old friends • tom holland

twenty three

The first few days after the surgery were hard. Harder than expected. My whole left leg was swollen to twice it's normal size, my head ached, and I struggled to hobble around on my crutches. Not to mention the pain in my knee. Even with the drugs, I had never experienced anything like this.

It was a Tuesday afternoon, four days post-surgery. The couch in my living room had proved to be my location of choice over the past few days— not that there were many options. Anywhere lacking a place to prop up my leg was not really an accessible to me. I was sitting on the couch, my knee elevated on some pillows with ice surrounding it. The television was broadcasting reruns from the office, and I looked on as Jim and Pam fell in love. This was possibly not the best thing for me to be watching, as it only made me more upset about my permanent status as single, but it was better than watching soccer at the moment. That had proved to be too heartbreaking to watch for the time being. 

I was really just waiting for Tom and Harrison to show up, which they said that they would do when they finished filming for the day. After a couple of hours of watching the TV, I sighed in exasperation and rolled over to grab my book. Lucy had been out all day at practice and hanging with some of her friends from school, and I had been left high and dry. Not that I really minded, because there were only so many things that you could talk about with your roommate  when you worked and lived together.

After what felt like an eternity, my phone finally buzzed next to me. "What's up, Haz?"

"We were wondering if you could possibly let us in?"

"Just open the door."

"It's locked, dude." I could hear the laughter in his voice, even though he was probably slightly annoyed by my stupidity.

"You're joking," I groaned, "give me like five minutes, this is going to take awhile." I hung up, rolling my eyes at the amount of work that it was going to be for me to take ten steps. My leg slowly moved off of the pillows and towards the ground as I untangled my crutches from the blankets. Normally I would just try to hope it, but a fall at this point in my recovery could be catastrophic. The ice was thrown on the ground as I made sure that my brace was properly secured. I mentally evaluated my appearance, deciding that the old sweatshirt, sweats, and ponytail would do just fine. Finally, I crutched my way slowly over to the door. As embarrassing as it was to admit, I was panting slightly after opening the door for them.

"Hey!" They exclaimed in unison. Harrison apologizes for making me get up and let me in, but I assured him that it was worth the company.

"We do have a proposal though for a better way for you to get around," Tom grinned at me, "if you want to hear it."

"I'm all ears, anything would be better than this."

"Great!" Suddenly Tom was coming straight towards me, arms outstretched.

"Wait, I'm not sure that this is a good idea." I said worriedly, but it was already too late to stop this train. Harrison swiftly grabbed my crutches from me as Tom put one hand on my back and one hand under my good leg. As he picked me up he was careful to support but not aggravate the brace-enclosed one. I shrieked quickly when he first picked me up, but once we were both stable I realized that this was not bad at all. Very little effort was extended on my part, and I was placed gently back onto the couch.

"Oh, and we brought burritos." Harrison held up two brown paper bags and I beamed at him.

"You guys are the best people I know."

"Anything for you, love." Harrison gave me his trademark smile, which led to Tom and I harassing him for awhile about him getting girls. Apparently putting "a really nice guy" in your Instagram bio did wonders for your game. Later on I did learn that he was a pretty single guy and had been for awhile, but he was possibly interested in a girl on set. Rather, he claimed that she was very "fit", and adjective that I had almost forgotten about from my London days. In reality, the odds that he would get up the courage to ask her out and that she would say yes were pretty thin, but possible.

"Wait, Noelle, is this what you were reading before we came?" Tom held up my copy of The Fault in Our Stars, a smirk spread across his face.

"It's rude to make fun of a cripple!" I fired back, knowing that it would in no way help me.

"I can understand wanting to drown in sadness because of your current predicament, but I can't say that I pegged you for a romance kind of girl. In fact, I seem to remember you saying that you would never fall in love at my seventh birthday party. You were the princess when we were playing, but you said that you wouldn't have a prince. "

"Well Tom, I would like to say that I've matured and become a much more romantic person, which may or may not be true. But it's also possible that I just read this to get a glimpse into the world of love because I have no experience." I laughed at him.

"You can't tell me that you haven't had a serious relationship since you left England." Harrison looked at me in shock, and Tom shared a similar expression.

"I'll take your surprise as a compliment, but yeah it just hasn't really worked out. I mean I've dated guys, but nothing long term. Just me and the football."

They nodded understandingly, and the conversation thankfully progressed onto other topics. After eating, we eventually settled on playing round after round of uno. During which, we discovered that there were only so many games that three people could play. After Harrison won four times and Tom won twice, I decided to complain enough that they let us switch to a movie.

The boys sat on either side of me and my extended leg as we watched Pride and Prejudice. Sometimes, it was possible to get your way by playing the injury card. Other times not, but those could wait for a bit. Towards the end of the movie I started nodding off, my head falling onto Tom's shoulder. After what seemed like a minute, I woke up to him gently shaking me.

"Hey, Noelle, sorry to wake you, but I think that we're going to head out for the night. But I'm free tomorrow afternoon if you want to come over. Harrison wants to stick around set, but I'm in the clear so just let me know if you want me to pick you up. I'd be happy to."

"That would be great, Tom." I smiled up at him sleepily, waving as both he and Haz left. I drifted off again, looking forward to tomorrow already. 

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Merry Christmas all : ) I hope that it is filled with love and hope. If you enjoyed this chapter, it would be the greatest present if you could hit that star! 

Anyway, until next time, and have a blessed holidays.