Ending this
Should she tell Tobin the truth or be quiet about it? Should she wait to see whether Tobin really want to be her friend first? They should amend their friendship first, right? Looking at the midfielder’s resigned face, Christen internally shook herself.
No. Enough. They need to start with a clean slate.
“Chris? Are you gonna get that? I’m hungry. I’m not kidding when I said I missed breakfast.” Tobin turned her head slightly her pout already firm on her face.
“No.” Christen stated.
“Oh..erm okay. You want me to take it myself?” Tobin mistook Christen words just stare at the oven sadly.
“No…what I mean is that I don’t have a girlfriend. Alyssa is not my girlfriend. We are not anything. Well, that’s not right either. She’s my friend and teammate at least.” Christen blurted out quickly before she loses her nerves.
Tobin just looked back at Christen with her jaw wide opened. “But..that afternoon…”
Christen shook her head. “It’s just lunch. But it was not a date. I didn’t said it was but I know you think it and I didn’t corrected it.”
It was as if a switch had been flipped. Tobin’s face brightened, her posture straightened, and she let out a big smile. Christen swore she also can see the sparkle of mischief in the midfielder’s eyes.
“You mean….?”
Christen shrugged her shoulder before she turned to the oven. She busied herself with plating the chicken and filling up the drinks for two and sit on the stool beside Tobin. She pushed Tobin’s plate nearer to the midfielder started on her meal.
Tobin didn’t move a muscle. She’s still mulling on whatever Christen told her just now. She turned sideways and watched the forward eat like she didn’t just bombarded Tobin with such a big news.
“Eat.” Christen instructed when she noticed Tobin still haven’t made a move.
“Well, since you are single and I am single, do you want to mingle? So we can become a double?” Tobin replied cheekily.
Christen totally ignored her but Tobin can see a grin forming at the corners of her mouth. She fists pumped internally.
“Eat your food.”
“Oh..oh I know. You are here because you want me to grovel and then at the end of your visit, you gonna ask me to be your girlfriend. Well, Chris…for your information, I’m not that easy.” Tobin continued.
Christen turned her head slightly toward Tobin as the midfielder’s laughter rang out loudly. Her eyebrows raised warning Tobin not to push further. Tobin continue laughing harder until there were tears leaking from her eyes. Before long, the laughter turns into sobbing instead. In panic, Christen quickly stood up and cradled the sobbing midfielder into her arms.
“Hey…come on. Shh…It’s okay. Everything will be alright.” Christen rubbed Tobin’s back soothingly.
“You don’t know that, Chris. There is always something...” Tobin muttered in teary voice.
“Tobin, looked at me.” Christen pushed Tobin’s chin up to face her.
When their eyes met each other, Christen gave a reassuring smile. “We just need to make sure that we talk to each other and I need you to promise not to give up on me.”
“Why? Why did you suddenly change your mind?”
“Life is too short for me to hold a grudge. Someone wise once told me to look forward and not into the past. Every minute that I was mad means that I was wasting 60 seconds of happiness.”
“Yeah? Who said that?” Tobin asked curiously.
“Kelley. But I’m sure she just read it from Twitter.”
“Nah…that one I think from Tumblr. Some motivation shit she always follows. So..erm…are we really going to do this?” Tobin asked back anxiously.
Christen looked deeply into Tobin’s eyes and replied with a single word. “Yes.”