imbalance | trent alexander-arnold¹

nineteen.

anguished affliction

2015

As some of the boys on the school football team exchanged goodbyes with their fellow teammates in the locker room, Wynter remained sat in her position, intaking deep and steady breaths in order to dissipate the toy discomfort. A mere migraine slowly formed in her head as her swollen knee throbbed from the harsh collision that occurred during training, now slowly taking a tragic toll on the fifteen-year-old.

"Winnie, you sure you're good?" Kylian asked once he had changed out of his sports attire. He and Wynter were the only ones left in the changing room so he took the chance to let out his concerns for his best friend.

"Yeah," she released a small sigh as she rose from the bench. "My knee is just killing me right now no thanks to Cam. I'm just going to go to medical, get an ice pack and just get my knee checked out tomorrow."

"Alright," Kylian nodded. "Do you need help?"

"Nah, I'm good thanks," Wynter shook her head as she approached him. "Just wait for me and I'll meet you out front. Cool with you?"

"Alright."

With minimum struggle Wynter walked through the empty hallways of her high school as she made her way towards the infirmary to ideally fetch an ice pack with pace in mind. With the cold season dawning upon Paris, it meant that the sky retired earlier than usual and the harsh breeze tugged even harder on wintry clothing so the french girl didn't want to endure those conditions to their extremes. 

Once she opened the medical room, she immediately headed towards the drawers and begun to rummage through all the medical equipment that came in her eager sight for the instant cooler. After a few minutes of lurking and retrieving absolutely nothing and frustration soon seeping into her system, she sighed in defeat as she slammed one of the many drawers she searched shut. "Where are those stupid ice packs?!"

"Well, who do we have in here?" Wynter jumped on the spot when the individual's voice reached her ear range, a hand flying up to her chest. She turned her head and saw none other than Oscar, aka the son of the football coach who managed the school's football team so naturally, she knew the boy pretty well along with his contagious jokes. A playful smirk rested on his face as his body leaned against the door frame. "What's wrong? You seem a bit stressed."

"After Cam's nasty tackle during training, my knee has since swelled up so I need an ice pack but I can't find where they are," Wynter explained, annoyance clear in her tone though Oscar wasn't phased by it.

"Don't worry. Here, sit down on the bed while I try to look for one," Oscar insisted as he entered into the room, closing the door behind him.

Whilst Wynter got situated on the medical bed, Oscar spoke up as he stalked around the room. "Winnie, can I ask you something?"

"Sure, go ahead," she shrugged as she ran her fingers through her locks. "What is it?"

"Are you more than friends with any of the guys on the team? Like anyone in particular?"

Her nose scrunched up at the mention of her other teammates though she answered Oscar's question nonetheless. "No, why? Have the boys told you something different?" she chuckled.

"The boys are always talking all kinds of non-sense whenever you're not around. But yeah, no. Nothing about you though." As his back was exposed to the girl, Wynter didn't notice the cosmic grin that soon settled on his face. After a few minutes of silence, Oscar turned around with an unused ice pack in his grips. "Here, you go. I think you were looking in the wrong drawers. There's a whole bunch of them in this one," he said, approaching her with the pain reliever as he pointed to one of the drawers.