Preath: Head In The Game [Complete]

12: Angry Little Turtle Bastard

I put a hand on her forearm, hoping she'd explain to me what was going on. She pulled her hand away and plugged her ear with her finger.

"What is it?" I asked. "Is it someone from the club?"

She didn't respond, as she was too busy listening to whoever was on her mobile. Her upturned brows remained unchanged for so long, I thought that time had frozen. Then her mouth, straight as a line, twitched to indicate that it hadn't.

"How did this...?" she spoke into the phone. "...of course, right away... love you too, bye."

"What's going on?" I asked as she tucked her phone into her purse and carefully snapped the clasp shut with a calmness in her fingers I could tell was actually chaotic.

"I- I need to go home," she said, standing up. "My mom's not okay."

I paused. "What do you mean 'not okay'?"

"She's sick, I have to get a plane ticket right now." She looked as though she was about to run out of the building, but I managed to hook a finger under her belt in time.

"I'll go with you," I said.

"But you're..." she stopped mid-sentence. "Actually, you're right. And I don't want to leave alone."

I studied her face, which I knew was sad, but she appeared more like she was on a mission. "Let's get my crutches," I said.

The chair shook as we crossed from the tile floor into the elevator, which was busy with an old man, a young man, and a family with two children. The young girl, about three, smiled at me with big gray eyes, probably pleased that we were at about the same level in height. Christen's head was up, facing straight forward at the changing floor numbers. At that moment, I think she could've transformed into a ninja and exterminated us all had she so desired. But, despite the restless thuds of her fingers against the chair handles, it felt like she wanted me there.

We gathered everything. It didn't take too long for me to get discharged; we kept our mouths shut about me flying. Christen barely talked, but she always waited for me to catch up. The curly-haired woman at the airport kiosk wasn't as patient.

"Two tickets to Palos Verdes, please," Christen said.

"Payin' with credit card or cash?" the woman asked, head tilted with expectation.

"Credit card."

The flight attendant took my crutches. It felt a little odd, sitting in this plane without Allie making faces at me or Sammy shouting behind me or Carli ignoring the world with her earbuds and her phone. At least Christen was sitting in the window seat beside me, and that felt right.

"So..." I began, "what's going on with your mum?"

"She had a..." she stopped, hiding her lips away. "She had a brain aneurysm." As soon as she said the words, she forced her eyes shut.

My first instinct was to comfort her, but the armrest dug into my ribs, preventing me. I knocked it up and out of the way. I wanted to hug her, but I settled for putting a hand on the back of her head instead.

"She's going to be okay," I said. "Got it?"

She nodded. "Dad said she's in a coma and she had a seizure. It's just so sudden."

"I know," I said. She gripped my hand.

"It means so much that you're coming," she said.

"Why wouldn't I?" I followed the gaze she directed at my ankle. "Oh, that? That can't stop me."

She smiled. "You know, I never thought I'd have to visit two hospitals in the same week. Can we just get my mind off of this?"

A big bag from the gift shop scratched my shin, containing everything my teammates brought me. "Have you ever played Mario Kart?" I asked.

"No," she answered.

"Boom." I peeled the yellow sticky note - "Feel Better Harry!" - off of the screen and turned on the Switch. "What character do you want to be?"

"Which ones do you like?"

"Yoshi is my lucky bud. He's just a boss."

"So should I be this guy? They look alike." Two squares over from my beloved Yoshi, her finger hovered over - my enemy - Koopa Troopa.

"Okay, Yoshi is a dinosaur," I said. "You really want to be that angry little turtle bastard?"

She furrowed her meticulously drawn eyebrows, offended. "What's wrong with Koopas? At least they give you their shells as weapons, Goombas are the real nuisances."

"No, you see, because in Mario 64 Yoshi eats Goombas. Koopas just make problems worse because their shell always comes back to bite you in th-"

"Aw, sounds like someone has Koopa Troopa trauma."

"No I don't, they're ugly little turtle bastards!" I said. "To this day, that's what they are."

"Mmkay, Toby," she said, as she started a game as a Koopa Troopa anyway.

"You have a banana peel," I said. "You should use it."

"I don't want to be that person."

"You can't play Mario Kart with morals," I said, but she ignored me.

After winning our first couple of rounds, I decided to go easy. Eventually, she beat my time - but only by a few seconds.

"Ha!" she said. "Who's the angry little turtle bastard now?"

"Still you." I grabbed the game back, ready to smoke her again. She put her chin on my shoulder, watching.

"Hi," she said.

"Hi."

"I'm here to distract you."

"I know."

She waved her hand in front of my face, and when I didn't respond, blew a minty cold breath in my ear.

"Hey!" I jerked away. "Did Allie teach you that?"

"No."

I wasn't sure if I believed her, but I beat her score anyway. When I gave her the Switch back, her jaw dropped.

"Boom," I said again.

She turned to me with puppy-dog eyes. "You made me lose?" she whined in a little voice.

I shrugged. "I made Koopa Troopa lose."

"You hurt the feelings of the girl who has to visit two loved ones in the hospital?" she said.

I was about to respond, but that entire thought had been cut off, like the second half of a sentence forced into the next line on a typewriter. "I am one of those loved ones," I said, the statement coming out more like a question.

"Yeah, Tobin," she said as if it were obvious. "When I looked back at you after scoring that header, I was so worried. I stopped thinking about the goal; I saw you there and my mind went to the worst."

"That's funny," I said, "because all I thought about was how you'd just scored your first goal."

She shook her head. "I love you," she said, hugging me. "I'm so lucky I met you."

I felt lucky that she didn't have eyes at the back of her head, because then she would've seen my face and bulging eyes. "I love you too."

She stayed there, and I was terrified: to shift, move, breathe. Then, all too quickly, she'd pulled away. I had to bite my tongue to not ask her where she was going.

"Thank you for being here," she said.

"You were there for me."

"I know, but I didn't decide to buy a flight with an injured ankle and travel across the States from Ohio to California."

I guessed that was true. I prayed that with my eyes, I could somehow transmit a message that would get her to hug me again. A 'come here' sort of signal. I was sure if she would maintain eye contact with me long enough, it would happen.

"How do you manage to look so happy through all this?" she asked.

"I don't know." What could I say? Just like when I woke up in the hospital, I loved this game; and I was starting to think I really did love her, too.

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A/N: Sorry this was a bit late! I had schoolwork to do yesterday and fell asleep before midnight :( Don't forget to comment and come back next week for chapter 13!