Chapter 77 77

Chapter 77 77
Roman's POV

I drove all the way to Ohio Street Beach, still wondering what was on Harmony's mind and why she wanted to be at the beach. The tires hummed against the pavement as we headed east toward the lakefront, the city lights reflecting off the dark surface of the water in the distance. 

She had been silent throughout the drive, keeping her head turned toward the passenger side window, watching the empty streetlights blur past us. I wanted to ask her what was wrong, but the quiet in the car was so heavy that I didn't want to break it with a stupid question.

I got to the beach and parked in the empty lot near the concrete walkway. As I swung my legs out of the driver's seat and put a little pressure on my right knee, a sharp ache shot up my thigh. I winced, catching my breath for a quick second as I gripped the edge of the car door. It was my knee.

I hoped Harmony wouldn't see it, but I was out of luck. Her eyes caught my wince almost immediately.

"What was that?" She asked, stepping around the front bumper and stopping right in front of me. Her eyes traveled straight down to my right leg. "You're favoring your right side, Roman. Is it the joint pain again?"

"It's nothing," I said, trying to skirt around the topic as I closed the door and pressed the lock button. "Just the cold air getting into the knee. Don't worry about it."

"Don't give me that," Harmony snapped, crossing her arms and tilting her head. "I watched you skate today, and you seemed to be relying heavily on the leg that wasn't injured. Where exactly is the pain coming from, the right side of your knee, or the left?"

"The knee is fine, Harmony. Really," I insisted, taking a slow step forward to prove I could walk straight, though the throbbing beneath my kneecap was getting harder to hide. "It's just a regular ache. It happens after every physical game."

She didn't move, but I could feel her eyes following my movements with total skepticism. "Roman, you're limping with every step. You can't lie to a medical professional. Tell me the truth."

I let out a sigh, realizing I wasn't going to win an argument against her. "Fine. I get that twinge every time I'm in a bad mood, okay? It's like the stress just goes straight to the old injury and makes everything lock up. It's more mental than anything else, I promise."

Harmony looked at me for a long moment, her features softening slightly. "Your body holds onto tension, Roman. If you keep stressing over matches, your muscles are going to stay locked around the joint." 

She stepped closer, reaching down to press her thumb gently against the side of my knee, right over the tendon. "Keep your weight on the heel when you walk on the sand, alright? Don't push off your toes until the muscle relaxes. And if it gets worse, you should call me. I have some therapeutic wraps back at the apartment."

I managed a small laugh, the tension in my face loosening a bit. "I don't know. If I start calling you for private physical therapy sessions at night, that might get Nurse Sarah angry. I don't want to be the reason you get another suspension at the clinic."

"I can survive another one." Harmony rolled her eyes, a faint trace of amusement passing over her face. "And besides, Nurse Sarah has better things to do than monitor who you call, Foster. Just take care of the leg."

Then she turned toward the beach with a wistful look in her eyes. The playful brightness in her expression vanished, replaced by a distant stare as she looked out toward the dark horizon. She started walking toward it, almost as if she was entranced, and I followed her.

The Ohio Street Beach area was deserted at this hour, a vast expanse of dark, cool sand stretching out toward the concrete curves of the prominent skyline. The lake was unusually calm, the water looking like a sheet of black glass under the midnight sky, with only the small, rhythmic lapping of tiny waves breaking against the shore. The distant rumble of city traffic felt miles away out here, replaced by the cool breeze blowing off Lake Michigan. The sand was cold beneath our shoes, shifting slightly with every step we took toward the shoreline.

Finally, the water line was just inches from our feet. It was reflecting the white glow of the distant pier lights.

I turned my collar up against the wind. "So, why did you want to come to the beach? Especially tonight, when it's freezing out here."

She kept her eyes on the water as she replied. "When I was eight years old, this was my favorite place in the whole city. My mother used to bring me here on so many girls' nights out, just to eat corn dogs on a beach towel in the sand. We would sit right here, close to the water, and she would tell me stories about the ships that used to cross the lake. We didn't have much money, but she always made it feel like the biggest adventure in the world."

She paused, taking a shaky breath that caught in her throat. "Well, she found out a few months later that she had leukemia."

It was the first time I had ever heard her voice lose its steadiness.

"Everything just seemed to fall apart after that," Harmony continued, her shoulders dropping. "Her dad tried his best, but he had been too heartbroken after the loss of his wife, and he died a couple years later when I was ten and Benji was fifteen. Benji and I were just two kids trying to figure out how to pay rent and buy groceries without anyone showing us how. Then... he left me all alone, and I was put in foster care. Since then, and up until the time I left Loyola, I used to come here on my mum's birthday every year."

She finally turned her head, looking up at me through the stray strands of red hair blowing across her face. "Can you guess what day it is today, Foster?"