Blindsided (12 page)

Chapter
Thirteen – Substitute

Jesse

“My career’s over, isn’t it?”

I sat on the edge of my bed, my fingers gripping the sheets so hard my knuckles turned white. I tried to remember to take deep breaths, to not cry in front of Radleigh McCoy, but at the end of a day when everything seemed to be against me, I was fighting a losing battle.

After physical examinations, an X-ray and an MRI scan, I was given the news I’d been dreading, with a little bit of extra bad news I hadn’t counted on. As well as a fully torn ACL, I’d also torn my PCL too.

Basically, I’d seriously damaged the two major ligaments in my knee.

The doctor had just left the room to give me some time to come to terms with the diagnosis, and I’d asked everyone to leave me alone, but McCoy wouldn’t go. He arrived while I was being X-rayed, and the first time I got to see him was when the doctor broke the bad news. I was glad he stayed. If anyone would understand my fears, it was him.

“You’re career’s not over,” McCoy said, pacing the room slowly. “It might not come to that.”

“But it could. It could be the end.”

“It’s a possibility, yes.”

A tear ran down my face, and I angrily wiped it away with the back of my hand. I knew it was more than a possibility and McCoy did too.

All this because of Leon. Thinking of him made me think of Georgia and Isabelle, and how she wouldn’t step up and help dig me out of the mess he’d landed me in. I’d been ignoring calls from Richard all afternoon, presumably about the news story stating I was drunk and disorderly.

“What do I do now?” I asked. “I don’t know … there’s nothing else I ever wanted to-”

I trailed off, lowering my head because I couldn’t hold back any longer. It was like the shock, disappointment and fear all came flooding out of me at once. I heard the sound of a chair scraping across the floor, and McCoy sat down directly in front of me.

“Look at me,” he said, firmly.

Raising my head, I wasn’t sure whether I would find annoyance, or mocking in his eyes at my lame breakdown. It was neither. It looked more like determination.

“I can’t tell you what you want to hear,” he said. “I’m not qualified to tell you that you can recover from this, and that you’ll be playing on the team again soon. But what I can tell you is that when you get home, you’re gonna get the best medical care there is. If something can be done, it will be.”

“But what if it can’t?”

“One step at a time. We can talk to the doctors here and find out what you can do in the short term to help yourself. When you get back to L.A, you’ll have the team to support you, and then you can start to figure out everything else. Right now, the only thing you need to worry about is getting some ice on that knee, then getting some rest.”

“I need to talk to Richard. He’s gonna be mad that I haven’t answered his calls but I’m scared of what he’ll say about all the stories in the papers.”

“I’ll deal with him. Probably best to do that sooner rather than later. You know how he gets.”

I nodded. Richard could cope with all kinds of pressure, but when something happened to one of his team, whether an injury or some kind of scandal, it made him crazy. I could imagine him sitting in his office, drumming his fingers on the desk and trying to stay calm, while figuring out the best way to punish me for humiliating the Warriors.

Radleigh stood up. “I’ll go call him now, then I’ll get the doctor back in here so you can ask any questions before they discharge you. Did you call your parents?”

“Yeah. My mom was pretty serious about flying over, but at this time of year, most of the flights are already booked up. I told her that I’m being well looked after, and when I told her you were coming, she felt a lot better about staying away.”

“If it helps, I can call your parents too,” he said, but laughed when I let out a sigh. “I get it,” he went on, “I know you’re not a kid, and I’m not your babysitter. But I’m thirty-one, and my mom still treats me like I’m ten years old. So if it gets her off your back, I’ll do it.”

I’d been nervous about the idea of spending time with McCoy because it wasn’t something we’d ever really done before. We weren’t friends, we were team mates. But he’d driven for hours to visit me when he could have just talked to me on the phone. It’s pretty cool when the guy you’ve always looked up to lives up to your expectations. Even harder to believe when a few months before, I sorta hated him for some of the things he did.

“Thank you,” I said. “Thanks for being here.”

“Not a problem, man.”

When McCoy left the room, I felt as if at least one weight was being lifted off me. With him around, I didn’t have to deal with Richard and my parents alone.

There were still way too many other things dragging me down, though. Aside from possibly losing my career, losing Isabelle was the biggest problem I had. She had only been gone a few hours, but I missed her. It shouldn’t be possible to miss someone so quickly, but I wanted her with me, telling me everything would be okay.

I felt like a loser for even thinking that way but I couldn’t stop myself. I leaned forward, head in hands, and gave in to the misery.

“Hey.”

As quickly as I’d put my head down, it snapped back up at the sound of Hunter’s voice. Being caught crying by him was worse than being seen by McCoy. He was my best friend, but that only meant he had extra rights to razz me about it.

He didn’t say a word. Instead, he sat down beside me, and handed me a box of tissues he’d been hiding behind his back.

“Thanks,” I said, sarcastically. “You shouldn’t have.”

Hunter laughed. “It was either tissues or grapes, but I figured you’d need the tissues more. Being such a pussy, and all.”

“You sure know how to cheer a guy up.”

“I do my best.”

I knew he meant well, and his good-natured teasing helped, but everything was in too much of a mess for me to laugh. I tried, but a weird noise came out that sounded more like a groan.

“It’s a good thing I’ve known you for so long,” Hunter said. “Otherwise, this would be real uncomfortable.”

He opened the box of tissues, plucking one out and handing it to me. I used it to wipe my eyes, and said, “Chicks like men who are in touch with their feminine side, right?”

“Lucky for you.”

This time I did laugh.

“Speaking of chicks,” Hunter said. “What happened with Izzy that made her run out of here so fast?”

I kinda hoped he wouldn’t ask. I mean, I knew he would but … I really hoped he wouldn’t. Isabelle hadn’t wanted me to tell anyone about Georgia and Leon, but I hadn’t had the time or the inclination to think about a cover story. It was either the truth, or avoidance.

“Would it be okay if we talked about that later?” I asked. “With everything that’s happened, I just don’t want to talk about anything serious for a while.”

“Okay but, is everything cool between you two?”

I shook my head. “I don’t think so.”

“Anything I can do?”

“No. Thanks. I’m pretty sure our time’s up.”

The door opened again, and Janet and Andrew came inside. Janet had that look of pale concern only mothers have, and Andrew looked equally as worried.

“Jesse,” Andrew began, “I know this has been a horrible day for you, but you should know, there are some reporters outside who want to talk to you.”

Right. Of course they’d have worked out where to find me. That’s if Leon hadn’t pointed them in the right direction himself. I wiped away what I hoped were the last of my tears and said, “I bet you wish you’d never let me into your house.”

Janet shook her head. “Not at all. None of this is your fault.”

“It feels like it is. I’m so sorry. I’m gonna see if I can get an earlier flight home.”

Hunter looked at me in surprise. “You are?”

“I think I should. My mom’s going out of her mind with worry, so if I can get back to reassure her I’m okay, it might be for the best.”

“I can understand that,” Janet said. “But don’t feel that you have to leave because of all this. We’re happy to have you for the next two weeks as planned. Besides, Isabelle will be miserable if you have to go home early.”

I doubt that. If anything, she’ll be relieved
. I was surprised Janet even thought that after the way Isabelle ran out earlier and never came back. Maybe she thought Isabelle was upset about what had happened at the party, and hadn’t realised we’d had a fight.

“Thank you,” I said. “I’ll think about it tomorrow.”

“I bet you’ll be glad to get out of here,” Andrew said, “It’s not the nicest of places to be.”

“Yes sir. It’ll be good to get into a comfortable bed, and eat some real food.”

“Oh!” Janet said, “I was making lasagne for tonight, but I haven’t had time! How do you feel about a takeaway?”

“Sounds good to me.”

McCoy came back into the room looking a little mad, which got me worried.

“How much trouble am I in?” I asked.

“You’re not in trouble,” he said, “Richard wants you to call him later, but he’s gonna start working on getting those stories about you being drunk retracted. I think you’ll get out of this without any damage to your reputation. But I just had to
politely
remove some journalists from outside so you can get out of here without being photographed.”

“Do you think they’re at the house?”

“They’re not,” Andrew said. “I called Izzy and she said there’s nobody suspicious outside. But I’ll call again before we head back, just to be sure.”

Again, that feeling of inflicting trouble on an innocent family crept over me. They really didn’t deserve to have to fend off the press because I happened to be staying in their house.

“Are you gonna be okay?” McCoy asked me. “I hate to leave so soon but it’s getting late and I need to find somewhere to stay.”

I nodded. “I’ll be okay.”

“You’re welcome to stay with us,” Janet said. “Hunter and Jesse could easily share a room for a few nights.”

“Thank you, but I don’t want to put you to any trouble.”

“Well, at least come over for dinner later. You’ve come a long way, it’s not right that you spend the evening cooped up in a hotel room.”

I laughed to myself. With the money McCoy had, he probably wouldn’t dream of staying anywhere there was a chance of him being “cooped up.”

“Okay,” he said, “Thank you, that would be great.”

After saying a quick goodbye to everyone, McCoy headed out. Having him around definitely made things easier on me. It wasn’t like I was completely among strangers, but knowing there was someone from the team close by who really understood how I felt made me a lot less anxious. I still wished Leah had been able to come with him, but he was making a surprisingly good substitute.

“So, now he’s gone,” Hunter said, “is it okay for me to say how freaking cool it was to have Radleigh McCoy here?”

The goofy grin on his face made me laugh. “Yeah, I can’t believe it either.”

Hunter high-fived me the way he used to when we were kids, and a little more of my stress fell away. Temporarily, at least.

“I’m sorry,” Andrew said. “But I have no idea who he is.”

“He’s the David Beckham of American soccer,” I replied. “He’s a pretty big deal back home.”

“Really? I’d never have guessed. He seems very grounded. Not arrogant at all.”

There was nothing funny about anything that had happened that day, but hearing McCoy described as “not arrogant” set off a fit of laughter I couldn’t control.

Chapter
Fourteen – Did Someone Order A Pixie?

Isabelle

It had been three hours since I saw Leon, and I was still thinking about what he said.
Talk to Georgia.
I had every intention of doing so, but she must have left the house while I was getting ready to go out. She hadn’t left a note or anything, just crept out while I wasn’t looking.

I knew I shouldn’t have let Leon get to me, especially after everything he’d done, but there was something about the way he looked, and something about how hysterical Georgia was about not going to the police that made me hold back. I tried to call her but she must have turned her phone off because it kept going to voicemail.

Until I could talk to her, I decided to keep busy by working on the silly holiday card project for college. I took my camera into the living room and began taking  - hopefully – artsy shots of the Christmas tree, decorations and the handful of gifts that we’d already received. Messing with the camera settings and trying to make each photo unique kept my mind off everything. Photography was the only thing that took me to a completely different place, and stopped me thinking about my problems. Immersing myself in different angles, changing lenses, messing with the lighting and making my subjects look perfect was my favourite way to escape, and I really needed it with so much on my mind.

By the time the front door opened, I had more than one hundred shots to play around with. Voices travelled down the hallway to where I sat by the Christmas tree, and I realised very quickly that Jesse was home. His voice hit me deep in my stomach and my immediate thought was to run to him and make sure he was okay. Then I remembered I was not his favourite person. I stayed put, not quite sure what to do with myself. The clacking of crutches and footsteps on the wooden floor told me they were entering the living room but I still didn’t move. I looked down at my camera and scrolled through my work as if I hadn’t heard them.

“Did someone order a pixie?” Hunter laughed.

I must have looked a bit weird perched on the floor and I smiled. “I’m working.”

Jesse followed Hunter into the room, but stopped short when he saw me. His eyes sparkled for a second, then dimmed again, probably remembering how I’d walked out on him when he needed me most.

Even after a day of hell, he was gorgeous. The gorgeous boy who’d been mine, but now looked at me like he didn’t know me. Like he didn’t know everything about me. The sadness in his eyes stabbed at my heart.

“You’re back,” I said, completely unnecessarily.

“Yeah. I’m back.”

“How are you? I mean … your knee … is it-?”

“I’m gonna need surgery,” he said. “I won’t know whether I can keep playing soccer until it’s over.”

My guilt about siding with Georgia threatened to overwhelm me as I looked into his eyes. They were puffy, and knowing he’d been crying made my insides shrivel up.

“I’m sorry,” I mumbled, then got to my feet and rushed out, up to my bedroom so I wouldn’t have to see Jesse in pain any more.

After everything, the way we felt about each other, or at least the way I thought we felt about each other, it was excruciating to be in the same room with him and feel such a distance.

It’s your own fault. You should have been there for him.

I’d hoped I could do both. Be there for him, and protect Georgia from having her seedy fling with Leon revealed. It was stupid of me to think that. And it was stupid of me to have tried to protect her when she probably wouldn’t have done the same for me if it had been Elliott lying in the hospital bed.

“Isabelle.”

I held in a sigh as my mum came into my room. It had only been a matter of time.

“Hi,” I said.

“Is everything okay?”

I really don’t know why mums ask that question when the answer is so obvious. Yet again, I was forced to do something I didn’t want to do to keep Georgia’s secret safe.

“Everything’s fine,” I lied.

“Izzy.”

She didn’t need to say anything else. She just waited patiently for me to tell her what was going on. In spite of the fact that she’d spent the whole day and night at the hospital, she looked like she’d only just got ready. Her clothes were a little crumpled at the back, but her hair and make-up were flawless. She wasn’t one of those showy mothers, but she always looked good.

And she always knew when I was lying.

“I had an argument with Jesse earlier,” I told her, with a sigh.

“Well I guessed that much,” Mum replied. She shooed me across the bed so she could sit beside me. “Why were you arguing?”

“It’s nothing, Mum.”

“It’s not nothing. It made you run out of the hospital, and this is the longest you and Jesse have been apart by choice since he’s been here.”

There was no way I was going to tell her the truth. Our parents were precisely the people Georgia wanted to keep the truth from, and I still wanted to talk to her before I made any huge decisions.

“I’d really rather not say,” I told her. “It’s something I’d like to keep between Jesse and me.”

Mum nodded. “I understand. But he is really going to need you while he’s here. Can’t you try to patch things up?”

If only she knew how much I wanted that.

“He doesn’t need me,” I said. “He’s got Hunter.”

“Don’t be silly. Isabelle, it’s obvious how much he likes you and if you can help him, you should.”

“How is it obvious?” I asked, completely shifting the direction of the conversation. Mum gave me a thin smile, clearly seeing what I’d done.

“It’s obvious by the way he treats you. He asks what you want, where you want to go. He looks all lost when you go to college, and his face lights up when you come home. Is it worth losing that over a silly row?”

“It’s not that simple.”

She put her hand on mine. “Nothing ever is when you’re seventeen. But he’s only here for a little longer, and it seems a shame to waste the time not talking when you could be enjoying your time together.” Mum got to her feet. “We’re ordering a takeaway in a while. And Jesse’s friend, Radleigh McCoy is joining us.”

I almost fell off the edge of the bed.

“Radleigh McCoy? Coming here?” I asked, “How did that happen?”

“His was in Cornwall, where his girlfriend lives and when he heard what happened to Jesse, he drove up here.”

“Wow,” I laughed. “Can we invite Willow over? She thinks Radleigh McCoy’s gorgeous!”

Mum smiled properly this time. “Not tonight,” she said. “But I think he’s staying for a few days, so maybe she can come over another time.”

“I don’t think he’s the only reason she’ll want to come round. She got on really well with Hunter last night.”

“Oh really? Thanks for the info, I can tease him about it later!”

We exchanged mischievous grins. I loved how easy it was for my mum to make me feel better. I knew she was right about Jesse, but I didn’t believe he’d forgive me. Even if I “did the right thing” and told the police what I knew, I’d chosen Georgia first. I was no expert on relationships, but I was sure that kind of thing was impossible to recover from.

Dinner was possibly the most awkward thing ever. We all sat around the table in the kitchen, Jesse and I trying hard not to look at each other as we reached over to pile our plates with the ridiculous amount of Chinese dishes in front of us. Somehow, we were the focal point of everyone – except Georgia who still hadn’t come home. Everyone was talking, but there was a bit of unspoken tension that seemed to intensify whenever Jesse and I attempted to pick up the same dish, which happened a lot. Having Radleigh McCoy at the dinner table was just plain weird. Other than what I’d heard from Willow and Jesse, I didn’t really know anything about him, but he was great to look at. Many times during the meal I had to force myself to stop staring at him, but his eyes were exceptionally mesmerising. I completely understood why Willow had such a crush on him.

He still didn’t compare to Jesse, though.

It was painful to be in the same room as Jesse, and want so badly to be closer, knowing I couldn’t. I’d preferred it when I could hide upstairs, but it was unacceptable to sneak away when there was a guest in the house.

It was just past ten when Radleigh left, and I was free to hole myself up in my bedroom again. I changed into my nightie, but before I could reach for my phone to call Georgia again, she walked into my room.

She looked frozen. Her hair was wind swept and her cheeks and lips were almost blue from the cold. She rubbed her arms, hugging herself to warm up but she couldn’t stop shivering. I leapt off the bed, sat her down and threw my duvet around her. She snuggled into it, hugging it tightly as if it would comfort her, as well as warm her up.

“Georgie, where have you been?”

“Walking. Just walking.”

“All evening?”

She nodded. “Mostly.”

“Why did you turn off your phone?”

“I needed to think.”

“About?”

She looked up at me, still shivering uncontrollably. “I did something stupid.”

I recognised the look of fear in her eyes, and right away, I wanted to cover my ears. It’s not that I didn’t want to be there for her, but the last thing I needed was another one of her secrets to carry around with me.

But she was my sister.

“What did you do?”

“You know how Leon’s been since I slept with him. Following me, threatening to tell Elliott, always making disgusting comments. I’d had enough. I wanted him to leave me alone so I don’t have to look over my shoulder all the time.”

Her voice was empty, emotionless. It was as if she’d purposely numbed herself by wandering around in the freezing cold for hours.

“I told Mischa how sick I was of him,” she went on. “He scares me. So, the day before the party, Mischa told me she had a solution. She said if I could get him afraid, maybe he’d back off. She gave me a Rohypnol tablet.”

My hands shot to my mouth, but not quickly enough to stop my gasp.

“You?” I asked. “You did that to Jesse?”

She shook her head. “I kept the tablet, and all of yesterday, I thought she was right. She said all I had to do was drop the tablet into his drink, and there would be no way to prove it was me. He might not even realise he’d been drugged, just that he couldn’t remember a big part of the evening. The first time I got a chance to slip him the pill was when Mischa came into the living room with champagne. He’d been hovering around me all night, and he put his glass down on the window sill while he went out to the hallway to answer his phone. Mischa whispered to me to do it, to spike his drink, and I got the tablet out but I … I couldn’t do it. So she took it out of my hand and put it in his glass herself. She definitely put it in the glass he put down, but when he came back for it, he must have taken the wrong one.” For the first time, Georgia looked up at me. “I’m so sorry, Izzy, I didn’t mean for this to happen.”

I took some long, slow breaths because I was dangerously close to slapping some sense into her. She may not have been the one to spike Jesse’s drink, but the fact that she’d even considered drugging someone made me feel sick.

“You told me Leon did it,” I said. “You blamed him for something you were going to do to him.”

A glimmer of emotion began to show through in her eyes, so she must have thawed out a little. “I was scared. I was so scared because of what happened to Jesse, and I knew you’d believe Leon did it.”

“God, Georgia, I’ve been going out of my mind worrying about you, and the thought that he was going to-” I stopped, not wanting to say the words that had been plaguing me all day. “Does he know it was you?”

“I think so. I was out in the garden trying to calm down, and he found me. He was really angry that Jesse hit him, and he said he wanted to congratulate whoever drugged him. I’ve never been a very good liar.”

She had me fooled.

“Izzy, if I tell anyone that Mischa did this, she’ll never forgive me, and it’s not just her. It’s me too, I had the tablet.”

Could she be any more self-involved?

“Screw whether or not Mischa will forgive you!” I snapped. “You should be more worried about whether I will forgive you!”

“Shut up!” she hissed. “I don’t want everyone to hear!”

“But they’re going to, Georgia,” I told her, standing up. “I am not keeping this to myself any longer. Earlier, when I thought I was staying quiet to keep you and Elliott together, I sort of understood. But this? No.”

“Izzy, please!” she said, rising to her feet too, and dropping the duvet onto the bed.

“Do you have any idea what you and Mischa have done? Of course not, because it never even occurred to you to ask how Jesse is! I’ve seen you twice today, and you didn’t ask what happened to him, when he was coming home, or if he even woke up!”

“Keep your voice down!”

“Get out of my room.”

Georgia shook her head. “Please don’t tell,” she said, tears beginning to spill from her eyes. “Please.”

“Get. Out.”

Still shaking, she started to leave, but turned back as she reached the door. The look on her face would usually have broken my heart, but I was too angry to feel sorry for her. We may have looked identical, but at that moment, she was completely unfamiliar to me.