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Miya stretches with a yawn. Reki and Langa are chasing each other around the skate park, arguing about something. Everything aches, even though he’s pretty sure that he hasn’t been overworking himself. He still doesn’t get up to join them, because while he’s not sure why his joints feel like jello, he’s still not planning on going out there and hurting himself. Reki eventually walks over with Langa nowhere in sight.
“Hey, why aren’t you joining us? Normally you’d be skating circles around us by now just to prove that you could.”
Miya rolls his eyes before casting them back down.
“I’m just tired.”
“Oh, really?”
Miya nods gently while still keeping his head tucked into his arm. In fact his joints are starting to feel like someone is chisling at his bones, but he doesn’t say that. He just keeps his eyes down and lets Reki think whatever he ends up thinking.
“Ok, well you can go home. We won’t get offended.”
“I know. Not that I would have cared if you got offended anyway.”
Reki rolls his eyes.
“Alright, fine. I’m going, but I’ll see you later if you decide not to leave.”
Miya hums before letting his eyes fall closed. He doesn’t mean to fall asleep, but wakes up to Reki shaking his shoulder. The action hurts more than it should, and he can’t stop the hiss of pain from escaping his mouth.
“Woah dude, there’s no reason to make noises like that. I just wanted to let you know that we were heading to S now.”
Miya looks around, noticing that it’s dark outside. He sits up fully, biting the inside of his cheek.
“When did it get so late?” he mutters.
“I thought you were lying about being tired, but you fell asleep on this bench. Then stayed asleep the entire afternoon. Anyway, are you coming with us?”
“No, I’m going to go home.”
“Ok, see ya later then.”
Miya waves before grabbing his board and heading home. His mom is pacing by the time he gets in.
“Miya, baby, where were you?” She grabs his face, squishing him.
“Mom.”
She lets go of his face, but roughly grabs his shoulders. She’s still staring at him, and her grip is tight enough to hurt.
“I just got side tracked while I was out with my friends.”
“It’s almost ten at night.”
“I know, I’m sorry, Mom.”
“You know that I don’t want you out when it’s dark.”
Yeah, and that’s why I’m sneaking out of my window to go to an illegal skating ring.
“I know, Mom, and I’m really sorry. We were inside so I didn’t realize how late it was getting.”
“You know that I’m going to have to call their parents, right?”
Miya’s brain short circuits for a few seconds before he realizes that she thinks he’s talking about his old friends. The ones that he never told her he stopped hanging out with.
“You can’t,” he blurts out before his brain can really catch up with what he’s doing. All Miya can think is that she has to stop before his old friend’s parents tell her that they don’t talk anymore.
“Why not?” she asks, narrowing her eyes.
“Because it’s not the friends that you’ve already met.”
Her eyes brighten immediately.
“Oh, so you made new friends?”
“Yes, Mom. I made a couple new friends. You wouldn’t have their parents’ numbers. Actually, I’ve never even met their parents.”
“Ok, who are these new friends?”
“Their names are Reki and Langa. They’re a little bit older than me.”
“How old are they?”
“Reki’s sixteen, and I think Langa is seventeen.”
“That’s really old. How did you meet these boys?”
“They skateboard, and they were at the rink that I practice at on my days off.”
“Ok, well, you promise that you were safe?”
Miya nods, and she hugs him one more time.
“In that case, it’s ok. Just go get some sleep, and try not to do it again.”
Miya nods, then heads straight up the stairs. He doesn’t tell her that he didn’t eat, or that he feels like his body might fall apart at any given minute. He just throws himself into bed, and goes to sleep. He doesn’t feel much better when he wakes up in the morning, and his head feels foggy. He goes to get up, but ends up falling out of bed.
“Ow.”
Someone knocks on his door, and he calls, “You can come in.”
He’s still untangling himself from his bedding when his dad walks in.
“Hey, kid, what are you doing?” he asks.
Miya freezes.
“I was just trying to get up.”
“Well, you’re going to be late.”
“It’s Saturday, isn’t it? I shouldn’t have anything to be late to.”
“You have practice with your manager, and another interview today.”
“Do I have to? I think there’s something wrong with me.”
“What do you mean?”
“Either I’m sick, or I’ve just been overworking myself. I just feel off.”
His dad walks over and puts a hand on his forehead. He sighs as he stands back up.
“I know that things have been hard lately, but you need to follow through on the commitments that you’ve made. You don’t have to pretend to be sick.”
Miya closes his eyes for a second then says, “Ok, I’ll meet you outside. I just have to change.”
His dad nods, then walks back out. Miya stays on the floor for another few minutes. Then he gets up, changes, brushes his hair and teeth, then heads outside to meet his dad. The drive is quiet, and Miya has to force himself to stay awake for the whole thing.
His dad walks in with him, then says, “I’ll meet you here in a few hours. I have some errands to run, but I’ll be back to pick you up.”
Miya frowns.
“Can’t you stay?”
“Why?”
“I just don’t… I don’t know.”
“You need to get better at dealing with these things yourself.”
Miya stares at the ground.
I deal with everything by myself! I always had to do everything myself before I met my friends. I was always in charge, even as a child.
He doesn’t say any of that, just heads inside without replying. His manager is waiting for him, already annoyed that he’s late.
“You have to learn to manage your time, Chinen.”
“I’m not normally late,” Miya mutters, but it’s not loud enough for anyone to actually hear him.
Even warming up feels hard. His joints ache, and his muscles are protesting his every move. His brain is still struggling to keep up with everything. His manager keeps yelling at him to hurry up. Miya doesn’t pay him any mind, doesn’t speed up, or even respond. By the time he’s done warming up, the news people are there, and he’s already exhausted.
“Since they’re already here, we have to do the interview first,” his manager says, and Miya just nods.
He listens to their questions about how he got as good as he is, and about his support systems, and how he balances normal life and this. He doesn’t really give an answer to any of these, just kind of non-answers. Everyone looks confused by the time they’re done, and his manager looks furious.
As soon as they’re gone, he says, “What did we say about your people skills?”
“That they suck, and I need to do better,” Miya replies though he’s not sure how he actually phrased it.
“You do need to work on that, but I didn’t say they sucked. Haven’t you been hanging out with more people recently? Shouldn’t that have helped, or were you lying to me about what you were doing?”
“I wasn’t lying. You do not want me to talk to them the way I talk to my friends though.”
“Whatever, just get started on your training. You know it’s a day to work on your new tricks.”
“I don’t want to. Can’t we do something else today?”
Something that won’t make my hands hurt.
“No. I know it’s hard, but you can do it. You’re one of the best people your age in the entire world.”
Miya rolls his eyes.
“You can cut the flattery. It’s not going to make me more cooperative. I’m doing it, but I’m not happy.”
He walks over to grab his phone. He texts his dad to pick him up, lying that they got off of practice early. His dad texts back almost immediately saying that he’s still busy, but that he’ll get there as soon as he’s done with his errands. Miya can just wait inside until he’s back. Miya puts his phone back then grabs his board.
He makes it through twenty minutes of training before his right hand gives out entirely. Since he was putting his weight on it, the balance shift sends his skateboard flying. He slams into the wall with a crack. His awareness fades for a second, and his manager is beside him when his vision comes back. His hand is throbbing terribly from where he hit the wall.
“I’m going to call your dad.”
Miya nods though he doesn’t say anything, because if he opens his mouth it is not going to be words that come out of it. It feels like a long time before his manager comes back over, holding his phone.
“He didn’t answer me, so I want to try calling him on your phone.”
Miya nods, then with his good hand, which is still shaking pretty badly, he punches in the code. His dad still doesn’t answer, so he takes the phone. He calls Cherry, putting the phone up to his ear.
“What’s going on?” Cherry answers, curt and to the point.
“Can you come pick me up?” Miya asks, aware of how bad he sounds. His voice is wavering, and he’s physically shaking hard enough to affect his voice.
“Yes, where are you?”
Miya gives him the address.
“I’ll be there in ten minutes.”
Those ten minutes feel eternally long, and his hand just keeps hurting more. Cherry looks worried when he comes in, and he looks even more worried when he sees Miya.
“Who is that?” his manager asks.
“What happened?” Cherry asks, kneeling down beside Miya. He hasn’t even looked at Miya’s manager.
“He was trying to nail a new trick, and fell. He hit the wall pretty hard.”
“Do we need to go to the hospital?” Cherry asks, gently taking Miya’s arm to look at it.
“I think so. I left my dad a voicemail while you were on your way here, so he can meet us there.”
“Alright, come on.”
Cherry helps him up, keeping an arm around him to make sure that he doesn’t fall.
Once they’re in Cherry’s car, he says, “So, what actually happened? Did you just fall?”
“No, I need to do better. If I did better, this wouldn’t have happened.”
Cherry frowns.
“Just walk me through what happened today, because Reki told us how off you were yesterday afternoon.”
“I think I’m sick, but everyone just kept telling me to do better. Have better people skills, and stop lying and faking. I didn’t know what to say to make them understand that I wasn’t lying. Then my hands gave out on me, and I practically flew into a wall. I think my wrist might be broken.”
Cherry winces, though his face is hard.
“I think I need to have a word with your father. Sending you to do this while you’re sick is absolutely unacceptable. Also I know that you’re not lying about being sick enough to warrant that being his first response.”
Miya looks down.
“You don’t have to talk to him. I probably shouldn’t have called you at all. This is a lot to ask already.”
“No it’s not. In fact, I’m going to call Kojiro to meet us at the hospital. I was with him when you called. He was really worried, and I said I’d call him once I knew what was going on.”
“You don’t have to ask him to come down here,” Miya asks as they pull into the parking lot.
“I know, and I won’t be. Once he hears what happened, he’s coming without anyone asking.”
Miya hums. They head inside, and Cherry calls Joe once he gets them checked in. The next few hours are spent waiting with Joe and Cherry. His dad shows up while he’s getting his hand X-Rayed. Miya can tell that they already ripped him a new one by the time he comes back.
“Was it broken?” Cherry asks gently, his tone soft.
Miya nods, and his dad immediately hugs him.
“I’m sorry.”
Miya nods against his shoulder, too tired to do anything else.
“Can we go home now?”
“Yes, I’ll do the rest of the paperwork while you stay with these two. Then we can go home, and we’ll wait to talk about this till tomorrow,” he says, glancing at Cherry and Joe.
“Ok.”
After he walks away, Miya turns back to Joe and Cherry.
“Thanks.”
“It’s no issue, kid. We’re always available for this kind of thing. Also, give me your address cause I want to drop off some food tonight.”
“Ok, but can you wait until tomorrow? I’m going to give my parents some kind of bullshit explanation for how I know you two, but I don’t want to do that until tomorrow. I just want to get some sleep.”
Joe nods.
“Of course.”
Miya smiles, even if just a little.