“There they are!” Joyce suddenly shouted, having to raise her voice considerably in order to be heard over the roar of the crowd.
Carmen felt Joyce tug at her hand as she picked up her pace and pulled her along, heading towards one of the stands at the right part of the stadium. She noticed Willa seated there, along with a few other girls from their year that Carmen shared some classes with but didn’t really call friends.
Still, they were better off being seated with students from their own school than amongst the competing teams.
When they were close enough, Willa jumped out of her seat and threw her arms over both Carmen’s and Joyce’s shoulders and pulled them in for a quick hug, yelling in their ears, “Finally! Keeping these seats for you guys wasn’t fun.”
People were still flooding the bleachers though, so they broke the group hug and quickly settled down into their seats so as not to block anyone’s way. Three or five more minutes passed before the already noisy stadium erupted into excited screams and deafening cheers from both schools upon seeing the teams enter the field.
Everyone was on their feet with lightning speed, hollering out either particular players’ names or just their team’s name, proudly showing their support. Despite knowing pretty well how the sport was played, Carmen wouldn’t call herself a huge fan of it, but the enthusiasm pouring out of every other person in the stands was flooding the air and it was hard not to feel the positive energy fill her up, too.
Carmen smiled to herself, sweeping her eyes over the stands, the field, the food stalls. She inhaled the air filled with the smell of popcorn and cheesy fries and even the slight tinge of sweat that coated the hyped-up atmosphere and realised she was actually quite happy right then, in that moment.
The smile on her face didn’t waver, remaining there on the edge of her lips even as they all sat back down while the match started.
•••
As the halftime approached, Carmen turned towards Joyce, about to state that she was thirsty and offer to get something for her too. But Joyce had already turned towards her and was already speaking before Carmen could say anything.
“All this screaming is making my throat hurt! I’m going to get a soda and maybe even a snack or two,” she rose from her seat and looked down at Carmen, “you coming?”
Carmen grinned and stood up, sliding off her shoulder bag to leave it on the seat so it’d be obvious that space was already taken. “I was actually about to ask you the same thing,” she told her friend as she grabbed her purse from the bag, “come on.”
Apparently, a lot of other people had the same idea as them, because it was taking forever for them to descend the steps and head towards the food stalls. When they did manage to push past the crowd however, the sight of the long queue at the cheesy fries stand made Joyce groan with frustration.
“Maybe one of us should get the fries and the other should go to the soda stand,” Carmen suggested. “It’ll take too long otherwise.”
Joyce mumbled something under her breath and gestured for Carmen to leave. “I’ll get the snacks, you get the sodas.”
Nodding her head in agreement, Carmen turned around and began walking towards where she could see soft drinks and bottles of water being sold.
It was only after what felt like hours that Carmen started walking back to the seats with two cans of sodas in each hand, not spotting Joyce anywhere near the food stall and assuming she’d already left once she’d bought the snacks.
She should’ve just kept walking forward, but for one split second, her eyes swept over the crowd once again, and Carmen halted in her steps when her sight fell on a familiar figure standing by the corner of the bleachers, right where the gate to the exit of the stadium was.
Isla hadn’t noticed her though; those electric blue eyes of hers was trained on something in the distance. Curious now, Carmen followed her line of sight, and her eyes landed on the group of cheerleaders on the field who were taking a break themselves now that it was halftime.
Carmen watched as one of the girls chucked a water bottle at another cheerleader, and another member of the cheer squad massage one of the girl’s necks. There was a kind of unity there, the same kind she’d witnessed between players of a football team whenever she’d watched the games with Hunter back during happier times.
Her gaze returned to the familiar stranger by the bleachers.
There was a twist on Isla’s mouth, something between a frustrated scowl and a sad smile. Carmen thought it looked more like sadness than anything else. She was still debating on what to do when a pair of electric blue eyes snapped to her own grey ones.
Carmen froze for a moment, feeling like a deer in headlights and then, uncertainly, she raised one of her hands that was still holding the soda can into the air and waved.
Isla’s face remained unreadable as she visibly hesitated for a brief second, before leaving the stands and walking towards Carmen.
“Hey,” she said easily, a small lift to her cherry-stained lips. It was one of those smiles offered out of courtesy, Carmen could tell. But she returned a genuine one anyway.
“Hi,” Carmen greeted back, the condensation on the cans now making her palms uncomfortable. She tucked them under her arm
