Plié and Clout

Chapter 18: Knee

Okay so I normally try to post on Fridays, but it's quarantine and I'm beyond bored

Music: ghost - confetti

thanks!

-rabid

***

"You're playing shit, what's wrong." Nico shakes my shoulders, but I'm not paying attention, I'm spacing out, exhausted.

"Arguing with Jilly about her social choices." I yawn.

"Fuck it for two hours, Steph, just focus on your job now."

"Yeah huh," I mumble.

But I'm playing shit and I know it.

And then I double know it because Jorgen's got me in the locker room for a hit.

I was out on the ice, taking the puck behind the net, and I got thrown by one of the grinders on the other team. He checked me badly, flipping me upside down and crushing my knee right into the ground.

"Can you bend it straight?" Jorgen has my shin guard off and is looking at my knee. I bend it straight out and it cracks. "Did that hurt?"

"Yeah." I mumble.

"Can you do that again maybe?" I push my knee straight and it clicks again.

"We're going to need you to get to Mr K to get that checked out by someone that is specialized in joints. I do blood."

"Right." I sigh.

"You feel okay to play?"

"Yeah, I feel okay." I stand up, and it clicks again. "Just have to keep 'em bent, you know." Except he probably doesn't because he's got a titanium leg.

"Yeah, if anything happens, get off the ice, alright?" I strap myself back in again.

"Got it."

***

JULIANNA

"What'cha doing?" Maya plops next to me in study. I've got the school lent Chromebook open on my desk. Nhl.com where they play-by-play the games, rewatching the moment Steph got crushed for the third time, trying to figure out why his knee is messed up. What he did to it, because nobody can figure it out, even the medical staff, and it's Monday morning and I have nothing better to do. "Who's that?"

"My brother." I mumble.

"That's your brother? That's pretty dope." She leans over and watches. "I mean, whatever he did wasn't, but the fact that he plays for them is pretty cool. What about you, you play any sports other than dance?"

"Not really." I sigh.

"I'm a competitive table tennis player." She winks at me and I smile back.

"You are?"

"Totally, I'm killer at it."

"That's so cool," I shut the computer and grab a notebook. "Do you go to tournaments and stuff?"

"Don't believe a damn word she says," Lukas plops down next to Maya. "She's never touched a ping pong paddle."

"I had her going, are you kidding Luk, you just have to ruin fun things." He leans over and raises his eyebrows at me.

"I can't believe she actually had you running."

"She's got me running that her brother plays for the Wolves."