Chapter Text
It takes four minutes before Van finally makes a joke. Four minutes of silence, which is scarily long and it's worse that the joke sucks.
“I always knew I would fall for you sooner or later,” she mumbles, lips bloody with a drunken smile.
She shifts the ice pack from Van’s cheek to her eyebrow. “Shut the fuck up.”
“I did,” Van says back, voice thick with blood, probably. “Gotta be funny now.”
You don’t have to be funny, she wants to say. But all Van will say is of course she does . It won’t get them anywhere.
Instead, she sighs, loud enough so that she knows Van can hear it. Van smiles a little bit more in response, eyes still closed and face still pale. Her hair, tugged out of her ponytail, is spread on the locker room floor, like flowing red rivers. It matches the blood spilling from her nose.
“Did I faint?”
Probably. Four minutes of silence, where Tai wasn’t sure when Van would wake up again.
“I was hoping you could tell me that.” Tai shifts the ice pack again, biting her lip at the darkening skin around Van’s eye. She readjusts her own position– the tiled floor underneath her digs awkwardly into her knees.
“I can't tell. All went black and buzzy. Buzz buzz buzz,” Van hums drowsily. “Was awake though. I was thinking about you the whole time. Is my mouth bleeding?”
“It might've stopped. You'll have to keep your mouth open long enough for me to check.”
“What, you wanna stick your fingers in there?”
“Shut up,” Taissa says. “You look like shit.”
“How shit?” Van asks. Her eyelashes twitch with a smile, but stay shut. “Am I still hot?”
“Do you wanna open your eyes and find out yourself?”
“I just need a second,” Van says, tone soft.
That’s okay , she doesn’t say. They fall back into silence, as Tai moves the ice–she’s probably moving the ice too much–and studies the bruises forming on the side of her face from the impact of the impressive shot.
“Nat is really worried, you know,” Tai says. “She apologized three times.”
“She shouldn't be. She's done worse.” Van smiles, sounding more confident and more stable. “One time, we were leaving Laura Lee's and broke into someone’s backyard and their dog just went at me. We were probably like eight. Lee’s mom had to drive us to the hospital, I think I got seven stitches. Sick scars, though.”
“Where?” She leaves the ice where it is, resting against the bridge of Van’s nose. She grazes her fingers over Van’s lip, where the blood has thankfully begun to solidify. If Van can feel her fingers, she doesn’t show it.
“My calf. Laura Lee said it looked like the big dipper. Constellations, you know?”
“Like your freckles,” she says without thinking. Stupidly. She might be blushing.
“Sure. Like my freckles,” Van laughs.
“They look like constellations,” Taissa explains hurriedly.
“What heterosexual romance book did you read that in, Tai?”
Tai rolls her eyes, huffing again, so Van can hear her. “Don’t you dare assume I read heterosexual romance books, Van.”
“Will do, Miss. Only homo books for the lady.”
“Don’t go around saying homo books,” Tai says, letting her smile slip into her voice.
Van doesn’t respond, only flexes and curls her hands.
“Is this the locker room?” Van traces the floor tiles with the tips of her fingers, eyes still glued shut. “How did I get here?”
“It took five whole varsity soccer players. And a screaming Misty.”
“Good old Misty. Did she freak?”
“What, you couldn't hear her?” Tai scoffs. For a few blurry moments after Van hit the ground, the only thing she could hear was Misty’s shrill whining.
“Could not. Buzz buzz buzz, remember? I don’t have any idea what happened.”
“Well, I remember you dove, and the ball hit your face on your way down. Which is actually not what you’re meant to use to catch a ball, if you didn’t know.”
“Yeah, yeah, I got that bit. I can feel it.”
Tai hums. “You just– blinked? Then you stopped opening your eyes, then of course Jackie started screaming, and Misty lost her shit. I've never seen her run so fast. Maybe she should’ve tried out for JV. I’d feel bad for Akilah, though.”
Van lets out a breathy giggle as Tai continues, eyes absent-mindedly tracing the marks on the ceiling. “She was going on and on about a concussion, but Lee figured you just fainted because of the blood and just needed to cool down. And now we’re here.”
When she looks back at Van, her eyes are finally open and a cloudier blue, staring at her with crinkled edges and bigger pupils than normal. She’s probably concussed.
“What are you looking at?”
“Your pretty face,” Van says. “So I passed out?”
“I think you did,” Tai replies. You’re okay, though, she doesn’t add.
“Passing out is really not fun, Tai.”
“Were you really thinking about me?”
“Yeah,” Van says. “I didn’t want you to get scared. I was chill.” She raises one hand to where Taissa is pressing ice against her face, gently pulling it away from the bruises. “Up?”
Tai smiles, settling on her knees and grasping Van’s hand while leaving the mostly melted ice to fall to the floor. She pulls Van towards her until they’re both upright, and instantly Van gasps and blinks dizzily.
Tai’s heart picks up, but before she can offer to help Van lie back down, Van wraps an arm around Tai’s waist and buries her face in her shoulder. She takes a deep shuddering breath and mutters, “I’m good” under it.
“We can get you something to drink once you're ready,” she says, listening to Van silently count her breaths. “Apple juice or water, whatever you want.”
Van takes an unsteady breath, breaking her pattern of four second inhales. It hitches, and she relaxes further into Tai. “Jackie said you can have some of her snacks, and then we can go back to my house and you can lie down, okay? We’re not going back to practice.”
“Cool,” Van says. “Cool. Cool.” Tai can feel Van’s heartbeat pulsing through her wrist, quicker than normal but not worryingly so.
“Yeah. You're okay.”
“Can I shower at your house?”
“Yeah you can,” Tai says. “Once we make sure you aren’t concussed. Do you need to lie back down?”
“I don’t feel concussed,” she says, her voice reduced to a mumble. With one hand still in Tai’s grasp in between their chests, Van moves her other to curl into Tai’s shoulder. “I’m good. Super good. Superb.”
“Mhm.” Van is latched onto her like a koala. Tai clings on right back, her other arm keeping Van upright.
They sit silently and breathe, Tai tracing shapes into Van’s lower back as Van’s heartbeat settles to a regular pace. Tai mentally lists Van’s symptoms. She’s probably concussed.
“I’m okay Tai,” Van says, but she doesn’t even sound sure of it herself. “If you want to go back out. Are you sure the team doesn’t need their star player?”
Tai rolls her eyes. “Nope. Jackie’s got it covered. I'm all yours. Once you're ready we can make our way to some killer apple juice.”
“I could really go for some of that apple juice right now,” Van says. “The kind with forty fucking grams of sugar.”
“Maybe not forty.”
“I’ll settle for thirty,” Van says, leaning away from Tai and smiling at her, wrapping her arms around Tai’s shoulders. She’s still pale, bloody and bruised, all dilated pupils and awkward movement. “We can get up. Ready to roll.”
Tai nods. The two of them shuffle slightly, Van holding tight onto Tai’s neck as she leads them to stand. The mirror, hung inconveniently between them and the door, reflects Tai’s slightly bloodied hands and Van’s face buried in her shoulder.
“Your face is all bloody, just so you know.” Van wraps an arm around her shoulder, hand gripping tightly. “If you want to close your eyes.”
Van doesn't, instead adjusting her position and turning to face the mirror.
“Woah,” she says, grinning at her reflection. Her teeth shine with blood, cheeks scratched and scattered with bruises, culminating darkly in the mess that is the right side of her nose. “Gnarly.”
“Sure, you can say that.”
Tai watches Van’s reflection as she turns to look at her.
“Am I still hot, Turner?”
She wants to say yes, of course, something to make Van smile, but she doesn’t. Tai keeps staring at Van’s reflection. Van’s arm around her shoulder, her bloody hand around Van’s waist. “I would prefer it if you weren’t covered in blood.”
Van puts a hand to her lip, running over the dried blood, clearly pleased when it isn’t liquid enough to stain her fingers. She relaxes her hold on Tai, glancing between her hand and her reflection.
She sways suddenly, and Tai wordlessly pulls her closer.
“Okay, we're getting you some water. Your mouth probably tastes like metal.”
Van smirks. “Wouldn't you like to know.”
“Oh my god, stop.”