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I dislocated my shoulder--not the first tiave et soet back home I also cracked a couple of ribs and sprained ht while the painkillers take care of all that, too They’re keeping me for observation, just to , but other than that, I’h shape that, if I take care of myself, I should be able to still make the Olympic trials in a couple of weeks

It’s ht to expect I fked up I know I fked up I let that reporter and all the shit froet in my head and mess me up And now I’ve lost Ophelia before I ever really had a chance to have her The Oly poor substitute Still, h

"Z? You okay?"

I turn to see Ash and Luc looking at ain uys The Vicodin makes me fuzzy" I blame it on the pain pills instead of my own utter stupidity

"No proble to take off, then Let you get so to pick you up"

"They don’t need to bother I can take a cab"

"Yeah, ’cuz that’s so going to happen," he tells , they’ll be by to get you"

"Thanks,to shred it"

He reaches a fist out, bumps it with ives ain

As usual

The TV is tuned to soh it looks funny, I’ain, I’ else, either

Except Ophelia, and she didn’t come

She didn’t come

I close odda The fact that I can’t think of one isn’t exactly encouraging

There’s a knock on the door, and I jolt upright at the sound, jarring my shoulder in the process Ophelia, is all I can think She came She--

"Hey,in the doorway, a bag of food in his hand "Let me drop this off and I’ll co It’s just the drugs"

He nods, walks inside "I brought you soured it’s better than the shit they serve you in here"

"Thanks"

He grabs a seat in the chair closest to the bed, then spends a few ht ht of that dah er pussy, which in turn pissesruined hts of her deep inside, lock that shit up tight I’ht now I can’t Not with all the other crap running around in ain, but not now Not yet

I reach for a street taco that I’ve got no desire to eat, polish it off in three bites Mitch prettya word to me about the damn elephant in the rooht of the silence, though, and I say, "So what happened?"

"They’re not running the story"

I eye hi for the other shoe to drop When he doesn’t say anything else, I de crush anyone who touches the story Not to azines and newspapers are worth Most didn’t even need the threat It’s a fking bullshit story, one only the tabloids would touch to begin with And by the tio near it It’s dead, Z It’s going nowhere"

I closesense of relief to flood , sick of buryingthe past never happened April died She fking died in a way no one should ever have to die And I’ve spent the last eleven years being too big of a fking puy to fking acknowledge that To fking deal with it

A tear leaks out from beneath my lashes, and Mitch clears his throat uncomfortably "You okay?"

I dash it aith the back of my hand Clear my throat "Yeah,of foil, openup the food et so a little better"

"Yeah, okay Sure"

He tosses the trash, then nearly runs fro Nice It takes real skill to drive your girlfriend and your agent aithin hours of each other, if I do say so ain, and I reach for es,She hasn’t texted, hasn’t called

Because you’re a prick, the little voice inside me says You’re a piece of shit who deserves to have her walk You’ve never deserved her Never really had her

I start to put the phone down Hell, I start to throw the stupid piece of shit against the nearest wall again But in the end, I can’t Because I still want her Fucked up as I am, worthless as I am, I still need her I don’t even want to talk about how pathetic that makes me

In the end, I can’t help myself I pull up her contact information and type in a quick text Then, before I can talk ht with the phone clutched infor her to text back

She never does