old friends • tom holland

twenty five

I gritted my teeth together, my breath escaping though them in quick gasps. I gripped the edge of the padded table, mustering up every bit of strength that I had left. My left knee refused to bend much further than it had yesterday, but I was slowly regaining mobility. Moriah, my therapist, smiled and took a quick note of my progress. She then put down her clipboard and grabbed some lotion from a nearby shelf. I surveyed the room as she worked the ointment into my swollen leg.

I was one of the few people at the clinic, save a couple of guys who looked to be a few years older than me. One was a pretty big dude, probably a football player. He stood with another therapist by a metal rack covered with resistance bands, and he worked on a variety of different exercises that appeared to be targeting his shoulder mobility. The other man sat in the corner, bending his elbow while holding a baseball. I had talked to him a couple of times, as recovering athletes often end up spending a lot of time in therapy with each other. His name was Luke, and he was recovering from Tommy John surgery on his elbow. Last year he had been drafted to the Yankees as a rookie, and most people had pretty big dreams for him. However, Luke's pitching had really torn up his elbow throughout college, and the surgery had to be done this year. Now, his chances of coming back were a toss up. He just hoped that he wouldn't be replaced.

I felt the same way. Every day that I sat in this building that held therapy disguised as intense training, probably for the sake of the athletes, was another day that I wasn't back on the pitch. My friends had fun without me, creating new jokes that I wouldn't understand. Most of them still reached out fairly often, but it wasn't the same when you couldn't play. I just wasn't relevant.

After a few more torturous exercises, Moriah eventually dismissed me. I made my way back to my flat and into the shower, grateful for the time alone. The warm water washed over me and I slowly relaxed, hoping that the stressors would begin to feel a little less prominent soon.

The rest of the day resulted in me laying in bed and scrolling through whatever interesting social media platform I could find. I was in the middle of reading a particularly funny text post when Tom texted me. The message said that filming was about to wrap for the day and that he was free this evening if I wanted to hang out. I responded quickly that getting out of the house would be great.

Nothing much had happened between us after the night at his apartment. There was a feeling that things were a bit different between us then before, but no one knew what we had talked about. For some reason, it all felt so strange that I hadn't even told Lucy yet. Even I wondered exactly where we stood, but this appeared to be a date, so that was something. I smiled while heaving myself up in search for another acceptable outfit.

About an hour later, Tom called saying that he was at my door. I opened it for him, and his face broke into a smile. "It's good to see you, Noelle."

"It's good to see you too, Tom." I laughed a little at his formal tone. He was dressed cleanly but not too formally, and he pulled off the jacket and jeans well.

"Okay, so I promise that this was going to be a really nice date and I had everything planned out, but then unfortunately Harrison found out that I made plans with you and then he begged me to come, so if it's okay that he tags along he probably will." Tom looked rather sheepish, but I couldn't be bothered less.

"No, that's fine! It will be fun."

"Well then, your highness, I brought a throne for you. Thought it might make things easier in the long run if it's fine with you." I glanced behind him, just now realizing that he had been hiding a wheelchair behind him the whole time. Normally I wouldn't want to depend on someone else to wheel me around, and attracting attention was never my goal, but practically speaking this was the best option. I was already worn out from PT, and this would make whatever experience we were going to have much more enjoyable.