Falling for You Was Out of My Control

Jessie's POV
"Come on Jessie, get your head into gear," my captain bumped my elbow as we ran down the court after I caused yet another turn over.
"I am sorry," I puffed.

I just wasn't feeling it. I had stuffed up my only chance with someone who genuinely cared for me.

I didn't care that he was Evgeni Malkin, the Pittsburgh Penguins star centre. I only cared that he was Evgeni Malkin, the guy I meet at the park. He was the guy that caught my attention, not his money, not his status, just him, him and his dog.

"Jessie here," my coach order and pulled me to the side.
"What is going on?" He frowned.
"I am sorry coach, I didn't see, I won't do it again," I tried to make excuses.
"You better not, sit down have a breather, get a drink. You got 2 minutes and your going back out there," he slapped my shoulder.

I sat down and drank almost half of my water in one gulp I was so tired and thirsty.
And that was when I saw him, he came.

He stood in the corner, his hands shoved in his pockets as he stared at the ground talking to himself. He looked up and saw me so I smiled to let him know that whatever this things was between us, it would be ok.

Evgeni's POV
I hadn’t seen or heard from Jessie in three days. It was the longest, most painful three days of my life that even hockey couldn’t help distract me.

I rejected the teams offer to go out to dinner with them because I told Jessie I would go to her basketball game. Sure we hadn’t talked but it would be a good place to start, showing her that I could keep my promise.

She hadn’t being playing well and I could see how frustrated she was but when she saw me a smile crossed her face and the next time she stepped onto the court she tore up it.
Three pointer after three pointer they sunk through the hoop and the crowd cheered.

I looked away briefly at the crowd as they cheered before the stadium was filled with booing.

My eyes shot back to the court and I couldn’t see Jessie anywhere, it was then I noticed her lying on the ground clearly in a lot of pain.

“Jessie!” I ran out onto the court and knelt down at her side.
"Um sir you can't."
"No! No! Just leave him," she latched onto my hand as she laid on the ground in pain.

Between the trainer and myself we got her to her feet before she almost collapsed back onto the floor the moment she tried to stand.

"I can't, my leg," I could see the tears brimming in her eyes.
"Here," I hooked my arm underneath her legs and picked her up.
"Ow," she wrapped her arms around my neck and rested her head on my shoulder.
"Shhh, it's ok," I followed the trainer into the locker room and laid her down on the medical bench.

"Where does it hurt?" the trainer was checking her over she hid her face under her arm.
"My knee, my ankle, everything," she sobbed.

"Ok, it looks like you have sprained your ankle but your going to have to go for x rays on your knee. It seems that mcl could be torn."

I closed my eyes feeling so sorry for her. I had been through it all before and it was the most painful experience of my life, the only thing we could do was hope that it wasn't torn.

Jessie's POV
As much as I didn't want people's help I couldn't say no to him.
His hand on my back, arms around my waist, holding my hand, every time he touched me I felt butterflies stir in my stomach.

"You ok?" He asked as we sat in the emergency waiting room.
“It’s just, why are you being so nice to me?” I shifted trying to relieve some pressure on my leg.
“I care,” he shrugged.
“But I like…”
“Jessie,” he turned to face me and grabbed my hand, “whatever…” he stopped closing his eyes, “my English bad,” he sighed in frustration.
“It’s ok,” I laughed pitifully, I loved his broken English.

“What’s wrong, not matter. I scare you and, and I am sorry, I think want…”
“No look, you don’t have to be sorry it’s not your fault. Something happened awhile ago and I just get really upset about it sometimes and I don’t know when I will be over it, if I ever will be over it but…”
“Jessie Bailey,” a nurse appeared when I was just about to crack again. I wanted to tell him about Liam but at the same time I didn’t want his sympathy, I didn’t need him feeling sorry for me.

“Need help?” he stood up and grabbed my arm.
As much as I wanted to say no I couldn’t possibly bare to stand without his help.
“Yes, please,” I winced latching onto his shoulder.
“Here,” his arm slipped around my waist and all but carried me through the hospital.

“So?” I pressured as the doctor came back in.
“Let’s just say you won’t be doing much anytime soon. You have a grade 2 tear in you MCL and lucky for you just a minor sprain in your ankle.”
“No,” I sighed, “so no more basketball?” I can only hope right?
“Not for a while now,” he confirmed.
“Damn it.”

I was going to be stuck on crutches for at least two weeks, my knee in a dumb brace for a few months and my ankle was going to be just inconveniently sore.

“I can do it myself,” I pulled my arm from his grasp wanting to feel a little independent again after he had pushed me out of the hospital in a wheelchair, which I hated with a passion.

He lent up against his car with his arms folded across his chest as I headed for my door only to be stopped by the stairs.
“You sure?” he smiled knowing I would be taking it back.
“Can you help me?” I sighed giving up.
“O f course,” he pushed himself from his car and came to my aid.

“I take these,” he took my crutches making sure I was stable against the rail and put them up by the door.
“Arm,” he knelt down and put my arm around his shoulder and scooped me up.
“Ouch!” I winced as he pulled my knee a little too much.
“Sorry,” he carried me up the stairs.

“Keys,” he ordered.
“I am fine from here,” I tried to wriggle from his grasp.
“No silly, let me help,” he nodded to the bag in my lap, “now keys.”
“Ok, ok, god you’re bossy,” I unwrapped my arms from around his neck and searched for my keys.

After a lot of struggling, dropping the keys twice, almost dropping me more countless times he opened the door.
He put the crutches inside the doorway and picked me up again.
“Couch? bedroom? Where?” his eyes darted around the house.
“Bedroom, I need to change.”

“I leave crutches outside door,” his voice seeped through my closed bedroom door.
“Thanks.”

I struggled to get changed into my much more comfortable pyjamas but somehow managed and hobbled back out into the lounge room to find him waiting with ice packs and pillows.

“You need clean freezer.”
“No I actually have food in my freezer unlike you, that’s why you couldn’t find them. Besides did I say you could go through my stuff?” I questioned as I collapsed onto the sofa.
“No but ice packs help,” he pushed the coffee table closer and propped my knee and ankle up with a few pillows.

“Not need these now,” he took the ankle brace off without an issue before I had to suck in a breath as his fingers tickled my skin when he took my knee brace off. See my weak spot was my knees, the inside of my knee, the underside of my knee, below my knee and especially above my knee. The straps on the MCL brace drew particular attention to each area.

“You ok?” I slowly opened my eyes and breathed as his heads withdraw from touching me.
“Yeah, it’s just sore when you touch it,” it was only half true. My knee was sore but the fact that he was touching me, his large calloused hands were so gentle it actually felt nice.

“Take these then,” he fished out two of my anti-inflammatory pain killers that the doctor wanted me to take.
“Thanks,” I was grateful that he was sticking around for now otherwise I would have collapsed in bed and regretted it in the morning when I woke up in a heap of pain.

“You know this is really uncomfortable,” I sat staring at Futurama on television but all I wanted to do was lay down. Between the pain I was in and the medication I was so tired.
“Can I like lay down or something?” I looked around trying to figure out how I would.
“Oh yeah,” he got up from the couch next to me and helped me move setting me up again with the pillows, ice packs and blanket in my much more comfortable horizontal position.

He picked up my sore foot and placed on a pillow in his lap where he began massaging my aching joint.
“Mmm that feels nice,” I relaxed into the sofa as I lapped up the feeling of his hands working their magic.
“Good,” he smiled sweetly.

I couldn’t help but think about how right this felt; the fact that he was here with me when he could be off doing anything else in the world. Even though he should probably have been at home sleeping because he had a game tomorrow night, he was here for me.
God was I falling for him so hard. No matter how much I tried I was losing all control of my emotions. I get so excited to wake up each day because I know I will get to see his dumb face and when we fall into some kind of silence, it’s not awkward, it’s nice, it’s comfortable and I know when I see him I get a stupid grin on my face that just won’t go.

And I know for the past 3 days it has been torture not seeing him, his simple text messages with the excessive amount of smiley faces that don’t actually have eyes and how he stumbles over his words and then apologizes over and over for his bad English.

I know I had never felt this way about someone before. I know that having him in my life even just as the guy I walk my dog with each morning has made everything so much better.

But I am scared, I am scared that I am going to fall for him and Liam will come back and I won’t just be letting myself down, I will be letting him down and Evgeni’s to nice to do that to.
Heart break and confusion is not my strong point, I don’t know how to deal with that stuff I just hope he can prove to me that it will be worth it.