MATCH POINT ★ challengers

⸺ game five

LENNON CADDEL DIDN'T HATE TENNIS. She hated playing tennis. Which was an entirely different thing. She loved tennis. She just hated playing. She hated how everyone's eyes were on her while she played. She hated the way her legs felt after a match where her opponent ran her up and down the court. She hated the way her shoulder and her knees and her back had started to hurt all the time. It was ruining her. Physically and mentally. For months she had been hiding things from her parents and her best friend. She had started hiding things from her physical therapist. "Does it hurt when I press here?" They would ask. And she would shake her head no, even if it did. She cried in the shower after every match, even if she had won. She liked crying in the shower because nobody could hear her over the rush of the water and, if she tried hard enough, she could convince herself that she wasn't crying. It was just the warmth of the shower running over face. The crushing weight of Tashi and her dad's disappointment if she quit was enough to make her stay. She felt like she just needed to tough it out. If she toughed it out for a year, maybe two, Tashi and her dad would let up a little. They would let her pick up an extra hobby without shaking their heads in disappointment and telling her she needs to practice more. She was talented, incredible even. She knew that. She had known that for years. But she felt like her career was starting to plateau before it even really took off. And though she would never admit it, she was ok with that.

Patrick and Lennon didn't talk about tennis for the rest of the time they were out on the golf course. He felt terrible that he made he cry, truly. So in the three hours that they were sat shoulder to shoulder on the grass, he learned almost everything there is to know about Lennon Caddel. He asked her every question he could think of. Where she was from (San Diego), what her favorite color was (yellow), if she had any pets (one, a cat named June.) By the second hour, Lennon had all but forgotten their earlier conversation. She was throwing her head back in laughter when Patrick cracked a stupid joke and shoving him playfully when he poked fun at her. She found herself not wanting to back to her hotel and, by association, Tashi. It had been so long since she had had a conversation, a real genuine conversation, with someone who wasn't her best friend or her parents. She was learning a lot about Patrick, too. Every question he asked her, she threw right back. She wanted to know as much of him as she could. It was like if she didn't know everything about him, she would wake up from this dream of a moment.