Finding 4

Chapter 39

Currently writing this high off of my ass, sorry if there's mistakes.

Marley

"You're literally stupid." Niall blows out an annoyed breath, rubbing his hands over his face as he desperately tries to tell a story. The only issue, nobody remembers the story because they were all too drunk.

Callum and Finley are both dying of laughter as they try to speak.

"Niall—" Finley laughs again, cutting himself off.

"Wait are you talking about the time that the Linda chick was with us?" Callum asks in a pause of his laughter.

"Yes!" Niall exclaims. "I knew I wasn't fucking crazy."

"We aren't too sure about that." Keely jokes.

Finley starts laughing again.

"How much have you drank, Jesus fuck." Callum laughs at him.

"I haven't—" he laughs again, "even drank that much."

A few hours later, I'm sitting on the concrete bleachers with Maeve, Kennedy, and Flynn next to me. The green pitch is lit up by bright stadium lights, showing off the light drizzle as we get sprinkled on. Despite the cold, and the quite annoying feeling of small water droplets on our skin, nobody seems to mind it. Instead, we're all focused on the game in front of us.

"He seems distracted." Flynn says to his mom, sitting up straight so he can see the pitch better.

"It's the first home match." Maeve tries to convince him otherwise, but it also sounds like she's trying to convince herself too. "He's probably just trying to get back into the feel."

"This is Callum we're talking about, mam." Flynn looks over at her. "He's had the feel of the pitch since he slid out into the Earth."

Maeve laughs at his comment, keeping her hold on the small blonde girl in her lap. Kennedy isn't paying attention to anything around her. Instead, she's focused on the ring on her mom's finger as she twists it and turns it.

"How are you?" Maeve reaches over and gives my knee a light squeeze before bringing her arm back around Kennedy.

I shrug "I'm okay."

She gives me a sympathetic look. I'm tired of the way people look at me. Like I'm some little girl who needs to be held and protected from the world.

Shit happens. Sometimes you just have to move on.

That's what I keep telling myself, but I can't move on. No matter how many times the words replay in my head, I can't get over how I feel knowing that I was the person that Mason called when he needed someone.

"You have to stop blaming yourself." She tells me.

I chew on the inside of my cheek, not knowing how to respond to that. How do I just I stop?

"Mason was hurting. He was in a bad place, and he could only think of one way out." Her speech sounds a lot similar to Tadgh's. There's definitely something here that I don't know about. "As much as I hate to say this, that boy was going to do what he did either way. Whether you had answered that phone or not."

"I still could have tried."

"You would have tried, and then he would have done the same thing, and how would you feel then?" She's quick to shut down that notion too. "He made you feel like shit when he was living...don't let him do it now that he's gone too."

All of the sudden, a loud gasp comes from the crowd around us. For the first time since the match started, it's silent in the Tommen stadium.

Maeve and I both look at the pitch, scanning for any sign of what could have happened.

I see one of the players face down in the grass, and I can see Niall and Finley running over to him.

One thing I know about that group is that the three of them are always together. Yet I only see two.

"Oh God." Maeve stands up, taking Kennedy with her.

That's when it clicks.

The player that's hurt is Callum.

I watch in a panic as Tadgh and the team's trainer jog out on the pitch, towards Callum, who's surrounded by the other players. They shove through the crowd, and I can see the trainer kneel down on the grass next to Callum.

He's saying something to him, but I don't know what. All of the players around Tadgh step back, letting him work, and that gives me a clear view of his body on the field. Tadgh is knelt down on one side of him, the trainer on the other as he seems to be talking to Callum and doing some sort of test.

"Can you watch them?" Maeve asks me, and I don't dare to tell her no when I see the panic in her eyes.

I nod "Yeah I got them."

That was all she needed to hear before she shoves through the crowded bleachers, making her way towards the pitch.

"I told you he was distracted." Flynn mumbles.

"Is he gonna be okay?" Kennedy asks me, wrapped around my upper half like a koala.

I wait a moment before I answer "I don't know."

I've never wanted a person to be more okay in my life. I need Callum. He can't be hurt, I can't take that too.

He loves hurling, maybe even more than he loves life itself. Without hurling, he'd be a mess.

I continue to watch him, praying for any sign of life. Just when I start to lose hope, he moves. Callum bends his legs up, and Tadgh and the trainer stand up, pulling him to his feet.

He's a little unstable on them, wobbling and swaying a bit. The trainer says something else to him, earning a small nod. They wrap his arms around their shoulders, and slowly help the woozy Callum off of the pitch, the crowd clapping and cheering as they watch him walk off.

I want to run down there and check on him, hell I'd even kiss his injury. I have never been this down bad. He's ruining me. And I'm gladly letting him.