"He had a big cock." Carrie weakly defended her drunken mistakes.

"Who cares? Look at the way he dresses. Ugh. He’s even pledging at the Kappa Alpha house. Ugh. Never. What the hell were you thinking?" Brandy was thoroughly disgusted with her friend’s bad decision-making skills.

"Whatever." Carried replied slightly annoyed, "So is the roommate home?"

"Nope. I’m surprised. Its not like she has a life or anything. I mean come on; she plays sports for god sakes. She’s probably a fucking carpet-munching dyke. They are probably out celebrating by eating each other’s hairy muffins." Even though Brandy’s roommate, Aubrey, never bothered her she felt compelled to hate her for no reason.

"I don’t know how much they’ll be celebrating. I heard they lost pretty badly. I guess one of the girls broke an ankle or something. What a bummer." When around or talking to Brandy, Carried pretended to hate sports like she, but when she was alone she kept up with all of the school’s sports religiously.

"That would suck so bad. I mean what kind of an outfit can you wear with a cast? God, I’d just die if I had to wear a nasty cast. How the hell do you shower in those things? Casts are so fucking gay. Only those nasty sports dykes wear them. Ugh." Ugh was a common sound emitted from Brandy’s wrathful lips. She lived in a perpetual state of hate and disgust.

"Ugh. Hold on." The call waiting beep interrupted Brandy’s absurd rant about casts.

"Hello?" Brandy greeted in a very annoyed tone.

"Hey Brandy, this is Ms. Moore, Aubrey’s mom. Is she back from the game yet?" Aubrey had a very close relationship with her mother. They were more like sisters instead of mother and daughter.

"No not yet." Brandy hated Aubrey, but she loved her mother. Few people disliked Aubrey’s mother. Brandy often wished that her mother would put down the bottle and magically transform into Ms. Moore.

"Oh she must be out celebrating with the girls."

"Actually, I heard they lost." Brandy pretended like she actually followed the games and cared.

"That’s too bad. So Brandy, how are you liking school?"

"I like it a lot. How are you doing Ms. Moore?"

"Pretty good for an old lady. If you could just let Aubrey know that her old mother called."

"Will do, Ms. Moore. It was nice talking to you."

"You too, deary." Before switching over Brandy melted. Her mom never said things like that.

"Ugh." Brandy’s fake and hateful self reared its ugly head. She was under the false impression that people enjoyed her bitch act.

"Who was that?" Carried asked.

"The roommate’s mother." Brandy seldom referred to Aubrey by name. It was always "the roommate." She even said that when Aubrey was in the room.

"Oh god that hurt." Aubrey’s fibula and tibia were now realigned. Janet, the orthopedic technician, made sure the setting process was as quick and painless as possible.

"You did great. The worst is over. Time to get you into a cast and out of this god-forsaken place. I’m sure you’ve been here for several decades by now." Janet was a very kind and personable woman. She was in her mid to late 50s. Her salt and pepper hair was kept short and boyish. Like her hair she was also very masculine. The rainbow necklace that hung from Janet’s neck confirmed Aubrey’s suspicion that Janet was a lesbian. Janet’s assistant was a plain looking guy named Connor, who looked just barely older than Aubrey.

Aubrey’s entire left leg was covered in what Janet referred to as stockinet. It was like a big sock that was rolled up her leg. Connor carefully held Aubrey’s long leg off the table as Janet wrapped some sort of cotton around her foot. Aubrey was slightly uncomfortable having some boy she didn’t know hold her foot, and a woman she barely knew touching her leg. It seemed like that sort of touching was reserved for intimate moments. Since it was such, she was mildly aroused by all the touching.

"So is this your first broken bone?" Aubrey figured this was the only way Janet could really relate to her patients and make conversation.

"Sort of."

"Sort of? How do you sort of break something?" Janet was already almost at the thigh with the cotton.

"Well this is my first major bone…bones I’ve broken," Aubrey corrected herself, "My freshman year in high school, I fell skateboarding and broke my hand."

"So this isn’t your first cast then?" Janet was already done with the cotton. She was such a quick and diligent worker. She was now placing something in a tub of water. Aubrey’s heart raced. This was it. In a couple seconds the first roll of fiberglass would be wrapped around the base of her toes. Aubrey contemplated whether it would be the type of cast where the little toe ends up getting casted. Or would it be one of those casts where some of the instep is visible. Aubrey knew that the base of toes was pretty even so it would either be a normal, or too short.

"It is my first hard cast. With my hand they padded the ring and pink fingers and wrapped it heavily with ace bandages."

Aubrey’s heart leapt to her throat. Life now felt like a movie. Everything was in slow motion. Janet’s gloved hands slowly removed the first roll of fiberglass. The camera zooms in on the hands. The audience can see each individual droplets of water slowly fall at first, then in thin streams as the gloved hands squeeze the excess water from the fiberglass.

Camera one cuts out and jump cuts to Camera two. Camera two is fixed on the foot portion of the left leg. Connor’s gloved hands are tenderly wrapped around her foot in a supportive fashion. The texture of both the stockinet and the padding is very vivid and clear. If one looks hard enough the outline of Aubrey’s toes can be seen.

The wet gloves slowly come into view from the right side of the screen. Everything is still in slow motion. A steady beat accompanies the hands unraveling a small portion of the fiberglass. The beat beats faster. It is supposed to represent Aubrey’s heart racing with excitement and anticipation. The fiberglass is slowly wrapped around the base of Aubrey’s toes. The top edge of the fiberglass is lined up perfectly with the base of Aubrey’s toes. The camera returns to regular speed when it has been established that the foot portion of the cast will neither be too short nor too long. A slow zoom out. Fade to black. Cut.

A cast. Aubrey tried to fathom the concept. She tried her hardest to grasp what was happening. This was all a little too surreal for her. Never in a million years did she think she would in this sort of predicament. A broken bone was the sort of thing that happened to other people, like car accidents, plane crashes, and being mugged. Broken bones happened to other people she knew. It happened to those people. Aubrey was now one of those people. She was one of those people you stare at as they awkwardly crutch by. One of those people you say you’re glad you’re not. Thank god it’s their arm or leg confined to a cast and not mine. Aubrey was now one of those people.

Katie could still hear those two loud snaps followed by Aubrey screaming in agony. Katie didn’t mean to. It was an accident. Katie could never intentionally hurt anything. Such a klutz. She was always falling, tripping, and other talents involving gravity. Katie’s stomach was in knots. She had already vomited twice that evening. After the accident on the court she had asked to be taken out for the remainder of the game. She knew she would be an ineffective player if she had stayed in the game.

Aubrey was only a freshman. This was only her second game. She was the only chance the team had of making the playoffs. What if Aubrey could never play again? What if Katie had just ruined this girl’s volleyball career? She was probably in surgery right that moment. They were probably reassembling the shattered remnants of Aubrey’s lower leg with pins, plates, and rods.

Katie would have given anything to trade places with Aubrey. It definitely wouldn’t be the first time. Katie wasn’t even sure why colleges had even pursued her. Not a year went by that Katie didn’t spend a good portion of that year in two separate full casts for separate injuries.

Crutches and slings and all other orthopedic things just seemed to natural to her. It frightened and worried Katie that it had been at least three years since she had broken something. She had gotten used to the way bones felt as they snapped into one or several pieces. She hadn’t cried during realignment in years. It was definitely going to be a sleepless night. The snapping echoing in her ears. She had to make it up to Aubrey somehow.

Aubrey remained enthralled the entire process. It was fascinating to watch the cast materialize from just a large sock to a hard protective shell. The cast had already hardened for the most part. Janet was on the final stages of the cast. All that was left to do was pull down the ends of the stockinet and secure them in place. Aubrey had become so excited by the process that she’d forgotten the cast was on her broken leg. Her broken leg.

Janet pulled the stockinet down at the thigh first. She wrapped the thigh a couple times with a thing roll of fiberglass.

"Almost done." There was a definite hint of excitement in Janet’s voice. Aubrey was sure that her enthusiasm was just leaking out of her pores.

As the stockinet was pulled down at her toes over the foot it was almost as if Aubrey was seeing her toes for the first time. Aubrey’s long toes slowly emerged from the depths of the stockinet, padding, and fiberglass. Like her legs, her toes were long and flawless. Aubrey had always gotten a very guilty pleasure out of looking at her toes. She loved the way they looked in her favorite flip flops, she loved the way they looked as her nail polish chipped, and she loved the way they looked sticking out of her cast.

"Those are some long toes you got there deary." Janet tickled the bottom of Aubrey’s toes. They wiggled, as it was their biological duty to do so when stimulated in such a way. Aubrey hadn’t noticed before just how chipped the purple polish was. It was almost non-existent on the surface of her nails.

"I know. They are like fingers. You did a great job with this cast. I’m not an expert, but this thing looks text book." Aubrey examined the way it hugged her leg. It looked like a fiberglass second skin. It was such a weird feeling not being able to move any of the major joints in her leg from the base of her toes to the top of her thigh.

"Thank you. I did do a great job with this one if I do say so myself." Janet admired her work while Connor cleaned up in silence.