Page 64 of Matched Up

She smirked.‘Excellent school.’Mum had gone to St Anne’s.‘Where did you meet him?’

‘Football.’

‘When can I meet him?’

I glanced at my phone that was sitting on the table.Message after message asking me about Shane.I didn’t have the energy for it.Some messages were even from numbers I didn’t recognize.Apprehension churned in my stomach.

I forced out a laugh at Mum’s question and got down from the seat to do some stretching, then walked towards the French doors.

‘Lexie, you’re not trainingagain,are you?’Mum asked, concern on her face.

‘What’s wrong with training?’

I was used to her telling me to stop doing so much, but I’d never actually asked her why.

‘You can do too much is what’s wrong.’

‘How would you know?’I snapped back and felt immediately bad.

She inhaled and looked at me for a second.‘Can I show you something?’

I was itching to get outside – like my muscles were on a timer – but she’d already left the kitchen to get something, so I stood there waiting, staring at the clock.

She came back with one of those lever-arch files I used at school.‘Come, take a look,’ she said.

She set the file on the kitchen counter and opened it.It was full of tennis articles.

St Anne’s eleven-year-old tennis superstar Georgina Callow wins again.

Child tennis prodigy Georgina Callow showing huge promise for the future.

‘Wait.What’s this?’I looked at Mum, and then back to the file.‘This was you?’

She nodded.

‘But why didn’t I know this?You were some kind of prodigy?’

Mum shook her head.‘I wasn’t that good.But that’s the point.My parents had me training so hard, six days a week, tennis, tennis, tennis, and I lost out on so much, on friends, on a social life, on anything that wasn’t related to tennis.And guess what?As soon as I got to about fourteen it was clear to everyone that I wasn’t good enough to become professional.’

My stomach lurched.‘And you didn’t tell me because …’

‘Because I didn’t think it would be helpful.I could see how seriously you were taking your football, and I don’t know, I thought it might give you extra pressure, like you had to prove something.That you could do better.And I don’t want you to miss out on life like I did.Lexie, life is a million different things, it’s not just one hobby.Life at your age should be having fun, kissing boys, or girls, laughing so hard with Megan that your stomach hurts, or playing that stupid Xbox with Niall.It should be trying to figure out who you are.Of course it has to be exams and all the boring stuff too, but it’s so,somuch more than just a sport.’

I shook my head.I couldn’t take it in, whatever she was saying.‘I can’t believe nobody told me.Does Niall know how good you were?’

‘Do I know what?’Niall walked into the kitchen looking exhausted.

‘That Mum was some kind of tennis sensation and she didn’t tell me to try and save my feelings because I’ll never be as good.’I didn’t mean to cry, but I couldn’t help it.

‘Lexie, you’re completely missing the point,’ Mum said, putting her hand on my shoulder.

I shook it off.Humiliated.

‘Of course I knew.Everyone in Seaport knows.If you type any of our names into Google, it comes up.And of course nobody wanted to tell you, Lexie; nobody wants to tell you anything because of the way you react, like it’s some huge conspiracy against you –’

‘Niall,’ Mum cut in.

‘And another thing,’ Niall said.‘Do you really think Mum wants to talk about it?You think she wants to go over that again?Did you even think about how hard it must have been for her to tell you?Or how hard it was for Megan when you found out about us?And I bet you didn’t even think about it, going out with the bloody baller, knowing how it would make me feel.Lexie, you’re so selfish it makes me sick.’Niall abandoned his words in the kitchen and left me standing there with Mum.

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