Blood, Sweat, and Tears (Camren)

Chapter 33

Camila's POV

Pain. All she could feel was pain. And a burning heat. It radiated through her entire body well past her ankle. Her eyes were squeezed so tightly shut, her head began to ache. Her jaw was clenched and she breathed through permanently flared nostrils. Someone was telling her to relax and straighten her leg but her hands were clutching her ankle and had no intentions of letting go.

"Camila, we need you to let go of your leg so we can take a look at it okay?" a voice said and she furiously shook her head. As if she could hold off the injury by physically holding her ankle. Now that she thought about it, she had no idea why people felt so compelled to hold onto an injured part of them. Majority of the time, the person's own touch wouldn't do anything to sooth it but it was their mind that convinced them that it could. And now it would take more than some distant voice to make her let go.

"Mini me, you have to let them help you. We don't wanna have to force you to let go because it might hurt you." The voice sounded like Diane but she could barely hear anything past the beating of her own heart pounding in her ears.

"It hurts," she whined. Unfortunately, the gurney she had been laying on hit a bump on its journey to wherever they were going and a sharp pain shot up her leg when her foot hit the padded surface. She screamed out and brought her hands up to cover her face. She blamed herself for her naivety which made her let go of her foot and surrendered it to the people who were in charge.

She felt a light touch on her lower calf and then another pain went through her foot. Her adrenaline was wearing off fast and the pain was hitting her like a truck. A truck that continuously ran over her foot and never ran out of gas. After maybe another minute or fifteen of feeling her foot being in excruciating pain and feeling hot and then cold and then hot again, she felt herself slipping into unconsciousness.

Lauren's POV

Lauren's fingers tangled in her hair and she tugged it slightly. Despite all the commotion going on around her, she couldn't focus on anything but the way Camila's face looked as she held onto her ankle. Her furrowed eyebrows, the sweat matting her hair to her forehead, the way her jaw was clenched with enough force to smash diamonds, her chest heaving in exertion or pain or both. Lauren could feel it too, and even the secondhand was too much to bear.

"Lauren! Lauren!"

"What!?" she shouted, turning toward whoever was shaking her. It was Megan and she looked very concerned. Her eyes turned apologetic and her sister nodded slightly, accepting the silent 'sorry'. After Camila had forced her to talk to her sister to get all of their issues out, they were doing much better. Maybe not at the high level of sisterhood before, but at least she was willing to work on it. And they sat together for the first time in a long time.

"Take care of what has to be done here and then you can go to her," Megan said quietly.

"I-I don't know wh—I can't even think straight," she mumbled hopelessly.

"I'll take care of everything just tell me what you want me to do."

"I don't know Meg." She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Camila was being taken to health services and that's exactly where she was headed. After figuring out what to do with a gymnasium full of people and two teams expecting answers. She looked up at the rest of the Red Hots who were all staring longingly at the door. She wondered why they hadn't followed the gurney like Diane had but she realized they were all waiting for her to give the 'OK'.