Chapter 26 - The Game and aftermath
Mell Pov
Sitting in the changing rooms on my own didn't help my nerves for the game a lot. All the boys of the team were loudly speaking with each other and I could hear them. I decided to listen to some of my music to calm me down. I put on Safe haven by State Champs will get ready for the game.
Suddenly I felt someone was in the changing room with me. I turned around and saw my dad standing at the door opening.
"Can I come in for a second?" Lucas Asked
" Sure. give me one second." I quickly threw on my game shirt and walked towards my dad.
He looked a bit worried for some reason. Dad sat down and said:
"You ready for this?"
"Always!, just a bit nervous. The good kind of nervous."
"That is normal, I was just wondering if something else wasn't playing in your head."
"No, nothing else Coach," I responded
Lucas looked a bit uncomfortable at me when I was calling him Coach.
"Please don't call me to coach if not carry mell, I don't like it. I am your dad and always will be. So please when nobody is around please call me dad, not coach."
"Will do, dad" I responded
"Okay let's go to the gym and gather with the rest of the team"
"Let's go"
On the court, I met up with the rest of the team. Everybody was in high spirit. We warmed up and made a few shots before the game began. I was positioned as a point guard. But my mind kept drifting off to the bottle of pills Dan gave me the other day. I should have maybe taken one, but again how much do I trust him to be fair. Dad blew on his whistle to get our attention and our strategy meeting began.
The game began and everything was going well. We were on fire, Liam and I were a good team and even Brett was playing a fair game. He sometimes didn't want to recognize that I was standing open and he could pass the ball to me but other than that, everything was going well.
I already scored 23 points and dad proudly looked at me when I again scored another 3 pointers. Even though we were on fire, the other team was putting on a good fight. The game was very tight, the score was 74 to 76 We needed to score one more before the buzzer went to win the game. Liam passed the ball to brett who took it across to the basket. Unfortunately, someone took the ball from him and we were again in defense.
Luckily they missed and it was our turn again. Brett passed the ball towards me. I started dribbling and suddenly my chest felt tight and my breathing was going a bit more rapid than then normally.
I saw Liam walking in front of me and he was free. I passed the ball to him. I couldn't move forward any further and the sounds were damping suddenly. I saw Liam going for the bucket and scoring. Everybody was cheering since we won the game, but I suddenly felt dizzy.
Everyone was around Liam except for me and Brett. I know we were not buddies or anything but suddenly I felt his hand on my shoulder.
"Are you alright?" He asked
"yeah perfectly fine" I tried to say but miserably failed. My breathing was just rapid and I could barely form out words.
I heard brett yelling for someone and suddenly dad was in front of my face. He must have run over to me. Dad bent down in front of me.
I hadn't noticed but everyone wasn't looking at Liam anymore but at me.
The team also made a circle around me so not everyone in the audience saw what was going on.
"Concentrate on me mell" I suddenly heard. I looked towards where that sound came from and it was dad.
"Can you hear me?" He asked
I nodded yes.
"Okay, can you walk to the changing room mell," Lucas asked concerned?
I looked up and nodded again.
Walking over to the changing room felt like ages. Dad was half carrying me while I tried to keep my breathing under control while miserable failing.
I sat down as soon as I could and put my head beneath my legs.
The moment I sat down and did this I felt like I couldn't breathe.
I panicked. Looked at dad and suddenly my vision started to gain black spots. The last thing I saw was dad looking concerned and saying something to someone else. Then everything turned black.
Lucas pov.
The game was going well. Everyone on the team played well together. There were no misunderstandings or little arguments which I was expecting. I knew some rivalry was going on between Brett, Liam, and mell.
The last seconds of the game were there, I started yelling towards Mell to pass the ball to Liam since he was free. She passed the ball but my attention didn't go to Liam but stayed with mell. Something was off. She didn't move towards the basket where Liam was.
Liam scored and everyone cheered, I jumped up and started to walk towards the team when I suddenly heard someone calling my name.
It was brett he was standing nearby mell and it didn't look good.
Mell was bent over and struggling to breathe. I quickly ran towards her well asking the team to make a circle around here so not everyone (especially the kids) in the audience saw what was going on.
I looked at mell and felt very concerned. I tried making contact with her but she could only nod ad my questions.
At that moment, the worst thing came through my mind. Could she be having a heart attack? Fuck did we even test her on HCM. How could we have not tested her for this? How stupid could Brooke and I have been? We knew it was a genetic disease.
Mell and I walked towards the changing room with Liam and Brooke closely behind me. Mell sat down and put her head between her legs, I sat before her and tried to make contact. I asked her what was going on but didn't get any reaction. I looked at Brooke and said, " we need to get here to the hospital now! get the car ready."
Then mell suddenly passed out cold blank. She fell forwards towards me.
"Fuck, I yelled, call 911 Brooke!"
I was never this worried before. Luckily the ambulance came fast and both of us went with here. They hooked her up on multiple machines in the ambulance and her heart rate was abnormal. When we were in the hospital they took her away for examination. We stayed behind. I hugged Brooke while we settled down in the waiting room.