His Soccer Girl

Time To Explain

I laid there in my hospital bed while a doctor shined a light in my eyes. After a minute or two he wrote down something on his clipboard, and glanced back at me. Bryce was holding my hand while my mother was pacing back and forth in front of my bed.

"Well Miss Summer, it looks like you're doing much better than I thought. But you'll still need at least two weeks off from playing soccer. You may be feeling good now, but when you hit your head you caused some severe brain trauma."

"But, I don't understand what lead to this. Why would I just pass out?" I asked, confused. I noticed Bryce and my mom share a look.

"Well, you saw something that your brain wasn't ready or willing to understand. It saw something that it wasn't able to comprehend, therefore your brain shut off, much like a computer crashing, then restarting." He explained.

"What do you mean? What did I see?" I asked, getting irritated. I felt like everyone was keeping something from me.

The doctor gave me a professional smile, "That's not something I can explain." He glanced at my mom who was fiddling with her ring, before giving me a nod and walked out the door.

When the door shut behind him I looked at my mother, ready for answers. If I was out for as long as they said, I want to know why.

"So? What happened?" I asked.

My mom sighed and looked at me. I noticed Bryce nod from the corner of my vison, before getting up and leaving.

"Wait, where are you going?" I asked.

"Coffee run." He said with a cute smile. God, I loved that smile. But I knew that wasn't the real reason he was leaving. Still, he better bring me back a coffee.

"Summer?" My mom said, getting my attention.

When I looked at her she shut her mouth, as if she didn't know what to say, or how to say it. Instead she walked over to her purse and pulled out a picture. She handed it to me and I held the small picture, observing the three people in it. There was a girl and two boys, one both sides of the girl. The girl had a poufy blonde perm and the guys, both of the boys had dirty blonde curly locks on top of their heads. The girl had her arms around the shoulders of both of the boys and the three of them were making silly faces. The two boys looked like they could be twins, but I wasn't sure. The three looked familiar, but I couldn't exactly figure out why they looked familiar.

When I looked up at my mom in confusion, she smiled. "This is a picture of me and my two best friends when we were 13. The one on the left is your father, and the one on the right is his older brother. He was only older by 11 months."

"Wait, dad has a brother?" I asked, confused. I've never heard of this brother, nor have I ever seen him. You would think if I had an uncle, I would have seen him at least once in the last 17 and a half years of my existence.

"Yes, he does. Around the time your father and I started dating, they had a falling out. He was mad that I didn't choose him, and had since written us off. Or, at least until your father's death. After he died he came to the funeral, and he realized that this fight with his brother want worth it, and that he wanted to be part of our family again. He calls at least once a month, to check on us. But, you see, when you started going to that dark place again, I figured you needed to meet him. Maybe it would help you come to terms with everything." She gripped my hand in hers, as I soaked the new information in.

"So, what you're telling me is that I have an uncle that I didn't know about. An uncle that chose to hold a grudge against his brother? An uncle that cut all of us out of his life, and is just now walking into our lives now that dad is gone!?" I said angrily. I wanted to get up, to angrily pace my room and throw my hands in the air, but I could barely lean up before a shot of pain shot through my head. I let out a groan and fell back to my pillow.