Chapter 66: Spectacular

It simultaneously felt like forever and no time at all until the ski patrol arrived at our location. “Forever” because Luna was groaning in obvious pain after her unfortunate hands-on encounter with Mammoth Mountain’s high-altitude flora. “No time at all” because I blinked and all of a sudden the two red-uniformed paramedics were whirling around me in a flurry of activity. I was still a little stunned at what was going on, and even though both paramedics gave us their names, I completely forgot them immediately.

Thankfully, a couple of skiers had seen Luna crash into the trees and offered to race to the bottom to call for help, allowing me to stay with Luna. She’d remained fully conscious and retained feeling in all of her limbs. I wanted to believe she wasn’t seriously injured, but I was no doctor and had told her to stay put until the professionals arrived. Hell, my first thought was to not let her move at all, just in case she’d hurt her neck. But she started getting up on her own, and with a sense of relief, I quickly knelt down to help her sit upright in the snow.

Naimh remained at the top of the fork in the road between Lower Dry Creek and Easy Rider, safely tucked out of the way against the tree line and just visible to me about fifty yards away. I’d told her to stay there rather than attempt to snowboard down to me – lest I end up with TWO injured girls. She’d unlatched herself from her snowboard and could probably have slid down to us on her bottom or something. But then she’d still have to hike back up to get her board and ride down the beginner-level slope to get home, so I’d told her to wait where she was and keep looking for Skylar, Eva, and Alice to appear on the trail and try to flag them down.

Indeed, a few minutes after the ski patrol paramedics had started checking on Luna, I heard rather animated chatter from above and turned around to see that the trio had joined Naimh at the top of the steep section. I waved to them, and Eva waved back to me. Skylar, Naimh, and Alice were facing each other and still talking.

“Fortunately, you don’t appear to have any broken bones,” the lead paramedic told Luna, which brought my attention right back to her. “But you’ve got a Grade 1 sprain of your right wrist. And I can’t be certain of the severity until we get you down the hill to let you put some weight on it, but you’ve definitely got at least a Grade 1 sprain of your right ankle, and maybe even Grade 2 or Grade 3. Most likely from when your skis initially detached.”

Luna nodded glumly. “Guess I won’t be skiing myself down the mountain.”

The paramedic gave her a warm smile. “Afraid not. But cheer up: you get to go for a ride on that thing.”

Both Luna and I looked over at the bright-red ski patrol toboggan parked against a nearby tree.

“We’ll get you down safe and sound, bring you over to the medical clinic, and get you fully checked out,” the paramedic told her.

“Can I go with her?” I asked.

“Well, not on the toboggan,” the second paramedic quipped with a sly grin.

The lead paramedic looked over at me. “Boyfriend? Husband?”

“Boyfriend,” Luna replied immediately, which made me pop my eyebrows in surprise.

Fortunately, both of the paramedics were looking at her, not me. And the lead paramedic said, “The answer is ‘yes’. Your boyfriend can follow us down and then go with you into the clinic.”

I blinked and then kept my mouth shut, wondering if they wouldn’t have let me accompany Luna had we been ‘just friends’.

The second paramedic went to bring over the toboggan. While both paramedics then helped Luna into a seated position and strapped her in, I walked away from the tree line a bit and started waving with both arms to the four girls up the hill. With shouting and improvised semaphore, I tried to tell them to meet us at the bottom. I knew that the Lower Dry Creek trail eventually reconnected with Easy Rider. And after a bit of waving, Naimh seemed to catch on and nodded before herding the girls together to continue their run.

When I returned, the ski patrol had gotten Luna and her rental ski equipment loaded into the toboggan, and the lead paramedic went to take hold of the guide poles. I clicked myself into my snowboard and then gave myself a mini-pep-talk of assurance that I WOULDN’T crash even though this was an intermediate/advanced route. And as soon as the leader started bringing Luna down the mountain, I set off to follow them.

Fortunately, the ski patrol was in no hurry to race to the bottom, and they took wide S-turns to keep their overall speed quite pedestrian on the steep slope. I was easily able to keep up, even though I spun out of a turn and fell one time. But after a few minutes, we all made it down to the bottom.

But Naimh and the others were nowhere to be seen. I’d assumed I would see them at the bottom of the trail where the two trails reconnected, but there was no sign of them.

I thought perhaps they might be near the Gold Rush Express chair lift where we always met up. But they weren’t there either.

And somewhat to my surprise, the ski patrol took Luna straight to the parking lot.

“Wait, are we not going to The Mill?” I asked, pointing at the large, wooden building nearby that I knew featured a restaurant, restrooms, and a ticket booth.

The lead paramedic was already talking into his radio, but the second paramedic shook his head. “The Mill doesn’t have a medical clinic. We’ll take you both by ambulance over to the Main Lodge.”

“Oh ... Uhhh...” I muttered, glancing at Luna in surprise. She was still seated in the toboggan, looking as perplexed as I did.

“That a problem?” the second paramedic asked.

“No, not a problem,” I replied. “It’s just that our friends were coming down the mountain to meet us. I have to assume they went to The Mill.”

“Any of them have a cell phone?”

“Sam, usually,” I replied, more for Luna’s benefit than the ski patrol.

“But Sam’s not with Neevie and the others,” Luna pointed out to me. “Do you have your cell phone?”

I winced and shook my head. “Left it in the van. One less thing to carry around, and we had plans to meet up at Canyon Lodge at four o’clock.”

Luna frowned. “Maybe you should go without me to meet up with them.”

I shook my head immediately. “I’m not leaving you.”

“Do you know Sam’s number?” the second paramedic asked me.

I nodded.

“Then you can call him from our office, no problem.”

I didn’t bother to correct him regarding Sam’s gender. “Thanks. Sounds great.”

The ambulance came around the corner and started rolling up towards us. Luna took one look at it and sighed mournfully. “This was NOT how I expected this day would turn out.”

“You’ll be fine,” the second paramedic assured her. “Just think of this as a fun story you two will be able to tell your kids.”

Luna and I glanced at each other, and we both immediately burst into laughter.

The on-call doctor at the Main Lodge medical center formally diagnosed Luna with a Grade 1 sprain of her right wrist and a Grade 2 sprain of her right ankle. She was unable to put any weight on her right foot to stand and had been given a pair of inexpensive aluminum crutches. They wrapped her right foot and ankle with an ice pack and sports tape. Another wrap went around her right hand and wrist. I took both Luna’s ski equipment and my snowboard over to the Main Lodge rental shop and got a return receipt for them. But for now, I had to keep my snowboard boots as well as Luna’s ski boots because our regular shoes were still in a locker back at Canyon Lodge.

I’d called Sam and left her a voicemail to let her know what was going on, along with the phone number of the medical clinic. Ten minutes later, she called me back and immediately went into project manager mode. She, Zofi, Belle, and Mari would get to Canyon Lodge and return their ski equipment. Sam and Belle would take the Gondola back to The Village to collect my minivan (Sam had my spare keys with her) and drive it over to the Main Lodge to collect us. Meanwhile, Zofi and Mari would remain at Canyon Lodge waiting for Neevie, Skylar, Eva, and Alice to join them, given that we’d all drilled into our heads the need to meet up at the agreed-upon rendezvous point in the event something went wrong. And then that group would take the Gondola back and drive home in Sam’s Escalade.

For now, all Luna and I needed to do was wait.

With her right wrist also sprained, it was difficult for Luna to use both crutches. With some trial and error, we practiced letting her use just one crutch under her left armpit, which allowed her to hop on her left foot for short distances across the clinic, but would be impractical for any long distances. I offered to carry her outside, but Luna rolled her eyes and shot me a dirty look that had more to do with her pride than anything else. The doctor ultimately had one of the staff roll Luna in a wheelchair out to the parking lot before depositing us in front of a giant stone statue of a dark gray mammoth. And we sat down on the curb waiting for Sam and Belle to arrive.

“So that happened...” Luna began with a sigh, shaking her head mournfully and staring out across the street to the snowy mountainside beyond. Her arms were folded across her chest, and her legs were extended out in front of her: left foot encased in her ski boot; right foot bootless and crossed over her left ankle, just a sock, an ice pack, and the sports tape wrap.

“Could’ve been worse,” I offered. “Far worse. To walk away from a crash like that with nothing more than a couple of sprains? I’d call that a ‘win’.”

Luna pursed her lips and shook her head. “Except that I didn’t walk away. I got rolled away in a wheelchair after my sorry ass had to turn down your offer to get carried out. In the future, please spare me the embarrassment and just don’t offer in the first place, alright?”

“Don’t ... offer ... to give ... Luna ... piggybacks.” I mimed handwriting into my left glove. “Made a note of that.”

Luna chuckled. “You give all the other girls piggybacks. Guess you should start compiling a list of all the things you can do with the other BTC girls but not me.”

“Don’t ... offer ... to have sex ... with Luna,” I drawled while miming another note into my left glove.

“You really needed to write that one down?”

“Well it seems obvious but can’t hurt. Anyways, it’s just a list of two right now. Anything else I should add?”

“I don’t know. What else do you always do with the other girls that I might not like?”

I shrugged. “Backrubs?”

“I’m good with getting backrubs.”

“Homework help?”

“I’ll take that too.”

“Listen to their problems and make them feel better.”

Luna pursed her lips and glanced over at me. Exhaling slowly, she nodded twice and then murmured, “You’re really good at that from what I’m told.”

“Glad to know you’re hearing positive reviews about me.”

Luna shook her head. “Don’t need to read the reviews. I’ve got first-hand experience myself. Thank you for being here for me, Matty.”

“You’re welcome, Luna.” I gave her a sincere smile, but a moment later it shifted to a wry grin as I added, “Or Lunabella or Stellaluna or Lunacia or sheer Lunacy or maybe just Lucy or ... or something?”

Luna laughed. “The more fun you make it for me to watch you guessing, the less inclined I am to actually tell you.”

“I am definitely gonna tell Belle to raid your purse to read your driver’s license.”

Luna laughed again, and just kept laughing and laughing for a minute before finally exhaling with a long sigh.

“I’m glad you can laugh after all you’ve been through,” I told her.

“I’m only laughing because of you. If you weren’t here, I’m sure I’d be burying my face in my arms and crying right about now.”

Reading Luna’s expression and the moisture in her eyes, I slid closer to her, wrapped my left arm around her back, and hugged her close. “You’re welcome to bury your face in your arms and cry too if that’s what you want.”

“I’m not gonna cry in front of you.”

“Why not? The girls cry in front of me all the time.”

“You’re a guy.”

“I’m not just any guy. I’m Matty. I’m BTC.” I squeezed her again. “We’re both BTC, aren’t we? Cry away.”

Luna looked up at me, and I gave her the warmest, most reassuring smile I could give her. I rubbed her shoulder and gave her another hug. A single tear leaked from her eye and then its companion followed from her other eye as she fought for composure with me present. But a moment later, the dam broke and she twisted to shove her face into the crook of my neck, absolutely bawling.

At first I simply wrapped both arms around Luna and let her cry, waiting her out. But when her sobs kept coming, I stroked her spine with my right hand, caressed her head with my left, and soothed, “There, there ... Let it all out. I got you. I’m right here for you.”

She kept sobbing, and I kept soothing. And for a little while, there were no other people around in the entire world except for us.

Eventually though, Luna’s tears ran dry and she quieted down. I relaxed my grip the instant I felt her start to sit up straight again, and she wiped her snotty nose with the back of her right glove.

“Dios mío, Matty. I was soooo scared!” she whispered, looking up at me with renewed terror in her eyes.

“I know you were,” I said gently, keeping my arms around her.

“I heard you yelling for me to turn. I heard you yelling for me to sit down. But I just ... I froze! I panicked. I didn’t know what to do! I thought I was gonna die!”

“But you didn’t die. You got a little banged up, but you’re alright. It’s all over now.” I rubbed her shoulder. “We’re gonna get you home and let you soak in the hot tub for a long while, alright?”

Some of the terror bled out of her gaze as she nodded quickly and exhaled slowly. She must’ve been holding her breath, because she started panting for air, and she trembled in my arms.

“I am NEVER going skiing again,” Luna insisted.

I chuckled and shrugged. “Well, you’re certainly not skiing anytime soon. Not with a sprained ankle you aren’t. But once you heal up, I think it would be a great idea for you to start skiing again in a couple of months. Get back up in the saddle and prove to yourself you can handle it. On bunny slopes, though. Like ... nowhere near a steep cornice, at least at first.”

Luna blinked at me and then winced. “But skiing is expensive.”

I shook my head. “Don’t worry about it.”

“I can’t NOT worry about it. I know how much lift tickets cost. How much my ski rentals cost. And... oh, shit. Did they charge you for damage on my skis?”

I shook my head. “Nope. Just checked them into the computer and gave me a receipt. We still gotta get the boots back to the Canyon Lodge shop, though.”

“Where I come from, when a group of friends goes out together, they combine the receipts at the end and split things up.”

“We do that sometimes, too,” I said with a shrug. “A bunch of us pitched in to rent the house.”

Luna’s eyes narrowed. “But Neevie told me I wouldn’t need to pitch in for that since you all had already paid for it.”

“That’s true.”

“But I thought I’d at least have to pay for my food, or pay for my lift tickets and ski rentals, or--”

“Seriously: don’t worry about it.”

“Can you please stop telling me not to worry about it?!”

I took a deep breath and then exhaled slowly. Luna looked like she wanted to keep going, but she took a deep breath of her own and waited me out.

Finally, I spoke.

“You don’t know my life story, but I’ve told you I was raised by an absentee mother whose parenting style was to throw money at me and leave me on my own. Belle’s dad is a surgeon. Sam’s family is loaded. It’s no secret that we grew up in an affluent part of town, and while money doesn’t buy happiness, it doesn’t hurt to have enough of it to the point that you don’t need to worry about it.”

“Clearly, I’ve never had enough money to not worry about it.”

“Clearly,” I agreed. “Money is a necessity that I’ve never had to worry about, and perhaps I don’t always appreciate what it means to someone used to weighing the value of every dollar they spend, although Neevie’s reminded me from time to time. But all the same, the rest of us are perfectly happy to cover you.”

“But why?”

“Why not? You’re our friend.”

“You mean I’m your charity project.”

I frowned. “What?”

“Poor Luna grew up in the barrio and now all the rich kids can feel better about themselves for letting her tag along on their expensive vacation.”

My frown deepened. “That’s NOT our intent.”

“Forgive me for being suspicious of your motives.”

I gave her a wounded look, pulled back my arms, and even slid myself a foot away from her. “For real?”

Luna winced and instantly looked embarrassed.

“After everything I’ve done to prove that you can trust me...” I gestured out at the snowy mountain before us and then gestured my hands back and forth between us. “ ... are you seriously still suspicious of my motives?”

“I’m sorry,” she apologized, grimacing and covering her face with both hands. “You’re right. You’re right. You’ve been nothing but kind to me, you just went recklessly chasing me down a black diamond your first day on a snowboard and could’ve gotten seriously hurt yourself, and I’m being a total ingrate about it.”

I pursed my lips and exhaled forcefully through my nostrils, biting back my anger. “It’s alright,” I muttered, trying to convince myself I wasn’t upset as much as I was trying to convince her. “Besides, that wasn’t actually a black diamond. On the map it’s a black diamond inside a blue square, so ... not that reckless.”

Luna smiled at the break in tension and sighed. “You still came after me.”

“You’re BTC. We all look after each other,” I assured her. “And don’t worry about feeling defensive. You’re bound to be a bit emotionally raw after a trauma like the one you just went through.”

“You’ve done nothing to deserve my mistrust,” Luna muttered. “Other people have treated me with kindness only to expect certain things in return, so I’m sorry if I’ve been conditioned a little to be suspicious. It’s hard for me to look at everything The BTC has done for me the past few days and really believe there aren’t any strings attached. Skiing, ski lessons, housing, meals, gas ... even you sitting here next to me when you could’ve been up there having a good time...”

I looked up at the mountain while Luna waved across the snowy white terrain covered with chairlift hardware and tiny dots of people skiing and snowboarding their way around the trails.

“Even though you, Belle, and Neevie keep telling me not to worry about it,” Luna continued, “I can’t help but feel obligated to pay you back.”

“Nobody’s asking you to pay us back with money.”

“That’s good, because I don’t have any. I’m only at Berkeley and living in the dorms because of scholarships and some pretty massive student loans.”

“Nobody’s asking you to pay us back with anything, not even your continued friendship,” I added. “We didn’t invite you on this trip to make you feel obligated to join The BTC. We invited you because we like you and we like having you around: that’s it. No further expectations. No further obligations. If we go back to Berkeley at the end of the trip and you decide that BTC life just isn’t for you, well...”

“You can’t say the girls would just let me walk away.”

“Well, no, they wouldn’t,” I admitted. “They’d try to change your mind and convince you to stay, but on the merits of being in The BTC. You KNOW nobody would ever hold it over your head, ‘Hey we just invested all this money in you so if you decide to walk away we’re gonna send you an itemized invoice for the half-cheeseburger, the slice of cheese pizza, and the sixteen fries you ate at lunch along with everything else. Oh, and this ski boot if you forget to return it.’”

Luna snorted and shook her head while I held aloft Luna’s right-foot ski boot and waggled it.

“Everyone in The BTC has their own issues and foibles,” I continued. “We each need a little support from everyone else. Some of us have the means to support each other emotionally. Some of us have the means to support each other financially.”

“And some of the girls - not me - have big enough boobs to wrap around your massive dick and give you a titfuck.”

Now I snorted and shook my head. “Well ... That’s not an incorrect statement, but the size of a girl’s boobs doesn’t actually have any bearing on her ability to support everyone else in The BTC.”

“I’m never gonna grow a big pair of boobs, and even if I did, I’d never use them to provide you with... ‘support’.”

I held up my left glove and started miming a pen. “Should I write that down?”

Luna smirked, shook her head, and then sighed. It took her another few beats to collect herself. And when she looked back up at me, any trace of her previous smile was gone.

“I appreciate you saying that I don’t need to pay you back financially,” she stated seriously. “I hear you saying I shouldn’t feel obligated, but I can’t help feeling like I owe the BTC something in return, and I’d very much like to find a way to feel like I’m pulling my own weight, you know? For my own sanity, if nothing else.”

“Fair enough.”

“Maybe I should start with some of that emotional support you were talking about: reassure Neevie that she’s all kinds of awesome, keep Belle’s impulses in check before she accidentally blows something up, give Skylar someone else she can talk to and relax with.”

“All of those things sound great. Yes please. And thank you.”

Luna arched an eyebrow at me. “Let the one guy in The BTC that all the girls are in love with know when he’s sitting on a ticking time bomb.”

I blinked. “Sitting on a what now?”

“Not even counting the NBGs who will all be flying home after this trip, you do know you’ve got five girls who are all in love with you at the same time, right?”

“Well, three.”

“Five.”

I blinked twice. “Only three are my girlfriends.”

“You’re not really that dense, are you?”

I sighed. “My relationships with Eva and Skylar are ... are...”

“Complicated?”

“Something like that.” I took a deep breath. “Eva has gone out of her way to make clear that she knows what love is, and that she doesn’t feel it for me. Skylar, too, doesn’t see me as a potential romantic partner. I’m ‘just a kid’ to her.”

“Yeah, uh-huh,” Luna muttered dubiously. “I may not have any romantic interest in you whatsoever myself, but I AM a woman who knows what it’s like to have feelings for someone who may or may not have the bandwidth to love me back in equal measure.”

I winced, immediately thinking of Luna’s recent breakup with Isabela.

“I’m just saying: if -I- was a new girl who realized I had feelings for someone who already had three girlfriends, coming up with excuses like ‘we’re not like that’ or ‘he’s just a kid to me’ is exactly what I’d be doing too.”

I sighed and shrugged helplessly. There was nothing I could do about that stuff right now.

“And then there’s the whole ticking time bomb about Sam.”

“Sam?” I blinked. “What about her?”

Luna shrugged. “Don’t get me wrong: everyone in The BTC is happy to have her back. More than once, Belle and Neevie have told me that ‘it feels just like old times’ with Sam in charge and barking orders during a ski trip.”

My eyes narrowed. “I smell a ‘but’ coming...”

Luna looked at me seriously. “Everyone’s happy to have Sam back, but there’s a part of them that resents how ... easy ... it’s been for her. This is The BTC. The girls love each other, they forgive, and they move on. That’s like the corporate mission statement.”

“What are you trying to say?”

Luna shrugged again. “Everyone has a little selfishness inside them: a Selfish Belle, a Selfish Mari, a Selfish Neevie. They all want to take the high road and welcome Sam back with open arms; but while they’ve forgiven, they have NOT forgotten. They’re letting it slide for now, and Sam’s been on her best behavior. That’s easy to do when we’re all living together in a rental house far, far away from school and all of her Pre-Law crowd. But if she slips up again? Fool me once, fool me twice and all.”

“You make it seem like it’s a foregone conclusion that Sam’s gonna fuck up again.”

“I hope she doesn’t.” Luna shook her head. “For your sake, I sincerely hope she doesn’t.”

I frowned, pursed my lips, and took a deep breath. Luna was on a roll, and I wanted to find out everything she might be able to tell me. “What else?”

“MATTY! LUNA!” Neevie’s voice suddenly called from across the street.

Both Luna and I turned to look, surprised to find Naimh, Skylar, Eva, and Alice all standing by the Main Lodge, still with all of their rental gear. Despite our standard protocol, they must NOT have gone to meet up with the others at Canyon Lodge.

The most gorgeous thing I’d ever seen dropped her snowboard and started hustling across the street towards us, a gleefully happy smile on her freckled face.

I smiled and waved to her, happy to see my precious Squeakers. But I still paused for a moment to glance at Luna, arch an eyebrow, and tell her one thing.

“To be continued...”

As it turned out, Naimh and the others had indeed gone to The Mill to meet up with us. But upon entering and finding out that there was no medical clinic there, the staff told them that the ski patrol would’ve brought us to the clinic at the Main Lodge.

But while Luna and I had ridden in an ambulance to get from Point A to Point B, our friends had consulted a map and then taken the Stump Alley Express chair lift to the Broadway trail to ski and snowboard their way down to us. Unfortunately, Broadway was an intermediate trail, and a very long one at that. Even if Skylar was perhaps a better skier than she gave herself credit for, it was still Naimh’s, Eva’s, and Alice’s first day ever on snowboards. And Naimh kept ... well ... falling.

But she kept getting up and continuing.

She’d fall down. She’d get up. And she’d keep going.

She’d fall down again. She’d get up again. And she’d keep going.

Fuck, I think she ended up with more bruises than Luna did. But eventually the most gorgeous thing I’d ever loved finally made it to me.

Then she tackled me across the sidewalk.

And my head actually hit the pavement.

Good thing I was still wearing my helmet, mostly because it was the most convenient way of carrying it.

“Ohmigawd Matty when the two of you went over the edge I started having a full-blown panic attack you were both gonna die it was so steep and then even when I saw you were okay I had no way of getting down to you and then even after the ski patrol got you like ohmigawd you’ve no idea what we had to go through to get to you because I thought you’d signaled me to meet you at the bottom so of course we all assumed the medical clinic would be in the building but then when we went inside we couldn’t FIND the clinic and I said, ‘Stay here’ and then I went one way and Sky went another way and when I came back everybody was just GONE and I was all, ‘Didn’t I tell everyone to stay here?!?’ and I started searching for everyone and it took forever before I finally spotted Eva and she said she went to ask the restaurant people where the medical clinic was and they told her it was at the Main Lodge and then she was all, ‘No, I’m looking for the medical clinic at THIS lodge!’ but then they told her there were only two clinics, one at Canyon Lodge and one at Main Lodge but that if our friends were on this side of the mountain then they would’ve gotten taken to the Main Lodge and so we had to go collect our gear and ohmigawd my bindings were like frozen in ICE and I couldn’t get my boots to lock in and I started crying and crying but Eva was so strong I mean like superhero strong and I mean she’s been fucking freezing this whole trip with her face covered up and everything but she pulled her gloves right off and got the ice outta my bindings and then we were up and heading for the chair lift and-- MMPH!”

I’m summarizing what I think Naimh said, given that her accent had gotten really thick and she was blubbering and crying all throughout. In the end, I finally cut off Naimh’s rambling with a fierce kiss and would get the rest of the story later. Meanwhile, I just knew she was happy to see me, even though I’d never been hurt and we’d been apart for less than an hour. It was only after we sat up and realized the other three were all talking to Luna and asking about her injuries that Naimh flushed with fresh embarrassment and started apologizing to Luna for being so inconsiderate.