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Julie knew she was the mom friend. Everyone thought it was Alex, but that wasn’t necessarily true. The drummer worried about everything, which meant he was prepared for almost every situation (Julie had told him that he didn’t need to keep Tylenol, Advil, and Aspirin in his fanny pack, yet he had all three in his bag just in case ), but his friends were idiots, so sometimes he would go along with their spontaneous plans that usually resulted in someone getting hurt. Since apparently none of the boys had common sense, it was up to Julie to make sure they survived college. Because she was the mom friend and actually knew how to take care of herself, Julie never got sick or did dumb things that resulted in her getting hurt. (like building a zipline to Willie’s apartment, for example).
Unfortunately, her self-preservation skills didn’t keep her from being clumsy. She was on her way down the stairs of the lecture hall when she tripped on the last step and landed on the outside of her left ankle. Julie felt a pop, then pain, and she immediately lifted her injured foot off the ground, wincing. She hobbled over to the nearest bench and plopped down, breathing through the pain in her ankle.
Maybe I just rolled it , Julie thought, hoping she hadn’t done any serious damage. She was literally just walking down the stairs, there’s no way she sprained her ankle. She attempted to move her ankle gently up and down, stopping when the action immediately resulted in pain. Shit, she definitely sprained it.
Thankfully, Julie had just walked out of her last class for the day, so all she had to do was get home and she could ice it. But, of course, Luke had taken her car to get to his class across campus, so she had walked to class that day. That meant that she had to walk home before she could rest her ankle, and that would definitely end up making it worse. As embarrassing as tripping down the stairs and spraining her ankle was, she would rather call someone to pick her up than limp all the way to her apartment.
Unlike her boys, Julie knew when to admit defeat, so she swallowed her pride, grabbed her phone from her backpack, and called her boyfriend.
After two rings, Luke answered the phone. “Hey Jules, what’s up?” he questioned enthusiastically.
“Hey,” Julie replied, zipping up the pocket of her backpack that she had previously stashed her phone in. “Are you done with class?”
“Yeah I just got out of chemistry with Alex, why?”
Julie bit her lip. “Do you think you could come pick me up from stats?”
“Of course,” Luke answered, and Julie could hear keys jingling in the background. “Is something wrong?”
“Uhmm-”
“Julie, what happened?” Luke demanded, voice hardening with concern.
“Relax Luke, I’m fine, I just twisted my ankle and I really don’t want to walk home.”
“Aww, babe.” Julie could almost hear Luke’s frown through the phone. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah, I’m fine, I just landed on it wrong.”
“I’m like two minutes away, are you out front?” Julie confirmed that she was, then exchanged goodbyes with the guitarist and ended the phone call.
As promised, Luke pulled up in front of her a few minutes later, and he parked her car on the side of the road before exiting through the driver side door and making his way over to her. Looking down at her ankle, he frowned. “Jules, it’s already swelling.”
Julie glanced down to find that Luke was right: it had only been 10 minutes, but her left ankle was already significantly larger than her right. Great. She cursed under her breath, then looked up at her boyfriend. “Can we go home please?” Luke nodded and pressed a kiss to her forehead before grabbing her backpack, placing one of the straps over his shoulder, and helping Julie over to the car. Once he got her settled, Luke put her bag in the backseat and got in the driver’s seat, squeezing Julie’s hand gently as he pulled back onto the road.
Fifteen minutes later found Julie, with the help of Luke, limping through the door of their apartment toward the living room.
“Do you wanna set up on the couch?” Luke asked.
“Yes please,” Julie replied quietly.
As soon as Julie sat down on the couch and propped her foot up on the coffee table, Alex rounded the corner from his bedroom, stopping abruptly when he saw Luke and Julie. “What happened?”
“Julie sprained her ankle.”
“I probably just rolled it. I don’t think I actually sprained-”
“Are you okay? Are you sure it’s not broken? Do you need ice or water or-”
“ Alex , I’m fine. If you could get me some ice though that would be great.”
Presented with a task, Alex instantly shut his mouth and rushed to the kitchen to grab an ice pack from the freezer. After wrapping it in a kitchen towel, the drummer returned to the living room and handed Julie the requested item before sitting gently next to Julie on the couch.
“Thanks.” Julie squeezed Alex’s hand in an attempt to calm his nerves. He squeezed back before glancing down at Julie’s injured appendage.
“Are you sure it’s not broken? That looks painful,” the blond worried.
“I’m sure Alex, but if it makes you feel better I’ll have it looked at tomorrow if it gets worse,” Julie reassured. Just as Julie released Alex’s hand, the front door to their apartment swung open and Reggie strolled into the living room, stopping in his tracks when he spotted the group on the couch.
“What’s goin’ on?” Reggie questioned, his eyes dropping down to Julie’s ice-wrapped ankle. “Luke, what did you do?”
“Hey, I didn’t do anything!” Luke exclaimed from where he was sitting on top of the side table near Julie’s head.
Julie rolled her eyes at her bandmates. “Luke didn’t do anything, Reg, I’m just clumsy and tripped when I was leaving class.”
“Does it hurt?” the bassist questioned as he inched closer to the couch, eyes wide with concern.
“Not too bad,” Julie reassured. She could tell Reggie wanted to sit by her but was nervous about hurting her further, so she patted the empty space on her right and shot the brunette a pleading look. “Come sit Reg, you’re missing out on roommate bonding time.”
“Dude, we spend practically every waking minute with each other,” Alex commented, to which Julie responded by whacking him in the arm. “Ouch! I mean, yay, roommate bonding.”
Ignoring Alex’s remarks, Reggie beamed and plopped down in the corner of the couch.
“What do you say to a movie night?” Luke asked, rising from the coffee table and settling down between Reggie and Julie.
Reggie’s eyes lit up. “Finding Nemo?”
“We watched that last week Reg,” Alex pointed out, glancing at the bassist. After staring at the puppy dog eyes Reggie was giving him, Alex eventually relented. “Okay,’ he sighed, “we’ll watch Finding Nemo again .”
“I’ll get snacks!” Reggie exclaimed before jumping up from the couch and bolting to the kitchen.
Rolling his eyes, Alex also stood from the couch, albeit much slower than Reggie had. “I should probably supervise so he doesn’t burn down the kitchen.”
“Probably a good idea,” Julie chuckled, shifting to rest her injured ankle on her boyfriend’s lap. Luke ruffled her hair gently before grabbing the remote to start the movie.
“Does your ankle feel any better?” the guitarist asked while scrolling through the different apps on the TV.
“Yeah, a little,” Julie responded.
Tearing his eyes away from the TV screen, Luke glanced down at Julie’s ice-covered ankle, then back up at her eyes, a look of confusion on his face. “How did you sprain your ankle, anyway?”
Julie hesitated. “You have to promise not to laugh.”
“Okay, I promise.”
“…I tripped down the stairs.” Luke snorted. “You promised you wouldn’t laugh!”
“I didn’t laugh!” Julie glared at him. “Okay, maybe I did, but you have to admit that it’s kinda funny.”
Julie continued glaring at her boyfriend, but a smile eventually forced its way onto her face. “Okay, it’s a little funny.”
Luke chuckled softly, then pulled her closer to him until she was laying against his chest. “Sorry for laughing,” he whispered, resting his chin on top of her head.
“It’s fine, Luke.” She looked up at Luke and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. “I love you.”
“I love you too, Jules.”
“Hey Luke?” a voice questioned from the kitchen.
“Yeah,” Luke replied over his shoulder, “what’s up?”
“Since Julie can’t use the stairs anymore, does this mean I can build a zipline now?”
“ Reggie! ”