Beyond The Lights

Chapter 5: Recovering for the Future

Everything is black. Where am I, I can't move and all I can hear is the sounds of machines going off. I try and wiggle my fingers but it doesn't work. I try and move my toes but it's no use. I can't move them. I give my eyes one last go and even though they feel like the most heaviest things in the world my eyes start to open and I look around the room and see all of my friends and family fast asleep. Sierra is asleep half laying on Carson, Elliott is asleep with his head on Carter's lap, then I realised that Holden and Shaine were both holding my hands and half laying on the bed with the help of a chair each. I'm starting to get the feeling back in my chest and arms, it's starting to get really painful but I don't want to wake anybody up. I hear shuffling and I look over and I see Carson is awake. He's slowly moving Sierra off of him and onto the ground with the blanket, once he stands up he looks at me and I give him a big smile.

Carson's completely in shock. I whisper "Hey can you get the nurse, I'm in a lot of pain right now" he nods and excitedly leaves the room to look for a nurse. He comes back with a nurse who brings a syringe with some clear liquid in it. She moves around Shaine and moves his hand out of the way a little and twists the syringe into one of the ports in my IV line and pushes the liquid into my hand. After a few seconds the pain started to subside and I was starting to be able to breathe properly.

After 5 minutes of me and Carson whisper talking people started to wake up, first being Sierra then Elliott, Maddox, Carter, Shaine and then finally Holden. He burst into tears when he realised I was awake and somewhat fine. After a while I got the feeling back in my body and I could move a little bit more but with a great deal of pain. We spent most of the morning having doctors and nurses come in and out of the room to check my vitals, scarring and my head. I ended up with a severe concussion, fluid on my lungs which made me not be able to breathe so I blacked out and went unconscious. Also all of my ribs were broken so I had to have surgery to drain the fluid and put wires in to make my ribs heal back into the right place. After the topic of Ollie came up, everyone went silent and Elliott, Sierra, Carson and Maddox all left leaving me with Holden, Shaine and Carter. We all stayed there silent waiting for someone to start talking and it was killing me inside.

"Look, I didn't tell you because I didn't think I needed to and I wanted to protect you all from him because I knew if I got you guys involved he would start hurting you guys and realistically it's better to have only one person in the hospital rather than the 7 or 8 of us all in here linked up to machines and having chest surgery" I sigh. "I knew if I didn't tell you it would be the best way of protecting you all", Holden rubs his face in his hands frustratedly. "That's the thing Rylee, we're a family on that team and when something goes wrong you tell us even if it does put everyone else at risk. The whole team would rather be on 24 hour watch to protect you and the rest of team than not know and you taking all of this physical abuse from him" Holden says fighting back tears. "I'm sorry, I just wanted to protect you all and prove to you guys that I can handle being on an all-male football team, like I can roll with the punches, you know" I say, letting the tears flow right out.

"I know, I know but that doesn't mean you have to take physical abuse for a year from a guy twice your size and a couple of years older than you" he says letting the tears roll down his face. "Just promise me that if anything like that ever happens again, you come and tell us whether you come and tell one of us three or Sierra, just don't keep it to yourself, a problem shared is a problem halved" he finishes as the four of us hug. My brother doesn't seem it because of his look but he's quite philosophical and quiet, you can always find him reading self-help books or ask him for advice which he's very good at. After we finished hugging everyone came back in and the whole team surprised me by coming into see me and they brought me flowers, balloons, chocolates, a huge teddy and a card all signed by them, which is why I started crying again out of happiness and love. "I just wanted to say thank you all for the presents and everything you guys have done for me, you guys have welcomed me on to your team with open arms and I know you guys have taken a lot of harsh words from other schools about having a female playing on your team let alone your starting quarter back. And for the ones that didn't think I should be on the team and that I'm only on the team because my brothers a coach, I hope I proved you wrong and proved that I do deserve to be on the team because I'm actually good at playing football and I just want you all to know that I wouldn't change anything about this year and you might be shocked by that because of what has happened over the past months and I say that because I know I am going to come back that much harder, stronger, braver and more focused than I was before" I finish. Everyone starts clapping "Ok Family on three, ok" Coach Nathaniel says "1...2...3...FAMILY" we all yell.