“Be safe, ok?”, my dad said as I slammed the car door. “Ok,” I replied, “whatever”, only half listening to what he said. I ran into my karate studio, my home away from home, and I dropped my gym bag down. On the red mats, I could already see my teammates stretching in the most painful way. I loved my teammates and my friends like family, but there was one person who made me smile even more. Michael Ferolito. He had a tall and muscular physique, brown hair, brown eyes, and the most handsome smile. AND he was a year older than me. I walked into the studio only thinking about him and how lucky I was to be with him. But at the moment, something else had my mind. My ankle. Should I be doing this? Maybe I should sit out today. No, I won't. I NEED practice before Presidents Cup. Come on Carly, stop being a wimp and GET ON THE MAT! I gather my things and step onto the mat and head towards Michael. “Hey, Mi-”, I said before Michael walked away from me with a cold glare. Now, I was more troubled than ever. My ankle felt like rubber and to top it all off, my boyfriend wouldn't talk to me. Well, this is totally gonna be the best practice ever, I thought sarcastically. Three hours of utter torture.

At least an hour into practice, my foot felt as though it was about to fall off. Just two more hours, that's it. I look over at Michael, and he's staring right back at me like a creep. Well……….this is awkward. On second thought, MY ANKLE IS KILLING ME!!!!!! If I hadn't been brought up well, I would have burst into tears by now, but I'm better than that. But on the other hand, enough is enough. If I didn't stop this now, I could have hurt something bad. And skip out on the Presidents Cup. But I mean, what were the chances of that happening?

Fifteen minutes later, I spotted my friends talking with Michael and looking at me and I grow suspicious. In a minute, I see Tye and Anika walking towards me while Michael stared daggers into the back of their heads. “Hey, Carly. How's your ankle feeling?”, asked Anika. She was my best friend, and I could confide anything in her. Oh yeah, I'm totally fine. Just that my ankle is going through excruciating pain! But of course I couldn't tell them that. They would start worrying and they can't worry about me when they have to focus on the tournament too. “Yeah, I'm fine”, I said not meeting their eyes. Tye eyed me doubting that I was fine. We didn't know each other that well, but he knew very well when I wasn't being honest. I could tell he had his doubts and he was glaring at me with his weird one eyebrow up stare. I looked down at the floor and he was sure that I was lying. “What do you guys want,”, I said as I stood up, “ I need to practice.” They looked at each other as though they were keeping something from me. “Spit it out, guys, I need to get back to practice.” I said, looking at them with impatience. Anika looked as she was about to say something, but Tye interrupted her. “Michael wants to talk to you”. I was a bit mad that he was ignoring me and then he was using my best friends as messengers. “Ok, fine.”, I muttered at them. “I’ll go talk to him.” They looked as though a burden had been taken off of their shoulders. I walked towards Michael flaming with fury. “WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU? I’M YOUR GIRLFRIEND, YOU DON’T GET TO JUST IGNO-”. I was stopped with Michael’s calm voice. “ Wait, Anika and Tye didn’t tell you?” I knew something was up! Now it was time to find out what it is. “ Tell me what?” I replied as he looked over at Tye and Anika as to say, “ WHY DIDN’T YOU TELL HER?” He looked back at me and said, “Carly, I don’t think this is working anymore. We should break up.” I forgot how to breathe for a second and tried my best  to hide my tears. “Fine,” I replied, “if that’s what you want.” Of course I didn’t want us to break up, I thought what we had was perfect.

Later into practice, my coach calls out to me. “Hey, Carly, let’s practice your board break.” I reluctantly limp over to where my coach is waiting for me, with Michael waiting with him. God, why him, of all people? I glared at him and asked my coach, “Ok, what do I have to do?”
“You just practice your flying side kick. By the way, is your foot okay? You've been limping around all day
“Yeah, it’s fine. I’ll practice.”

I felt terrible lying to my coach and my friends, but they'd be happy for this later when I win. I got ready to run execute my kick. Should I be doing this? I’m doing this no matter what. I run, jump in the air and break the board all the way through. I get ready for my landing but I couldn’t think straight from heartbreak. I land the wrong way and hear a loud noise. Snap. It was my ankle.