Total pages in book: 91
Estimated words: 105398 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 527(@200wpm)___ 422(@250wpm)___ 351(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 105398 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 527(@200wpm)___ 422(@250wpm)___ 351(@300wpm)
“What’s up, sweet cheeks?” I asked.
“I need to talk to you, like bad.”
“Let’s go to my office.”
Swiping my card at the gym door, I held the door open for June, and then made sure the door latched behind us. I weaved through the maze of hallways until I got to my office. Since no one was in the hallway, I left the door open and motioned with my hand for her to have a seat. Choosing to forgo the seat, I grabbed a coke from the fridge and propped my hips up against the counter, and then looked at her expectantly.
If anything, she looked even worse now. It was going on five minutes of silence before she finally opened her mouth, only to snap it back closed. Loosing what little patience I had, I motioned with my hand to get her talking.
“Kale isn’t seeing me anymore. He said last night that it was getting too dangerous for us to be together. He told me when he got his brother out that he would come back to me.” She said as a few tears dropped from her eyes, spilling onto her cheeks.
“Well that’s understandable. He doesn’t want to get you hurt. I know it’s hard, but what exactly do you expect him to do here? He’s making a bad decision, but it’s commendable that he doesn’t want to bring you down with him.”
Taking a deep breath, she finally got the courage to say, “He said that they were going to make him kill you. If he wanted his brother out, he was going to have to do that before they would let him go. He told me because he knew I would relay that information to you. He also said you had a man following you around, and that it would all turn out okay. I’m not sure if that means he won’t actually shoot you, or if he’ll be stopped before it goes that far. Also, I’m four months pregnant with Kale’s baby.”
“Tell me more about this shooting business. Does he have death-“
“No one is going to be shooting you. It’ll be over my dead body. What the fuck is going on?” A very angry Gabe said from the doorway.
I jumped about three feet in the air and dropped my coke on the ground. Brown fizz spewed into the air and drenched my thighs. My hand automatically covered my racing heart. Whirling around so I could see the doorway, I lost my balance and went down. I would’ve busted my ass if Gabe weren’t there to catch me. His callused hands took a firm grip on my hips, and steadied me until I had my balance.
June was sitting there in utter amazement. One because she just spilled her guts in front of some man she didn’t know, and two because he was hot.
“June this is my, uh, Gabe. Gabe this is my assistant trainer, June. June here is seeing Kale, or she was until he broke up with her today.” I explained.
“Nice to meet you. Now tell me what’s going on.” He said shortly.
His tone booked no room for argument. Therefore, I started to explain what June had told me. I wasn’t sure at what point he started listening in, so I started at the very beginning, which was when June met Kale at the beginning of last year.
“June because an assistant at the end of volleyball season last year. She’s now two years into her degree. She met Kale during a football game. They’ve been dating ever since. He got out of the gang when he was younger and since his brother-“
“I know all of that. Get to the part about him killing you.” He said testily.
“Well, I don’t know very much. Only that he was tasked in shooting me. We hadn’t gotten very far before you walked in.”
Nodding he said, “Okay. Let’s get out of here. You won’t be coming back here by yourself until this is finished. Nice to meet you, June.”
“Wait!” June said as Gabe took my hand. “You’re the only one here. Mack and Trammel went home with the stomach bug. If you leave, we have no one else. There are two injuries on tables in the training room.”
“Fuck.” Gabe said dejectedly.
Taking that as permission to go about my work, I left my office and went to the training room. June wasn’t kidding about there being no one here, which was unusual at the beginning of the year. I checked each of the three kids that were in the room. One was a senior football player needing an ice bath, one was a sophomore shin splints from cross country boys’ team, and the last was a freshman girl with a knee injury from coming down wrong from a jump during volleyball drills.
Deeming that the knee injury was the worst, I started with her. I saw June come in and start the ice bath for the football player, but I focused on the nasty swelling going on around the young girl’s right knee. It was about three times the size of her other knee, and was already bruising.
“Did you try to walk?” I asked her.
“N-no. It hurt too much, I d-didn’t e-even try to.” She stammered out.
Understandable. I did try to walk after my knee injury, and it is something that will be forever burned into my brain. I will never forget my coach and a fellow player helping me up. My coach asked me if I could walk. Since it wasn’t hurting quite as bad at that moment in time, I tried to take a step with the injured leg. Worst thing I’ve ever seen in my life. My upper thigh went one way, and the lower leg went another. I could literally see my knee having a noticeable bend. To this day, the teammate that was helping me still says it was the grossest thing she’d ever seen, ten years later.
“Alrighty then. Let’s get you in a brace, and then we’re going to get you to the ER.” I said to her while taking a leg brace that wouldn’t allow the knee to bed out from one of the cabinets underneath the table. I strapped her into the brace, and then retrieved some ice for her to place on the knee while we waited for her ride. The volleyball coach arrived a few minutes later to take her in to the emergency room.