Fine Line ✸ Sam Kerr

IV. Cause Girls Your Age Know Better

★ four ,
cause girls your age
know better

MELBOURNE
may 2022

*ੈ✩‧₊˚. SNEAKING OUT almost every day to see sam was the best part of odessa's day. she loved learning how to play football, she felt free when she was with sam. like the world stopped spinning and for a moment, the world just stopped completely.

today, they weren't sneaking off to practise. they were actually living life on the outside of the matildas. they probably should've been training, because the matildas were going to indonesia to play one of the first games in the asian world cup that was around the corner.

odessa thought about joining them, but she wasn't sure yet. the COVID restrictions were getting worse as the disease continued to torment the world around them was becoming more and more deadly as the sun turned into a night sky.

"do you really need this many books?" sam questioned, leaning on the bookcase beside odessa "are you actually gonna read these?" she asked again, motioning her head towards the basket of books she was carrying. there was a good six or seven books in there, odessa was quite in shock that sam wasn't breaking a sweat when carrying that many books.

the original plan was for odessa just to take a wonder around, but when she grabbed one book. the pile began to stack up and sam grabbed her a basket, before forcing odessa to allow her to carry it. it made odessa feel slightly guilty, she had dragged sam into the city and now sam was carrying her stuff.

odessa nodded her head, her hand grazing across the book cover of the book she was currently holding. "yes, i do need this many books. and yes, i will read them— well, most of them. some are just for decoration"

"what do you even do with this many books?" sam asked.

"read them?" odessa's eyebrow shot up.

sam rolled her eyes with a small scoff "what for? you've got no year twelve assignment that you need to be stressing over— and we've been in the romance section for fourty minutes. are you that lonely?"

"yes" odessa bluntly answered "i like the feeling i get when reading, just like you do with football. it takes me out of reality, and i get to experience love in a way i've never had before."

"what do you mean?" sam inquired as she placed down the blue basket filled with books and started to browse the shelves for her own enjoyment.

odessa sighed "because every girl i've ever met, never wanted to deal with my traveling. they've all wanted to settle down into a home as soon as possible, they never thought about how much that would impact my life and career. i'm always out everywhere and anywhere. i play games in sydney, i play games here, in melbourne, i play games in queensland. hell, sometimes i even play in darwin for suncorp. but when it comes to commonwealth games and world cup, i'm on the other side of the world. and they're always here. i've never had a girl who has bothered to attend a game."

her thumb trailed across the indents of the title "the men and women in these books, they meet their match and they live perfectly. sure, with a bit of hassle here and there, but they are always there for the other. they've always been loved enough to be cared for deeply. they'd kill for their other, sacrifice themselves, give up their entire life. but every girl i've ever dated can't even accept a free ticket to watch me play half an hour away"