Page 71 of Couple Goals

‘If you’re actually okay, that’s probably even worse, because the pain’s numbing it,’ says Adriana sternly.

Someone from the Tigress’s backroom team is running towards them and quickly examining Maeve’s ankle.

Maeve gasps at the pain. ‘Okay. Maybe not okay.’

‘You knew Chloe was out to get you!’ shouts Kira. ‘You could have got seriously hurt! You should have just left it!’

Kira reaches out like she wants to take over from the medics to check Maeve is okay and do something to help. Maeve lifts a hand up to her and they share a look that Adriana can’t read. Kira kicks the air frustrated, and storms away.

The medics are helping Maeve onto a stretcher. Maeve is biting her lip so hard from the pain that it’s bleeding along with the grazes on her legs.

Adriana tries to reach for Maeve’s hand, but even as she’s stretchered off, Maeve pulls it away, and grimacing, says, ‘Don’t worry about me. You better get back to the game,Captain.’

Chapter 24Maeve

Maeve sits in the changing room, being checked out by the physios and a doctor. She wasn’t around to hear what was said by Hoffman in half-time, what guidance was given to try to unite the Tigresses, though it doesn’t currently feel like there’s any way they can recover from their disastrous first half.

When she had just been injured, Maeve had looked up at her mum in the stands. She can’t get her reaction out of her mind. Where Adriana’s family had all been on their feet shouting for Chloe’s red card, her mum had merely sat with her arms folded. Is getting injured really just another failure to her? In her eyes, if Maeve isn’t the best, she isn’t anything.

Sitting in pain, the medics discussing her to each other, Maeve holds back tears. She feels another sting of jealousy for Adriana, that her charming, beautiful, beloved best friend, seems to have everything going for her while it feels like everything is crumbling around Maeve. And now, she’s Captain too – theonething Maeve has always wanted. The one thing Maeve had that her friend didn’t.

But fortunately, the ice pack to take the swelling down is cooling more than just Maeve’s ankle. She closes her eyes, taking deep breaths, and, knowing she won’t be returning to the field today, she has time to actually just… sit. With her feelings, with everything she knows, alone in the changing room waiting for her teammates to return.

She realises she completely lost her cool back there when Adriana was trying to check on her. She was in pain, shocked, and angry when she snapped at Adriana, frustrated by the Tigress’s terrible play on the field, especially against the Swans, who have always been able to rile her up with their nasty tactics. But she hates that she took it out on Adriana.

Maeve has always been known for her strength at keeping a cool head in a crisis. That couldn’t be further from her behaviour recently. She doesn’t recognise herself anymore.

She scratches her arm, where the captain band is noticeable in its absence. She looks at her arm, the subtle row of pink eczema, tenderness formed from sweat under it being worn on the same place for so many past games. She looks at her bare arm. How obsessed she had been with having the armband there.

But now she doesn’t have it anymore, and the world hasn’t ended.

She’s still here, in her orange away kit. She’s still here, in a professional football team. She’s still here, trying and actually improving on the pitch. Before the injury, she could match the domineering Chloe in her physicality today, which is definitely down to the extra training with Kira pushing her.

Maeve watches the TV of the match up on the screens, easily able to make out Adriana from her fiery hair. It reminds her of their times watching football games together as children.If little Maeve could see her now, would she be proud of her?

The music blasts and the crowd cheer and whoop as the teams run back onto the pitch for the second half.

Maeve watches, feeling the ghosts of past matches she and Adriana had been in. There’s Adriana at the front of the team, in her captain armband, her bright red hair in her bun on the top of her head, her hand clutched to her chest, looking serious and powerful and… like she’s in exactly the right place.

The whistle goes for the start of the match, and it looks like they might have had some kind of half-time miracle. They are on the defensive, and managing to hold their shape in the middle. Kira is reigned in, joining up with her fellow attackers rather than striking out alone. It’s as if she isn’t trying to prove that she is the star player anymore, but trying to listen to the needs of the team.

It hits Maeve finally. Adriana isperfectfor Captain. Of course she is. Not only is Adriana a fantastically talented player, she has always, always prioritised the wellbeing of the collective team, always being so considerate, upbeat, and kind with them as individuals, on and off the field. She thinks back to Coach Hoffman’s words of what she wanted in that role. A captain is there to set the tone of the team – and what a brilliant team the Tigresses would be if they were all a bit more Adriana.

Even though things have been strained between them, she also knows her friend, and Maeve firmly believes, in her heart of hearts, that if Adriana was made Captain, it was because of her own talent and nothing else. Whatever her relationship with Jacob,Maeve trusts that she didn’t knowingly recieve any favouritism because of it.

Adriana deserves to be Captain. Maeve would be honoured to be in her team. She just hopes she can apologise enough to her, after this match. She’ll come clean about Kira, and about seeing Adriana in the park with Jacob, and do everything she can to get them to how they used to be.

She watches the game for another moment. The Swans continue to be on the wrong side of aggressive with another player teetering with a yellow card. The crowd are lively, riled up too. The rival match has brought in a full crowd to the Liverpool stadium. The Tigresses’ reputation is on the line with this match and she worries what the club owners might think if they take a real hammering today.

Maeve squints – she thinks she can see Jacob in the background of one of the screens, in the technical box. She notices him because he’s out of his seat, gripping the railings, leaning towards the pitch, and now looking round shouting for help.

Maeve looks back round onto the pitch screens to see what he’s looking at.

Adriana had seemed fine a moment ago – hadn’t she? – but she is now frozen in the middle of the pitch while the ball is at the other end, the players around it not noticing what’s happening behind them. Adriana is clutching at her chest, gripping her kit like it’s suddenly too tight. She’s clearly struggling to breathe, and her hands and legs are visibly trembling. She holds a hand out to the air, as if trying to hold onto something for balance, but nothing is there. She’s looking around, her eyes wide with panic. As Maeve sees Adriana’s expression,it sends a horrible electric shock through her. Adriana looks to be having some kind of fit.

‘Shit!’ Maeve says in the changing room. She gets to her feet, unthinkingly putting her weight on her injured ankle.

‘Shit!’ she says again, this time from the pain. The medical staff around her frown and reach out to make her sit down again.

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