Meredith quickly scanned through her suitcases, trying to drown out her sister’s voice while simultaneously making the hardest decision of her life of which sweater would look good on her skin.
“Fuck…I’m coming!
Roelle touched her sister’s shoulder, whispering from outside the hotel door.
“Hey, don’t rush her. If she wants to look good, she wants to look good.”
“Who dresses to the fucking nines for a football match?”
“Her. She…she wants to look good for Gabrielle.”
Meredith later opened the door with a huff and waited for her sisters to comment.
“Well don’t you look pretty.”
Meredith stared down at her outfit. So maybe she brushed her teeth extra, scrubbed herself until her skin was dry and thought more than five seconds about her outfit not because she didn’t want to be the first one to arrive to the game but because she wanted to look good for Gabrielle. She would never admit that to her sisters. Not even to herself.
“I wasn’t trying to look pretty.”
“Why is your hair down then?”
“My hairtie popped.”
“Yeah, okay. Let’s go.”
***
The three siblings met up with their parents and drove to Friends Arena stadium. Gabrielle had given them nice seats. They were practically on the field. Meredith wasn’t at all pleased with this. She even looked up to see if there were empty nosebleed seats available. Unfortunately the stadium was packed. Her knee constantly bopped up and down and she tore the nails of off her fingers impatiently waiting for the teams to come through the tunnel. A filthy habit she had just developed in the past five minutes.
“I um, I’m gonna get something to eat. Does anybody want something…besides beer?”
Her family all answered with the same response of no.
“Okay.”
Meredith ducked through the seats, nearly tripping over her feet, too busy looking for Gabrielle to put one foot in front of the other safely as she walked up the steps. The food line wasn’t very long and Meredith grunted when she got up there. She was hoping for at least a ten-minute wait. Sighing heavily she smiled thinly at the employee as she stepped forward and ordered herself a hotdog. She took her pack of beer and walked back to her seats. It was much noisier and Meredith looked on the field nearly dropping her dog when she saw the Sweden team warming up on the field. Meredith scanned the field for Gabrielle. It was hard to make her out. Every person was dressed in the same training gear. Meredith sat down and munched on her hotdog watching both teams warm up.
When it was time for Sweden’s national anthem, Meredith stood up and removed her snapback. She looked at Gabrielle who recited the entire song and when it was over she shook out both of her legs and jumped up and down; a pregame ritual for both of them when they played together. Meredith sat down and watched Gabrielle as the whistle blew. She had gotten better, faster even and seemed completely focused. Meredith adjusted in soft seats and relaxed. There was no need to fret over an awkward encounter with her an Gabrielle while she was playing. For now, she would enjoy the beautiful game.
***
When Gabrielle scored, it was just before the ending of the first half. Meredith, her family and the rest of the stadium jumped up all at once and cheered, with a couple ounces of beer spilling in the process. Payton nudged Roelle’s shoulder in excitement and whistled while Meredith grinned and clapped. Gabrielle raised her fist in the air before all of her teammates tackled her. They jogged off the field and into the stadium. First half was over. Meredith took out her phone and took the time to take a photo of the stadium. Her ears perked up when she overheard the American commentators mention Gabrielle.
“We’ve seen a lot of fouls this match from both teams. It certainly was expected. Sonde and PSG have never exactly played a match clean so to speak. Although, Bright has been doing well with her behavior on the pitch these last few games. Let’s hope that doesn’t change tonight.”
“You’d think if Bright would’ve taken more shots on goal this first half, she would’ve had more in the back of the net than just one, zero lead.”
“Yeah. I talked to Coach earlier about how he changed the formation playing a 4-4-2 with a diamond in the middle. Bright and Björn up top, which is probably the reason why Gabrielle isn’t taking as many opportunities as she could. There’s not a lot of communication between the two on the field.”
Meredith pulled out her phone and searched Gabrielle to see just what type of trouble she was getting into. She saw images of Gabrielle with a black eye from her social media feed along with other disturbing pictures of Gabrielle enraged. Meredith wondered if Gabrielle’s drastic behavioral outrage was because of her but then shook the hopeful thought away as the two teams walked back on the field. Second half began and Meredith focused her sight on the game, reclining in her chair. Everything would be fine, she thought. She’d thank Gabrielle for the tickets, (or get her sisters to.) fly back to America and everything would go back to normal.
Roelle leaned in Meredith’s ear and whispered,
“We need to talk about your little girlfriend situation.”
Meredith’s eyes widen. All sound seemed to cease except for the pulsation of her heart in her ears. She wondered if it was in fact her heartbeat or something else because she
