Moon Tower

16.

this chapter has been edited and updated. enjoy!xx
“Again.”

    I’m standing off to the side, watching as Hayley takes another shot on goal. The first time we’d met to train, it had been me, her, a ball, and a goal, going through shooting drills and different techniques for about an hour and a half. Now, we had a goalkeeper to block shots, and a couple of other girls from Hayley’s club training with us.

    When Hayley’s shot soared over the crossbar, not even close to hitting the back of the net, I sighed. “What did you do wrong?”

    Hayley rested her hands on her hips, watching as the next girl lined up her shot. “I leaned back too far and I reached.” I nodded at her, letting her know I agreed, and waved her off to go fetch her ball.

    We were at the end of our session, and for the last five minutes, I let the girls line up and take shots however they wanted, they just had to say what they were doing and where they wanted the ball to go first. I noticed Maggie, the girl who was meant to go after Hayley, hadn’t gone yet, clearly waiting to have all of my attention.

    Maggie was only thirteen my youngest trainee, but she gave Hayley and the other girls a run for their money. She was also a perfectionist, and she couldn’t perfect her craft if she didn’t have my undivided attention. “Go on, Mags, I’m watching.”

    Maggie called out her shot, I’m bending it to the right upper V!, and took a few steps back. It was a perfect shot. Well, almost perfect. Shaughnah, our goalkeeper and Hayley’s teammate, launched from the ground and punched it out, blocking the shot completely. I was really grateful when Hayley showed up with her on our third session. An open goal wasn’t ideal, and I was in no way about to start diving around in the grass. My days of cuts and bruises up and down my legs were over.

    “Nice save, Shaughnah!” I called out, but not with as much enthusiasm as usual.

    I continued watching and critiquing where it was needed, my voice tight and clipped. I didn’t mean to show up to training with such a foul mood, but I had a reason. Lydia, the girl from my ethics class who wouldn’t stop asking me questions about Harry the other week, showed up at my apartment today to work on our project.

    It was a partner paper, which from the getgo did not sound enticing at all. I am a team player, I played for arguably one of the best teams in the country, but I had too many bad experiences with group projects to have any good feelings about this one. And we were grad students. Partner papers seemed a little unnecessary to me.

    I didn’t even want to be Lydia’s partner, but she hadn't really given me a choice. In the midst of my scramble to find a partner to work with, I was trying to make eye contact with the guy I’d shared notes with a few weeks ago, Lydia had tapped my shoulder and smiled at me excitedly. How could I say no?

    I should’ve said no, it would have saved me a lot of trouble, but how was I supposed to know that she would insist on coming over to my apartment to work on the project together? I kept trying to suggest we just share a document and text our ideas back and forth, but she wouldn’t let up, so I swallowed my annoyance and said sure, hoping I could get most of my half done beforehand so she wouldn’t have to come over at all.

    I’m not normally like this. I’d like to even think that I’m a nice person, but something about her, maybe our initial first meeting, rubbed me the wrong way. It didn’t help that when Lydia came over earlier today to work she looked a little disappointed, frowning at the simplicity of my home. I didn’t know what she was expecting, I was a grad student living alone in LA, but when thirty minutes had passed and she hadn’t even opened her laptop, too busy looking at the apartment door expectantly, it hit me.