Chapter 1 - Tomlinson
I swear I try to give them privacy and focus on what I’m doing. You know what people say: mind your own business. But I can’t. It’s not only that they are being really loud, but it’s also her. I can never ignore that she is around.
Her is Robin Summers, the girl in charge of all the sport section in the Uni newspaper. She is amazing, her articles are always so full of life and descriptive and she captures every game and competition perfectly. I’m a big fan of her work. To be honest, it’s all I read in the newspaper. The other sections are good, but hers is the best one. And she is not only bloody talented, she is gorgeous.
No, Robin is not the canon of beauty and she won’t be a model, but she is incredibly beautiful in my eyes. Maybe not everyone would consider her fit, but I believe she is really cute and, I don’t know, just special. There’s something about her I can’t really explain.
I guess you can tell I have a massive crush on her.
Have I talked to Robin? Nope, never. I’ve tried, though, but it never works out. She makes me so nervous when she's around that every time I gather the courage to ask her out I chicken out. I know, I’m not proud either. It’s pretty shameful and my friends laugh at me. They tell me I should just talk to her and end this, but I can’t. And she is always busy.
As I was saying, she is the head of the sport section. She is at every game —I honestly don’t know how she manages that— and she has these interviews with the stars of our university. Every month she has a full interview with some star from some team. Our Uni has great athletes and many scholarships for them. I myself have one, in football.
I was great in sixth form, the star of the team; hence why I got the scholarship. But in Uni it wasn’t the same. Many others were also stars in their schools and here, they are better than me. Still, I’m not a bad player, I’m quite good, but I’m not the best. That’s the reason why Robin has never stopped to look at me for more than five seconds. She focuses on the best players just to have a good article.
Robin is really pretty, maybe not the most outstanding girl on campus, but she is gorgeous. She spends a lot of time with blokes here and most of them do great with girls. They flirt with her and I’ve noticed it, she is sweet and innocent and she falls for them. I’ve seen her dating some guys she has interviewed, but those relationships never end well.
Like now.
She’s been ‘dating’ Connor for, I think, two weeks. Since she did an interview with him. Connor is the most recent star in our team. He broke the team’s record of most goals in one season. He had a really hot streak this season and of course she did an interview with him, and Connor is a lady’s man. She fell for him. But he can’t be with only one girl at the time. He’s the kind of lad who dates three girls at the same time. I still don’t understand how girls, knowing that, keep falling for him. I know Robin is clever, I know she is sensible… how is she dating that ape? I don’t know.
That’s why I’m kind of happy this is happening. This being them having a fight because she found out about Connor’s other two girlfriends. And she is not happy. I swear, I don’t want to listen, but I can’t help it.
“How could you do that to me?! I thought you liked me!” She screams and I sigh. How many times have we heard this? It’s a pity Robin has become one of the many girls who have come to the dressing room to yell at Connor.
“I do, but I also like Tiffany and Ginny,” he explains shrugging like it’s no big deal. What an arse, right?
“You can’t be with three girls at the same time! That’s not right. You made me feel I was special!” She recriminates him and I have to close my eyes for a second.
“Why? You’re just a pretty girl. You’re funny but so are many other girls.” Yeah, Connor doesn’t have a filter when it comes to fights. He is brutally honest in every breakup.
Robin gasps and from the corner of my eye I see her covering her mouth, fighting to keep it together. “You’re a dick,” she accuses him.
“And you’re a jealous little girl, Robin. You need to learn to share, you know?”
And that’s the moment we all were waiting for, when Robin introduces her hand to his face, leaving a red mark and the echo of a slap humming in the dressing room. I believe that should’ve hurt, but he deserves that. We all know it, even Connor knows it. He also broke the team’s record of the bloke who’s got bitch slapped the most.
Quite the star, isn’t he?
Robin turns around still covering her mouth to muffle the sobs. She is crying, I see her and I don’t even realise the moment I stand up as if I were to comfort her but I only get in her way out. She has to stop when she sees me in front of her. Robin’s hazel eyes meet mine, hers are red and teary and it breaks my heart to see her like this, so sad. I want to offer her my shoulder to cry, to give her a hug and promise her that everything will be all right.
But I can’t do any of that because when I reach out to touch her, she runs past me, not even giving me a second look. I turn to see how her figure disappears, her short brown curls bouncing as she jogs her way out.
A part of me wants to go after her and help her somehow, the other part wants to walk right up to Connor and give him a facial surgery with my fists. That arse broke Robin’s heart, like many others have done. I’ve seen her before, but never like this. I’ve never liked Connor. Too much ego, too little brain. But he has now definitely won the most despicable person prize in my book.
I would never treat a girl like he does, and most certainly not Robin. She is special, she is so lovely. How can you break her heart and carry on with your life? If she could notice me I would treat her right, I would do anything just to make her happy. I’d treat her with tender love and care. She deserves that. I know that, although I don’t really know her. What I would do just for Robin to notice me once. To see me at the game and smile at me and cheer when I score. I may not be as good as a player like Connor, but I’m sure I’m a better person.
If she could only see that.
“Tommo, you okay?” someone asks snapping his fingers to wake me up. I blink and come back to reality, looking at my right to meet my best mate’s worried green eyes.
“Yeah, Harry,” I reply. “I was just…”
“Drooling over the Sport Girl,” he completes the sentence for me. That’s how Harry calls Robin: The Sport Girl. Very original, I know.
Harry is my best mate from high school. We’ve known each other since kindergarten, when he was just curls and green eyes. He’s still curls and green eyes, but he is quite taller now. For me he is the same idiot I met at four.
Whereas I got in here for my skills in football, Harry did it because he’s an A straight student who now studies law. He helps me a lot with my classes and I help him to meet girls. Girls like football players and we have loads of parties. Harry is practically a member of the team but without the sweating part. He helps us all as long as we keep introducing girls to him.
Harry is kind of a lady’s man, but not like Connor. He really tries to date the girl, to get to know her, but then he realises she is not the right one and he has to break up with her. He doesn’t do it because he gets bored, he is actually looking for the perfect girl for him.
I still have problems understanding his logic, and he has explained that to me so many times.
“I wasn’t drooling,” I snap walking back to my seat to keep putting on my uniform for the practice of today. I was shirtless and Robin still didn’t pay me attention. Maybe I’m just invisible for her. “I was just concerned. She left crying.”
“Like any other girl who makes the mistake to date Connor. That’s not new,” Harry says. “You were this concerned ‘cos of her,” he carries on. Harry knows of my crush. Of course he does, he teases me about it every day and he pushes me to tell her once and for all. “Maybe this is your chance to go and comfort her. She needs that.”
I sigh because I would actually like to offer her some comfort, but I don’t see how that would work. I can’t go there and say ‘Hey I’m Louis Tomlinson and I came here to give you a hug. You can cry on my shoulder if you need.’ I think she would send me to an asylum or something. Or worse, jail for being a weird stalker.
“She doesn’t see me, Harry. If I'd go to her she would probably ignore me,” like usual, I add in my head.
Harry, like the best mate he is, smacks the back of my head brutally. It actually hurts, like bad, really bad. “Oi!” I complain but he threatens me with another blow.
“Stop being a pussy. If you introduce yourself she will have to see you. Seriously, where did your balls go?” I sigh and roll my eyes.
I’m not a pussy, I don’t have problems talking to other girls. In my twenty years I’ve dated a few girls and I’m not unlucky in that department, but with Robin it's just different. I don’t know why either.
“Seriously. You’ve had a crush on her for what? Six months?” Harry ponders and I avoid his eyes.
I accepted my crush on her seven months to be exact. I always kind of fancied her though, since I started reading her articles in the newspaper and run into her one day during my first month in Uni. “I dunno,” I reply to Harry shrugging to downplaying the whole matter so he won’t believe I’ve lost my balls. “But it doesn’t matter. I'd rather focus on my game now,” I change subjects.
Harry sighs and lets it drop. He knows already that he can’t convince me on this. I know it would be easier just to talk to her, but I actually want her to notice me. I want her to approach me all nervous yet excited because she wants to interview me.
That’s the reason why last month when we went to the New Year’s Eve party I made a resolution and I’m planning to stick to it. This year I’ll improve; I’ll be better. I’ll enhance my level and I’ll become a star in football, I’ll become worthy of her time for an interview. Then she’ll notice me and I’ll talk to her without feeling like a poor nobody. I may even ask her out and I won’t break her heart like Connor did.
So that’s my New Year’s resolution: to be better so Robin will notice me. My mind is set for this and I’ll accomplish it. Of that I’m sure. It’s just a matter of time.
And talking about becoming better, I need to focus on practice. No more Robin Summers for now.
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Dedication to @esmepayne. I also love football! And thanks for reading all my Louis stories!
Picture of Connor at the sidebar!
Bel, xx