imbalance | trent alexander-arnold¹

twenty-three.

the fallout

By the time Wynter touched down in England, her experience in Bulgaria had already spread like a wildfire across the media within the matter of a few hours. Surely, there was harsh backlash sourced from the French fans and even Liverpool fans due to the treatment she'd been given, but the FA had yet to fix the Premier League problem, which sparked even more pressure on them to make a significant change for the french girl—so all in all, the outcome of the game did no good for both Wynter and the FA though more for the player of course.

While the football community had knowledge of the events that occurred during the match, they didn't know about the bruises that formed all over the french girl's body. The most visible one was the one Kylian pointed out on her neck when she landed in England. Obviously, concealing the bruise with make-up wasn't a wise option since she would just sweat it off during training so before she left her house, she placed a neckwarmer on so it wasn't visible to the naked eye.

Wynter strolled into the canteen with her phone in hand as she made her way towards her teammates who were huddled together on one table. Much to her relief, the scouse was nowhere in sight so she could relax and eat in peace without the worries of arguing with him in front of everyone again. When they noticed her presence in the room, they called her over before she slipped herself into the conversations.

After a few minutes of the casual chatter, Joe interrupted the main conservation, placing all of the public attention on Wynter. "Winnie, why are you wearing a neckwarmer? It's so hot out!" he exclaimed, many heads turning in her direction,

She coughed, feeling uncomfortable that everyone's focus seemed to only be on the one thing that she didn't want to bring awareness to. "Uh, no reason. I threw it on this morning without thinking so I'm just going to keep it on. T-that's all," the player stumbled on her words. "Can we talk about something else now?"

While some players got the hint that Wynter wasn't up to talk, others unintentionally continued to push her buttons to the limit. Gini laughed from where he sat. "No, but seriously, why are you wearing it? Like, we're inside."

"Yeah, same. We're just—"

"Well, I don't want to talk about it, okay? Is that so much to ask for?" she said in a low tone while she glanced at her phone, purposely avoiding her friends' eyes.

When she finally believed she'd gotten her teammates off her shoulders, Wynter couldn't have anticipated her friend as Joe swiftly moved the neckwarmer down, revealing the dark bruise that took its place on her melanin skin.

Wynter remained still in her position. She didn't know what to do with herself at that point. She felt the urge to scream and shout at Joe as to why he did what he did, but it would've been useless since her bruise was out and placed on display for anyone and everyone to view.

By some of the horrified looks on her teammates' faces, they easily interpreted where and how the bruise came about. It came as fairly evident to them due to the french player's bandaged ankle. However, others like Joe took it in the wrong way. "Woah, so you and Trent made up, eh?"

"Dude. C'mon now—"

Wynter's eyes widened as she turned to the defender, understanding how he interpreted the bruise. "What? No, of course, not," she glanced down at her fingers, sadness suddenly filling up her system. "We actually haven't talked to each other since before the international break, so no. I didn't get it from Trent, Joe."

"So what I'm hearing is you got it from someone else?"

Wynter instantly rotated in her seat at the sound of his voice, her own voice hitched in her throat. Trent stood by the entrance of the canteen with a crestfallen expression splattered on his face, disappointment clear in his tone when he revealed his presence to everyone. No thanks to Joe and his obliviousness to the whole picture, Wynter's cheating allegations were confirmed to Trent clear and present and in that moment, the french girl couldn't do anything but glance at Trent, pleading with her shy and cloudy eyes.