Summer Love - James Worpel

Chapter 39

"Well if you're confident, then I'm confident too." I say and he smiles, as we pull into the MCG carpark....

If we only knew this game was going to be the grand final 2.0....

"It's a grand old flag, it's a high flying flag it's the emblem for me and for you." The Melbourne theme song belts out as I sit there in disbelief.

How the hell did we let this happen again?

I look over at Elle and Logan who are also in disbelief as we've let them run on top of us, as they did in the grand final, just not as bad.

We make our way down to the rooms and the feeling in there is horrible.

All the boys are slumped against the wall, heads down, contemplating how they let it happen AGAIN.

I take a seat in between Baz and Aaron, pulling them both into a hug.

If I'm being honest, Baz had a pretty good game getting 33 touches. But getting touches doesn't help much if there are no goals kicked.

But Naughts on the other hand kicked a bag of 4, which is great to see.

"You two played well." I say and they both smile at me.

"Thanks Tahls." Baz says giving me a weak smile and I sigh.

"I know you guys are disappointed but please don't beat yourselves up."

"We'll try not to." Aaron says and I nod, leaning my head on his shoulder with a sigh.

We sit there in silence for a couple of seconds before Aaron says.

"I just don't understand how we let this happen fucking again."

"I know." I say. "It's frustrating but they're just too strong for us. Unfortunately they'll always have the bragging rights, and we'll be reminded of how close we were."

"You know what, it's only round one." Baz says. "Look on the bright side, we kicked 6 goals in the second quarter to catch up to them. We weren't far off. It's only up from here."

"You're right." I say with a smile before I make eye contact with my brother, he looks sore. And that's when I remember that he did hurt his ankle.

I jump up and practically run over to him.

"Are you okay? I saw what happened with your ankle, please tell me you're okay?" I say pulling him into a hug, feeling the tears well up in my eyes.

"I'm okay Tahls. I'm a bit sore."

"Do they know what you've done?"

"Em reckons it's a sprained ankle, but we won't know until I get scans, but I don't think it's a syndie."

"You sure?"

"Yeah, hurting your syndesmosis feels different apparently, according to both Dunks and Ads."

"Okay, well that's good then."

"Please don't worry about me okay? I will be fine, I will play next week."

"And what if you don't?"

"Then I will focus on getting better for the week after. But we're not thinking negative here, I will play." He says with a reassuring smile and I nod.

The reason as to why I'm getting so emotional is cause Marcus hasn't missed a game since he got his appendix out. Which was back in 2018. It's hard not to think about the what if's in this situation. It could be worse then what Em is saying, and like he said, we won't know until he gets scans.

The next 24 hours will be nerve-racking for me. But I know my brother. He will fight to play, it's always been his nature. No matter what issue he has, he will play through it. He is so unselfish like that. He would do anything for this team, and I think that's what a lot of the players admire about him, what I admire about him too.

I pull him in for another hug before the boys are called in for their post game meeting.

Not long later all the boys come out, we say our goodbyes and make our way home.

The car ride home between Marcus, Em and I was quiet. Mainly because we didn't win and we're all exhausted as we've had big days.

As soon as we get home, I run upstairs, chucking my pyjama's on and getting under the covers of my warm bed.

I let out a yawn before my eyes automatically close and I fall asleep thinking about that gorgeous hazel eyed boy....

***

I dreaded writing this game in ahaha

Hopefully we can get our revenge later in the season, but until now, Melbourne still gets the better of us.

Got a bit lazy with the ending but oh well HAHAHA

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Next update out Wednesday!!

Also good win today by the boys! 68 points! ❤️🤍💙