Thoughts abruptly stopped as legs motored and stepped outside, following a mental trail at the basketball court where Gabriel and Catrina were probably at, eventually Cale reached it and of course in classic cartoony bullshit.
"Gabriel, the ball!"
Every hair on his body stood on end, as if they were predicting what will happen next.
"!!!"
Gabriel had shot the ball, but watching the ball's trajectory Cale lost hope and his face paled.
The hoop had been utterly and completely missed with the ball-
Tok!
It had crossed over the fence, and started rolling away from the school as if retaliating.
"This bastard!"
Ruffling his head, he ran towards the fence and started climbing it at an Incredible speed as If something like this had been done multiple times before.
"Cale?! where did you come from!"
Catrina looked astonished as he came from out of thin air in her perspective.
"Where is the ball!"
He shouted at Gabriel and Catrina.
""It's over there!""
They both said at the same exact time. None pointed where the ball actually was.
"You think that helps?!"
""It's to your right!""
Looking to his right, the ball rolled away.
'Wait that road!'
The road where the ball was rolling towards was steep.
It wasn't long but If the ball rolled towards it and reached it.
'It would pick up speed!'
And Cale might lose the ball or worse It might crash Into a car. Forcing Cale, Catrina and Gabriel or the school itself to pay for any damages occurred.
Cale frantically started running towards the ball. Lungs burning, eyes focused on the ball but it had already started rolling and picked up more speed when it reached the steep road by the time he reached it.
Cale followed it towards the steep road, slowly catching up but.
'It's going to hit that van!'
As if it weren't bad enough.
"!"
The ball hit a bump in the road, causing it to launch In the air. Damages were sure to happen if that ball crashed into it.
However Its speed also slightly decreased, he didn't waste any time and threw his body towards the ball In the air.
Grasp!
He caught It, just barely.
Thud!
"Ugh!"
But his body fell to the ground and crashed Into the back of the Van the ball was going to hit.
"Whew"
Relief filled him but also slight surprise.
"I'm faster than I thought?"
Dusting of his clothes he looked behind to see If he damaged the Van In some way.
Cale had hit the bumper and realized that he might've damaged the Van more than if the ball had hit it which only made him look more carefully If it had been damaged by him.
"No visible damage?"
His body crashed into the Van with a lot of force behind it but there was no damage on the Van whatsoever.
"Strang- Ow!"
A lot of pain In his back which had hit the bumper struck in pain like needles.
"I am more injured than the damn Van!"
Hand rested on his back bending forward slightly while his other hand held the basketball.
He looked around to see if anyone saw this embarrassing moment before opening his mouth in defeat.
"Let's just go back..."
He started making his way back to school groaning as he tightly held the ball In the forearm making sure It didn't fall again.
***
"Uh... you okay?"
Deadshot asked if Cale was okay, but Cale only glared needles at him whilst leaning against the railing, suffering in silence.
"Do I...look okay to you?"
"..."
"Sorry"
"I'll only accept that apology if you start getting better"
Words were just words after all, anyone could say they were sorry but not all could apologize through actions.
Gabriel lowered his head feeling guilty that Cale had gotten hurt because he had missed a shot.
Catrina tapped on his shoulders.
"Don't worry too much, It could've ended a whole lot worse after all. So be glad that the worst didn't happen"
Catrina didn't say this just to cheer him up, she said this because it truly could have gone worse.
'I guess I got lucky'
That's the only way he could explain it, there wasn't any other way to explain that other than luck.
However the more he thought that It was luck, the more his stomach churned, whispers denying his words.
"I'll go sit over there while you guys play" He pointed to a bench at a distance that his eye caught.
Gabriel and Catrina looked at each other before Catrina opened her mouth.
"We should go to the other side of the court"
The other side of the court didn't have any fences nearby where the ball could go over.
"We should have done that from the start..."
"Come on, don't beat yourself up, you're not the only one who's worried you know"
"You don't look worried?"
Gabriel sharply commented.
"Does someone have to bawl their eyes out to show they were worried?"
"..."
When Catrina calmly retorted, Gabriel shut his mouth all while Cale laid on the bench.
*Not even 5 minutes later.
As Cale laid his bare body on the bench, bathing In the scorching sun he started relaxing more and more, which eased the pain straining his back.
Opening his eyes, he saw two figures approaching from afar.
"How do you feel?"
Catrina asked with ironic worry tinged In her eyes.
"Better, so you aren't gonna play anymore?"
Cale asked, he wasn't surprised though, because when either one of them got Injured or hurt, there was simply no way they could continue playing while the other was suffering.
'Well maybe I would make fun of them if they tripped or something'
"So? where does it hurt?"
Catrina asked, and Cale answered like a good bo-
"My back, more specifically, It's at this spot here. Close to my pelvis".
'That's the spot which crashed Into the Van head first'
"Why are you asking"
"..."
Catrina turned silent like the narrator did when Cale cut him off.
"..?"
"I can massage your back"
She said nonchalantly, Cale had massaged her back when they were still in primary school and she knew it was more than possible for her to replicate that.
"You can do that?"
It was a surprise since he never knew she was capable and she was far from dexterous with her hands.
"Well if you want to, go ahead I'm not stopping you"
In the end he didn't stop her, if he found that she sucked at it, at least he could make fun of her like a good friend.
Catrina flashed a bright smile, almost telling with her bright face to both Cale and Gabriel to watch the 'expert' work.
'She's probably lying, she doesn't know how to massage me, she's saying it so she can do something to help me'
It was pretty wholesome when he thought about it like that, but reading all of those Romance-Mystery novels really messed him in the head because he couldn't be more wrong.
"..." Gabriel watched as Catrina started massaging Cale, it was...a unique sight?
'T-that feels so good~'
Cale melted at the soft relief he felt, his bones cracked with satisfaction, he was acting like how a grandpa would act when their grandchildren offered to give a massage only for them to actually be good at it.
'She wasn't kidding when she said she could massage'
Her palms pressed on the wounded back, soft and brittle, Cale felt relieved and rejuvenated at the experience.
'I could get addicted to this~'
He wasn't lying, If it were possible, he would pay her to give a massage.
Gabriel then said in a quaking voice.
"W-what's up with him..."
Catrina replied back, also in a trembling voice.
"W-why are you asking me.."
Cale couldn't hear them well, they were both whispering after all, so he just surrendered himself to Catrina's soft hands.