The things we can't control

Chapter five

The game ended a few minutes ago and I really wanted to go to my dorm and lay down. My head was pounding and all the noise and people are a little bit too much right now. Just as I was about to ask Jackson and Macy if we could leave, the girl who was the reason to my misery, came up to me.

"Hey, how are you feeling?" She asked, stepping from one foot to the other. "Still fine, just a little headache." I said, lying just a little. "You should really work on the accuracy of your shots on the goal, G." Jackson tells the girl. I thought it was crazy that he was just lecturing a random girl, and when I noticed Macy engulfing the girl in a hug like they were good friends, I really started to wonder if I was sure my head wasn't seriously hurt.

Macy looked at me and noticed my confused expression. "This is Grace, Jacksons little sister." Now that explained a lot. "I never knew you had a sister. What other family members are you hiding from me ?" I asked Jackson jokingly. "Does she know that we have to mothers?" Grace asked, amused. 

That left me a little speechless for a moment. I quickly tried to regain my composure and gave them a little smile. "No, he seems to have left that part out as well." I never met anyone with gay parents. I always assumed that you could tell right away when kids came from a gay family, but I never suspected it with Jackson, and Grace also seemed completely normal. Maybe it was biased of me, but my mother told me about her gay uncle and how his kids, my mother's cousins, were very weird and different.

"Well enough about our family, how can I make up for literally hitting you in the face?" Grace asked, swiftly changing the topic. "It's completely fine, stuff like this happens and you don't have to do anything for me." I tried to reassure her. "No really, I feel extremely bad and want to something to make up for it." Grace said, actually looking guilty.

"You could invite her for dinner sometime." Suggested Macy and Jackson agreed with her "Yes, thats a good Idea, babe." I didn't know if I would enjoy that but Grace seemed to like it. "That's fine by me. How about tomorrow at 7 pm in the little Italian place on the west side of campus?"

"Uhm, " Before I even had the chance to decline Macy interrupted me. "Yes, thats perfect, right Evie?" She gave me an intense stare and I nodded reluctantly.

"Okay, I guess I'll see you tomorrow." She said, as her friend nodded her head in the direction off the pitch. Both waved at us, as they walked back to their teammates.

"I would never have guessed that one day one of my closest friends and my sister would eat dinner together." Jackson joked, staring at the leaving form of his sister. "I think it's great. Grace is a very nice girl and you, Evie, need more friends.

"If you think so. Can we just go back to our dorm? That very nice girl has quite the hard shot and I have a headache." Macy quickly agreed and we made our way out of the stadium.

***

The next day I stood in front of the Italian restaurant Grace suggested and waited for her to arrive. For some reason I was extremely nervous and could't stand still. When I finally saw her in the distance my heart began to beat faster and I really didn't know why. I was probably just scared of embarrassing myself in the first few minutes. I was never good in making new friends.

"Hey." She greeted me, once she reached the restaurant. I gave her a shy wave and we just awkwardly stood there for a few seconds that felt like an hour. "Should we head inside?" Grace eventually asked, braking the silence. I nodded and internally slapped myself for my nonverbal answers.

Grace had made a reservation in advance, wich turned out to be a good thing, because the place was pretty full. We reached our table and the waitress handed us some menus while asking if we already knew what we wanted to drink.