CC7

CC7 - Part 6

Camila’s impressive performance last week had convinced our coach to have her start in Chicago. But this week’s game couldn’t be more different to the one before. The brown-eyed girl was seemingly beside herself. She lost almost every ball. Her usual speed was impaired by unnecessary mistakes she never made before. If I didn’t know her, I would have thought she had never played soccer a day in her life. I was worried because the game was still tied 0-0 and we needed her to help us win.

To make things worse, I saw the old Camila from the U-17’s resurfacing; tempered, hot-headed and uncontrollable at times. She had committed more fouls in the first half than every other player combined. And she was already yellow-carded. More fouls and she was probably going to be sent off. I couldn’t explain what had happened to her in the last 24 hours because yesterday morning at my apartment, she had laughed joyfully while smearing my face with chocolate syrup. This was a complete change.

I was passing her the ball and made a run to create some space for her but she lost the ball to her defender again. Camila kicked the opponent’s shin recklessly and I heard the whistle blowing. Things were going to get messy now. I saw several Chicago players walking up to the brunette and almost charging her because of her brutal foul. But my teammate was fearless it seemed and suddenly pushed another player on the ground. I ran over to deescalate the situation. Shielding the girl who wore the same jersey as me, the stadium was going nuts and so was everyone else.

Mel, our captain, dragged Camila away while Kristie and I tried appeasing the other players. A few seconds passed and I went to the referee in hopes to mediate but he was already holding a card and walking up to my teammate wearing the number seven on her back.

“You’re off!”, he said sternly and held up the red card so the left-midfielder had to leave the pitch immediately for not only fouling but also shoving another player.

I saw the frustration in my teammates’ faces but eyed the brunette silently walking off now. What on earth had happened to her? She had not been this angry lately and I was dumfounded at her sudden change of character. Was the pressure getting to her?

Whatever it was, I had no time to think about it because I had a game to play. A game we lost in the end 1-0. Playing one player down was always hard and even though we had tried our very best, it wasn’t enough and we conceded a goal in the 83th minute. Everyone was pissed off; including our coach. We were sitting in the locker room while he yelled at us for not being focused enough. My heart started pumping quicker when he addressed Camila, who was sitting in a corner by herself.

“And what the hell was with you today? I gave you a chance because you really delivered last week. But you can’t pull something like today no matter how good you played the week before! There is no room for egotistical behavior in this team and I won’t have that happen again, Cabello. If you have an off day, tell me and I won’t put you on the fucking pitch but you just left your teammates hanging out there. Never again, understood?”

She just nodded and I saw the usually expressive brown eyes be completely blank. They actually scared me but I was too afraid to approach her at this point.

We went back to the hotel and everyone was still kind of down because of the lost match. I had heard several players coming up to Camila by now, telling her that it wasn’t her fault and she shouldn’t be so hard on herself. But her detached behavior had started even before being sent off. It had started this morning when we had flown out here. She wasn’t talking to anyone and while I understood our situation was still tense at times, I wondered why she was back to her old ways of being unapproachable.

I went out to the hotel pool to get some fresh air when I saw my red-carded teammate sitting on the edge of the water. Her feet were dangling in it and I had to admit she looked absolutely stunning. The lights were only pallid but reflected off the caramel skin while the pool was only dimly illuminated beneath the surface. I gulped heavily when she looked up and noticed me. There was no reaction. She just looked at the water again and I gathered up some courage to walk over to her.