Hope was sitting in the dining hall across from Alex, Allie and Kelley and next to Carli when she got the call. Her coffee mug was halfway up to her cracking lips. The generic iPhone ringtone interrupted Kelley mid-sentence and Hope rolled her eyes as Kelley groaned softly. The goalkeeper held up a finger and stood up, stepping out of the room to answer.
"Hello?"she greeted her mother shortly. She was met with silence. Hope's pulse started going a little bit faster. Her mom was always there to speak.
"Mom?" Hope asked again, cautiously.
A soft sob echoed through the other end. "Ho- Hope, honey..." Judy Solo started, her voice quiet and shaking. "Th- There's be- been an accident... A car crash..."
Hope paled as a wave of dizziness and nausea drowned her. "Mom...?" she asked, the information not processing.
"Your father... didn't make it..." The goalkeeper's mother whispered, her voice barely audible through the line. Hope didn't listen as the woman said grief-stricken strings of nothing and she clicked the phone off. Hope felt as if she had just jumped off of a cliff. Sweat beads coated her and she was cold, shivering like it was mid-winter.
Her pulse was teetering towards an unhealthy high rate. Her eyes welled up with tears and she sunk to the ground, nothing existing in the world except for her and her father. Except he didn't. He was gone. She was alone. The words kept echoing again and again through her mind. Your father... didn't make it. Your father... didn't make it. She wanted it to stop, she wanted the words out of her head. Hope buried her head in her knees and squeezed her temples, willing the voice inside her head to shut up.
The breakfast hall cleared shortly and Carli walked outside with Alex, keeping an eye out for her girlfriend. She was easy to find.
"Hope?" Carli questioned, approaching the woman on the ground with Alex right behind her.
"What?" Hope snapped. Her eyes were red and puffy with grief, tears staining her pink cheeks and shirt.
"You're crying..." Alex responded, kneeling beside her.
"Oh..." Hope said softly. "I'm crying." She turned her head away from the other girls and they stayed quiet, knowing asking anything else would only make it worse.
The goalkeeper didn't answer. Her eyes were bright red and she was shaking. Alex knelt beside her, bring Hope into a tight hug. Carli followed, kissing her head softly.
-
The next day, Hope boarded a flight to Seattle. She had gotten approval from the Dean of Student Affairs at NYU to return home for a week (which Hope thought wasn't enough time). The journey was long and tiring, but Hope didn't mind too much. She had nothing better to do with herself than sit in an emptying airport and then on an emptying plane, her mind blank.
Back at college, nothing had changed drastically. Carli missed her girlfriend, but she understood that the goalkeeper would have to go home for the funeral anyways.
Carli stayed with Allie, Kelley, Ali and Alex that night, not having the courage to talk to Steph (who would most likely be with Mal, anyways).
"This is dinner," Kelley announced, holding up a box of macaroni and cheese for the other girls to see.
"Good choice," Allie laughed, filling a pot of water for the woman. The cascading liquid landed in the pot with a satisfying splash and the blonde placed it on the stove.
"Is it Annie's?" Ali asked, not moving to see from the couch. A rerun of Pretty Little Liars was playing on TV and as it was Ali's favorite show, it was obvious that the defender wouldn't remove herself until the food was ready. The brunette's eyes were wide as she took in every moment of her favorite characters' actions and dialogue.
"Nope," Allie answered, turning the stove on to high for her girlfriend. Alex and Carli joined her in the kitchen. Alex engaged the other girls in an animated conversation about football as Kelley stirred the pasta. She watched Alex, whose smile was huge as she debated with Carli. Her smile was so contagious.
Kelley jumped as the pot of water started boiling over and she poured the contents of the macaroni box into the water.
Allie bumped fists with Carli who proclaimed her love for the Patriots as Alex sunk in defeat. Her smile didn't fade though, obviously still as happy as before. Maybe it was good that Hope was gone, even if just for a little while. The goalkeeper was a negative nelly and only Carli and sometimes Alex seemed to get her hyped up about anything, really.
Once dinner was ready, Kelley pulled six plastic bowls out of the cupboard and scooped even amounts of macaroni into them. She set them on the island and it was like a rampage of hungry boars as the four girls in the kitchen grabbed theirs. Two were left, one for Ali and one for Kelley. She brought them over to the TV and handed a bowl to Ali, taking her seat on the floor. Everyone sat on the couch. Kelley looked at Alex's bowl. It was nearly empty before Kelley was able to get a bite out of hers.
"Do you want more?" Kelley asked the forward. Alex nodded. She looked at Kelley's full bowl and frowned. "I can get it though. You need to eat."
Kelley smiled softly in thanks and turned up the volume of the episode.