THE PLAYERS SERIES : K.M. {book 1}

21

When Jade and Amel get into my car the next morning, we all fall into silence. The dark circles under my eyes are the result of spending the night thinking what went wrong, without finding a proper answer. 

Jade, who is on the passenger seat, while Amel is at the back, looks at me, sighing. 

"I'm sorry about Lucy" she says in a low voice.

I nod, setting my jaw.

"That's okay."

"I never realized..." Jade starts, but falls into silence.

Of course I know what she meant : she never realized I might have caught feelings for Lucy. Even myself didn't realize that at the time, but now that those words escaped my mouth, I am re-thinking the whole situation. 

I've been caught off-guards by the only person I could see myself with, but that person already has someone else. How pathetic is that situation ? As I am driving straight at the stadium, I shake my head : at least I know the girls that were here yesterday - as in Jade and Amel mostly, as well as Millie - won't say anything to our other teammates. Lucy would be dumb to, because most of the team hate Keira for what she did to her. 

After a few moments of silence, I finally say :

"Me neither."

Jade stares at me, her face expressing sadness. When she sees I am not feeling well, she puts her hand on my own to comfort me.

That's the way we're here for each other when one of us feel like she wasn't good enough or something - only that usually, I am the one comforting her. I throw a shy smile at her, while I can just see Amel nodding in the back. 

The blue-eyes has a nostalgic smile on her lips.

"You're gonna be okay."

"I know I will."

But inside of me, there is a fire burning what's left of my heart.

________________

Still completely down because of the jet lag, I make it to the training field, where some girls already are there. We are ten minutes early - which usually never happens - and so are Izzy and SH, but that's not a first.

Next to them I spot the German captain, Dzenifer Maroszan - that I'll immediately start calling Maro because her full name is too long - speaking with Shelina and Kelsey as they put their cleats on in the grass. As we approach, SH turns around a smile now on her face. She walks toward us, before Jade actually jumps into her arms, happy.

As the two women are then chatting about their holidays and Jade introduced Amel, I greet the captain with a quick hug, before sitting down in between Shelina and Kelsey, while Maro is just staring at me.

"Hi" I say, trying not to look too impressed - because I must say she's pretty impressive. "I'm Kristie, nice to meet you !"

She shakes my hand, smiling. 

"Allo" she says with her accent, before smirking. "You guys can call me Maro."

We nod, before being interrupted by the three other girls, who sit down in the circle as well. Izzy looks overexcited today, probably because she hasn't seen her mates in a long time. I heard that they all made the roster for the upcoming She Believes Cup. Since the 2017 edition was quite hard for the US - which is normal because it was an experiment, but now with the World Cup being next year, Jill Ellis is done experiencing - everybody doesn't expect the US to win. But I know we can do it.