Page 74 of Dreams
* * *
Taylor let out a strangled cry as her heart thumped painfully against her ribs. The image on the Jumbotron zoomed in, revealing the back of the player that was collapsed on the ice. A million thoughts ran through her mind and she couldn’t focus on just one. His number was visible. Josh’s number, but she suddenly wasn’t in Columbus anymore.
The Portland arena rose up around her and another boy she’d loved was in a heap collapsed on the ice, his captain, Garret, freaking out and screaming for help. Garret looked up at them, tears streaming down his own cheeks. He wasn’t even trying to hide it.
Taylor’s dad, Coach Scott, sprinted across the ice as fast as he could. The minutes ticked by agonizingly slow. Danny was on the stretcher as they shocked him again and again. Taylor didn’t know how much time had passed before Garret skated towards them and put his hand against the glass. Taylor mimicked him with held breath. The tears never stopped flowing as the cracks formed in her heart.
Garret shook his head almost imperceptibly. He hunched his shoulders in utter defeat as Taylor collapsed back into her seat with a final shattering in her chest.
“Taylor, honey.” Her mom’s voice brought her back to the present as she felt a hand squeeze her shoulder.
She felt her face, and the tears were very real.
“Oh, God. No no no no,” she whispered.
It was all so similar. Josh on the ice. His best friend at his side yelling for help. Her dad running towards them with the trainers and paramedics.
She lurched to her feet when she saw Mack and Zak helping Josh up. When he gave a small wave, she let out a whimpering sob.
It was in that moment she knew. She was in love with Josh, and she wished she wasn’t.
* * *
When Josh regained consciousness, he was still on the ice, laying on his back looking up into the worried faces surrounding him. Mack gave him a weak smile before glancing behind him at the paramedics pushing a stretcher towards them.
Josh wanted to tell them he was okay. He wanted to say he could get off the ice under his own will, but he couldn’t find the words, and there wouldn’t have been much truth in them anyways. He tried to sit up, but the team’s trainer put a hand on his chest to keep him down.
“Not yet, Son,” he said.
He was asked a number of questions to which he either nodded or shook his head.
The arena was eerily quiet, with 17,000 people waiting to see what was going to happen.
Feeling was coming back into his heavy limbs, but he was exhausted. The paramedics lowered the stretcher and started to try to lift him onto it.
“I want to skate,” Josh finally forced out.
“Listen to the paramedics, Walker,” Coach Peterson ordered. Josh didn’t know when he’d come onto the ice.
“I can do it,” he urged. “I just need help up.”
Coach looked to the medic who nodded slowly. “Fine. But you’re going straight to the hospital. When you pass out on my ice, you do what I say.” He gestured to Mack and Zak, who were still on the ice. “Help him up.”
They each grabbed him underneath the arms to help him. The crowd went crazy as he got his feet under him. Acknowledging them with a small wave, he let his teammates push him across the ice. Both teams were standing at their benches, tapping their sticks on the boards in front of them while he made his way down the hall.
“We’re not going to yell at you right now, because you just scared the shit out of us.” Mack glanced at Zak who was staying very quiet. “But, dude, I knew something was wrong, and you lied to me.”
The paramedics joined them in the locker room as soon as Josh finished throwing on some clothes.
Mack hung his head, shaking it back and forth before leaving to re-join the team.
An ambulance waited outside, and Josh had no choice but to get in it. He could walk on his own now, but that was the extent of his recovery. His nerves were completely fried, and the moment right before his head hit the boards played on a loop in his mind. The moment when he realized he’d waited too long.
All he knew was that something was wrong. That something had been wrong for a long time now.
* * *
Waiting. That’s what hospitals were known for, right? There was no in and out. It seemed that even arriving in an ambulance wouldn’t afford Josh the privilege of expediency. As soon as they determined he was non-emergent, he was shuffled off into a room and told a nurse would be with him soon.
