"Spring Has Come Again."
From Jo's Playlist: Spring by the Arcadian Wild
I may miss practice. Jo's fingers shook as she hit send.
Take all the time you need. Study tonight? Was Kuroo's quick reply. If he got caught with his phone out he would be lectured harshly in front of the class.
Sounds good.
She rubbed her face with the palm of her hand, sucking in a shaky breath. The ER was terribly loud in her ears. Murmurs, sniffles, a baby wailing with a mother trying to shush it, someone vomiting...it made her heart race uncomfortably.
The green curtain surrounding the hospital bed pulled back. Her mother slipped in, followed by a man in his forties. They spoke softly to one another. He sat down on a green cushioned stool and smiled at Jo. Crows feet creased around his dark eyes.
Jo nodded respectfully. She shot her mother an uncertain look.
"Mr. Sato is one of the ER doctors." She said, leaning on the side of Jo's bed and running her long fingers through Jo's hair comfortingly. "He's going to do a routine check-up. We'll most likely go to a cardiology clinic in the next few days,"
Jo stayed resigned. Her fingers curled into the fabric of her leggings. "Okay." She nodded.
Mr. Sato uncurled his stethoscope from around his neck. "We may run a few tests. It won't take long," he said in heavily accented English. "You'll be able to go back to school for the rest of the day."
Jo remained quiet as he listened to her heart. She felt her phone vibrate and tried to glance at it but couldn't make out the words. She curled her fingers around the sleek case and played with the rubber edge, worn away by her consistent picking.
They ran several tests, the techs perfectly void of any negative emotion. No surprise or concern twisted their features as they read results and signed off on papers. The perfect soldiers.
Jo was itching to get out of the place. The smell of clorox and bleach set her teeth to biting on the inside of her mouth. She all but jumped out of the bed when Mr. Sato gave her the all clear.
He pulled out a pair of reading glasses from his whitecoat breast pocket and perched them on his short nose. "Be sure to keep up your exercise, but tone it down. Build up gradually. You might have put your heart under too much stress," he said, writing on a pad of paper.
"Do you think that's what caused my spell?" Jo finally asked.
Mr. Sato seemed surprised to hear her speak up. He looked over the rim of his glasses, studying her as she swung her legs over the side of the bed. "There are several plausible reasons. But you said that you and your father run quite a long ways, so it could have aided in it." He ripped off the paper and handed it to her mother. He stood, slipped his glasses into his pocket and smoothed down his coat. "Go back to school and try to get some rest."
And with that, he nodded to her mother, pulled back the curtain and was gone in a flurry of white and green.
Jo was used to cold doctors. ER doctors, in her opinion, were typically even more frigid. She had spent plenty of her childhood in clinics all over the world. But the chilled wind that exhaled from his words wrapped around her chest tighter than usual. The sharp particles digged under her soft flesh and into her ribs.
"Let's go get some coffee," her mother said, brushing a strand of hair from her face.
Jo rose a brow. "Isn't that a bad idea?"
Her mother brushed a thumb across Jo's cheekbone, sliding her hand down to rest on her daughter's shoulder blade. "Decaf," she said, a knowing grin sliding on her face.
Coffee with her mother. Jo couldn't think of a better way to spend her afternoon after being discharged from yet again another forgien hospital.
The coffee tasted different from the espresso Jo had grown so accustomed to, but it was wonderful nonetheless. Far better than any of the canned stuff the school carried in its vending machines. That was an abomination.
Jo and her mother enjoyed the quaint shop in silence. Jo with a textbook open and notepaper balancing precariously on the edge and her mother with her iPad to read up on the latest physical therapy research.
Neither spoke. They didn't have to. The soft beat of the ambient music playing over hidden speakers filled the square room. The whir of the espresso machine wined every few minutes as the barista frothed milk but that was as loud as it got.
Jo could almost forget that the reason why she was here was because she had been at the hospital her mother worked at.
Chewing on her already chapped bottom lip, her concentration on the chemistry equation was frazzled when a sudden sound of a familiar voice calling her name echoed in the shop.
"Jo!" Titus said, lifting a hand in greeting in the doorway. Late afternoon sunlight spilled around his shoulders, setting his blond hair aflame. A second figure stood beside him but shadow obscured them from view.
Jo sat up straight, as though she were a kid getting caught with her hand in the cookie jar. "Hey," she said, a startled grin forming. Her mother twisted in her chair to see who it was, an arm draped around the delicately curved back.
"Oikawa," she said politely in a voice reserved for her patients. "It's good to see you,"
Titus and his companion stepped in, letting the door close with a wooden thud. With the sun blocked by the open sign, Jo could see who Titus was with.
He was as tall as Titus, built with broader shoulders. He held his head with a confident tilt and swept his honey brown eyes across the room. A bright smile that set Jo's nerves on edge lit his face.
"Mrs. Olsen, it's wonderful seeing you," he stepped close and bowed slightly. He then settled his gaze on Jo, who had leaned back in her chair, absently snapping her highlighter cap on and off. "And you must be Jo?"
Jo nodded. It wasn't uncommon her mother talked about her, especially to her younger patients. "Pleased to meet you," she said cordially. Something about the way he seized the room up, as though he ruled the shop, that made her skin crawl.
"Are you feeling any better?" Titus asked, striding to the counter to order. He leaned his forearm on the wood and craned his neck to see around the corner to the back. "Kuroo said you felt sick this morning,"
Jo nodded, relieved he hadn't told Titus about her fainting spell. "A lot better. Could I have notes from class today?" She took a careful sip of her coffee, watching him. He tapped his fingers impatiently against the treated wood.
"Of course." He leaned on his forearms, craning his neck around the corner painfully. He coughed into his fist loudly. Jo watched curiously, tuning in and out of her mother's conversation with Tooru. Could he be interested in the barista?
Just then, the barista came around the corner. She skipped the last few steps to the register, her feet hitting the concrete floor dramatically for the last hop. "How was practice?" she asked, emerald eyes shining in the direct sunlight.
Then it clicked. The gear slid into place and turned in Jo's brain.
Titus shrugged and pulled out his wallet. "Just the usual. They were a bit off their game, which was odd. Kuroo seemed distracted," he slid his debit card across the counter and she swiped it.
Jo's chest seized. She clicked the cap on and off again.
As if feeling her gaze, Titus glanced at her. His identical eyes sparkled with a secret hidden beneath. "This is Jo Olsen." he said, nodding to her. The barista glanced her way and fluttered her long, thin fingers. Two silver rings (on her middle and pointer finger) winked in the light. "This is my younger sister, Summer. She's in a grade below us."
Jo waved her highlighter. Summer's hair was a darker shade of blonde than Titus's. Streaks of brown darkened the underside of her long hair that was swept up into a sleek ponytail. Her eyes were the same emerald green as his, and just as intelligent. Freckles dusted her nose like stars that wrinkled in thought as she worked. Blush pinked her cheeks with a rosy shimmer in the light. She was a rose. Soft and pink.
Summer slid Titus his drink in a tall glass and another in a white mug. "On the house," she said, nodding to Oikawa.
He glanced at her, pausing midconversation. His face shifted, confident features softening a fraction. "Thank you, that was so kind of you," he said. But his tone was sly. Teasing. As though he expected it. Jo slid her eyes between the two. Bold assumption from a boy wearing plaid pants. His school made an awful mistake with his uniform. The scratchy, black sweater vests of Nekoma were Gucci compared to the cream color of his.
It made Jo miss Italy so much more.
Summer leaned her elbow on the counter, cupping her chin in the palm of her hand and snorted. "You only date me to feed your caffeine addiction,"
Oikawa grinned as Titus handed him the mug. The boys pulled up two chairs and Summer leaned over the bar. The chatter was idle and polite but comfortable. It wasn't long until Jo's mother moved tables, saying with a wink that she had work to do.
Though Oikawa made Jo shift uncomfortably with the air of confidence surrounding him like mist, he was charming.
"So you work with the volleyball club with Titus?" Oikawa asked, taking a sip of his coffee.
Jo nodded and shared a look with Titus. "I've helped out a bit. I was thinking you and I could team up and create some drills for them tomorrow," she nudged his foot with her own.
He sat back, extending one leg and mulled over her words. "I have a feeling we could make them regret letting us both work on the team." His eyes flash mischievously.
Oikawa pulled his mouth down in a pout. "You could share the drills with me,"
Titus looked at him, deadpanned. "Why would we help a potential enemy team?"
"Because that's what brothers do for the boyfriend of their sister," he replied easily.
Titus blinked slowly. In a feline way. Oikawa's confident grin slipped. "You're delusional," Titus said, grabbing one of Jo's colorful pens on the table. He began doodling on Jo's open notebook, curving his spine as though it were the most natural thing for him to do. Drawing on her stuff.
It made her happy.
"Be kind," Summer called over her shoulder as she cleaned the espresso machine.
"What school do you go to?" Jo asked, hoping to ease some of the tension that grew between the boys. They bantered easily but Jo knew brotherly protection knew no bounds. As relaxed as Titus appeared, she saw the lightning crackle beneath his skin.
Brothers could be such a pain.
Oikawa pulled his shoulders back and tilted his chin up. "Seijoh. It's in the Miyagi prefecture,"
Miyagi. "Isn't our team supposed to go there soon? Against Kurasuno?" she glanced at Titus for confirmation but he was focused on the frog on a unicycle he was sketching.
Oikawa shifted again. A shadow slid across his face and his eyes narrowed slyly. "I'm sure they will," he said coolly.
"Do you know them?" His sudden shift in deminor pulled her back in her seat. Summer had tuned in again. She watched the table closely. The girls shared a look.
Then the moment passed. Sun returned to his face and he took another long sip, settling to cradle the mug between his hands. Jo noted a bruise along his palm. It was faint. Signaling it was new, from that day perhaps. "Oh I know them very well. One of my old teammates from middle school is their setter," he said it politely but acid laced his words.
Something about the setter upset him.
Suddenly, Summer was behind him, setting a delicate white saucer with several fat, round pastries in the middle of the table. "You taught your student well," she said gently, wrapping her arm around his chest as she leaned over. She settled her hands on his shoulders, as though she were grounding him.
Jo didn't miss how he basically melted under her fingers. Whatever tension that plagued him seemingly seeped from his muscles.
The tone shifted yet again, just like the shifting shadows of the afternoon.
The music melted from the soft, steady thrum of bass to a more lively strum of an electric guitar. Summer glanced over her shoulder. Seeing another barista wiping down the counter, she declared her shift over and pulled up a chair between Oikawa and Jo. The boys demolished the treats while Jo and Summer watched with lopsided grins and sparkling eyes.
"So you and Oikawa?" Jo asked, leaning her head in Summer's direction while keeping her eyes on the boys. Titus had pulled out a deck of cards and the two were playing a game involving a deck on the table with four cards face up on either side. Kings in the corner, if she recalled properly. "How did that happen?"
Summer pulled one foot on the chair, folding herself over her knee and calf. She rested her cheek on her kneecap. "He's been going to physical therapy at the hospital for a while now. My shift always lined up with his appointment time and he started coming here after. We started talking and things just evolved from there." A look that could only be described as content drifted over her face. She glanced at Oikawa.
Jo didn't miss the twitch of his fingers on the table when he slid his gaze to Summer's. As though he wanted to reach for her. Though his smile was smug and filled to the brim with arrogance, there was something gentle hidden underneath. Something Jo got the feeling that was meant purely for Summer to enjoy.
The afternoon slid on into evening and Jo's mother started to pack up, signaling it was time to go home. Summer insisted on having Jo's number, who hesitantly gave it.
Let the pieces fall into place, she reminded herself, slipping her backpack on.
Hearing her old group from Italy on Friday made her chest ache with memories she longed to re-live. And stepping out like this meant making new memories. New memories to long for. New memories to ache for. To cry for.
But sitting at that table at that coffee shop between three people she could hesitantly call friends made her feel wanted. It was normal. It was wonderful. It was what she craved for. What her bones sang to have.
She could step off the platform she had been rooted to for a month. It would just take a hard, terrifying step. But a step she was willing to take nevertheless given time.
Waving goodbye to the three of them placed a sapling in her tentative hands. Because in the ambience of the coffee shop, wrapped amongst the scent of coffee grounds and sweet pastry, a feeling began to bloom in her chest until it was undeniable.
She wanted to garden once again.