‘Froupies?’
‘Sprints!’
Coach’s order hits and we immediately break out into a run.
‘Football groupies. Once the season starts, they’ll be all over you like a rat up a drainpipe. Never been a shortage of options while I’ve been here, at least as long as you don’t mind sharing.’
‘Sharing?’ I’m surprised. ‘As in, at the same time?’
This time it’s Assad’s turn to trip over his own feet. Maybe Brits are as uptight as everyone says.
‘Sharing as in Eskimo brothers,’ he replies as he rights himself. ‘Visiting the same igloo.’
‘Nice imagery. Don’t tell me, you’re an English major?’
He shakes his head. ‘Pure Maths. And while we’re on the subject, we might as well get this out the way. You wouldn’t be sharing girls with me anyway, I’m gay.’
I’m genuinely confused when he juts out his chin, like he’s waiting to take a punch, but I’m the one who feels the hit, second-hand guilt passed down from whichever asshole made him think he had to explain himself to a fellow teammate in the past.
‘Good for you,’ I say with a could-care-less shrug. ‘What do you want, a prize?’
His defensive posture eases up and he’s smiling again.
‘How do you feel about a rondo?’
‘I feel excellent about a rondo,’ I reply. ‘You call it, I’ll play it.’
‘Escape the rondo!’ he yells out to the group, Coach giving him a nod across the field. ‘Me and the new boy against Josh, Cieran and the Riches. The rest of you sort out your own groups.’
‘Time to show us what you’re made of, Taylor,’ one of the Riches says as we fall into formation.
‘Stronger stuff than you,’ I tell him, sweeping the ball away before he has a chance to blink. ‘Switch.’
Everything else melts away and it’s just me, the ball and the pitch. Exactly how I like it. The second my boot touches the ball, I’m in the zone, grateful to be here, grateful to be part of a team again and I wonder, just for a moment, if my mom was right. Coming to Hemden could be for the best. Maybe everything is going to work out after all, as long as I stay focused on the now and try to block out the past.
‘Oi, Ethan,’ Josh shouts, suddenly right in front of me. ‘I heard you couldn’t get it up last night. What’s the matter, leave your Viagra in America?’
He takes the ball and I lose my balance, landing facedown and eating dirt.
‘Nah, she wasn’t my type,’ I call back as Assad helps me up to my feet. ‘Just can’t stop thinking about your mom.’
This time, when I steal the ball back, the team cheers, Josh shaking his head and for the first time in a long time, I feel like I’m with family.
8
Mia
‘Gorgeous, isn’t it?’
I didn’t realize how long I’ve been holding my breath in the lobby of the Hazelwood Library until someone clears their throat and makes me jump. Gorgeous is an understatement. When I stepped through the doors, bag clutched to my chest, map in one hand, coffee in the other, I almost started to cry. The famous dome of the library towers above me, the double height windows on the second floor flooding the space with light and illuminating eight tall arched entrances, all leading off in different directions, and bookseverywhere. It’s like something out of a fairytale.
A friendly-looking guy, somewhere in his late twenties, with sandy brown hair and a kind look, stands up behind the circular desk.
‘It’s incredible,’ I say, attention drifting back up to the inside of the dome, the gold sculpted roses and pretty blue geometric patterns. ‘How did they even do that?’
‘With a lot more commitment to hanging upside down than I’ll ever know. Can I help you with something? Preferably something that doesn’t entail hanging off a twenty-foot platform for three years?’
I step forward into the dome and let the light wash overme. ‘I’m here for the international students’ meeting, it’s in the Greenwood room?’
