Football Short Stories

Hey, That's No Way To Say Goodbye - Steven Gerrard

This one shot is very special to me. I wrote it back in January when Steven Gerrard announced he would be leaving Liverpool, but I promised myself I wouldn't post it until the end of the season, and now really seems like an appropriate time to do it.

I'd just like to point out that this is meant to be a tribute one shot but that the story itself is purely fictional. It was inspired by the many interviews I watched about Stevie's leaving and therefore most of the feelings and intakes described are somewhat accurate (although a little dramatized for the sake of the story ngl).

It's also inspired by the song "Hey that's no way to say goodbye" by Leonard Cohen.

Dedicated to Anna because she understands.

_______________________

She woke up early that morning, eyes fluttering open, surprised that she even managed to get some sleep the night before.

She shifted silently on the bed and managed to pull out a crooked smile at the sight of Steven still deeply asleep next to her. The smile quickly melted out of her lips as the realization hit her that this was the last morning she'd wake up to that sight.

The fateful day had come, the day she dreaded the most, and already, she sensed the sinking feeling in her chest deepening by the second, having barely come out of the haze of sleep.

Today was the day Steven would for America.

She pulled the covers away from her body and got up from the bed, silently enough so he wouldn't wake up. She made her way to the bathroom, closing the door behind her and looked at her face in the mirror for a few seconds

Her gaze held the familiar bleakness drawn from shedding too many tears, her lips were dry and an unceasing weariness clouded her expression.

She remembered, like it was yesterday, the conversation they had the day Steven told her that he'd be leaving Liverpool for good. He had announced it to her first, before his family, before the club's management and any of his teammates. She remembered how much it took her by surprise, how it felt like someone was holding her by the core. She could practically still hear her heart shattering to pieces like a crystal glass, spilling all of its content at her feet.

She could still recount every single word he said that day, it still echoed in her mind: all his apologies and explanations punctuated by her hysterical cries.

She didn't understand why he felt the need to go. She didn't want to understand. She knew he could've stayed if he wanted to, the management would've been more than willing to renew his contract. And after all these years, all these wonderful years spent at the club, how could he be willing to turn his back on Anfield, just like that, because of some unspoken ill-being no one understood, not even himself?

"You're hurting me so much, right now. I wonder if you know." She had told him as tears streamed down her face, feeling the desperate fever dig a hole in her chest.

"Why are you making this about you?" he had asked softly, almost pleading "Can't you tell it's one of the hardest decision I've had to make?"

It took her a while but she eventually realized how selfish she was being. All she had been doing was overlaying his decision with her desire to make him stay, but it wasn't about her. It was shameful really, how much she was making his decision revolve around herself and her feelings. She hadn't considered how much Steven had agonized with that decision, how much it was killing him to leave Liverpool, the club who had been his home, a part of him, a permanent stamp in his heart...