Page 108 of Unstoppable Love

“Get up,” I whispered. “Get up, Cam.”

“Fuck,” Dalton muttered. He glanced back at me and then to the TV, and somehow, the entire room went silent as the athletic trainer jogged onto the field.

He was still on the ground, rolling back and forth, writhing.

Come on, Cam. Get up. Get up.

“He’ll be fine,” Mrs. Kelley said.

“Of course he will,” Bryce said, looking at me. “Maybe a sprain. It’ll be fine, though.”

“Right.”

Except he stayed on the ground as the trainers came out. The play was shown again, this time in slow motion, and like a train wreck, I couldn’t look away.

There was the pass. The first man to grab him. The second, and then, as they went down, all tangled up, I flinched at the sight.

“Shit,” Dalton said. “You see the way his knee bent? And then his ankle?”

“Oh god.” Emily reached out and squeezed my arm.

“That’s bad,” I said and scanned all the men who looked like they’d all been kicked in the gut. “That’s bad, isn’t it?”

The game cut to a commercial, and I stared at the screen, willing the game to come back on. Willing someone to say something, except they were all silent, staring at me, lost in their own thoughts.

“Just wait,” Charles said. “Game’ll come back on, and he’ll be there. Out for a play, maybe, but he’ll be fine.”

He didn’t sound like he believed his own words, and based on the look Dalton shot him, he knew it was all bullshit, too.

“What do you think happened?” I asked. Because I’d seen that knee. The bend in it. The way his leg and ankle twisted. No leg should bend like that. No leg could bend like that unless it was made out of rubber.

“Have faith,” my mom said as she came around to wrap her arm around my shoulders. “Have a little faith. You’ll see. He’ll be okay.”

I was shaking my head, lost. What did we do? We were more than half a country away, two time zones separated us, and there was absolutely nothing to do.

The game came back, and the fake hope Charles tried to give crashed to the ground.

“Oh no.” My hands covered my mouth, and tears made the screen go blurry.

“It’s a shame,” an announcer said. “It’s a shame a young player like that gets injured like this. This will be a hit to the team, but more so, it makes you even more worried about Kelley and how he can come back from this.”

Because Cameron was getting loaded into the back of the ambulance, leg braced. His helmet was now thrown off, and the heels of his palms were shoved against his eyes. There was pain there, etched into his face, the tension in his body.

“What injury?” I snapped. “What injury could make those men sound that sad?”

“My guess?” my dad said, but it wasn’t really a question. “Injury like that, it has to be an ACL tear, possibly more.”

“Add in a broken bone with the way that leg twisted,” Isaiah said.

Dalton cringed. Gavin swiped his hand over his face. Bryce, usually so fun-loving and happy, was just staring at the TV while the backup quarterback jogged out onto the field.

My dad and Charles Kelley wore the same pinched expression of concern, and both of the moms worried their bottom lips while keeping an eye on me.

I scanned the faces of everyone in that room, tears dripping down my face. He was hurt. And he was alone, and none of us knew anything.

“What do we do?” I asked to no one in particular.

“We wait,” Mrs. Kelley said. “We wait, and we pray these boys are wrong.”

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