What Are We Gonna Do With It?
Emilia faked a smile, holding tightly to her chipper persona as she took a towel from her gym bag and wiped the sweat from her face and neck. She waved to the other dancers as they gathered up their things and started to depart the empty lot where they had held this week's dance battle. Her crew Riptide hadn't won this week. Again. She would be lying to herself if she'd said she was okay with it. Things had been weird recently, and she knew she was off her game.
Her ex, Sean, had been there today. He was a dancer in one of the rival crews, and seeing him there had shaken her. Their relationship had probably been way too long for how toxic it had been, but she had fallen for him pretty hard, pretty quickly.
She slung her bag over her shoulder and helped her crew mate Bodie load the large boombox into his trunk.
"Better luck next time, Em." He smiled his goofy surfer boy smile as he patted her on the back and then closed the trunk. "Call me later this week if you want to practice before the next throw down."
"I'll call you, buddy. Don't worry." She returned his smile and waved as he got in the car and started to drive off.
Her smile fell almost immediately, and she sighed to herself. Not only did they not win, but now she had to go home to her shitty house and her shitty life. She would rather have done almost anything else. Resigned, she hitched her bag up on her shoulder and started toward the bus stop.
She pulled her phone out of her pocket to check the time. She still had 5 minutes to make the bus if it was on time. She started walking more quickly toward the street. Out of the corner of her eye, she caught a glimpse of Sean at the far end of the parking lot chatting up some girl. They were leaning against his car, and their body language was relaxed and flirtatious. She saw him bring a hand to the girl's cheek before pausing and going in for a kiss. It was the same damned move he used on her; the one that made her fall so hard for him.
She felt her face turn red, both from embarrassment and from anger. Stupid, beautiful men. They were nothing but trouble; nothing but frustration and problems and heartbreak. She was so busy staring daggers at her ex and this new chick he was kissing that she didn't see the short concrete barrier surrounding the grass separating the lot from the sidewalk. Her foot caught it and she toppled forward. Her phone flew from her hand went sailing through the air to crash on the sidewalk. She landed on her hip and elbow in the grass.
"Shit!"
Emilia got to her knees, reached forward, and picked up her phone. The screen was completely cracked. She picked up her duffel bag and noticed a line of blood on her arm and an open wound on her elbow. She stood up carefully. The ankle that had caught the lip of the barrier started to throb painfully. She hobbled a few steps up the street before it became too painful to walk, and she sank back down to the sidewalk. A few tears leaked out of her eyes unbidden.
She looked at her phone, thinking to call her mother, or maybe Mo or Bodie to come pick her up. The sidewalk had banged it up thoroughly, though. She couldn't even get it to turn on. She gingerly swung her injured leg to rest on top of her duffle.
"Shiiiiiiit," she hissed again, through gritted teeth. That was more painful than she expected.
Taking slow breaths in and out, she tried to mentally mitigate the twin pains in her left ankle and right hip, not to mention the stinging in her elbow every time the wind blew across the abraded skin. She squeezed her eyes shut tight against the pain for a moment, and when she opened them, she spied the bus whizzing past toward the bus stop a few blocks away. Of all the rotten luck. Even if she wasn't injured, there was no way she was going to be able to make that bus.
It would be at least a half hour before another one would be along, if not longer. Emilia, resigned to her situation for the moment, decided to sit a few minutes and wait for the pain in her ankle to abate before hobbling, hopping, or possibly even crawling to the bus stop to wait for the next bus.
She indulged herself in some tears as she sat, then laughed quietly as she wiped her cheeks with both hands. If it wasn't for bad luck, she'd have no luck at all, it seemed.
She leaned back on both hands and stared at the sky for a few moments. She listened to the birds chirping, the traffic, and the slow drone of the cicadas, signaling the onset of dusk. She heard a car slow to a stop, the brakes squealing sharply as the tires ran over the gravel at the edge of the road in front of her.
"Hey, chica, are you okay?"
Emilia looked in surprise at the driver who had called to her. She recognized him.
"Angel?"
Angel was one of the other dancers, the male lead of Lu$h Crew. She saw him regularly at the competitions but hadn't spoken to him much. He was attractive, if you went for that tall, handsome Latin type, but he was constantly fawning over his dance partner Aubrey. He'd never given her the time of day before.
"Yeah, you're Emilia right? You look pretty banged up. Do you need some help?"
Emilia imagined how she must look, sitting there with one leg swollen and propped up on her duffel, blood running down her arm, eyes red from crying, and it seemed there was a purple bruise forming on her elbow as well.
"Yeah," she admitted. "Yeah, I guess I do. I fell and twisted my ankle. I can't really walk."
Angel got out of the car and circled around the front of it to approach her.
"Looks like the ground really did a number on you." He turned back to the car and opened the passenger side door. "Let me give you a ride somewhere."
"If you could take me to the bus stop just up the road, I can get home from there."
He picked up her bag and tossed it over the passenger seat and into the back. He leaned down to help her to her feet and get a better look at her condition.
"Girl, I am not taking you to the bus stop. I can either take you home, or I can take you to like Urgent Care, or the Emergency Room or something. From the look of that leg, I'm thinking the Emergency Room."
He wrapped his arm around her waist, and she threaded her injured arm across his back and put her hand on his shoulder. She tucked her broken phone into her pocket with her other hand, and he helped her hop to the car and get settled into the passenger seat. As he walked back around the front of the car to get in, she noticed blood smeared across the back of his shirt.
"I'm so sorry," she told him as he sat down. "I think I leaked on you." She lifted her elbow and pointed to the injury.
"Eh, what's a little blood between friends? So where to? Home or a doctor?" He turned serious as he looked her in the eye. "And if you say home, I'm going to ask you again until you give me the right answer."
Emilia rolled her eyes. "I guess take me to the Urgent Care then. It's probably cheaper than the ER."
"Heh, you ain't lying about that. There's one not too far from here. Buckle up. The last thing I need is you getting even more hurt while you're in my car. Blood's a lot harder to get out of upholstery than it is to get out of clothes."
Emilia held her elbow self-consciously for a moment, before realizing the wound had mostly stopped bleeding. She buckled up, as instructed, and blushed when she worked out that he was just teasing her. She looked over and saw a small smile tugging at the corner of his mouth as he pulled back out into traffic.
"So you fell?", Angel asked her. "Funny, you seem so coordinated when you dance."
Emilia answered him, flustered. "I tripped over that little concrete lip around the grass. I wasn't watching where I was going."
"Heh. Another careless victim of texting and walking?"
"No, nothing like that."
He shot her a quick look and a raised eyebrow. "Whatever you say, chica."
Emilia slumped down in the seat. "If you have to know, I got distracted."
She paused, but he didn't say anything, just gave her another one of those quick questioning glances. She squirmed a little.
"It was my ex, okay? He was at the throw down today, and I saw him kissing some other girl. I was staring at them, and I just got so angry, and I didn't want to miss the bus… and I just tripped." She folded her arms. "It's not that big of a deal."
"Oh. Sorry for prying."
"No, it's fine. My fault for being an idiot."
They sat without talking for a few minutes. Angel suddenly leaned forward and turned up the radio. "I love this song!" It was Days Go By by Dirty Vegas. He tapped his hand on the steering wheel to the beat. Emilia looked out the window.
Before the end of the song, they were turning into the parking lot of the urgent care. Angel told her to stay there while he went inside. While he was gone, Emilia rummaged around in the back seat for her bag and procured her wallet. She knew she would need her ID and insurance card at the very least, and maybe her credit card, depending on how much this was going to cost her.
To her surprise, Angel returned a few moments later with a wheelchair and helped her into it. She was grateful, but slightly embarrassed.
He leaned down to her as he wheeled her inside. "This is better than trying to hop all the way in there, right?"
"I guess so. Thanks, Angel."
"De nada."
They got her checked in and a nurse wheeled her back to an exam room. Angel assured her it would be no trouble to wait for her in the waiting room, despite her protests. After waiting in the exam room for a while, the nurse practitioner took her vitals and offered her an over-the-counter NSAID for the pain and swelling. They couldn't determine from the physical and visual exam whether it was broken and sent her for an x-ray.
After the x-ray they wheeled her back out to the waiting room to wait for a radiologist to be available to read the images. Angel was still there waiting for her, even after all that time. It had to have been an hour at least. He put his phone away and took the seat next to where they had parked her chair.
"So what did they say?", he asked her.
"They still have to read the x-rays, but they're not sure if it's broken or just a sprain."
"Oh, bad luck. Looks like you won't be dancing for a while either way."
"Yeah, it sure looks that way."
They sat in awkward silence for a while. It was broken when one of the staff called her name. She almost tried to stand, forgetting she couldn't. Fortunately, Angel stood and waved the man over. He explained that there was no break on the imaging, and it was just a bad sprain. He instructed Emilia to stay off it completely for several days, or until the swelling went down and the pain stopped. He gave her the standard instructions to rest, use ice, compress her ankle, and keep it elevated, as well as a recommendation for NSAIDs to help with the pain and swelling, as needed.
Emilia frowned. "How long until I can dance on it?"
"I'll leave that up to you," the clinician answered, "but if you abuse your ankle before it's fully healed, you could re-injure it, possibly worse this time. You must give the injury time to heal. When it stops hurting you can try putting weight on it, but make sure you can walk on it safely and without pain before you try and dance."
He made her sign some paperwork and told her they would send a bill in the mail after they submitted it to the insurance. "Do you have a compression bandage for it? We can sell you one here, but it will probably be cheaper at the drug store."
"I'll buy one at the drug store then. Thanks," she said dejectedly. How was she going to break it to Bodie that she not only wouldn't be able to practice this week, but she wouldn't be able to dance at all for a while. And she probably had to get a new phone now, too.
Today sucked.
But… at least she was lucky enough that Angel had run across her and helped her out. At least there was that.
Angel took her out to the car, helped her in, and returned the wheelchair. When he got in, she told him her address to take her home.
"Not so fast, chica, we still have a stop to make."
"Where?" she asked, confused.
"You need a compression bandage for your ankle. The doctor said so, and I heard you tell him you would pick one up, so we're going to get one."
"You don't have to do that. I'll figure something out."
"It's right around the corner, no big deal."
When they got to the pharmacy, Angel insisted she stay put. She waited impatiently in the car for him, wondering why he was doing all this for her. She thought about it, and she was surprised by how comfortable she felt around him. There was awkwardness between them, but she hadn't felt unsafe or weird at all.
He returned with two plastic grocery sacks stuffed full and he was carrying a pair of crutches. He opened the door and placed everything in the back seat.
"You're crazy! What's all this?"
"I got you a couple of things. I got the bandage you need, some pain killers, a reusable ice pack, the crutches, and a can of soup for later. Chicken soup cures everything. The canned stuff is nothing like the one mamá makes, but it will do."
She stared at him in astonishment.
"Oh and I got a couple of sandwiches and Diet Cokes. I don't know about you, but I'm starving." He flashed her a winning smile, and her heart melted a little.
"How, uh… how much do I owe you for all that?"
"Don't worry about it, chula. It's my treat. You have enough to worry about, si?"
"Yeah. Thanks again." Emilia picked at some imaginary lint on her shirt before asking, "Why are you being so nice to me? We barely know each other."
"Are you kidding? We're practically family. I know we're like rival crews and all, but us dancers, we have to take care of our own. Comprende?"
"You know, you're a lot different than I thought you'd be."
"So you think about me often then?" He grinned.
"What? Dude, no! That's not what I meant…"
Angel laughed. "I'm teasing you, Emilia. So how am I different from your sporadic and infrequent imaginings, hmm?"
"I thought you'd be stuck up. Like Aubrey."
Angel's face turned serious. "I think you misjudge Aubrey, chula. She's not like that." He got a far-off look in his eyes. "Not really. It's mostly an act. Once you get to know her, Miss Aubrey's a very different person than the mask she wears."
"Aren't we all," Emilia muttered to herself.
Smiling to himself, Angel turned up the radio again. I Gotta Feeling by the Black Eyed Peas was playing. Angel nodded his head to the beat, and Emilia started tapping her good foot. When the song got to the hook, they were both singing along.
She had fun for the few minutes that song was playing, taking turns singing with him. She forgot about the pain of her fall, forgot about not being able to dance, and forgot about her life, waiting for her at home. She forgot about it right up to the point where Angel pulled into her driveway, and her smile vanished.
Twilight was falling fast. Angel got the crutches from the backseat and brought them around to Emilia, helping her out of the car. Emilia's mother came out of the house and stormed toward them.
"Emilia Louise, where have you been? I've been trying to call you for hours! Why is this strange man bringing you home? Why is he parked in the driveway? I have somewhere to be!"
Angel held out his hand. "My name is Angel, ma'am. Very nice to meet you."
Emilia's mother ignored his hand and looked him up and down, dismissing him with a sniff. "Well, young lady? You have got some explaining to do."
Emilia hobbled around the car on her crutches. "I fell down, Mom. I hurt myself pretty bad. My friend Angel here took me to the Urgent care."
She gave Angel accusatory look before turning back to Emilia. "He didn't push you, did he?"
"No, Mom, jeez. Nothing like that. I just wasn't watching where I was going, and I tripped. I dropped my phone, which is why I couldn't call. It wouldn't turn on and the screen is cracked."
"God help me." She put her hand to her head as though she was soothing a headache. "I don't know how you can possibly be so clumsy. How much is it going to cost me?"
Emilia scoffed. "Don't worry about it. I'll pay for it."
"You mean your father will pay for it."
"Yeah. Sure."
"Well, whatever. Get inside and get cleaned up and get off that leg. You – Miguel, or whatever your name is…"
"Angel," Emilia and Angel said together.
"I don't care! Get your car out of my driveway. You're blocking me in, and I have a date. I'm going to be late."
"But, ma'am," Angel tried to interject.
"Go! No 'buts', just go!"
Angel didn't say a word, but gave Emilia a significant look as he got back in the car, started it up, and backed slowly out of the driveway.
Emilia's mother nodded her head in satisfaction and turned toward her daughter. "We can talk about this later. Get inside before you hurt yourself more. Oh, and lock the door behind you. Don't wait up!"
She got in her car and drove away as Emilia juggled the screen door and the front door. She was grateful her mother had left the door unlocked because she realized she had left her duffle in the back of Angel's car. With a sigh she nestled the crutches just inside the door and hopped inside, closing the door behind her. She leaned her head against it and pondered whether she should try and navigate the house with crutches or if she should just crawl to the bathroom to take a shower.
Someone knocked on the door loudly, startling her. She turned around and opened it just a crack to peek out.
It was Angel, with her duffle bag over one shoulder, the grocery sacks in the other hand, and that charming smile. She opened the door to let him in.
"I just circled the block while your mom left," he said by way of explanation. "Want some company? I've got sandwiches."
She grinned and let him in.
He set her bag down inside the door and started unpacking the grocery sacks.
"Oh yeah, I forgot I bought some chips, too. Plates?"
She directed She pointed him down the hall toward the kitchen. "They should be in the upper cabinet all the way to the left when you walk in. Just get the blue ones."
"Oh, can we eat in the living room or are you one of those 'only eat at the dining table' families?"
"We can eat in here, it's fine."
He fetched some plates and brought them back in. "They're both turkey, is that cool?"
"Totally. I'm starving. Oh, do you want my tomatoes? I'm not a fan," she told him as she peeled the tomatoes from the sandwich and set them on her plate.
"Ha. No, I'm good, thank you."
They settled into a companionable silence as they devoured their sandwiches, chips, and diet Cokes. All too soon, the meal was done, and they both sat back on the couch.
"Are you still hungry?" Angel asked her. "I could heat up the soup."
"Actually, I have some chocolate fudgesicles in the freezer. Want to grab two of those?"
"I love those things! I'll be right back."
He went to the kitchen again and brought back two of the chocolate popsicles. Angel went on and on as they were eating them about how he hadn't had one in years and they tasted just like he remembered.
Emilia set the popsicle stick down on her plate. "You should probably get going," she told him. "I need to get cleaned up and get this compression bandage on so I can ice and elevate and whatever else I'm supposed to do."
"Well there's no way I'm letting you shower alone."
"Excuse me?"
He waved his hands in front of him in denial. "No! No, what I meant was, I'm not leaving you all alone in the house while you take a shower. What if you slip and fall and need help? I'll wait in the hallway of course. Just in case."
She looked suspiciously at him. "I guess that makes sense."
"My intentions are totally wholesome, I swear." He winked at her, and she wasn't sure which was the lie – the innocence or the wink.
She decided to trust him. After all, she didn't have much choice if she wanted to avoid hurting herself again. She left the crutches out in the hallway and closed the bathroom door but didn't lock it. She leaned on the sink as she hopped to the edge of the tub to sit down and get undressed. Fortunately, it was a small bathroom. She grabbed a towel and laid it carefully on the floor next to the bathmat for when she was done. After she got undressed and got into the shower, she realized that she didn't bring any clothes with her.
She frowned, but couldn't think of any better solution than to just have Angel go back in the living room as she hopped across the hall to her bedroom to get dressed. Emilia sighed. She sat in the tub and turned the shower on, getting clean the best she could under the circumstances.
When she was done, she tried to stand back up, but the tub was so slippery, she couldn't. She fell back down twice before giving up. She grabbed the towel and wrapped it around herself haphazardly.
"Angel? Are you still out there?"
"I'm here," he called through the door. "Need some help?"
"Yeah. The door is unlocked. Can you come in?"
He opened the door hesitantly, but when he saw her wrapped in a towel in the tub, he rushed in asking, "What can I do?"
"Can you maybe get the crutches, and then help me out of this tub?"
"You got it, chica."
He brought the crutches, resting them against the wall, where they promptly fell. Flustered, he picked them up again and tried a different angle. This time, they stayed propped against the wall. He leaned over her in the tub.
"Okay, put your arms around my neck and hold on. I'm going to grab you around the waist and pick you up until you're able to stand on your good foot, alright?"
She nodded and followed his instructions, worried the whole time that that towel was going to slip. Thankfully it didn't, and she was able to stand, with his help. She got his shirt thoroughly soaked in the process.
"Okay, I'm going to pick you up and over the edge of the tub now. When I lift, pick your feet up so the don't hit the edge of the tub."
"Got it."
Through some miracle, they performed that maneuver successfully, and she got safely settled on the crutches, but she could feel the towel slipping down. She grabbed hold of it with one arm, and that crutch clattered to the floor.
"This isn't working," she told him. "Can you just hang out in the living room while I go get dressed?"
He picked up the fallen crutch and handed it to her. "Whatever you need, okay? Call for me if you need me."
He left the bathroom. She waited a few moments for him to be well and fully in the other room and managed to get to her bedroom across the hall. She had a hell of a time getting dressed on her own. At one point she just dropped both crutches and hopped back and forth to get the clothing she needed and to sit on the bed to put it on.
Once dressed, she looked at the crutches on the floor and despaired.
"This is so frustrating!" she shouted.
Angel poked his head in the door a moment later. "You okay in here?"
"I'm sorry. I'm just not used to being so damned helpless. If you weren't here, I'd probably just crawl everywhere. It would be easier."
"I can go, but first let me at least wrap that ankle for you and get you some ice, okay? Be right back."
She stared at her stupid, swollen ankle which had started throbbing again and her eyes welled up. How was she supposed to go days, possibly weeks, hobbling around on crutches, or hopping on one foot like an idiot?
Angel came back in carrying a glass of water in one hand and the compression bandage and an unopened box of medicine in the other.
"Hey, don't cry. You'll get through this, no problem. Here, drink some water."
He handed her the glass and opened the medicine, tumbling two pills into his palm.
"It's probably time for more medicine. Take these while I wrap that foot."
He unwound the bandage and wrapped her foot and ankle. She took the medicine and started at him contemplatively.
"You know," she said. "You've got to be the kindest guy I've ever met. Why aren't you and Aubrey together? It's pretty obvious you like her."
Angel shrugged. "I think she's interested in someone else right now. But it's okay. She might come around some day. Until then, I'm okay just being her groupie." He patted her gently on the knee and stood up. "I guess I'll get going."
"That must get lonely."
"What?"
"Watching Aubrey day after day, liking her, but knowing she's not interested. It must be lonely."
He smiled sadly. "It's not that bad."
"You want to hang out and watch a show or something?"
"Ay Mami, are you making a move on me?"
"Absolutely not! I just thought maybe we could both use the company for a while longer."
"Heh, I'd like that."
They made their way into the living room and settled on the couch. Emilia scrolled through one of the streaming services until she found something Angel seemed interested in. It was the latest Fast and the Furious movie – like Fast and the Furious 23 – Amazingly Fast and Absolutely Furious or something. She didn't really pay attention. Angel was into it though. She propped her foot up on one end of the couch and used his shoulder as a pillow as her eyes drooped slowly closed.
The next thing she knew, he was gently shaking her awake.
"Hey, Emilia… it's late and the movie's over. I should get going for real."
"Oh, yeah. Sure. Let me lock up behind you."
She got up, remembering at the last second that her foot was injured, and hopped the few steps to the door.
"Hey, about your phone… I know a guy who can probably fix it for cheap. I'll come by tomorrow and pick you up and we can go see him. Sound good?"
She was absolutely exhausted, and half-asleep to boot, but in that moment, she couldn't help herself. Impulsively, she wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him in for a kiss.
At first he stiffened, surprised, but he didn't pull away. Instead he wrapped his arms around her and kissed her back. When she finally pulled back, breathless, she couldn't read his face.
She searched his eyes. "That was me making a move on you." She grinned.
"Nice move. I liked it. I'll see you tomorrow." He winked at her and left, pulling the door shut behind him.
She was already looking forward to it.
