“In your dreams, Gregory,” I shouted, glancing down as Daniel’s eyes fluttered open with a small groan. “I’m your tutor and nothing else. Don’t push it!”
“See you later, kid,” Jayce said with a wink as Addy shut the ambo doors behind me.
“My name is Macey,” I said to Daniel, looking down at him as Addy climbed into the driver’s side of the ambo. “I’m an EMT, and I’m here to help you. We think you’re dehydrated. How do you feel?”
“Like I got run over by a semi-truck,” the guy, Daniel, said with a strained laugh. I smiled and patted the guy’s arm, opening up the IV.
“Good. Pain means you’re still alive.”
Chapter 5
Jayce
Iwatched Macey’s facedisappear behind the closing doors of the ambulance and then continued to watch as they pulled away, lights flashing and siren crying against the pale gray sky. Today wasn’t the first time one of my teammates had fallen. It tended to happen more at the beginning of the year, after a summer of lounging around instead of practicing almost exclusively every day, but guys still struggled after the winter break as well. I tried to remind the guys to keep up their hydration and drink water, but sometimes it didn’t matter. Sometimes practice was just...hard.
“Think he’s going to be okay, cap?” my friend and fellow player, Dalton, asked, slapping the dust from his cap on his knee. I nodded, adjusting my cap, and turned back to my team. The other students mainly had departed now, leaving us once again alone on the field. Our coach was out for the day, leaving it to us to practice without killing someone, which at this point didn’t seem like too far of a stretch after Daniel.
“They think it’s dehydration,” I said. “Hopefully, he’ll be alright. Dehydration is a serious thing, my friends. Don’t let something like that take you out of the game. It’s entirely preventable.”
“Okay,” Dalton said, tossing me the ball with a nod. “Let’s get back to practice.”
~~
I’D BEEN LOOKING FORWARDto seeing Macey all day long since our run in on the field, so much so that I was actually early to our tutoring session—my first time early to anything, ever—and I had to sit alone at one of the study tables pretending to read a textbook for twenty minutes before she arrived. But when she did come, I realized, just like the first time, the wait had been worth it.
“Hi,” I said as Macey dropped her bag and slid into the chair across from me. “How was your day? Full of adventure, I hope.”
“It was good,” she said with a small smile. “I mean, aside from the fallen player, of course.”
“Daniel is going to be okay, right?”
“Yeah. The doc confirmed that it was just dehydration. Hopefully, it doesn’t happen again. How wasyourday?”
“Better now that you’re here,” I said smoothly, and she rolled her eyes. I leaned forward and rested my elbows on the tabletop, eyes pinned on Macey. She couldn’t hold my gaze, and I loved that every time she did look at me, a pink tint in her cheeks appeared. “I had no idea you were an EMT.”
“Just a volunteer,” she said quickly as if that discounted anything. “While I go to school. It will look good on my medical school application, and I enjoy the work. Really enjoy it.”
