Page 18 of Matched Up

We all looked towards the car park.A woman was walking towards us with rapid strides, and she seemed pissed off.

‘Zoe,come on!You’ve got cello practice.’

Zoe glanced at us briefly, then put her head down and walked towards her mum.

‘Did you score in the match?’I heard her mum ask.

‘At practice?’

‘Yes, at practice.’

‘Not tonight.’

‘Why not?’

And then they were too far away to hear what they were saying.But for the first time I felt kind of sorry for Zoe.

‘OK, that was intense,’ Megan said, and we shared a look.

‘Yeah,’ I said simply.

‘What are you wearing to the party?’

I had to hand it to her; she didn’t give up.

‘Don’t know yet,’ I said.

This is usually when Megan would give me a full run-down of her outfit, right down to her underwear, but all she said was ‘OK’.And I didn’t tell her that Zoe had asked us to her house early just in case she thought I was her friend again.

We watched the rest of the boys’ practice in silence, and listened to the swearing and the thud of shoulder on shoulder.

I kept my eyes on Shane the whole time.

And the feeling was back.The way he played did something to me.It took me out of myself, away from Megan and Niall, away from Sadie and the team list, away from Zoe, and everything that made my guts twist.Watching him play was like looking into another world.

A world where I didn’t care about football.A world where all I needed was him.

9

School the next day was a blur.I was thinking about the match.Not just mine, but Shane’s.And the rest of my brain was thinking about what I was going to wear to Zoe’s party, and hoping that Shane was going to be there.I didn’t even care that Niall was moping about the house.I shoved his feelings out of the way to make room for mine, the ones that were burning and aching to see the boy I’d just met.

I spent ages getting ready for the match.Perfect hair, perfect make-up and my favourite perfume, the one that was just the right side of sweet and lasted all day.I made sure to do extra stretches and sit-ups, even though I was on the bench.Just in case they needed me.I did them in my bedroom because doing them outside would just be asking for comments from Mum and Dad, or worse, Niall, and they all knew I wasn’t actually playing tonight.

Dad drove us, and all his attempts at conversation fell flat.I was in another world and Niall was in a mood.I thought about telling Dad about Niall and Megan then and there in the car, in the traffic jam through town.Then I could watch Niall squirm, and it would be payback watching him explainto Dad that he has a girlfriend.I knew how awkward he felt about all that stuff.When Mum tried to talk to him about puberty when we were younger, he locked himself in the bathroom and wouldn’t come out until she promised to stop trying to talk to him.And he was the same about girls, except with me.He used to tell me who he had a crush on.

Used to.

I stared out the window, willing the traffic lights to change.I let my eyes lose focus and concentrated on the blurred, multicoloured streaks that turned the night into an abstract painting.An attempt to stop thinking about Niall.But when we pulled into the Dub and I stepped out of the car, I didn’t have to try.Something changed.

I was in it.Hypnotized by the Friday-night lights.The atmosphere.The pitch lit up like a stage in the darkness.And I suppose it was a stage, a performance.And I couldn’t wait for Shane’s show.

We walked over to the pitch and left Dad with the rest of the spectators.The whole team were there already, warming up with Sadie on the pitch.

‘Come on, Lex.’She waved me over and I started warming up with the other girls but scanning the crowd for Shane.

‘This is going to be a tough match.I want you all to give it one hundred per cent.Midfield – Cara, Lola, Megan – do not stop running.Do not stop looking for passes.Wait, where’s Megan?’Sadie looked at her watch then back to the entry gate to see Megan running across the pitch.‘Megan, we’re about to kick off!’

‘Sorry, sorry.’Megan didn’t even have an excuse, and itdidn’t matter; it wasn’t like Sadie would ever put her on the bench.

---