Speak Now

Left Behind

Tobin sat on the floor of her Portland apartment, watching the Espys red carpet alone. She looked on as an influx of grinning quarterbacks and pitchers filed past the cameras, but there was only one face she was waiting for.
   
She spotted him first. A clean cut, well styled Servando Carrasco flashed a smile at the press, but Tobin's eyes were elsewhere. At his left and holding loosely to his elbow, was the footballer Tobin had been waiting on. She put down her take out tray of pad thai and gawked. Alex Morgan was laughing and talking to the press alongside Servando. Hair done in a wide updo, clad in a form fitting black dress speckled with sequins, Alex looked as beautiful as Tobin had ever seen her.
   
"That should be me," Tobin muttered to the empty apartment. Alex had left Tobin behind to sulk into her pad thai, and look on as the love of her life cozied up to the wrong studly midfielder. While somewhat violently assaulting her meal, a thought occured to Tobin. Why should she sit there all alone, pouting over what could've been, when Alex clearly has no reservations? Switching off the tv, Tobin dumped the takeout tray in the garbage, threw on some skinny jeans and a white v-neck, grabbed her jacket, and headed to the club down the street.

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When Tobin entered the club, her thoughts of Alex were quickly drowned out by pulsing lights, blaring music, and the throng of bodies moving to the beat. She swaggered over to the bar and ordered herself a beer. She quickly knocked down the bottle before ordering another. The only cure Tobin had found to relieve heartache was alcohol, and she planned to up the dosage.
   
After a few more drinks, Tobin found herself on the dance floor, pressed against a blonde who's name she couldn't remember, moving to the pulsing beat of Beyoncé's Partition. Hands on hips, the midfielder lost herself in the sensations, her broken heart long forgotten. The blonde turned in Tobin's arms, finding her lips, drawing Tobin in to a slow, lust filled kiss. The music was forgotten as things began to heat up. When Tobin finally pulled away, her companion snaked a hand around her neck, pulled her down and whispered in her ear,
   
"Let's get out of here." Tobin was taken aback. In her stupor she hadn't seen where this was going. She backed away.
   
"I- I can't." She choked out. "I'm sorry." She continued her retreat and headed back for the bar. She slid onto a stool next to a tiny brunette.
   
"Another beer?" The bartender asked.
   
"Whiskey this time." Tobin replied, rubbing her temples. The brunette next to her turned at the sound of the familiar voice.
   
"Tobin?"
   
"Shirley?"