Page 39 of False Start
“Oh, so onlyyoucan hurt me?” I ask, her fingers still in my hold.
She pulls them back, clenching her fist shut at her chest, her nostrils still flared.
Harvey frowns, and the rest of my confidence dissolves as I put distance between our bodies. She winces, a kind of disapproval she can’t vocalize for some reason.
She’s looking at my wrist when she speaks again. “You surprised me out there. You killed it.”
My eyes widen, this conversation taking turns I didn’t think possible for the two of us. “Are you… complimenting me?”
“I can admit to being wrong.” She crosses her arms over her chest and looks me up and down.
“You’re a better woman than me. I can’t.” I laugh at my own joke, though I know it’s partially true. She doesn’t laugh with me. Instead, she steps closer, her eyes glued to my lips. “Are you?” I ask, my voice so shaky when I continue. “Admitting to being wrong?”
Harvey lets out a humored scoff under her breath. “No.” Her gaze shifts back up to mine as she takes the final step to close the distance between us. “I said Ican.”
I shake my head, not sure if I’m any less intimidated by her now that she isn’t actively hating me. I release my bottom lip from the bite of my teeth, realizing I’ve probably been gnawing on it this entire time. “Thanks for having my back.”
“Well,someoneneeds to have it. You’re pretty fucking fragile.” She sounds annoyed, but her expression doesn’t match her tone. She’s still all crooked smiles, and her eyes are soft.
“Still faster thanyou, though.” I use my elbow to shove her away, but she grips my hip and pulls me into her.
She’s hard and soft against me all at once, and my pulse quickens.
Her expression sobers as she looks down at my hand. “Let me see your wrist.”
I pull away the ice pack, the bruise dark shades of blue and purple, the shape of the skate wheel almost visible if I squint hard enough. It’s not the bruise that’s concerning, though; it’s how fast the swelling grows. My wrist is the same size as the rest of my arm now, and not even half an hour has passed.
“That doesn’t look good.” She grimaces as she inspects it, her touch so gentle, I can barely feel it. “You should get that looked at now.”
I sigh, knowing she’s right but dreading another hospital visit. After my post-accident residency, I was told it was normal to develop an aversion to health care facilities. I entirely loathe them. Even worse, I despise paying for them.
“You’re gonna get that looked at, right?” She doesn’t let me avoid her gaze, pinning me with a look that’s full of concern.
“I don’t know. Maybe?” I’m too flustered to do anything but answer honestly. A lie is a performance I can’t quite nail down at the moment.
She exhales heavily. “Where’s your shit? I’ll take you.”
“N-no, that’s not what I meant,” I try to counter. Owing Cat Harvey was the last thing I needed.
“You can’t really drive while you’re using one hand to ice the other.” She starts skating toward the door before she turns back, uncertainty on her face for the first timesince I’ve met her. “Unless you’re waiting for K to take you?”
“What? No. That’s fine, we can go.” I don’t need Kade to handle all of my problems. “They deserve to celebrate tonight.”
“K? Socialize with the rest of us? Yeah. I’ll pay to see it.” She’s arrogantly confident.
“Do they typically not?” I ask, realizing that while they’ve been warm and almost sibling-like toward me, I haven’t actually seen Kade interacting with any of the other skaters.
“K has pretty much kept to themselves since they tried out two years ago, aside from Lonnie and Dread,” she says before skating in my direction. “Sit on the bench,” she orders.
Dropping to her knee pads in one smooth move, she begins to unlace my quads and undo the straps. I feel like she can probably hear my heart beating from down there, but I’m hoping she’ll at least pretend she can’t, for my sake.
She takes my skates in her hands, leaving me only responsible for the ice on my wrist. Harvey opens the door out to the rink, the bout finishing up, clearly in our favor. K-Otic is in the lead, and in just a few more minutes, the Devil’s Dames will have their first official WFTDA win in five years. She goes through the doors for our own team’s locker room to retrieve our things.
I stay back, watching the Devils secure the win.
It doesn’t take her long to return with both our gym bags in hand. She gestures with her head toward the door, and I follow behind. We’re exiting just as the final whistle blows, and thankfully, we’re far ahead enough that we’ll beat the exiting crowd.
“That’s a nice hairline fracture.”The ER doctor points to the X-ray, and I groan. “I’m surprised you’re not in more pain.
