old friends • tom holland

twenty two

I groaned as I opened my eyes. The constant beeping was making it hard for me to sleep. When my eyes did open, the light that rushed in was blinding. I attempted to roll over to escape it, but my head started pounding and I gave up. I felt pressure be removed from my hand as I looked dazedly around the room.

The first thing that I noticed was the monitors. I was surrounded by cords and devices connecting me to machines. I wasn't fully aware of where I was, but I was pretty sure that it was not somewhere that I wanted to be.

"Hey." A voice on my left got my attention.

Tom was sitting on a chair next to my hospital bed. I blinked at him slowly, still trying to comprehend the situation. There was no one else in the room, but bags were strewn in a corner. He gently grabbed my hand, making me look back at him.

"Noelle, how are you feeling? Do you need anything from a doctor?"

It was starting to come back to me. I had gotten hit at the game. I had gone up for the header, and that big center back came up at the same time— straight into my back and head. My head was pounding just thinking about the impact. I remembered being wheeled off of the field, but not much after that.

I looked back at Tom, resting my head back on the pillows. "What happened?"

"Umm, you were in a bit of an accident,"He looked at me nervously "you blacked out, and it looks like you have a mild concussion."

"Is that all?" I looked down at my body, seeing that my left leg was elevated.

"Noelle, I don't know if I should be the one to tell you..."

"Just get it over with, please."

He looked at me with sad eyes. "You tore your ACL when you fell. You just landed wrong, it was a freak accident. I'm so sorry."

I leaned back, looking at the ceiling. Tears prickled at the back of my eyes. My season was over. My entire career was potentially over.

"I'm so sorry." Tom stood up, leaning over my bed. He wrapped his arms around me, pulling me into him. I rested my head on his chest, my tears seeping into his shirt. He felt like home. My leg and the hospital bed made this possibly the most awkward position ever, but I wouldn't have wanted anything else.

"Hey, Tom?" I mumbled into his chest, my words still slightly clumsy from the pain medication.

"Yeah, elle?"

"You're chest is a lot more muscular than when we were kids." I froze up, realizing what I had just said and turning red. "Wait, I'm sorry..."

Tom stood up, laughing. "It's okay, the doctor said that the medications might make you say some things that you might not normally say. But either way, I appreciate it."

I smiled at him as he sat back down. After a minute of silence, he looked at me and laced his fingers back through mine. This time ahead of me had a good chance of being the hardest of my life, but at least he was here.

"Where is everyone else?"

"We've been here for about eight hours; Lucy called us as soon as you left the field. Haz and Lucy went off to grab food, they'll probably be back in fifteen or so minutes. I figured that you should have someone here though, just in case you woke up. But seeing as that's happened, we should probably call the doctor in soon." He grimaced as he said it, knowing that was probably the last thing that I wanted to face right now.

"Thank you for staying." I responded, trying to force a smile through the pain.

"I'm just glad that I could be here when it happened. Your mum and dad called by the way, I hope that you don't mind that I called them back. They want to hear from you as soon as you're ready, but there's no rush. They just want you to be okay. I told my family too, and they send you their best."

"Okay, I'll let everyone know how I'm doing once I see the doctor again and everything. I think that I'm ready to see them now."

"I can go get her if you want?" Tom looked at me, wanting to make sure that I was ready.

"Yes, please."

The doctor was in within ten minutes, and immediately started asking me questions. She was nice, but being drilled on how every component of my body felt was not ideal when my head was pounding. Eventually, she told me that I had suffered a very mild concussion that should be healed within the next few days. However, my ACL, along with a few other ligaments in my knee had been torn and needed surgery to be properly restored. Because of my status as a professional athlete, she was able to get me scheduled for surgery within the week. I knew that this was a good thing, but I couldn't help but wonder how a few days would make a difference when the recovery would take me at least six months. They decided to keep me in the hospital until the surgery so that they could monitory my injuries as closely as possible, but I already wanted to be out. After doing a few final checks, the doctor left me alone for awhile. Tom had stayed outside while she was in there, out of respect for my privacy, but I was relieved when he came back in.

"Tom, don't get me wrong, I'm really grateful that you're here right now, but what are you doing about filming?" I remembered how busy his schedule usually was, and there was no way that he should be here right now.

"Don't worry about it. I spoke with the directors and they're giving me some time off over the next few days. The film is mostly done anyway, so they're filming some final stuff that doesn't involve me, and later I'll head back and finish it up. But really, don't worry. They know how important you are to me."

"Even after we didn't speak for years?"

He squeezed my hand. "Noelle, nothing could ever change that."

We stayed in silence for a few minutes before Harrison and Lucy returned. I smiled weakly as they bent down to hug me, carefully avoiding my leg. I watched as they sat around me and ate, and when they profusely apologized for eating in front of me, I assured them that I was in no way interested in eating right now. Lucy talked about the game after I asked about it, and she told me that she had left with me, and then later heard from our teammates that we had lost in penalty kicks. She looked completely heartbroken for me, and I knew that she could at least understand my pain. Lucy had dealt with nagging ankle injuries for the majority of last season, and every game that she missed was a thorn in her side. However, she had made it through the tough time and was back in her starting spot again. I knew that it would be a long time before I could walk properly, much less think about starting, but she gave me hope.

Laying in bed, the hospital was the last place that I wanted to be. But looking around at all of the people that I loved made it much better than I expected. There was no doubt that it would be hard, but I could make it through with them by my side. With those comforting thoughts, I drifted back to sleep.

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