Spin

Thirty-Seven

[RORY]

Though I considered myself to be an empathetic person, there were a handful of factors fueling my impatience with Finn. I watched knowingly as he sat across the room, silently scrolling on his phone with the same consciously disengaged expression. I'd seen a lot of it in the 24 hours since I landed in London.

"Finn, did you hear me?" Anna asked curiously, oblivious to the undercurrent flowing in her kitchen. I nearly rolled my eyes as he absentmindedly nodded, not so much as even glancing up. "Be selfish for once, please. Your knee is wrecked. You've had three doctors tell you the same thing and if you don't get surgery now, it's just going to get worse."

Lily's Race for the Cure had driven more donations than all years past, and Finn had checked off a bucket list item, but the weekend had been far from a good one. The aftermath of Christmas still hung heavy in the air and not only had Arthur and Finn not spoken more than two words to each other (hello, goodbye), but Finn had stumbled over the finish line with a torn meniscus.

"You need to have an honest conversation with Dylan about pushing tour back," Anna continued with impressive persistence, mistakenly perceiving her brother's silence as reception. "I know it's a complicated domino effect and I know you don't want to let anyone down, but nobody is paying to see you hobbling around putting on half a show."

The only sound that could be heard was the steady ticking of the ceiling fan above us.

"Earth to Finn," Anna walked across the room to snap her fingers in his face, earning an aggravated sigh with a matching glare. "You're tuning me out, I can tell."

"What gave you that impression?" he grumbled sarcastically, attention returning to the device in his hand. "Don't appreciate being talked at."

"Go on, then."

He glanced up, eyes unintentionally meeting mine. Clearly, he also didn't appreciate my expression, looking at his sister with a steady gaze.

"Don't have anything to say, either."

I stood up from my chair, needing to busy myself before I reached across the table to slap some sense into him. I paced over to the freezer, successfully retrieving a frozen bag of peas as they continued to bicker.

"Can you at least promise me you'll talk to Dylan?"

"Sure. I talk to her a million times a day."

"Are you going to talk to her about your knee and rescheduling the tour?"

"No, I'm not."

I walked over, begrudgingly tending to my stubborn patient. Kneeling down, I tapped the side of his calf in encouragement. He silently obliged, elevating his leg and resting his foot in the chair I'd been sitting in so I could place the frozen bag on his knee.

I barely warmed to his hand on my lower back, rubbing back and forth in silent gratitude.

"Anna, you'll find that you're wasting your breath," I hummed, crossing my arms as she took a seat at the table. In any other circumstance, I would have giggled at how similar their frowns were. "I've spent the past week rehashing this same conversation. Learn from my mistakes."

The pair of them couldn't be bothered with my half-assed attempt at mediation.

"Right, so you're going to run about like everything is normal and wind up with a torn ACL and then you'll have to cancel the tour entirely. What then?"

"We can play the 'what if?' game all day," Finn muttered, giving up and setting his phone face down on the table. His eyebrows were quirked, confirming anger was bubbling just below the surface. He threw her earlier sentiments back into her face. "Met with three doctors who all told me the same thing. It's a minor meniscus tear. I'm fine."