I stared at the ceiling, every inch of my body sore, my chest still tight, the monitor above me humming out the truth in real time—one beat after another. Fragile. I’d been running on a failing circuit, pretending I was fine, and now the lie had collapsed in the middle of a sold-out stadium.
Sloane had ridden in the ambulance. She’d held my hand in front of everyone. She’d fought to be the one beside me while I laid there, unconscious and soaked in sweat, strapped to a board like a fucking corpse.
She hadn’t even hesitated.
That image wouldn’t leave my mind—her voice cracking, her hand on my cheek, her whisper in my ear before I faded completely.
And then the way she sobbed in front of me.
I’d never seen her like that. Not once. Not in all the months we’d danced around rules and pressure and tension. She always held it in. She always kept it together. But not today.
And now she was out there. Alone. After defending me. After risking everything.
“Fuck,” I muttered, trying to sit up straighter. My ribs pulled tight, and the wires clipped to my chest tugged back. The heart monitor spiked a few beats. I stilled, breathing slow, trying to force the number back down.
A knock came a second later, light and unsure.
Then the door opened, and Rachel stepped in.
She looked like a mess. Mascara smudged. Hair pulled into a messy knot. Rampage hoodie zipped halfway. The second our eyes met, she froze in the doorway.
“Hey,” I said, barely louder than a whisper.
Her bottom lip trembled. “Hey.”
She moved slowly, her nerves rolling off her. Ivy followed behind her, quiet, reading something on a tablet. She didn’t speak—just nodded at me once and stood by the window. Ivy had always been a calm presence in my life. She knew my parents, my sister, and I didn’t think it mattered how much time went by—Ivy was a lifelong friend. Despite the chaos in my gut, I was glad she was here.
Rachel sat at the edge of the bed, her hands in her lap, curled tight. The air was thick with all the unsaid things, the anger and hurt and glaring issue that my body shut down on me. I bit the inside of my cheek, waiting for her to yell at me. I deserved it. She was right. She didn’t want this to happen, and the first game she came to, I passed the hell out. I should open up with an apology. It’d be easier. “Look, Rachel?—"
“Goddamn it, Oli. Why are you so dramatic? I’m the second child and the daughter. I get to have the dramatic exits.” She laughed, and just like that, the air settled.
I cackled and opened up my arms. She dove in, a little too aggressively, and we hugged for the first time in a year. “I missed you, Orange Slice.”
“Don’t call me that, Jesus. I’m twenty-one now.”
“Yeah, so much older and wiser.” I messed up her hair, and she slapped my hand. “And here I was, worried things would be awkward.”
“Oh, what makes you say that? The fact I yelled at you because I didn’t want you to get hurt playing this stupid asinine sport? And the game I go to you pass out and are taken out on a stretcher?”
“So glad you haven’t changed.” I grinned, truly, meaning every word. “You should probably be nicer to me though. I’m in a hospital.”
“Eh, I’ll take it into consideration.” My sister hugged me again, this time whispering. “I love you, you complete baboon.”
“Love you too.” I squeezed her back, something deep in my chest righting itself after all this time. “Hey, can one of you check on Sloane? She ran out of here in tears, and I’m worried about her.”
“Yeah, you should be.” Ivy pushed off the wall, her usual calm face twisted with worry. “Everyone knows you two crossed a line, and I’m sure there’s going to be backlash.” Ivy ran a hand over her forehead, a sure sign she was stressed. “I’ll go get her, see if we can game plan of what to do.”
“Ivy, she won’t… they won’t fire her, will they?”
“There’s a clause that says they can.” Ivy walked out the hospital door, and my gut sank.
Rachel’s brows furrowed as Ivy disappeared into the hall. “Sloane?” she asked carefully. “You mean—the woman I met in the hall?”
I nodded.
Her eyes widened. “Holy shit, dude.”
“Yeah,” I said, breath shaky. “She’s not just someone I’m dating. She’s the one, Rachel. I—I didn’t even know I was capable of feeling like this until her.”
