Only Friends

Chapter 32 - Sleeves

As the second half of the season approached, the ladder started to tighten. We were sitting at the top, with Chelsea only a few points behind us. Every game played was important, and we couldn't slip up. 

We had a big win against Brighton, winning 10-0. The goals were shared between everyone with Viv, Beth, Jen, Jill, Mana, and Leah sharing the ten between them. Afterwards, I posted a picture of Viv and I, together after the game. It was a cold night, and she had her iconic gloves on while I was wearing the long sleeves. We were smiling into the camera, our arms around each other. I wrote:

indiharrison: Love playing with my girl @viviannemiedema

Lisaevans_17: wow <3333

Kmewis19: you're so cute after a game

Jillroord: so cute!! My two girls

Samanthakerr20: u still didn't score a goal...

Some fans also commented some things that caught my attention

arsenalstan: Viv and Indi - the two GOATs of the game

midemalover54: Viv = offensive machine, Indi = defensive machine

woso.fan: Dynamic duo right here

iloveindiharrison: Viv's gloves are nearly as iconic as Indi's sleeves

indi.jill.kristie: Love how they always get so cold when they play hahaha

chelseafan22: Sleeves + gloves??

I never really thought that the fans would notice my sleeves and let alone think of them as iconic. They have become such a normal thing for me to wear and I don't even question it anymore. Similar to Viv and her gloves.

"I never knew people noticed my sleeves," I said to Kristie as we were talking on FaceTime later that night. Jill was in the other room, finishing up a uni assignment. The comments did rattle me, slightly.
"I mean when you wore them in Houston in the 100° heat, people started to notice," she replied, honestly.
"I don't like wearing them," I said to her. When I think about it, I hate wearing them but I don't want to be the person that triggers other people, unintentionally.

"Would you consider stopping wearing them?" She asked, seriously.
"Maybe," I replied.
"I think you should do something, maybe speak out?" I thought about it for a second, realising how far I'd come from being a 15 year old with depression to a 21 year old professional athlete.
"Maybe," I said.
"It might give you closure," Kristie replied.
"Yeah ok, I'll think about it."

As Jill and I drove to our training the next week, I started up the weekly vlogs again for We Play Strong. Since the start of the season, and before the Christmas break, I had filmed six vlogs, and the viewers loved them. Each video received nearly 500k, more than the vlog series Lisa does, which often involve Viv. All the comments were positive, often saying:

preathxjindi: Please do more!

wosofan33:We love your vlogs Indi

kristiexsam: Indi's vlogs make my Wednesday's so much better

Jindilover: indi and Jill are the YouTubers of the year!!

So, I didn't disappoint. I pulled out the vlog camera as we pulled into the car park before training.

"Hey guys, and welcome back. We had a longer Christmas break. Jill, do you wanna tell them what we did?" I said, pointing the camera towards Jill.
"Sure," she replied, "so Inds and I went to Holland for Christmas and spent a couple days there. Inds tried speaking Dutch, but it was a fail!"
"At least I tried," I said to her laughing.
"Then we met up with Kris and Sam and spent a couple of days in Nice, which was so nice."
"So Kristie and Sam are two of my closest friends so it was really nice catching up with them both again after a crazy start to the season. It was really beautiful in Nice. It was cold, but you can't beat a beach, even if it's cold. Or maybe that's the Aussie in me." Jill laughed, and I could sense her temptation to put her arm around me, but we try to keep our affectionate displays off the vlog mostly. "Ok, we are about to head into training, and I will let you all say hi to the girls." I turned the camera off and looked towards her, smiling.