Playing for Keeps

Fixing What's Broken

I woke up with a massive headache. My eyes opened slowly, trying to take in my environment. I wasn’t on the field anymore, I was in an overly white room that smelled like hand sanitizer. I went to turn my head but it just made my head throb.

“Whoa, take it easy” I heard a familiar voice say. Brit leaned forward so I could see her.

“Brit? Where am I? What happened?” I asked.

“Well, there is some good news and some bad news. You know why can’t there just be good news? It always seems like there has to be bad news paired with it. And-“

“Brit.” I interrupted her rant.

“Oh yeah. So good news or bad news?”

I groaned, “Bad.”

She chewed on her bottom lip. “Well, you can’t play anymore this season.”

“What?! Why?” I asked franticly. I could already feel the warm tears stating to sting my eyes and my stomach turn into knots.

“Do you want me to list all of the reasons?” she asked.

I gave her a look of disbelief, which she took as a sign to start listing off the reasons. “You broke our ankle, broke your wrist and some bones in your hand, you also dislocated you shoulder and have a concussion. Aaand you have a pretty bad busted lip.”

“H-how?”

“When one of the Trenton girls ‘tripped you’ she didn’t just trip you. She kicked you square in the ankle with a lot of force. She happened to kick right below your shin guard. You broke your wrist and some of the bones in your hand when you tried to break your fall. When you rolled on the ground you dislocated your shoulder. And when your hands didn’t catch your fall your head did, giving you a concussion and knocking you out cold. And when the busted lip happened somewhere in the middle of all of that.” She explained.

“How long was I out?”

“About 30 minutes.”
 
I felt like my chest was caving in. I fought so hard for my team, but in the end I guess it wasn’t good enough. Now that I’m out, we would have to play one girl short, if they would even allow that. We’re- we’re going to lose the team.

“What the good news?” I whispered.

She gave me a huge smile, “We’re going to State!”

“What?! We still have 3 more games!” I said in disbelief.

“Not anymore. All the teams we played, and all the refs we had we’re receiving bribes to be rough on us. They got caught, and wont be allowed to play at state. They also have to make a formal apologize to our team. All the refs got fired, and a few are risking jail time for like child endangerment or something.” She told me.

“That’s great!”

“No kidding!”

There was a silence, and I could tell she was keeping something from me.

“What are you not telling me?”

I could tell by her smile that she was holding back something good.

“Hold on a sec.” she said, getting up from her chair.

“Brit-?” but she was already gone.

I looked over to access the damage myself. I had a pale blue cast around my wrist and hand and a matching blue one around my ankle.  A few of my fingers had meatal things taped to them so I couldn’t bend them. Black and blue bruises danced up and down my arms and legs. I ran my tongue over my lip. There was a slight indent and couple of small bumps where a few stiches were. I must have bit a chunk of lip off when I fell down. My arm was in a sling, so that must be the one with the dislocated shoulder.

I was interrupted when a familiar face appeared through the slightly ajar door. His hair was a mess, and he had a worried look on his face.

“Bryce…”

He walked in and sat in a chair next to me.

“What are you doing here? Did Brit call you?” I asked.

“No, I drove you here.” He informed me.

“How? That would’ve meant-“

“Yeah, I came to the game. I was a jerk yesterday, and I was going to apologize when the game was over. I showed up about 10 minutes after half time. When I saw you go down on the field I ran out there. Brit and I tried to wake you up, but when we couldn’t I carried you too my tuck and took you to the emergency room. Brit and the rest of the team got rides here and showed up soon after you got admitted.” He told me.

“Why?” I asked.

“Why what?”

“Why do you keep trying to come back? I thought you would want to be single when you go to college. But nooooo, you just keep trying to make it hard for me to keep resisting you!” I mumble.

He chuckled, “Summer, I keep coming back because I love you. You and only you. My life has been absolute hell without you!” He reached for my hand and intertwined our fingers.

“I don’t want to be single, and I don’t want any other girl. You are one of kind. And I love that about you. I love your smile. I love hearing your laugh. I love how you can kick my ass when we play one on one on the field. I love how you fight for what you love. I love everything about you Summer.” He finished.

My lip quivered as tears started stream down my face. I pulled my hand out of his and reached for his collar and pulled him to me. He carefully wrapped his arms around me and held me close to him. I missed this. I missed us.

“I love you too Bryce.” I whispered into the crook of his neck as more tears streamed down my cheek. He pulled away and wiped them away with his thumb.

Our faces were merely inches from each other. We slowly leaned in. Our lips connected and moved in sync. My one hand that wasn’t in a cast was tangled in his hair, as his hands cupped my face. I pulled away, breathing heavily. God, I forgot how his kisses make me dizzy and breathless.

My knight in shining armor came to my recue. He saved me. He rescued me, not only at this moment, but every day since we met. He brought me out of my funk after my dad died. He lit the fire in me, the fire to fight for what I want and for what I really love. But what I didn’t realize until now was that I was fighting for more than my team. I didn’t play hard just for my team. I was playing for keeps. I played to keep my team and keep that fire that Bryce gave me.

“Don’t leave me.” I whispered.

“Never again.” He whispered back, pressing a soft kiss to my forehead.

Bryce pulled away from me. “I think maybe we should let your team in. They’re literally waiting outside the door.”

“Really?”

“Yep. Watch.” He walked over to the door and pulled it open. The girls were leaning against it and toppled over when Bryce opened the door.

“Eavesdrop much?” I asked them.

“Psssshhhh, us? Eavesdrop? No way.” Sandy said sarcastically.

I let out a laugh. I loved my team. They were so ridiculously amazing.

“We got you stuff!” Clair said, clapping her hands together.

They went back into the hallway and carried in assortments of balloons, flowers and ‘get well soon’ teddy bears. When they were all finally in the room I saw they hadn’t even changed. They were still wearing their muddy uniforms and blue socks. The only thing they changed out of was their cleats. They were wearing sports sandals.

They took turns bringing over what they had gotten me.

“Aww, you guys are awesome.”

“We know.” Said Brit, as she placed a teddy bear on my bed.

“Oh, and that’s not it!” Liz informed me.

I raised an eyebrow as they all pulled out different color sharpies.

Lynn had red one. Sandy had a purple one. Liz had pink. Sami had a sliver one. Kimmie had and orange one. Clair had gold. Ashley had maroon. Brit had a lavender one. Jasmine had dark blue. Jenna had a regular black one. I caught sight of a green one in Bryce’s hand.

“We call dibs on the ankle cast!” Jasmine informed Bryce.

He held his hands up in surrender. Two by two the team signed my ankle cast and drew pictures on it. Bryce twirled his sharpie in his hand and walked over to the other side of my bed.  He held my broken hand tenderly, signing just under my ring finger. I couldn’t help but smile.  

Slowly my happiness started to waver. “Brit?”

“Yeah?” she asked, waking over to my bed side.

“Earlier did you say that the refs were bribed?” I asked.

“Yeah?” she nodded.

“Who bribed them?” I asked.

“Jazz.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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