The Footballer's Sister

Chapter 17

I just sat there, staring at my lap, not knowing what to say. Better yet, not wanting to say anything at all.

"It's okay if you don't trust me." He said, interrupting my thoughts, "I understand that I have to work for your love and I'm okay with that. Just give me a chance to do it, that's all I ask."

I smiled and so did he. Then, he pulled me into a hug and I didn't resist one bit. I hugged tighter and allowed myself to relax. Letting people in wasn't exactly my strong suit. There was always something in my mind that convinced me to be a closed book. I was scared to get hurt. I needed my dad my entire life, why lie? No matter how well Cris did at taking his spot, he'd never be my real father. And there was some things he couldn't do that I wish my dad would've.

"Cris said he had training today and that you would probably want to go if you felt better."

I just nodded my head yes.

"Well if you're gonna get going, you need to get something to eat. That is, if you're not feeling bad in any way. I don't want you to hurt yourself."

"No, I'm fine." I finally said, "I wanna go see my friends and Cris. I'll just pick something up on the way, I'll be okay."

I walked down the hallway and out the door still sore from my chest due to the panic attack from yesterday. I hopped into my car and was overcome by a feeling of serenity. It seemed as if everything was just falling into place.

•••••••••••

I arrived to the Santiago Bernabeu stadium and was welcomed my some familiar faces and warm hugs. I walked in with Sergio who asked the most irrelevant questions, but I could tell he was just making small talk. I spotted Isco over on the bench and walked his way.

"Lina, don't say anything. We need to talk in private." He said, pulling me into the hallway before I had the chance to object.

"I'm so sorry that I left you there but I know how you get when you have anxiety. I just didn't want you to get worse and I know your dad was going to take care of you. Don't be mad at me, I was just thinking of what was best for you." He just about blurted out. I giggled a little bit which freaked him out. "Uh, are you okay?" He asked.

"Yes." I said with a smile, "look I know I always tell people that they don't know what I really want but you prove me wrong every single time. It helped, believe me. In more ways than you know."

"Really?" He asked, sounding a little surprised. "How?"

"Look I'll tell you soon enough but for now I just need some space to think about stuff and let it all set in." I explained.

He let out a sigh and just nodded. "Well it's good to have the old champ back. And right in time for the Olympic trials too. They're less than a month away!"

I had honestly forgotten all about that for a while. I hadn't trained with my uncle who was on vacation for 2 weeks so I hoped my times hadn't slowed down too bad. I had been working toward this goal since as long as I could remember. All I wanted was to run in the Olympics. I just didn't know it came with so much pressure. My uncle always called me the "Golden Child" when it came to track. I ran 4 events and unless I won the gold, I wasn't satisfied. Sometimes even winning first place I wasn't happy. But the more you succeed, the more people expect from you. Everyone is rooting for me to make the team and I'm favored to win the gold in the 100m dash and the long jump at the trials. I didn't want to disappoint anyone so losing was definitely not an option.

"Hey, don't start overthinking now." Isco said, "you should be excited about the fact that you're going to kick ass!"

I laughed at how right he was. It was time for me to just enjoy the sport. I had made it this far, why stress now?

I was snapped out of my thoughts when the locker room door closed shut and my brother walked out. He saw us, walked over to me and didn't say a word, he just pulled me into the tightest hug I had ever been a part of.

"I'll leave you two alone. I'll be on the pitch if either one of you needs me." Isco announced.

Cris pulled away, stared at me and hugged me again.

"Dude," I complained, "my chest is sore, you're gonna break me."

He laughed and shook his head. "Lina I swear you can never take anything seriously."

"But no, really, how are you?" He asked, sounding concerned.

"Don't worry, I'm fine."

"Yeah that's what you said not too long ago and then you went and had an anxiety attack last night. Look I'm so sorry I've been an asshole and that I've been putting so much pressure on you. It was my fault your body reacted that way and I'm so sorry I really am." He said.

"Cris, it's okay. Honestly. I'm fine and things are looking a lot better. I mean it." I assured.

"Okay well even if they aren't, I don't want to be the one bothering you about it. Let's just go back to the pitch before coach started yelling at me for being late."

As we walked in, I spotted everyone in a huddle on the sideline. ""Hey team." I heard coach announce, "Help me welcome the newest addition to our Real Madrid family, Coach Luke Viera. He is a sprinting trainer and will be assisting us, more specifically our strikers. We could all use some speed so I figured why not hire someone who specialized in exactly that."

I couldn't not believe my eyes. Luke was here and I had to act as if nothing had happened between us. I didn't know why but something in me told me to keep it to myself. I just didn't know if that was my best option, but it seemed like my only one.