Crushed and Created- Tangled series (Overprotective famous brothers)

Decisions

ALISHA

Everything today was going south. My levels were low the entire day, my back hurt more than ever since I had come home. And something inside me was troubled. I didn’t know what it was, whether not being able to save those twenty people, or not being to be able to go back to gym, or having PF. One of the three, or maybe all three were troubling me today.

I looked into the mirror of my bathroom, running a hand over my right hand now out of the cast. I moved up towards the faint cut mark on my neck and then all the way up to my head wrapped in bandages.

“Go away!” I threw the first thing that came to my hand, shattering the mirror into a million pieces. Getting out, I locked my room and looked around. It was killing me inside, all the frustration and nightmares were killing me. It was like they ruled me, ruled my life now.

Another mirror. Just looking at myself disgusted me. I was weak, helpless and nothing but burden. Picking up a random jewelry box, I hurled it towards this one, and the mirror cracked from the middle. My image disfigured, and yet it was just like I was. Broken down, cracked, not perfect. Just like the mirror, I was nothing but useless now. I always was maybe.

Breaking down in front of myself, I heard the door open and people get in.

“Get out.” I said as calmly as I could, without looking up.

“Lizzie, please don’t…” I heard Sohail’s voice nearing.

“Get out! Leave me alone!” I rushed into the closet, and was relieved to see that nobody followed me inside.

Standing in the closet, I gripped one of my recent competition leos. I had won gold against China in this one. My most recent medal, and now this. I could hardly run, forget gymnastics. Dumping it on the floor, I began getting all my leos out.

They were like sprinkling salt on wounds. I tried not to think about it, but I knew I was not fit for gymnastics now. Not fit for the nationals, the world and Olympic team. I wasn’t worthy of being called an elite gymnast now. I never was.

All those memories, dream hurt deep within.

I was trying hard not to pay heed to the pain that arose both mentally and physically. On me forcing and blackmailing, the guys decided to have a small premier tomorrow of the movie and release it tomorrow, so maybe that was good news. It was the dream project of all three of my brothers, and it was finally gonna hit the theatres.

“Lizzie, look whose here?” Malaika came in and I snapped.

“Who?” tons of visitors, even when I wanted no pity party. I needed to be left alone today. Left to mourn and whine over my dream and years’ worth of hard work going into vain.

“Your coach.” Dimitri’s Russian accent rang through my ears and I turned around to see him looking at the mess of leos I had made.

“Dimitri? You flew down here?” I knew it wasn’t the best idea, but I couldn’t help but hug him. After our old coach left, we were all hostile towards him. But he made us train, made us look at gymnastics from an all new level. He was the reason I loved the sport more than ever, he was the reason I was willing to give everything to gymnastics.

“Yes, I did. One of my elites has had her vacation for too long.” He hugged me back, and pulled away in an instant.

“It’s a vacation for me forever now.” I frowned at the meter lying on the dressing table, and he looked at me in the eye.

“What if I say no it’s not?” I didn’t reply, I couldn’t reply. How could he say that? I had broken bones and a defected lung. Nationals were weeks ahead, and I couldn’t perform a skill.

“I went to your doctor before coming here, getting the reports along. Seems your back can go through the training in time, and your disease is manageable. In brief, you can still continue what you love.”

“It’s impossible. I can hardly run.” Today’s therapy session had been drilling, and I had discovered I wasn’t the person I was before. It took effort to even jog.

“I have answers to all the problems. That why I’m here for, right?” he nodded outside, and I followed him to my room’s living area. A maid got some refreshments for him, and my brothers walked in and greeted Dimitri.

“Ok look, I am not a pro at speech giving. All I wanted to tell you was that if you want to, you can get back. It will take time and effort, but I see no reason why you can’t get your dreams. Gymnasts are cut out to go through highs and lows. It’s just a low for you.”

I looked at my brothers and saw them sitting on the couches and seats. Arbaaz was holding Arhaan, and Malaika was sitting on the edge of the same love seat. Salman was looking at me from across the room, wishing I’d say yes. He always been a believer in the Disney quote ‘dreams come true’ but said they also needed a lot of effort and perseverance on our side. Nothing in this world comes free of cost, especially not Olympics.

Sohail was torn between two. He knew how much I loved the sport, but also wished it were safer and I’d spend more time with them. He couldn’t tell me to give my goal away, nor could he tell me to go and work my butt off every day for hours.

“I don’t know Dimitri, I don’t know if I have it me anymore.”

“If you didn’t, I would have never wasted my time.” I almost smiled when he said that. The first day he got in and we were doing nothing, he said his time was too precious to waste it on a bunch of teens who are under the illusion that journey to Olympics was a piece of cake. That kinda blew us off then, but now the same statement made me feel a tad bit worthy.

“What about the USAG?” Ok, let’s face it. They weren’t the villains the shows portrayed them to be, but they also weren’t saints. And I always seemed to get in trouble with them.

“Trust me with this one, no one will oppose to you coming back. And if any moron does, they don’t know what the gymnastics world will be missing on.” He replied, munching on the sandwich in his hands.

“When do we leave?”

“As soon as you want to. Actually, I get to the airport in three hours, and you follow me ASAP.”

He got up abruptly and left without any other word, leaving us all speechless. He had always been a weirdo in a sense. But he was the only one who could build me a way back to the gym, to the world championships and to the Olympics.

“So, guess we will be together?” Salman smirked at me and I raised my brow at him. He explained how he had to shoot for his next flick in Hollywood, and he’d be with me, yada yada yada. I hoped he didn’t make it up to be with me, but then I doubted he could. Nobody can come up with a movie in a day, right? But then with him, you never knew.

I had lectured all my family to get back to work. They had already wasted over a month, and I couldn’t see them wasting more for nobody but me. They didn’t agree, but when I told them I needed things back to normal slowly, they agreed it was for the best. But until I got a hang of everything and was certified as ‘ok, tested’ by my brothers, someone from my family was supposed to be with me. As much as the idea was appealing, it was also scary.

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the pic is of Dimitri (Jude Law) *sigh*