The Quiet Girl (An International Story)

Not Easy

September 2021

Virginia's POV:

I looked across the room at Nahikari.

"You ok?" Jenni sat next to me. I shook my head. "Talk to me, Vir."

I sighed. "She kissed me." I whispered.

"WHAT!" Jenni jumped out of her seat. Everyone looked. I covered my face. "Um." Jenni said. "Virginia said Mapi's neck tattoo is cool, which is crazy because look at it." I looked up. Jenni sat back down.

"WHY!" Mapi yelled.

"Shut up you neck tattooed dumbass." Alexia said.

Leila looked at Alexia in shock and laughed.

"I'm leaving." Mapi left. Everyone went back to what they were doing.

"Talk to me, Vir." I mocked Jenni.

"I'm sorry." Jenni laughed. "So what happened?" I stared at her. "I'll be quiet this time."

"When I got back to Spain I went to see her. We talked, she kissed me and I spent the night."

"YOU WHAT!" Jenni jumped up again.

"Jesus Christ." I mumbled and left the room.

Nahikari's POV:

I watched Virginia leave and looked at Patri.

"Is Jenni ok?"

"Jenni's losing her mind." Alexia said. "I feel bad for whoever ends up with her." Alexia laughed. Her laugh slowly stopped. "Shit." She got up and left.

"Remind me to never date anyone on this team." Patri said. "All of them are insane." She laughed. She looked over and realized I wasn't laughing. "But Virginia's great. Great pick, Nahi. You picked a real winner." She nodded. "Yay Nahi." She quietly cheered.

We won our first game of qualifiers. I looked at Vir. She laughed at Leila.

"You're making it obvious." Mapi sat next to me.

"Shut up." I mumbled.

"Nahi, I'm just trying to help you. Seeing you, both of you, act like this? It hurts. I want both of you to be happy. So stop staring at her and make a move."

"What if I already did?"

"What?"

"What if I already made a move."

"What did you do?"

"What about Alex?"

"What about her? No matter what happened there, she was never you. She was never going to make me feel the way you do."

"What are you-"

"Stop talking"

I looked at Virginia one more time. She looked up at me and froze. "I um." I shook my head. "I'm done." I got up and walked out.

Virginia's POV:

We sat on the bus back to the hotel. "I feel terrible that Mariana can't play." I said.

"Vir it was an accident. Get over it." Alexia sighed. My phone went off.

"MARIANA TEXTED ME!" I screamed.

"My girlfriend texted her and not me should I be worried?" Mapi said. Nahikari looked up.

"Read it." Alexia smirked.

"It says. Portugal barely won that game! I should've played but I can't because you had to go all Karate Kid on my ankle. Thanks a lot, Vir, I thought we were friends." I looked at everyone. "We are friends! I apologized!"