me & tomfoolery

Rehab pt. 2 | Kyrie Irving Short Story

"So that's him huh?" Marlene asked peaking out of Lauren's office window.

"Yeah, that's him." Lauren looked over Kyrie's paperwork one more time before she needed to meet with him and his trainer in her lobby.

Marlene tilted her head to the side and then looked at Lauren. "He's cute."

Lauren knew that and that was something she tried not to think about.

"Yeah, he is."

"See if I were you, I wou—"

"Don't even go there Marlene, not today." The younger woman took a seat on the desk, knowing she shouldn't. Lauren gave her a look but Marlene still didn't move.

"See if I were you, I would be working out a lot more than his knee cap if you know what I mean."

And Lauren did know what she meant. Kyrie stood at 6'2 and for other players in the league that was short but for normal people and someone who stood at 5'5, that was definitely tall enough. They both took a moment to observe him. His hands in his shorts pockets as his shoulders were relaxed. Kyrie's smile the most notable thing in the room and you couldn't forget the singular dangly earring that would otherwise annoy Lauren but on him, it seemed to work very well.

"Seems like they're ready." Lauren's focus went from blankly staring to viewing him with intent. He looked at her through her office window and waved before looking at the artwork along her walls.

"Let's go."

Marlene was the first to leave the room with Lauren nervously trailing behind. The normally quick witted and confident was now flustered at the thought of being left alone with the ball player.

"Kyrie, Jerry. Good morning." Lauren spoke first.

"Lauren, nice to see you again. You have an amazing place here. I can't wait look around more." Jerry was ecstatic to work in her comfortable quarters.

"Well thank you, nice seeing you again as well. This is Marlene, my assistant."

Marlene shook both of their hands firmly before leading them on a full tour. As she explained everything in detail to Jerry, Kyrie and Lauren were a few steps behind walking in a comfortable silence. His thought process was, he had a brace on, it was hard to walk but he refused to use his crutches.

"You know you're stunting your progress right?" She asked not looking in his direction.

"Excuse me?" His tone was confused but not harsh. "I said you're stunting your progress to healing. There's no reason in the world you should be without crutches at this stage."

"You don't think I'm healing fast?" He questioned. Who was she to tell him anything about his process?

"No, I don't. But we're gonna see how far along you are." She grabbed his wrist stopping him. "Jerry, Marlene I'm going to put Kai here on the table and stretch him out. We'll be back."

Neither Jerry nor Marlene stopped their movements as they went to talk more. Lauren quickly scanned her badge into the nearest room. He chuckled at how quickly she moved to get him into the room, he always tripped over himself,

"How many of these rooms do you have?"

"Three." In the middle of the room was a massage table where she expected him to lay. "Get on the table and let me check out this knee of yours."

Kai cooperated and found a way to comfortably lay on the table. Lauren grabbed a prop pillow to place under his leg to ensure there wasn't any strain outside of when she flexed his knee herself.

"What you doing?" He asked as he felt her cool hands around his brace. "Taking this off so I could see your knee. Are you going to trust me to do that?"

Kyrie thought for a moment. His livelihood would be entrusted into a stranger and everyone around them expected this to work tenfold, but what if it didn't?

Against his skepticism, he nodded in agreement.

"I need words Irving, consent is key here."

He chuckled a bit not knowing if she was serious or joking but the few implications that crossed his mind were borderline immature and a curse of an overthinker.

"Yeah, you're good."

Once the brace was off he felt a sense of relief as if the black cage held all of his pain and all of his dreams. Lauren carefully examined his leg, making sure to slowly trace the incision before slightly pressing against the muscle.

Kai winced feeling vulnerable under her touch, she slightly sighed knowing this was going to be a long journey due to him already being hard headed.

"You need the crutches and I don't want to see you without them until I say so."

"That's some sort of order?" Kyrie rarely listened to other people at this stage of his career.

"Yes, it is. Is this gonna be a problem?" Her true personality finally showing. With a raised brow he studied her features. The wrinkling between his eyes, the consistent blinking to let him know his long response time was annoying her, the slight roll of her neck awaiting him to speak.

"Nah, you got it.."

"Mhm."

Kyrie would be home wondering why he told his parents they could go out to dinner without him. He was bored. Being single and childless in his 30s only affected him when he was alone. Being on the road with his teammates always brought fulfillment. This is what he dreaded the most about being injured, there was too much time alone in his thoughts.

After scanning through the options on Netflix, he ultimately landed on a Dave Chappelle special that would probably be the background noise of his dreams. Looking over at his phone, he wondered what everyone in the world was doing at the moment. It being after 11 PM where he was, he knew his teammates were probably sleep since they were on the east coast for a road trip.

Lauren.

What could she be doing right now? Would she answer the phone if he had called? They exchanged numbers before they in person meeting a few days ago, but he wasn't able to get her snarky attitude off his mind. He found her amusing.

Going against his better judgment, he called. As the phone rang he began to regret the action and after the third ring, he hung up. But not before realizing she had answered.

Lauren looked at the phone as the call abruptly ended. Did he mean to call? And if he did, why was he calling at that hour? She was unsure if she wanted to call back or just pretend it didn't happen.

Marlene would tell her to call him back and do it quickly and for some reason she didn't disagree. He was probably in pain and needed some tips on what to do.

"Hello? Is everything okay?" She asked frantically when he answered the phone.

"Uh, yeah— I'm cool. I'm sorry for calling late. I'm sorry for alarming you."

Lauren released the breath she slightly held. It was almost as cool as the wind coming into her window at the moment.

"It's— you're fine. Did you need something?" She asked still confused on this interaction.

"I just wanted someone to talk to, if that's okay. It's completely fine if it's not— matter fact, I'm sorry I disturbed you. Have a good night." Kyrie didn't allow her to respond before hanging up.

Those few moments loomed over her head as she laid in bed that night, ultimately not being able to sleep.