The Game Changer

Part 3

Mac comes back to room me less than ten minutes later. This time I use both his and Taylin's assistance to walk. By the time I'm seated in another cream colored room, I'm sweating more than I was during the game.

Mac disappears and a few minutes later returns with a nurse and an ice pack. He places the ice pack on my ankle and the nurse does her thing.

"You're temperature is high," the petite dark haired nurse says.

"I just got done playing in the game. We came straight here," I tell her.

"You played?" Mac nearly shouts.

"Well, yeah," I say shyly looking at my hands.

"Eleanor."

"I told her not to," Taylin explains.

"I'll go get Doctor Muller and she'll be right in," the nurse says as she exits. She doesn't ask questions about why Mac is staying here. Maybe she thinks we know him personally.

"Do you get an adrenaline rush with pain?" Mac asks me.

"What? No, I just love the game. I couldn't stop playing just because of a stupid sprained ankle."

"A third degree sprain. The most severe," Mac scuffs in frustration. He's shaking his head slowly, almost trying to pretend it didn't happen.

"Why do you care so much?" I ask him a question for the first time.

Lucky him. He doesn't have to answer my question because Doctor Muller knocks on the door and enters with a frown on her face.

"Eleanor I'm sad to see you here again," she says as she sets her computer on the counter and rolls her chair over to my foot.

"Yeah," is all I can say. I'm still frustrated with Mac and the response he didn't give me.

"You were playing and it just began to hurt more?"

"No, I scored and went to do a celebratory body bump with my teammate- you know how they do in the NFL?" she nods, mouth gapping open in surprise. "Well, I jumped and then landed on my ankle. It rolled this time."

"You scored?" Mac says, clearly shocked.

"It wasn't that big of a deal. I've already scored a few times this season," I down play it.

"None with a sprained ankle," Doctor Muller adds. "It looks much worse than it did yesterday. We need to get another x-ray and most likely put a boot or cast on it."

I nodded and pulled my stiff body off the bed. Mac escorted me, though this time I know the way.

We entered the x-ray room and did the same exact thing we did the day prior.

"Oh, Eleanor. I don't even know you and you're the most stubborn person I've ever met," Mac says as he assists my hobbling self back to the room.

"What's wrong with determination?"

"Determination and stubbornness are not the same things," he chuckles.

"They are in my book."

"Of course they are," he says, shaking his head.

"Do you have a problem with me or something? Because you really don't have to stay here," I snap. Between the pain and my lack of sleep, I can't help it.

Then he says something that surprised me, "No, quite the opposite, actually. I like you. I've known you for less twenty-four hours and I like you and your stubbornness already."

I stop and grip the wall, now laughing.

"Are you okay?" he asks, concerned about my laughing fit.