Love Thy Neighbor
The next thing Christen knows, she’s waking up to a harsh ray of sunlight streaming through the windows and shining directly onto her face. She groans as she begins to stir from her awkward position perched against the wall at the side of her bed. As she moves to snuggle back into the form beside her in an effort to avoid waking up any further, she realizes that it is a lot squishier than she had remembered. Now sleepily confused, Christen crinkles her still closed eyes and wraps an arm around the object supporting her head and body. Instead of feeling the comfortable and steady taut muscles from the night before, all she feels is more soft and flimsy material. Christen is both perplexed and disappointed. What is this? Where’s –
“You do realize that’s a pillow you’re spooning” Kelley’s voice interrupts Christen’s confused thoughts from across the room, “Not Tobin.” Christen’s eyes furiously blink open. She looks to her side and sees that a rose red pillow now occupies the space where she last saw Tobin. Her cheeks flush crimson when she realizes that she is indeed, as Kelley phrased it, ‘Spooning a pillow.’ She immediately pulls her arm away from the cushy surface and looks to an amused looking Kelley on the opposite side of the room.
“What? I wasn’t spooning it” Christen tries to play off her embarrassing unconscious slip-up as an intentional action, “I was just getting more comfortable.” Christen’s efforts to salvage her dignity are to no avail. Kelley remains staring at her with a knowing expression.
“Right” Kelley skeptically states, completely unconvinced with Christen’s excuse, “And I’m supposed to believe that you weren’t hoping that was Tobin now too, right?”
“What? No! Why do you keep bringing up Tobin?” Christen blurts out, still not wanting to admit her Freudian slip. Kelley simply smirks in return.
“Because I happened to walk in on you two completely cuddled up to each other last night.” Kelley returns and she continues to stare at Christen, knowing full well that her roommate can’t talk her way out of this one. “You looked real cozy” Kelley says as she wiggles her eyebrows suggestively up and down. Christen responds by throwing the ‘Definitely not Tobin’ pillow at Kelley’s head to get her to stop.
“Kelley, shut up. It wasn’t like that” Christen sternly argues as Kelley catches the pillow a few inches away from her face.
“I know, Pressy” Kelley chuckles as she sets the pillow next to her on her bed. “I’m just teasing, but you two did look really cute together before she had to leave.” Christen’s eyebrows reactively shoot up as she curiously leans forward on her bed.
“You saw Tobin leave?” She quickly questions.
“Well wouldn’t you like to know?” Kelley jokingly smirks, enjoying every second of making her roommate as uncomfortable as she can. Christen shoots Kelley a threatening look as she reaches for another pillow to chuck at her merciless friend.
“Alright, I’ll stop!” Kelley concedes as Christen raises the pillow and coils up, ready to launch the pillow like a loaded spring. Christen continues her no-nonsense stare down while she slowly lowers her feathery projectile. “You know, I never pegged you as a violent person, but damn. Lesson learned; don’t mess with Press” Kelley light-heartedly admits.
“Damn straight” Christen agrees. Did I just say that? It sounded a lot cooler in my head…
“Sure, thug” Kelley laughs, “But I don’t think straight is really your style. This earns a laugh from Christen in return. Ok, I’ll admit that was a good one. But she still hasn’t answered my question yet. Christen looks at Kelley expectantly once again.
“So you were saying about Tobin leaving…” Christen refreshes her roommate’s memory.
“Right, yeah, I’ll stop stalling. I can tell it’s absolutely torturing you” Kelley begins as Christen glares at her once again. Did she not just say that she was going to stop?
“I caught her leaving as I was coming back into the room from the bathroom this morning” Kelley continues. She stayed until the morning? “It was around five or so. I think she had to go to church or something” Kelley muses as she recalls this morning’s events.
“Church? On a Tuesday morning?” Christen asks, a little thrown off by this new information.
“Yeah” Kelley responds, “It’s this service the campus does for students who can’t make it on Sunday. A lot of athletes go for obvious reasons.” Wow, I had no idea our school did that. “Anyway” Kelley proceeds, leading the conversation back to the main story, “She told me that she decided to stay the night because she wanted to ‘see out the storm’, whatever that means. So she stayed here while you slept on her shoulder. That poor girl, I think you even drooled on her. Just for future reference, that isn’t really the most polite way to treat your guests, Pressy” Kelley winks and Christen lets out a light chuckle. “When she left this morning, she was adamant not to wake you, stating that you had a long night – again, whatever that means – and she slid that pillow in her place. Then she left, and here we are; me unware that we were having a guest stay the night, and you spooning a pillow.”
“I told you, I wasn’t spooning it! And I didn’t know we were having a guest either, it just sort of happened.” Christen protests.
“Alright, fine, whatever you say” Kelley airily comments, still not buying into Christen’s feeble arguments, “Just next time at least tell me if someone is spending the night. Like, shoot me a text or something. The last thing I want to do is walk in on something that ‘just sort of happened’.”Christen’s jaw drops at Kelley’s explicit implications.
“Kelley, stop!” Christen pleads as her cheeks display a wave of firey blush.
“Sorry, Pressy. It’s just too much fun watching you squirm” Kelley nonchalantly shrugs with a mischievous smirk. Fine, if that’s how it’s gonna be, then two can play at this game.
“Hey, Kels, how about we go back to the smoothie place and pay Emily a little visit. That would be fun” Christen counters. Kelley’s eyebrow twitches but her poker face alters only slightly.
“Sounds good to me” Kelley agrees in complete monotone, “How about we invite Tobin? I hear she needs an energy boost because she spent all night serving as a pillow to a perky brunette.” The corners of Christen’s mouth pull into an even flatter straight line.
“Go ahead, invite her. It doesn’t matter how many people are in that smoothie place, we both know there’s only one person Emily will be eye-fucking.” Kelley’s eyes widen momentarily as she and Christen commence their most intense stare-down to date. Christen’s eyes focus on Kelley’s pupils, challenging her to a next move. Kelley maintains her roommate’s powerful gaze, but her eyelids twitch and flutter and soon she has no choice but to look away.
“Touché” Kelley dejectedly mumbles as her head slumps in defeat. Christen grins as she revels in her small victory. I win. The great Kelley O’hara has been beaten at her own game. Everything’s a competition, bitchezzz.
Before Christen knows it, it’s Wednesday night. The night of the women’s soccer team’s home opener.
Around six-o-clock, Christen shows the student worker at the gate her ID and strolls into the stadium. The place is a lot bigger than she had imagined, but that may be due to the fact that the only other fields she had previously seen on campus were the practice ones. This is different. This is the real deal.
Despite the large stadium, the crowd is pretty small. Christen chalks it up to it being early in the season. Even though she would prefer a bigger crowd to help cheer on her new friends, Christen is a little thankful for the small turn out. It makes the game seem a bit more intimate and it’s a lot easier for Christen to find a good seat.
Finally Christen settles on a section of stadium stands near the middle of the pitch so that she has the most optimal view of the game. She’s sure to see every moment of action as the game progresses. She’s also fairly close to the home bench, so it increases the chances of one of her friends hearing her supportive cheers.
Christen takes in the atmosphere of the place as the teams warm up. She can smell the freshly cut grass, hear the faint chatter of the crowd, and almost feel the pre-game anxiety that she used to abhor but now finds herself missing desperately. Her leg bounces restlessly as she adjusts her custom-made shirt the team gave her a few days ago. She hasn’t had a chance to wash it yet, so it’s still a little scratchy around the collar.
She looks around, noticing that most of the spectators are there in groups. Christen feels a pang of loneliness as she sits alone. It’s not that she doesn’t have any friends, it’s just that the friends she does have are on the pitch. Though any other person observing her would have no way of knowing that, and suddenly she feels like the girl that everyone pities because she can’t find anyone to go to a soccer game with her. Just as she’s about to get lost in a storm of self-conscious thoughts, someone approaches from the left and pauses at Christen’s side. Christen looks up to the mystery person. Emily. Wait, Emily?!
“Is it cool if I sit here? I don’t really know anyone else who comes to these games” Emily asks as she gestures to the seat directly to Christen’s left.
“Yeah, go for it. I don’t know anyone else here either so I could use the company” Christen replies, suddenly very happy to be graced with Emily’s presence.
“Sweet, thanks” Emily says as she takes a seat next to Christen and sets her water bottle down underneath the bleacher. “So are you here for Kelley?” Emily asks as she settles in to her seat some more.
“Yeah” Christens answers with a nod, “And Tobin, and Ali, and Kling, and Alex, and Sarah, and like half the team.” Emily hums in understanding.
“Ah, I see. Sounds like you should be on the team instead of sitting here with me” Emily jokes with a warm smile.
“Yeah, I wish I could be” Christen muses. So badly. “But this is nice enough, being a spectator and all.” No it’s not. It’s terrible. But don’t really want to get into that right now.
“Yeah it’s pretty nice to kick back and watch everyone else do all the hard work” Emily agrees, not wanting to push Christen on the issue and risk upsetting the girl.
“So are you here for Kelley too?” Christen tries to ask as casually as possible. In truth, she’s been dying to ask Emily since she sat down. It is of the utmost importance that Christen learns the latest happenings in her roommate’s love life. Emily takes a second before replying, but in that time a small smile makes its way to her lips.
“Well she is a loyal customer after all. The least I could do is come support her” Emily answers, “And the team of course.” Christen smiles at Emily’s slight hesitation before muttering that last part.
“Of course” Christen simply responds.
Then a whistle blows in the distance and the game is underway.
The entire first half was scoreless. Alex and Sarah had some pretty good shots on goal, but the opposing team’s goalkeeper was on the money tonight, reading the game perfectly. Kling and Ali did a great job of dismantling the other team’s attack, but the real star of the show was Tobin. She effortlessly danced on the ball, nutmegged defenders left and right, and sent in what can only be described as some ‘mind-blowingly beautiful’ crosses into the box. Every second of it looked so easy. It was like the pitch was Tobin’s playground and the sole reason she was out there was to have fun. And it looked like she was having a great deal of it.
Both teams picked up the pace in the second half. Both had a new sense of urgency as the clock ticked away. It wasn’t until the 76th minute that the home team broke the score-line. It all started with Kelley who had subbed in for Ali five minutes prior. She pick-pocketed the ball from the feet of an advancing forward and immediately launched the ball to Tobin streaking on the flank. Tobin caught up to ball and brought it down with relative ease. She juked two defenders and picked her head up to see Alex making a run in the box. Tobin slotted the ball through the legs of the center back and directly to Alex’s feet. Alex took one touch with her right foot before quickly taking a shot with her left. The ball went soaring to the upper 90 of the left side of the net and the opposing goal dove in full stretch to block it. Unfortunately she did, but she had not anticipated Tobin running into the box to follow Alex’s shot. The ball deflected off of the goalkeeper’s glove and bounced right in front of Tobin. She wasted no time in burying the ball into the back of the net. The referee’s whistle blew and the home team had the lead.
Now, just milliseconds after Tobin’s magnificent goal, Christen jumps to her feet. Which effectively sends the bag of popcorn that was on her lap flying, but she’s too caught up in the moment to care. Christen roars with the crowd as the players huddle around Tobin and celebrate the goal. Tobin wears the biggest smile on her face, and her eyes shoot up to the stands once her teammates disperse. When her eyes land on Christen, she gives her a slight thumbs up accompanied with an eye-crinkling smile. At that moment, Christen feels like they are the only two people in the stadium. In the world. In the universe. That is until, she hears that same shrill cry she’s been hearing all game.
Both Tobin and Christen look to the source of the outburst and their eyes land on a short blonde girl wearing a #17 jersey. Her voice is high-pitched and overly energetic as she yells “Yay Tobin!” at the top of her lungs. Christen looks back to Tobin and notices that the midfielder awkwardly trots back to her position, seemingly uncomfortable and unwelcoming of the small blonde’s insistent praise. Christen sits back down as the two teams reset to start the game again.
“Who is that girl?” Christen wonders aloud as her eyes find their way back to the squealy girl, who is now holding up a sign of some sort, which Christen is unable to read.
“I have no idea” Emily replies with an exhausted huff, “But she’s really annoying the shit out of me.”
“Oh good, I’m not the only one then” Christen comments as her eyes instinctively narrow on the girl.
The game ends with the same score with the home team winning it 1-0 thanks to Tobin’s goal. The teams stretch out and huddle around their coaches to have a post-game chat. Both Christen and Emily grab their stuff and rise from their seats, but neither makes any effort to leave. It has been wordlessly decided that they’re going to wait for the team huddle to end so that they can congratulate their peers on the win. Although, much to Christen’s dismay, they aren’t they only people to have that idea. The blonde girl waits eagerly by the railing with her sign still in hand. Quite frankly, that irks Christen.
After about five minutes, the team breaks the huddle and the players collect their gear and walk towards the stands. Kelley is among one of the first to arrive and Christen and Emily walk to the railing to meet her.
“Kelley! You played so well!” Christen exclaims once Kelley is within earshot. Kelley beams at her roommate, still riding the high of her successful first game.
“I know, it was awesome! Can you believe I actually got to play my first game being on the team?!” Kelley ecstatically returns, her attention solely focused on Christen.
“Hell yeah!” Christen yells once they both meet at the edge of the railing, “You’re a beast in cleats, Kels. They’d be insane not to play you!” Kelley’s smile widens by ten times.
“And my roommate was here to cheer me on, that’s so cool! You’re the best, Pressy. Really, you are.” Kelley earnestly informs, touched that she’s found such a good friend in Christen. Christen smiles back at Kelley with equal sincerity.
“Of course, I wouldn’t miss it for the world” Christen honestly replies, “But I wasn’t the only one here to support you tonight.” Kelley’s forehead crinkles in confusion. Christen simply replies by stepping aside and revealing Emily. Once Emily is in Kelley’s view, Kelley freezes up with shock and nervousness. It still amazes me how one girl can turn Kelley to putty in a second flat.
“Hey Kelley” Emily warmly greets, “You played a nice game out there.” Kelley sheepishly smiles before looking down to her feet.
“Oh, well I don’t know about that…” Kelley modestly trails off. Humble is a strange look on her. This feels weird.
“Nah, you totally killed it out there” Emily insists, smiling when Kelley looks back up at her again.
“Thanks for saying that. And thanks for coming, that’s really cool of you” Kelley admits, her initial shock easing and now growing a little more comfortable in the conversation.
“No problem, I had fun” Emily responds as she looks adoringly at the freckled defender.
As the two share a moment, Christen scans the field for a certain someone. After a minute or so a failing to spot her, Christen nearly gives up, until she hears the squeal. Christen’s eyes follow the sound down the railing to the blonde girl who now looks beyond herself with excitement. Just in front of her, Tobin stands on the field. Oh, so Tobin knows her then. Christen watches how the blonde reaches and touches Tobin’s arm tenderly, letting it linger there. Then Christen’s eyes move to the sign. Now that she’s parallel with the girl, she can read it plain as day.
Future Mrs. Heath
Written in all sunset orange letters, Christen feels something is off about this situation. Why would she write something like that? That’s really weird.
As Christen watches the girl with a newfound sense of weariness, Alex, Kling, Ali, and Sarah all approach the railing from behind Kelley.
“Hey, I’m glad to see our honorary teammate made it to the game!” Kling exclaims as she smiles up at Christen. Christen snaps her gaze from Tobin and the girl to acknowledge her other friends.
“Hey guys, you all played great! Congrats on the win!” Christen says with a forced smile on her face, the interaction with Tobin and the blonde still stealing most of her focus.
“Thanks Christen! It was probably because we knew we couldn’t let you down” Ali chimes in, happy to see her friend at the game. Christen doesn’t reply. Instead, her eyes have wondered back to Tobin and the girl.
“Hey, Christen what are you looking at…?” Sarah asks as hers and the rest of her friends’ eyes follow Christen’s gaze. “Oh.”
“Who’ that blonde girl Tobin’s talking to?” Christen questions. She watches as Tobin shifts uncomfortably while the girl continues talking. Alex lets out a frustrated sigh.
“That’s Cassie” Alex unenthusiastically explains, “She comes to every game to cheer for Tobin. They both had Chemistry class together last year and since then, Cassie still thinks they have chemistry. Tobin’s just too nice to tell the girl to leave her alone.” Seriously? That girl cannot take a hint.
“Wow, that’s shitty” Christen comments, eyes glued to Tobin’s uneasy expression. Christen can’t help but notice the way Tobin plays with her hands, obviously trying her best not to be rude but not to seem overly interested in the conversation. She looks trapped. The weariness in Christen’s stomach grows. It’s almost as if she’s as uncomfortable with the situation as Tobin is.
“Yeah, if it were me, I would’ve told the girl to take a hike long ago,” Kling agrees before squirting some water into her mouth, “But Tobin is Tobin. She just can’t say no.” Then Christen sees the girl reach out and touch Tobin again. It’s obviously unwelcome contact and right that moment, a fire is lit within Christen.
“Hey are spectators allowed on the field?” Christen feverishly asks.
“Well I don’t think there’s a specific rule against it, but I know that it’s not encouraged – ” Sarah begins to explain. That’s enough for Christen though.
“Great, thanks” Christen quickly says as she hoists herself up and over the railing. As soon as her feet hit the ground, she beelines for Tobin. When she is just a few steps away, Tobin turns her head and gives her a confused look.
“Christen? What are you – ” Tobin begins just before Christen launches herself into Tobin’s arms. Tobin instinctively grabs a hold of the girl as Christen wraps her legs around Tobin’s waist.
“Tobin, babe, you played so well!” Christen fake squeals, loud enough that anyone remaining in the stadium could hear. After embracing for a few moments, Christen slips her legs from Tobin’s waist and settles back on the ground.
“Sorry about that, baby. I just couldn’t wait any longer to see you!” Christen chimes as she intertwines her fingers with Tobin’s and brings Tobin’s hand up so her mouth to give a kiss.
“Babe?” the blonde girl at the railing asks as her eyes look between Tobin and Christen in a wild frenzy. Tobin looks as lost as Cassie does, so Christen gives her hand a squeeze and shoots her a wink to reassure her.
“Oh, I’m sorry” Christen turns towards Cassie with a bubbly grin. “I’m Christen” she introduces herself, “I’m Tobin’s girlfriend.” Cassie’s eyes widen with complete panic.
“Girl – friend?” Cassie shakily repeats, nostrils flaring.
“Yep!” Christen enthusiastically replies as Tobin still stands silent next to her. “After months of begging, I finally said yes to giving this one a chance. And I’m so happy I did, now I’m never letting her go!” Christen explains as if it actually happened, as she swings her and Tobin’s joined hands back and forth. “Are you a friends with Tobin?” Cassie looks completely flustered now.
“Uh, yeah. I mean, I – uh – we, uh – I have to go” Cassie blurts out before grabbing her sign and turning away from the ‘couple.’
“It was nice meeting you!” Christen calls after her as Cassie rapidly ascends the stairs and flees the stadium. Finally, Christen turns back to Tobin with a triumphant smirk plastered on her face. “I don’t think she’ll be attending another one of these games anytime soon.” Tobin’s confused expression begins to fade as realization dawns on her.
“So let me get this straight” Tobin begins, looking completely seriously at Christen, “I was the one begging you for months to go out with me?” Christen chuckles as Tobin feigns offense.
“Yep. After a while I began to pity you so much that I was forced to give you a chance,” Christen playfully jokes, earning a chuckle from Tobin.
“So all I had to do to get you to go out with me was to make you feel so bad for me that you had no other choice?” Tobin asks for clarification. Christen just shrugs.
“That seems to be the case.”
“Well I’m going to have to keep that in mind then.”
Both Christen and Tobin exchange laughs and turn back towards the direction of their friends. They start walking over, continuing to talk and joke around, all the while still holding hands.