Hunter grunted, the sound akin to annoyance, and stood from the bench just as Coach shouted at us to get off our lazy asses, stop warming the metal, and get back on the fucking field. “I think you might be a little bit blind.” Standing, he clapped a hand to my shoulder, then jogged onto the field, tugging his helmet back onto his head.
I think you might be a little bit blind.
I frowned at his back as I yanked my helmet onto my head, jogging after him. What the fuck was that supposed to mean?
“Hey,” Jaxon greeted as I shut our apartment door behind me and began toeing off my shoes. “How was practice?”
“Coach is kicking our asses,” I told him. “But practice was otherwise fine.” I smiled at him, something that was easy and effortless with him. “Any headaches today?”
He shook his head. “Today is a good day, but I also haven’t had any screen time, and I don’t have any reading material this week, so nothing to give me one, though I’m sure one will just pop up randomly at some point. That’s just my fucking luck these days.”
I pursed my lips. “Maybe it’s time to ask your doctor to refer you to a neurologist,” I suggested as I headed for my room to put my gym bag down. After emptying it of my clothes, I tossed them into the washer, then headed back into the living room.
“Thought about it,” Jax said, picking our conversation back up. “I have an appointment coming up in a few days though, so I’ll see what the doctor says then. I think we’re supposed to do another scan of my brain, but I can’t remember for sure.” His brows furrowed, frustration bleeding onto his face as he tried to recall his last appointment, and I hated it.
“Do you need me to go with you?” I asked. “I know remembering things can be hard. It might be helpful to have me there.”
Jax blinked at me, then his face softened, and he nodded. “Yeah,” he said quietly. “I actually hate going by myself. I never seem to get any kind of good news. It’s always the same shit. No improvement.” He shrugged one shoulder. “Hard to deal with that on my own, if I’m being honest.”
I wished he’d lean on me more than he did. That he’d take the metaphorical hands I was offering him and cling to me. Let me support him more. But I didn’t say any of that. Instead, I just said, “Then send me your appointment date and time, and we’ll go together. For now, I’m going to shower, then we can go get food. Thai sound good?”
Jax nodded. “Yeah, Thai is good.” And when he smiled, something inside me loosened. Today was a good day for him, and I was glad to see it. Maybe I could make it end on an even better note for him with food and maybe a movie he could watch with sunglasses on.
Chapter 9
Jaxon
Blaze flopped into the chair across from the examination table, watching as I seated my ass on the hard, uncomfortable leather, the paper crinkling beneath me. He grunted. “I hate those fucking things,” he said. “The paper annoys me. I mean, what is it even blocking if there’s space not covered on both sides of it? Waste of trees, if you ask me.”
I snorted a laugh just as the door opened, and one of the nurses stepped in, smiling warmly at me. “Jaxon?” she asked. When I nodded, she waved her hand in a ‘come here’ gesture. “I’m just going to take you for your CT scan. Your friend can wait here for you.”
I looked at Blaze. He smiled at me, his phone in his hand. “I’ll be right here,” he promised. “I’ll play a game while you’re gone.”
Sighing, I stood and followed the nurse from the room, my eyes locked on her severe, blonde bun. She’d obviously used a lot of gel to make her hair lay so flat without a single hair out of place. I imagined if I touched her hair, it’d be hard as a rock.
It felt like I blinked and we were standing in the radiology department. She knocked on the door for the CT scan room, and a moment later, the door was whisked open. I removed my belt, then laid down on the cold, sterile bed, closing my eyes. They gave me instructions, but I tuned the radiologist out because I’d been through this so many times already, I knew what to do and what was going to happen like the back of my hand. Pretty sad I could barely remember my professors’ names, but I’d gone through this testing so many times, I memorized the rules and the procedure.
The scan only took about ten minutes, and then, the blonde nurse was leading me back to the room to wait to see Dr. McManus. Blaze looked up from his phone when I walked in, quietly shutting the door behind me. “Never had one of those scans before,” he said conversationally. “What’s it like?”
This was one of the things I loved about Blaze. He just normalized everything, and it helped. From the moment he learned of my diagnosis and what life was going to be like for me, he just took it in stride and pretended what I was dealing with was normal. For some, it might have bothered them, but Blaze was helping me cope more than he realized.
I shrugged. “You go through this tube-like thing that’s huge and just lay really still for several minutes. Nothing fancy or exciting. But it’s loud.” And I already had a headache forming at my temples because of it.
I sat back on the examination table, then pushed my black-rimmed glasses up the bridge of my nose. “Need pain meds?” Blaze asked, his voice dropping an octave. When I met his eyes, I could tell he knew a headache was coming on. How he knew, I had no idea. But Blaze was intuitive like that. It was like he could look at me and just knew I was off. That something was wrong. That I needed him.
I would always need him.
“I can wait until we get out of here. And I need to at least attempt to eat something before I take them anyway. Otherwise, I’ll be even more drowsy than usual.”
Blaze nodded but remained silent since the door opened. Dr. McManus stepped inside and set my folder, which grew thicker with every visit, on the counter. “How are you feeling, Jaxon?” he asked.
“Head is starting to hurt,” I admitted. “Anything changed on my CT scan, doc?”
He shook his head. “Still the same,” he told me, his voice dropping like he was sad for me, but it just felt fake and made my skin crawl. “I think we should do another scan in six months?—”
“He needs to see a neurologist,” Blaze cut in. I swung my gaze to his, not expecting him to actually speak up on my behalf. He was leaning forward in his chair, his elbows resting on his knees as he met the doctor’s gaze steadily and unflinchingly. “You’re a primary care physician, yes?” Dr. McManus frowned at Blaze but nodded. “Then this isn’t your specialty. He needs to see a neurologist, someone who specializes in his condition, doc. I don’t mean any disrespect, but his health is too important for this to go on much longer.”
Dr. McManus clenched his jaw, clearly not liking he was being told what to do by a mere college student. But he looked at me. “Jaxon?”
