Camy Tang - Sushi for One?

Lex backed away from them. Other people had started to notice their argument.

Gecko’s face twitched like a rabid rabbit. “I wasn’t talking to you.”

“Well, I’m talking to you.” The edge to Aiden’s voice had the ring of a sword being drawn. “She said no. Just leave it.”

“Get out of my way.”

“Let’s discuss this outside.”

“I’m not going anywhere with you.” Gecko suddenly thrust at Aiden’s shoulders, making him stumble backward.

Lex turned to get out of the way.

Aiden’s arm reached out to break his fall. His shoulder hit Lex right at the knee joint.

She felt and heard a sickening pop.

Pain like a vice grip exploded around her kneecap, in the soft area under the knee, along the inside edge of her leg. She fell to the ground, raw meat and vegetables landing on her stomach, her legs, her hair. She grabbed her right knee.

No. Oh, God, no.

Swelling rushed into the joint like a scalding river. Sharp stabbing in her joint, in cacophony with the hard pulsing of the pain, trying to break out of her skin.

No, please, no.

She lifted her leg, and her shin dangled at a slightly odd angle from her thigh.

No, not now. No.

“Shhh, Lex, it’ll be okay.” Venus’s face appeared in front of her. Lex hadn’t realized she’d been screaming.

Aiden held open the front door as Lex hopped inside, one arm hooked over Venus’s neck. Poor Venus bent over like an old woman to make up for the height difference.

Lex didn’t say anything. She collapsed on the sagging couch, breathing hard, trying not to grimace too much from the pain. Jennifer rushed into the living room with a couple pillows she’d snagged from Lex’s bedroom, easing them under Lex’s knee.

She stared at her knee, ballooned out to twice its normal size. She started crying again.

Venus shielded her, while Jennifer whispered something to Aiden. Venus turned to wave at him as he left. “Thanks, Aiden.”

Lex still hadn’t said anything. She couldn’t open her mouth. Her brain ordered her to say something – at least thank him for driving her home – but her throat had closed shut with Crazy-Glue. He had checked her knee at the restaurant, but his grim look and firm command to see a doctor ASAP had crushed her hopes.

Venus’s face had a sad, calm cast to it, like a pale Noh mask. Jennifer’s eyes glistened with tears as she sat at the other end of the couch. Venus sank down onto the sturdy coffee table. “When does your dad get back?”

“Tnnm.” Lex cleared her throat. “Ten.” Saying the word exhausted her.

They sat in silence, listening to the familiar ticking of the old cuckoo clock. Fog filled Lex’s head. But the mist cleared a little, and she realized who was missing.

“Where’s Trish?” Her voice had a soft, plaintive tone she didn’t recognize as her own.

Venus glanced at Jenn, who bit her lip. Venus touched Lex’s shoulder. She jumped.

“Trish… had to go.”

Lex didn’t remember seeing Trish at all – inside or outside -after the – She swallowed. “When? Where did she have to go?”

Venus’s eyes darted away. Jenn fiddled with a loose thread from the couch.

“One of you has to tell me.” Her sentence ended on a sob.

Venus sighed. It sounded frustrated. “Trish – ” Venus bit her name out – “decided to meet up with her boyfriend.”

The news struck Lex like a slap to her face. She exhaled sharply but couldn’t breathe back in. She pressed her lips together to stop them from trembling.

“It’s not you, Lex. It’s her.” Venus’s eyes had narrowed into black goma seeds, dead and dangerous in her face. Her fingers curled as if around Trish’s neck.

It didn’t make the emptiness right below Lex’s rib cage somehow fill up again.

“Do you… uh… want to watch SportsCenter?” Jennifer reached for the remote control.

“No!” Lex’s hand snapped out to grab at her. A knife chopped into her knee. She winced and gingerly touched her kneecap.

She couldn’t watch people doing athletic things. Not now. Not when her own body had failed her like this.

She’d seen several people tear their ACL – the ligament connecting the tibia bone to the femur. She’d watched them on crutches both before and after the surgery, the long recovery. Some of them never played volleyball again…

No, don’t think that way! Lots of people came back just as strong from ACL surgery.

However, lots of people didn’t tear their ACL right after nailing Wassamattayu tryouts. Right after finding a room on the second floor of a town house.

Lex crumpled her face, trying not to cry again. She sniffled. Jenn handed her the box of Kleenex from the end table.

Venus took a tissue too. “One good thing has come out of this.”

“What?” Lex blew her nose.

“Mariko is going to be fuming.”

Lex wasn’t supposed to do this alone. Trish had let her down again, right after her apologies and protests that she wanted to help her injured cousin.

Lex took a shaky breath at the entrance to the MRI center. You can do this, even alone. She had to do a sideways hop to both pull open the glass door and manage her crutches, but in the past week, she’d gotten pretty savvy on her crutches from navigating the cubicles at work. Behind her, the taxi sped away to a duet of honks from the two cars it cut off.

She hobbled up to the receptionist’s counter. “Lex Sakai. I have an MRI scheduled for two.”

The sour-faced woman checked her computer. “You’re late.”

“I’m sorry. My ride never showed up – ”

“You’re lucky. We don’t have anyone after you, so we can still work you in.”

“Gee, thank you.” Her voice didn’t quite have a meek, grateful tone. The woman glanced up at her. Lex gave a weak smile.

“Have a seat until the tech calls you.”

As if it weren’t bad enough her heart pounded in her chest, she had to deal with snippy people. Lex hobbled around the arrangement of chairs in the waiting area. She finally managed to get into position to sink into one when a door opened at the far end of the room.

“Lex Sakai?”

Anakin Skywalker stood in the doorway. After he turned bad, and sans cape. Glorious golden curls contrasted with his bloodshot eyes and fanatical “world domination” expression. His head looked like it floated in midair until he gestured with his black-clad arm. Then she saw that his all-black ensemble had blended into the background.

“You’re late.” His voice rumbled deep and menacing.

“I’m sorry, I – ”

“Just follow me.” He turned down the hallway behind the door.

Gee, that’s not creepy at all. She had a surreal sensation of following Luke into the cave.

She maneuvered back around the chairs, but just before she reached the doorway, it closed in her face. Brilliant technician hadn’t even stayed to hold it open for her.

She turned the knob. Locked.

Frustration overtook the nervous twitching in her limbs. She pounded on the door and almost lost her balance on the crutches. As she righted herself, the door swung open to Mr. Dark Side’s dour face.

He gave her a set of scrubs and showed her a closet-sized changing room. The room didn’t even have a chair for her to sit on. She had to balance on one leg while she unstrapped herself from the Velcro-and-metal brace her sports doctor had given to her at her appointment a few days ago. It made her feel like a cyborg. The brace crashed to the ground.

She shed her warm-up pants and hopped into the flimsy paper shorts Anakin had given to her. The cotton top followed.