Broken Empire A Reverse Harem High School Bully Romance - Callie Rose Page 0,33
then the four of them sank into seats around the living room. The tall, chestnut-haired boy sat on the couch next to me, moving the ice over my knuckles and down my forearm.
The other three fell into conversation around us, but Mason didn’t speak for a long time, and neither did I.
It’d been stupid to drop my crutches just to punch Adena.
Worth it, but stupid.
Fortunately, I had an appointment scheduled with Doctor Garrett on Saturday afternoon. I was almost at the six-week mark of wearing my cast, so I was due to get it taken off soon. Mason had kept his word and made me stay off my feet for the rest of the day on Thursday, and the pain level in my leg had gone back down quickly.
Still, I was nervous about seeing the doctor, afraid he’d tell me I had somehow set my healing back, or that it hadn’t been going all that well in the first place. That I needed more surgery, or that the bones weren’t setting right.
Elijah drove me to my appointment. The others had wanted to come, but I was too nervous to have a whole group with me. And Cole wasn’t around anyway. The phone call from his dad had been to tell him he was required to go home every weekend until the end of the semester—that he couldn’t stay on campus when classes weren’t in session.
I hated not having him around. It wasn’t like I spent every weekend with the Princes, but I hated knowing he wasn’t at Oak Park, wasn’t close by. And I hated knowing where he was even more.
Elijah pulled up outside Roseland Medical and glanced over at me. “Do you want me to come in with you? I can wait out here if you’d rather.”
“No.” I pried my fingers away from the door handle, which I’d been squeezing so hard my knuckles had gone white. “I want you there, if you don’t mind.”
“Never.” He tugged the key from the ignition and turned to face me. Then he reached over and cupped my cheek, leaning across the center console to press a kiss to my lips. “It’s gonna be okay, Tal.”
His breath caressed my skin as he spoke, and I let myself fall into his touch for a moment—let myself fully believe his words. I wanted to believe them. Wanted so much for them to be true.
He pushed open his door and walked around to let me out, grabbing my crutches from the back and handing them to me.
“Bet you won’t miss these,” he said with a soft smile.
“Fuck no. If it wouldn’t be wasteful, I’d burn the damn things as soon as I’m done with them.”
He chuckled, then walked slowly beside me as we made our way into the building. We waited for ten minutes before Doctor Garrett came to collect me, and I left Elijah in the waiting area as I trekked into the exam room.
I tried not to let my nervousness show as the doctor did his checkup, examining my healing scars before moving on to my leg, but I could only seem to answer his questions in short, choppy sentences.
When he took the cast off and began poking and prodding at my leg and ankle joint, I had to work hard not to close my eyes. The swelling had gone down a lot, but that only highlighted how much my muscles had atrophied. My calf and even my thigh muscles looked so much smaller on the right side than the left.
Doctor Garrett took a few x-rays too, and when he’d finished his exam, he leaned against the built-in desk in the small office, crossing his arms over his chest.
“Everything is looking good, kiddo. You’ve still got a long road to recovery ahead of you, but from a surgical standpoint, your leg is looking really great. It’s healing cleanly, and at this point, I feel comfortable letting you start walking with the cast off. Your first stage of recovery will just be walking on your own for as long as you can before your leg starts to feel too tired or painful. You’ll want to keep your crutches handy because it’ll be slow going at first, and I don’t want you to push too hard too fast.”
He lifted one hand to rub at his chin, making the small cleft deepen.
“I get the sense you’re pretty driven and stubborn, Talia. And those are great qualities to have. I think they’ll give you your best chance at