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“Xan, why aren’t you at basketball practice?” I could hear the utter annoyance in Grayson’s voice. He’d always been secretly jealous of my athletic abilities, since his was limited. He’s delightfully uncoordinated.
“Well, I’m almost done with the machine and I just couldn't wait to do it tonight.”
“You’re a terrible liar.”
My gaze dropped to my feet.
“Dang, I didn't think it was that obvious."
Grayson sat down on the couch in my lab and beckoned me to join him.
“Why do you care so much about if I show up to basketball or not?” I asked, gingerly making my way over to the couch.
“Because you’ve been acting strange recently, and this was the last straw. Something’s up, so spill it.”
I bit my lip in embarrassment. I thought I was being pretty stealthy about the whole situation.
“What’s your evidence?” I wound up asking him.
“Oh, so we’re playing this game, aren ’t we?”
I nodded. Anything to stall.
Grayson gave me a mischievous grin, and I immediately knew that poetry boy was about to psychoanalyze me like I was a character from a classic novel.
“For starters, last weekend you turned down Jamie and I’s invitation to play chutes and ladders. Then, I caught you smuggling a bag of frozen blueberries on Tuesday. Also, you’ve been hiding in your room for most of the week. Not to mention, that you’ve been limping since Friday. Skipping Basketball practice was just the cherry on top.”
My hands instinctively started fidgeting as I broke eye contact with Grayson.
“So you knew I was injured?” I asked, cautiously.
“I’m the master of hiding injuries. You might fool some people, but you’d never convince me that you were fine.”
Grayson was right. I knew that I wouldn’t be able to hide it for long, but it was worth a shot. I guess I was just hoping that it would heal itself within a few days and then I’d be spared from the embarrassment of telling my grandfather what happened. He was never pleased when any of us got hurt, especially if it happened due to stupidity.
“So, what happened?” he asked.
Before explaining myself, I shot a smile full of false confidence at Grayson to prevent him from pitying me. I know Grayson isn’t usually one to pity others, but I’ve got to keep my reputation up as a guy who can figure things out on his own. I had no place in my life for pity.
“You’re in for quite a story,” I said.
Grayson gave me an eyeroll and motioned his hand for me to continue.
“It all started a few months ago…”
“Wait, have you been injured for that long?” Grayson interrupted, with a small note of concern in his voice.
“Technically yes, but it wasn’t problematic at first,” I bluntly stated, “Anyways, I was at a home football game–I believe two weeks after school started. I was up to my usual schemes; hyping up the student section and accidentally convincing everyone I was a junior instead of a freshman. Then, I spotted this super pretty girl. Well, it actually wasn’t the first time I’d seen her. She’s in my bio class, and I’d been eyeing her since the first day of school. But at this point in time, she was in perfect view and I had to make a move.”
“Back up,” Grayson gave me a funny look, as if he were suddenly more interested in my crush rather than the story, “I think I recall that night. The entire ride home you were yapping about how you completely screwed things up with her. You were especially irritating. What was her name again?”
“Bella. And I didn’t completely screw things up! I just kinda fell down an entire set of stairs on the bleachers when I tried to make a conversation with her. But the next Monday, she talked to me the entire bio class and said my stunt at the game was the best effort she’s ever seen a guy make in order to flirt with her!”
Grayson burrowed his eyebrows, “and that’s a compliment?”
“The best kind!” I exclaimed, “Now the two of us are thicker than thieves.”
“Oh goodness,” Grayson groaned, still smiling at me, “and tell me again what this has to do with skipping basketball practice?”
“Oh yeah. I guess the only important part of the story is that when I fell down the stairs, I hurt my knee. But it wasn’t bad at all, so I thought it was nothing to be concerned about.”
“So then what happened? Did you fall down another staircase to woo more girls?” Grasyon questioned.
“Not quite. I actually fell up a staircase while talking to Bella on the way to her geometry class. She said I needed to stop falling for her. Pretty clever, right?”
Another eyeroll, “The cleverest.”
“Anyways, that happened on Friday afternoon, and that evening I had basketball practice. It hurt a little more than usual that night, but nothing so painful that it kept me from playing. However, after practice I did have quite the limp. It wasn’t until Tuesday that my knee became a little too unbearable during practice. It kept locking, buckling, and sending shooting pains. You know, the things that knees aren’t supposed to do twenty times an hour. So I thought if I took a day off, maybe it would heal itself.”
The look on Grayson’s face turned smug.
“Let me see it,” he instructed.
Carefully, I rolled up my pant leg to reveal a blue, swollen knee. Grayson delicately poked around and inspected it, as I held my breath in pain.
“Xan, tell me how you expected this to heal in a day.”
“Delusion.”
Grayson let out a deep sigh and rubbed his eyelids.
“We both know you’re gonna need to tell someone about this,” he said to me, as I wrung my hands and stared at a random screw that I dropped on the floor earlier. “This isn’t the type of injury that will go away if you keep agitating it.”
I sank my teeth into my bottom lip. That’s exactly what I feared he’d say.
“I don’t want to come clean to our grandfather,” I admitted with a slight hesitation. “He doesn’t need to know that I got injured over something stupid again.”
Grayson placed a gentle hand on my back and met his gray eyes to mine. He didn’t really understand where I was coming from. Grayson rarely got hurt growing up. It was always me or Jameson who’d wind up in a cast. And every time, without fail, our grandfather gave us those eyes that pierce through your soul and make you feel guilty from the insides out.
“I was never planning on turning you in, Xan,” Grayson smiled, “Like I said, I’m the master at hiding injuries, so here’s the game plan: I’ll give Nash a call and he’ll make sure your knee isn’t anything too serious. While you’re healing, we’ll tell the basketball coach that you’re grounded and can’t come to practice. And don’t worry, I have my ways of making sure that word won’t come back around to the old man.”
By instinct of emotions, I swung my arms around Grayson and gave him a big squeeze. I didn’t deserve such amazing brothers watching over me.
“Thank you,” I mumbled.
“Don't mention it."