Friend Locked (Salt Lake Pumas)

by Camellia Tate

  She didn’t quite laugh. It was more a smile accompanied by a snort through her nose, but it still felt like a win. Now our hands were free, Jessie shuffled a little closer, leaning her weight against me as if it was more than she could support by herself.

  “Ice cream,” she decided. “How are the dogs?” Jessie asked. “Did you take them for their walk while I was sleeping?”

  “I let them out in the yard.” I shrugged. “Mostly, they just napped, too. I think Jace was actually up here with you, but he seems to have disappeared now. Maybe movies with explosions are just too much for him.” It was a joke, apart from Edgar none of the dogs seemed to be able to see the images on the TV.

  They did have dog beds downstairs but I often found the dogs sleeping in random parts of the house. Never the beds, that was our agreement, but the rest of the house was up for grabs.

  “You might end up with someone in here with you,” I commented. “They’re excited to have you staying again,” I joked. I’d had Jace and Damson when Jessie was still only visiting Salt Lake, while Pammy and Edgar only knew her as someone who came over during the days but didn’t stay at night.

  Jessie smiled. She’d always loved my dogs almost as much as I did. Which was good, because otherwise staying here while she recovered might be a problem.

  “That’d be nice, to have one of them in here tonight,” she agreed. “I think it’ll make me feel better, knowing there’s something friendly in the room.”

  And just for that, I was going to do my absolute best to make sure one of the dogs ended up sleeping by Jessie’s bed.

  She tilted her head, looking up at me. “Thanks. For the food, and letting me stay here. And, well, everything, I guess.”

  Giving Jessie a wide smile, I bumped my shoulder against hers again. “No need to thank me,” I assured her. “What are best friends for if not to feed you mac and cheese and make promises of ice cream?” I added jokingly.

  Yeah, I did get that Jessie worried. If our roles were reversed, I’d worry about being a burden but there was no way I felt like that about Jessie. She was my best friend, the closest person I had, of course I wanted to look after her!

  Rather than letting her lead us down the path of this conversation, I nudged her shoulder one more time. “Watch the movie,” I told her. “I’ll get ice cream and a dog for you in a bit.”

  And that was how we spent the rest of the evening. In bed, watching movies (we picked a less exploding one after), with ice cream and a couple of dogs loudly snoring on the floor. Apart from Jessie’s broken leg, it wasn’t too dissimilar from some of the other evenings we’d spent just hanging out.

  Living together for a bit was going to be fun! Even if Jessie was a little broken at the moment.

  Leaving Jessie at home on her own the next day to go to training was tough. She assured me that she’d be okay, but it was a little hard to believe that when she couldn’t even leave her bed. Jessie promised me that she’d call if she needed anything but I was pretty sure she wouldn’t.

  In the end, the agreement we’d come to was that if Jessie couldn’t reach me, she’d call the rink and someone would come over to help her. It wasn’t ideal but it was the best I could do on short notice. On my way to training, though, I started thinking about how maybe I needed to get a nurse or something. Someone who could check in on Jessie if she needed it.

  “Everything okay?” Chuck asked me as soon as I walked into the changing room.

  Right, of course. I’d had to leave training early yesterday in order to go to the hospital. I had texted the group chat just to let everyone know that Jessie had broken her leg but after that, I’d not really updated anyone.

  Walking to my spot, I gave a small nod. “Yeah. Well, kind of. Jessie’s leg’s broken, like properly broken.” I saw some of the guys wince. We might not know about dancing, but we all knew how shitty an injury felt.

  “The doctor said she’s going to have the cast on until around Christmas, hopefully, it can come off just before,” I explained.

  Chuck gave a low whistle. “Shit, that’s a long time to be off.” Like us, Jessie couldn’t exactly do her job until her injury was properly healed. It would affect her a lot more than it might do someone with a desk job.

  “What’s she going to do?” At my frown, Chuck carried on. “I mean, Flynn had that home help, right? When he broke his leg. But I’m guessing dancing doesn’t pay well enough for that.”

  It definitely didn’t. Which was why I was so glad Jessie had me. Otherwise, she might have had no choice but to go live with her mom or her sister for the eight weeks she’d need to be on crutches. Being away from home wouldn’t have made it any easier.

  “She’s moved in with me,” I answered easily. “Like, it’s not as good, obviously, but it’s better than nothing.” It sucked that I couldn’t actually be home to help Jessie but I couldn’t exactly take time off work for it. But getting someone in to check on her was still an option.

  “She’s moved in?” Will frowned from across the room. “Isn’t that a lot to deal with for you?”

  And sure, I could kind of see his point. It was only day one, but so far it was going okay. Before I left for training I had made sure Jessie had food and water, that she had everything she might need in terms of technology at a close reach. Making her promise not to try to get out of the bed was the hardest bit, really.

  So in response to Will’s question, I gave a small shrug. “It’s what friends are for.”

  “Is it?” Will asked, surprising me. He, like the rest of the Pumas, was someone I considered a friend. I’d assumed he felt the same way about the team as I did. “Hell, living together can put a friendship to the test even if nobody is injured,” he pointed out.

  I guess I had heard people say that. As well as saying you shouldn’t lend money to friends; Jessie and I had already broken that ‘rule’.

  “Would you invite one of us to live with you?” Will asked. “Because I don’t think I would.”

  The question made me think. It would be pretty rude to say that I might with some of them. Like Flynn, I’d have over any day, he was always very chilled. Alfie, on the other hand, had such weird likes and dislikes when it came to food that I’d struggle to feed him.

  Finally, I shrugged. “Probably,” I answered noncommittally. “But that’s different,” I argued. “Jessie’s... she’s been my best friend since we were ten. You guys are great, but you’re not like...”

  When I didn’t finish the sentence, I heard a snort from a couple of spaces down before Olle, our goalie, added, “Her?”

  “Well, yeah,” I shrugged.

  Will frowned, like he was genuinely trying to wrap his head around what I’d said. “It just seems weird,” he said at last. “Like, obviously I’d look after Lacey if she got injured. But she’s my girlfriend.”

  Sighing, I waved him off. This wouldn’t be the first time that someone had thought I was ‘weird’ for having such a close female friend. Apparently, most people just didn’t have that.

  “What if you want to bring someone else home while Jessie’s living with you?” Alfie chimed in.

  That made me shake my head. Bringing someone home wasn’t really something I did. Maybe if I dated someone but it had been a while since I’d done that, either. “She’s going to be in a cast for like six weeks,” I argued. “I can probably cope without bringing someone home for six weeks.”

  “You’re making this into more of a thing than it is,” I informed them all.

  Will shrugged at that. “Or maybe you’re not making it into enough of a thing,” he pointed out, making me frown. That didn’t even make sense, so I shook my head. Somewhat thankfully, before I could try to untangle just what that even meant, Luke arrived, informing us all to get ready instead of chatting.

  “Yes, captain!” I nodded gladly.

  Looking after Jessie was the right decision, no matter what my teammates thought. They had just never been lucky enough to have such an awesome best fri
end.

  Chapter Six

  Jessie

  Once I was allowed to actually get out of bed, it took me a couple of days to learn to walk with crutches. As much as the dogs were all adorable, they did get underfoot more than was really helpful. At least until Felix called them away.

  Felix’s upstairs was pretty big. But it didn’t take me that long to get bored of seeing the same hallway and the same two rooms. I missed my own apartment more than I’d expected, too. Felix’s guest room wasn’t unfamiliar, but it didn’t have my carefully-positioned bedside table with all the things I might need within easy reach, and there were no posters of famous dancers framed on the walls.

  The room was nice enough, but it was deliberately generic, so that anyone would feel comfortable there for a few nights.

  “Felix, please, I want to go downstairs!” I called. “Having to shout for you to bring me things makes me feel like I’m nothing but a hassle.”

  It didn’t take me long for Felix to walk out of his bedroom and that was precisely my point, really. I didn’t want to keep asking for him, to keep requesting his help. Obviously, I would need it, my leg was challenging to manage, but if I could minimize my need for help then that was what I’d aim for.

  “Alright, alright,” he agreed, making me smile slightly. Not needing to fight over this was definitely a good start. Glancing down to the stairs, Felix frowned. “How exactly do you suggest we get you down? I’m guessing me helping you is out of the question.”

  Felix was strong enough to lift me, but the flush of heat in my cheeks at the thought of being carried was more than enough to make me turn that down. “Uhm,” I answered eloquently.

  Truthfully, my plan hadn’t progressed much further than getting Felix to agree that I could move to the first floor. “If it were you, what would you suggest?” I asked. Dancing kept me fit, but I had nowhere near enough muscle to help Felix down the stairs, so he couldn’t just suggest that.

  It always fascinated me how you could see the wheels turning in Felix’s head when he was thinking about something. He kept glancing at my leg and then at the stairs and then around like the walls might have some sort of answers. Finally, he gave a dramatic sigh.

  “Okay, let me Google some advice, because at the moment I’m thinking about just putting you on a mattress and letting you slide down the stairs and I’m pretty sure that you might break your other leg like that,” he informed me before pulling out his phone.

  After a moment of browsing, he gave a triumphant ‘aha’. “So this says you want to do it slowly and sideways,” he said before moving to the stairs. “I think like this.” With that, Felix turned to put his phone away before holding onto the railings with both hands. He moved from one step onto the next slowly, first placing one foot and then the other.

  Sliding down on a mattress sounded more fun, to be honest.

  But it was sweet how Felix demonstrated for me, continuing down the stairs as if his own leg was just as broken as mine. “Hang on.” He stopped, glancing up. “You’ll need to take the crutches down for me,” I pointed out, handing him first one and then the other.

  As I stood at the top of Felix’s stairs, gripping both railings so hard that my knuckles cracked, a rush of vertigo swept over me. All I could think about was how my foot had slipped when I’d been dancing, how I’d crashed down and the sick sound of the bones in my leg failing to support me.

  Trying not to let my voice shake, I carried on, “And then… can you come back up? So you can go down just ahead of me, just in case?”

  “Yeah, of course, I was going to do that anyway,” Felix promised and before I knew it he was right there, next to me. His hand was soft against my arm and when I looked up at Felix he smiled gently. “If you fall, I promise I will catch you.” The confidence in his voice was hard to argue with. It was easier to trust Felix than it was to trust myself right now.

  Swallowing, I gave a nod.

  I could do this.

  Okay!

  One step at a time, just as Felix had shown me, I began to move down. It was... more challenging than I would have expected. A few times, I accidentally put too much pressure on my broken leg. The pain made me wince but just as promised, Felix was right there.

  “You’re doing awesome!” he assured.

  And the way he said it, I almost believed that I was. Instead of feeling weak and helpless that I couldn’t even get down the stairs without being frightened, the pride in his voice reminded me that I was meeting a challenge head on.

  “Yeah,” I agreed. “We’re totally showing these stairs who’s boss.”

  He laughed, the sound like sunlight in a dark place. It filled me with hope and the confidence I needed to keep moving toward the first floor.

  Finally, with a laugh, I made it. “Victory!” I raised one of my arms as if I were doing one of the Pumas’ victory dances. “And a whole new world of downstairs.”

  It wasn’t much, but it had felt significant to me. And doing it with Felix was so much better than taking it on alone.

  The more time I spent limping around Felix’s first floor, the more I seemed to ache. At first, we’d both assumed I was overdoing it, exerting myself more than I could easily afford. But dancing professionally meant that I was pretty in tune with how my body moved. I didn’t feel tired. I felt sore.

  “I think it’s the way the crutch digs into my armpit,” I announced to Felix one night after dinner. “Putting all my weight on such a hard surface means that I start to ache after an hour or so.”

  A quick Google search had shown I wasn’t the one person to face this particular problem. “Do you think we can pad it?”

  “Yes?” Felix answered but he didn’t sound sure. When I raised my eyebrow at him, he shrugged. “Of course we can pad it, but what do we pad it with?” he asked. Looking around, like that was somehow going to provide him with an answer, Felix shrugged. “Dogs?”

  The deadpan way in which he said that made me snort. Jace gave a small bark like he had understood the implication that he might become crutch padding.

  I ran my hand through my hair. At my apartment, I would’ve been able to use some old clothes. I hadn’t brought enough with me to spare any for padding my crutch, and I didn’t want to assume that I could use Felix’s. It didn’t feel right, somehow. Those weren’t my things.

  Maybe it would be best if we waited until tomorrow. I could give Felix some money to buy padding.

  But then I brightened, an idea striking me. “What about the pillows from the second guest room?” I suggested. “You’re going to buy new ones anyway, when you redo it, right?”

  Felix’s face lit up and it made pride sweep through me. It felt good to see him smile like that because of something I had suggested.

  “Yeah.” Felix nodded. “Sure! Okay, I’ll get the pillows and... scissors? And some tape. Do you think we can use sports tape? I can get a better one tomorrow.” There was a flurry of action before Felix returned with all the things, setting them out on the coffee table.

  “Arts and crafts!” he announced with excitement that this definitely didn’t deserve.

  It brought a laugh to my lips. My worries that staying with Felix would be more than he could take were slowly ebbing. We had fun together, even doing something as simple as cutting up and strapping down pillows.

  He had to do most of the taping, while I tried to hold the bits of pillow in roughly the places that seemed like they might help. Once we’d padded most of the top of each crutch, Felix helped me to my feet.

  “Okay, here goes nothing!”

  I didn’t fall over, so that was always an excellent starting point. The cushioned bits did actually seem to feel better as I used the crutches to walk from one end of the room to the other.

  Watching me carefully, almost like this was a science experiment, Felix hummed. “So? Is it good enough? I have more pillows. We can use one of my pillows if we need to, I can always get new ones,” he promised. It made a wave of warm affection spr
ead through me, the idea that he’d sacrifice his own pillows to make me feel more comfortable.

  Luckily, such sacrifice wasn’t going to be necessary. “It’s good enough,” I assured. The sports tape wasn’t the most secure, but Felix had already agreed to bring home something stronger tomorrow.

  With that, I felt sure that I’d be much more comfortable.

  Felix still made me sit down while he tidied up the mess we’d made. I wanted to insist on helping, but as Felix pointed out, there wasn’t much I could carry when I needed both hands on my crutches just to get around.

  Instead of focusing on how much I wanted to be better, I let that warm affection fill me up as I watched Felix carry bits of pillow to the wastepaper basket. He seemed so happy to be able to do something for me; I didn’t want to spoil it by wishing it away.

  After a week of living with Felix, the cast on my leg felt almost normal. With my padded crutches, I could move myself around his first floor almost easily. I’d even ventured out into the yard, though only as far as the decking extended from the back door.

  There were two problems left. The boredom of not working was unlikely to get any better. But we could probably do something about washing.

  Since I couldn’t get the cast wet, I’d mostly been washing around it as well as I could. But it was neither easy nor particularly fun.

  Felix had already bought a shower chair for his big walk-in shower, which meant all I needed to do was order a cast cover from the internet. Once it arrived, I could seal the cast up and safely get under a shower.

  I’d still have to try to keep my leg out from under the spray, but it wouldn’t be the end of the world if there was some splashing.

  The day the cover arrived, I eagerly opened the packaging, searching for the instructions.