Soccer School

Tobin

In April, I take a plane to New York, which is where the team trains. Abby, Hope, Carli, Alex, and Pinoe are waiting for me there. We drive to a rustic lodge in the Catskill Mountains. As Abby and the others show me around, I see Cheney and Arod passing a ball around with another girl. Cheney spots me. "Heya, Squirt!" she calls, waving. The other girl turns around. Tobin. She sees me, and her eyes widen. I know I should be glad to see her, but instead of joy, white hot anger fills me. "Thalia, I'm sorry." Tobin says. "I was busy, and-" "Save it, Heath." I growl. "I know when I'm not wanted. I just thought you loved me, that's all." and with that, I turn on my heel and stalk off. About twenty minutes later, I'm kicking a soccer ball at a wall when a shadow falls across the brick. I turn and see Hope standing there. "I'm really not in the mood for a lecture." I say. "You're getting one anyway." Hope says. "I told you not to let her slip away from you, but that's exactly what you did. She still loves you, Thalia, and you still love her. You just need to give her another chance. And I want you to really think about something: are you really mad at Tobin for losing contact with you, or are you mad at yourself for letting her go? Now, go apologize. I don't care whether or not you two get back together, because you were a jerk, but you need to apologize." I nod, and walk off. I knock on the door of Tobin's room. "Come in." she says, and she sounds like she's been crying. I open the door and walk in. Tobin glares at me. "Oh, it's you." she says. "Why can't you leave me alone?" "Tobin, I'm sorry." I say. "Oh, you're sorry now, are you?" Tobin asks. "Tobin, please!" I beg. "Just hear me out!" "Why should I?" Tobin asks. "You didn't hear me out." "Because I love you." I say. Tobin stiffens. "Hope caught up to me after I left, lectured me off my ass, and told me to go apologize. She made me realize that I'm not really mad at you for not keeping in touch with me, I'm mad at myself for letting you go. I'd understand if you don't want to be my girlfriend anymore. You deserve better." Tobin hugs me. "Of course I still want to be your girlfriend." she says. "It wasn't entirely your fault. Yeah, you let me go, but I let you go first." she kisses me. "Can we just forget this happened?" she asks. "That sounds good." I say. "I'm glad to have you back, Thalia." Tobin says quietly, pulling me closer to her body as if she's afraid I'll disappear from her life again. "I'm glad to have you back too, Tobs." I say. I pull out my phone. "Look what I did to my dorm walls." I say. "I go to an art school, so the walls are plain white and we can literally do anything we want to them." I show Tobin the picture of my walls, and she gasps. "It's...us." she says. "Even I'm on there. Even though I broke my promise." "I never stopped loving you, Tobin." I say. "It's so detailed!" Tobin says. "You did this all by yourself?!" "Hell yeah!" I say. There's a knock on the door. "Dinner, you two!" Abby yells. Tobin and I walk out of the room holding hands. "So you two made up, then?" Abby asks. "Yeah." I say. "Hope had to lecture me off my ass first, but yeah." "Good." Abby says. "Cuz you two are roommates, and if you hadn't made up, Thalia probably would have had to switch with Arod and room with Cheney." "No, she would have had to switch with KO and room with you, Abby." Cheney says, coming up behind us. "I would've killed her for breaking my best friend's heart." "Good point." Abby says. "But I'm glad you're back together." "So are we." I say, looking at Tobin. "So are we."