips the camera so that it's pointed on my wrist. Link starts to ask questions and Charlie answers them. After 10 minutes of talking and turning my wrist and squeezing and comparing, the men have finally figured out a diagnosis. "You have a sprained wrist, I would suggest that you ice it and get a brace. I can come by later to do a quick x-ray if you don't want to go to the doctor. But I suggest you get some sort of x-ray. Because I could be wrong."

"Thanks man, but her parents are doctors, they should be able to do an x-ray." Charlie says

They talk for a few more minutes before they say goodbye and end the call. I take that as my cue that I can finally start on my homework . I go over to where my backpack is and start to pull out my books, glancing up at Charlie, who is slowly walking into the room doing something on his phone. After my books are on the counter I walk back over to Sofia who is obediently drinking her bottle. I glance up at the clock and realize that all the other kids except Leo will be here any minute. He plays soccer and has practice every day after school, even on the off seasons. Scooping up all my books, I bring them to the table so I can sit next to Sofia. I set them down and Charlie walks over to me.

"what are you doing?" he asks

"Homework" I answer

"uhhh no. you need to ice your wrist" he replies walking back to the fridge to get ice out of the freezer. coming back with an ice pack he tries to hand it to me.

"I'm Fine I don't need it"  I reply, already focused on my math problem.

"No. You're not." he says

sighing, I look up at him "yes I am"

"Do we need to call Link back already?"

"He told us what's wrong, end of story." And I'm pretty sure he's wrong about his diagnosis.

"He also told you to ice your wrist." he shoots back

"It's fine"

"No. It's not"

Sighing in defeat, he sets the ice pack on the table and plops down on the chair across from me. "I've gotten lots of injuries from basketball over the years as I'm sure you've gotten from dance as well. That being said, I'm pretty sure I can tell when your wrist is obviously not "fine"". He uses air quotes on the last word.

"And as a dancer, I know when I'm actually injured and when I'm not. And seeing as this is MY body I'm pretty sure I know it's limits and when I need to ice MY wrist" I say hotly. Sofia takes that moment to throw her empty bottle on the floor and start whining. I get up and get the bottle off the floor and Charlie quickly gets Sof out of the highchair before I can even try to pick her up. I shoot Charlie daggers through the side of his face because of it.

Suddenly there's a commotion at the front door and the rest of my siblings come in. I have like a bajillion siblings. Not really. I only have 7. But still a lot. And they sure make it seem like I have a bajillion of them. The youngest is Sofia obviously, then it's Emma, whose 4 and goes to a preschool at the elementary, next is Aurora whose 6 and in first grade, after her it's Isabella whose 8 and in third grade, then it's Benjamin or Ben and he's 10 and in fifth grade,  Adrian is next and he's 12 in seventh grade and goes to the middle school that's right next to the elementary, lastly we have Leo whose 14 and is in ninth grade. Leo isn't home yet though. His practice doesn't end until 5, and then one of his teammates who can drive brings him home.
Luckily Charlie being here gives all my siblings an opportunity to show off something or tell him about their latest achievement. Which takes the spotlight off me.
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Later that evening
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Charlie stayed at my house all day until most of the kids were in bed and my mom was supposed to come home at eight. Even though his parents kept nagging him to come back home, he still stayed and helped. Finally we're at the door and he's leaving. I think his parents would break down the door if he stayed any longer though. He also thinks I'm going to have my mom x-ray my wrist. But there's no need, it's fine and she doesn't need to make a hassle to bring home a portable x-ray machine if I don't actually need it.
"Text or call me if you need anything." He tells me.
"Sure" I answer.
Right, ok not a chance I'm doing it. But he doesn't need to know that. Finally he leaves with one last goodbye.

I lean against the door with a sigh and go into the kitchen to start cleaning it up before my mom gets home.