Blindsided (Game On 2)

Wait.

Where am I?

I lifted my eyelids again. No pink curtains or pink walls.

I sat, bolt upright, then clutched my head as it throbbed.

“Jesse, thank God.”

Janet’s voice confused me further, and I finally let myself look around. She sat down on the edge of my bed, and rested her hand gently on my back. Then my senses began to wake up, and the unmistakable smell of hospital hit me. The room had white walls, a small window on one side, and one of those trolley things that moves over your bed when you eat. There were two chairs beside the bed, and Hunter was sitting on one of them looking scared to death. I was about to ask what the hell was going on when I felt a twinge in my knee, making me swear out loud.

“Jesse what’s wrong?” Janet asked, and Hunter jumped up.

“I’ll find a nurse,” he said.

“Wait,” I told him. “What’s wrong with my knee?”

Janet and Hunter exchanged worried looks, and for the first time I felt scared. I couldn’t remember hurting myself but my knee was killing me so that must have been why I was in hospital. Except … Janet and Hunter didn’t seem to know about that part.

“Oh,” Hunter said, remembering what I’d clearly forgotten, “you fell down when you were …”

“When I was … what?”

“Jesse, what do you remember about last night?” Janet asked.

It was hard to think straight with my head and my knee causing me so much pain, but I cast my mind back to the night before.

The party. I went to the party with Isabelle, and we danced, and she kissed me. My mind unfogged just a little as I remembered the way she kissed me. Or the way she let me kiss her. We danced some more and then … I woke up in hospital.

“Where’s Isabelle?” I asked.

“I made Andrew take her home a few hours ago,” Janet replied. “She made me promise to call her when you woke up, and I will, but I need to know what you remember.”

I shook my head, trying to get a clear picture but nothing came. “I went to Mischa’s party. I was with Isabelle the whole time. That’s all I know.”

“Someone spiked your drink,” Hunter said. “Izzy said you weren’t feeling well so she tried to take you outside.”

If it weren’t for me being in hospital and the look on Hunter’s face, I’d have sworn he was playing a trick on me. A spiked drink was something that happened to chicks.

“At first, she thought you were drunk,” Hunter went on. “On the way out of the house, you bumped into Leon and slugged him in the face.”

My eyes widened, somehow causing another searing pain through my skull. It wasn’t that I hadn’t thought about punching Leon every time I saw him leering at Isabelle, but I’d never have acted on it. Or so I thought.

“He made some remark about Izzy staying at the party with him,” Hunter explained. “You lost it. But it wasn’t your fault, it was the drugs. Afterwards, you fell down and passed out.”

Wasn’t my fault? I couldn’t afford to do something as stupid as hitting someone, not when I was trying to build a successful soccer career.

“Did I fall on my knee?”

“Jesse,” Janet said. “We need to call the police about the drugs.”

I shoved the covers down so I could get a look at why it was hurting so much, and Janet gasped. All Hunter and I could do was stare. It was bruised and swollen in a way that no knee should ever be.

Please, please not a torn ACL. Careers had been ruined by ACL tears and I did not want to be part of that list.

“Has anyone looked at this yet?” I asked.

“Dude, I know your knee is a big deal, but-”