Page 2 of Off the Pitch

I couldn’t imagine living anywhere else, even if it did get a little lonely at times.

As soon as I opened the back door to the kitchen, a blast of delicious smells and heat smacked me in the face. I look a deep breath and inhaled the comforting aromas. The oven was humming gently, and I tried to peer through the glass door to see what Monika had left me.

Hiring a personal chef had been one of the best decisions of my life, hands down! Especially considering how poor my own cooking skills were, even at the age of twenty-three. The last time I’d tried to make dinner, I’d managed to burn the pasta to the bottom of the saucepan and had been forced to throw the entire pan in the bin. That had earnt me a lifetime cooking ban.

Monika did all the food ordering, made sure everything fit with my fitness plan, and had even taken to leaving me prepared meals to cover her days off. She’d helped me totally refit the kitchen and was always buying extra little gadgets and colourful plates to add to it. One day, I’d get her to teach me how to use all of it, since I’d like to be able to makesomething.

There was a note on the middle of the kitchen island, written in her tiny, neat handwriting, detailing exactly what I was supposed to eat tonightand how to prepare what she’d left. It wasn’t too difficult, and most of it could be reheated in the microwave or eaten cold. Monika’s lack of faith in my culinary abilities was abundantly clear.

“Chrissie? That you?” The familiar voice jolted me from my reading, and I couldn’t help the giant grin that spread across my face or the flood of warmth filling my chest. I turned just in time for a small hurricane to collide with my midriff.

“Lulu?” I spluttered—trying to force words out when your lungs were being squeezed with the force of an anaconda was harder than I thought. “I thought you weren’t coming back until next week.” I pulled back, finally managing to look down into the beaming face of my twin sister.

Lily King—history student, DJ, and dinosaur enthusiast—had been my very best friend since the day we were born. Technically, I was twenty-seven minutes older, but that’s never stopped her from dragging me through life in a whirlwind.

I couldn’t help but stare at her face, remembering every tiny detail. Not much had changed in the three months since I’d last seen her, except that her long hair was now a soft baby pink and half of it was shaved, and I was sure I spied another piercing in her ear.

Since we were fraternal twins, the only real similarities in our appearance were our blue eyes and high cheekbones. We technically both had blond hair, but since Lily had been dying hers every colour of the rainbow since the age of fifteen, I didn’t count that anymore. She was five foot eight, to my five eleven. She hated those three inches and constantly wore giant heels to put me in my place. She was the epitome offierce as fuck,and I loved her more than life itself.

Lily rolled her eyes at my question, flicking a strand of hair out of her face. “Surprise!” she said, squeezing me again and resting her head on my shoulder. “I missed you, and I wanted to see you again. Besides, Ibiza was boring me!”

I snorted. Only Lily would find the intense party scene of Ibiza boring. Especially when she’d supposedly been invited to play some of the most exclusive events of the season. Lily had started DJing at the age of seventeen, but after three years of doing it full-time, she’d decided it wasn’t for her and had gone to university instead, although she still did the odd gig and summer season just for fun. It sounded like this trip had reminded her why she’d given it up in the first place.

“The Made in Chelsea lot not doing it for you?” I joked, stepping back to begin pulling various bowls out of the fridge.

“God no,” she sighed, pulling herself up onto the smooth kitchen counter and resting the feet of her dinosaur onesie on the handles of one of the drawers below her. Somehow, she managed to make the onesie look like haute couture. “They’re so fucking boring. All they talk about is each other, money, who wore what to which party, and who’s fucking who. I hated it. Give me grimy London clubs any day.” She continued chatting about her summer, and I lost myself in her words, listening as she bounced from one topic to another. The house had been so quiet without her—both over the summer and the previous spring, when she’d spent six months studying in America.

“How’s the season going?” she asked, suddenly switching her focus to me. I knew that she’d already know our results, but it was nice that she still asked.

“Okay. I’ve got six goals in five, but it should really be eight since I missed a couple that should have been easy to score. I’m going to have to ask for more shooting drills while being pressed, since that seems to be my current weak spot, and I need to talk to someone about upping my fitness because I just don’t have the stamina I should.”

“You work too hard,” Lily said. “Six is still great.”

“Some people have scored seven.”

Lily muttered something darkly under her breath that I couldn’t quite catch but sounded suspiciously like ‘perfectionist’. I ignored her.

“Looking forward to your final year?” I asked in a deliberate attempt to change the subject. Lily just shrugged and kicked her feet on the drawers, watching me carefully as I began to pull some plates out of the cupboard.

“Yeah, I guess. It’ll be strange being back in London.”

“Good strange, though?”

“I suppose.” She chuckled and then winked at me. “I mean, at least I don’t have to pay rent here. And I get free food and decent cups of tea. Even if I have to put up with your shitty taste in TV shows.”

“I offered to buy you a house! Youwantedto live here,” I said with a smile. I would have been happy to buy her a house anywhere she wanted if she’d asked—it wasn’t like I couldn’t afford it. Even so, I was still ridiculously pleased that she’d said no. I couldn’t imagine my life without her in it, and I kind of wished she’d never leave, stupid as that sounded. I’d missed her so much while she’d been away. It had been like a little piece of me was lost.

Lily hopped off the counter and started shoving side dishes into the microwave, ignoring Monika’s carefully written instructions. When I held up the directions with a wry smile, she rolled her eyes and pointed out that she’d never burnt pasta before. All I could do was allow myself to be shooed out of my own kitchen.

We settled on the sofa to eat, and Lily immediately snagged the remote, flicking on Netflix before I could object. One raised eyebrow told me I was never going to be allowed to rewatch the match, which was my usual post-match routine, so I had to settle for whatever her choice was.

“Drag Race?”

“Yup, suck it up, buttercup. You’re gonna watch it, and you’re gonna like it.” Lily grinned. I’d lost this battle, and I’d probably lose more now that she was back. But even so, I was glad to have her back. It made the house feel a little less lonely already.

Chapter Two

YOUNG GUNS

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