It’s not like anyone can tell looking at me now that I have that hip condition. Thanks to my OT, Zara, I pretty much walk normally now. But my sports playing has been inhibited.
Still, there’s no reason any of that should matter today. I spend the entire game running around pretending like I know what to do and am contributing. I do manage to pull a couple of the opposing teams flags, so I’m not totally useless.
Turns out, my hip condition does still hate me, because in the final moments of the fourth quarter—we just did four minute quarters, which is good because I know my face is beet red in this heat—I lunge to grab Kyle’s flag when a spasm rocks my hip.
No. No. No.
Kyle floats past me and into the makeshift endzone.
Down I go, seized by a violent cramp all along my right hip and thigh.
It’s not a charley horse, it’s worse. I bite my lip to keep from groaning in agony, but I can’t get up. I know this pain. I’ve spent too much time running around without doing my stretches and now, I’m done for.
My team groans as the time expires.
We just lost and it was my fault.
“Crap, Charlotte,” Maddy says. Her voice is half concerned and half annoyed that I’m lying on the ground in front of everyone.
While his teammates high-five each other, Kyle jogs over to me. “You okay?” he asks and then I hear him say the most terrible words. “She’s got a thing with her hips.”
I’m curled up in a ball, seeing white spots in my vision, and I know, I just know, he’s talking to Taysom.
No one needed to know that about me. I’m already an outsider, with my hair and my freckles and being so much younger than them. And now this? It’s too much.
“Oh. Dang,” Taysom says. “Should we…help her up?”
“She’ll be fine. She just needs an ice pack.” It’s Maddy’s voice now. She and Kyle flank me on either side and pull me up to standing. Most of the guys aren’t paying much attention, probably because they’re embarrassed for me and know I don’t want anyone fussing over me. Or maybe they’re mad that I made us lose.
But Taysom doesn’t look away. With my siblings helping me hobble over the grass, he runs ahead of us, jumping up the patio steps and opening the back door. His face is lined with concern as I half walk, half hop to the base of the stairs.
I’m greedy for his concern, for the eyes that see me.
Before I know what’s happening, he steps back down to me, cradles my back with his right arm and bends to grab my legs at the backs of my knees. He hefts me to his chest, and I can feel his lungs fill and release as he takes the steps. “Coming through!” he yells, like I’m a take-and-bake pizza he’s just gotten out of the oven.
My center of gravity feels all sideways and my head blurs.
“You okay?” he asks, looking ahead as he maneuvers around the toys Penny and Gage left out.
“I’m fine,” I say, as breezily as I can manage. “It’s fine.”
“Want to go to the sofa, or…” Kyle jogs in front of us and is looking around for a place for me to be deposited.
“Here is fine.” I gesture to the kitchen chair. I just want everyone to leave me alone as quickly as possible. I can hobble around to a softer chair later in peace.
Maddy grabs the ice pack from the freezer and tosses it to me, and Kyle gets me a glass of water.
“You good?” Taysom asks and I swear, there’s genuine kindness in his eyes. How a guy like him could think twice about a girl like me has a bubble of hope rising in my chest.
But no, I tell myself. It’s nothing. He’s just a nice guy. He’d be concerned about anyone who went down during a game.
Right?
I nod, take a sip of water so I don’t have to say anything and give him a thumbs up as I swallow.
“So, what happened, exactly? Did someone run into you, or—?” Taysom asks.
But Kyle grabs a box of Twinkies from the pantry.
