La Reina | The Story of Melanie Kavitz

la finallissima: america vs argentina (I)

...
leo's point of view
...

June 10, 2022

"Jesus Christ, I'm about to lose it."

"It'll be okay. She's not sitting out the entire game - Bradley made sure to tell us that."

"Watch us eat 4 goals before she actually comes on."

"We're going to make sure that doesn't happen."

I may not be confident enough to speak English but after these many years... I know enough to understand it. I didn't mean to eavesdrop on the American team's conversations as we wait in the tunnel to walk out, but the desperation in their voices is evident.

Melanie isn't starting the final game.

"This is a huge win for us, Leo," Fideo whispers in my ear. "We need to make the most of it because the American coach will bring her on eventually. We need to win the game before she can make a real difference."

I nod my head in response; I also would be lying if I said that I wasn't relieved to not see her in the tunnel. I wouldn't know what to say to her - I probably wouldn't even be able to look at her. We haven't been in this territory in so many years. It was familiar and foreign all at the same time. Her being on the bench, even if it's just for a little while, makes processing this a little easier for me.

It's time for us to walk out of the tunnel, and as we step onto the field and pass the cup, it hits me just how packed Wembley Stadium is today. Everyone who was able to make it is here to watch us today. Cheering, screaming, chanting, holding flags and banners - it's a beautiful spectacle, and it's all the more special since we had won the Copa America in an empty Maracana.

The cameras, on the other hand, are almost solely pointed toward Melanie.

As soon as the Argentine national anthem finishes playing, America's national anthem blasts through the speakers. Melanie has her arms wrapped around the other American players on the bench, and all attention is on her despite being on the bench. It's not a common occurrence - a team's best player being on the bench at the start of the game, but one could assume it's for a good reason.

Besides a few award ceremonies, I haven't seen her in the past 8 years - whether it be on the field or off the field. The only updates I would get about her came later in the years after she joined City, and that was only thanks to Kun and I never asked him directly. The only way I kept up with her life was through her games and social media, and knowing just how intimately I had been a part of her life all those years ago... the distance over the years felt cold.

She looks much different now; her features are more defined, her hair is now in a bob-cut, and she may have a few smile lines around her eyes but she still looks as youthful as ever. She was always beautiful to me, but she radiates beauty now more than ever because her beauty is now laced with undeniable confidence and presence.

I kept up with a bit of her life, but she keeps her personal life relatively private and away from social media. The biggest thing that circulated last year, however, was her divorce from her now ex-husband. Not because of a major scandal... but because the world was shocked to see a stable, loving couple split after so much time together. The word from Kun a few weeks after the news broke was that they were still great friends; they just decided that their romantic relationship had reverted back to a purely platonic one.