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Another.
Guess I knew how to shut up the fight-or-flight response… Shock.
My eyes dipped to the paper I’d yet to reach for, then back up to Coach. “Excuse me?”
“You’ve been assigned a foreign exchange student who will be with the sports medicine program for the fall semester. Make sure he settles in, finds his way around. Tell him anything he might need to know about our culture.” Coach grimaced. “Which is probably a lot.”
“Why?” The sharp panic in my voice was clear.
“He’s American. From the United States.”
“No,” I said, pushing to my feet. “I’m sorry, but this is a favor I cannot grant.”
“Did I say favor?” Coach’s chair creaked when he sat back. “I meant nonnegotiable assignment.”
“I’m not even part of the foreign exchange program,” I refuted.
“Is anyone?” He wondered. “Look, he’s in your department. You speak English very well.”
“Eighty percent of the people here speak English,” I interrupted, but Coach kept going as though I hadn’t even spoken.
“And you have space in your room.”
I jerked upright. “My room!”
“You are currently solo in your dorm room, right?”
Panic, fresh and pungent, tightened my chest. At my sides, my fingers curled into my palms. “I asked for a solo room.”
“It won’t hurt you to share for a few months.”
Yes.Yes, it would. It would hurt more than I could explain. More than I was willing to explain. Sharing that room would rob me of all the peace and safety I’d managed to find.
You still don’t feel safe,a voice inside me taunted.
But I will. I would,I argued.But not if a stranger moves in.
“I can’t share a room with someone I don’t even know.”
“That’s literally what everyone here does.” Coach reminded me, his patience clearly wearing thin. “You’ll get to know him.”
“I don’t want to.”
“I have to say, Eriksson, I expected better from you. You’re usually a team player.”
I chose not to remind him that swimming was not a team sport. I chose to say nothing at all. My tongue was thick, my brain fogging with overload.
Coach sighed heavily. “Is there a reason you’re so adamant about not wanting to help a new student get acclimated to our institute?”
I opened my mouth. Shut it. Misery draped me like a finely woven cloak. “No, sir.”
“Then, what’s the issue?”
I went for the thing I knew Coach would appreciate most. “I just wanted to focus on swimming this semester. Improve my time.”
He nodded. “And you will. But you will also be hospitable to our new student and represent our school and country with pride.”
I sighed. There was no getting out of this. Unless I wanted to tell him the real reason I wanted to keep my solo room, which I did not.
