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Niall took my hand in the ambulance, and I let him. They’d given me painkillers, so as the world became gradually visible, I could think again.

‘It hurts.’

‘I know,’ he said. ‘Should have heard your scream. I felt it, Lexie. Like it was happening to me too.’ He was holding on to my hand even more tightly now.

‘Always trying to steal my thunder.’

He laughed. ‘Meg wanted to come with you, but I made her stay for the scout.’

I nodded through the pain as a realization sank in. ‘I’m not going to be able to play for ages.’

Then the tears started. Thick and fast.

‘Players get injured, Lexie. It’s no big deal.’

‘No big deal?’ I repeated. ‘It’s literally the most important thing in my life.’ I choked the words out.

Niall let go of my hand to play with the tubes that were attached to me.

‘Don’t you think you were doing a bit much? Didn’t you listen to what Mum said?’ Niall said gently.

‘I just wanted on the team,’ I said and broke down again.

Niall was silent for the rest of the journey, just sitting beside me as I cried and thought about how much of a disaster this was.

I had an X-ray, but nothing was broken. Dr Evans was right.

I’d torn my calf muscle, so I definitely wouldn’t be playing football for ages.

I’d need loads of rest and then physiotherapy.

I couldn’t even cry. It was like it was too unbelievable.

But all of it, all of it, was my fault. Shane, the injury.

They’d all told me not to do too much. What an idiot.

They gave me a prescription for a load of medication I’d never even heard of and lent me a pair of crutches.

Niall phoned a taxi and helped me into it, then into the house when we got back.

I’d forgotten about the party. The house was still a mess and stank of alcohol.

I sat down in the living room and looked at my phone. Missed calls from Megan and two messages.

MEGAN : Are you OK?

MEGAN : Call me!!!

I phoned her and she almost cried when I told her that her dad was right. And then I cried when she told me what had happened at the end of the match.

The scout wanted to see her play again. They were really impressed. So not only did she ace the NI trials and get into the training programme but she was also on the radar of a Premier League scout.

I was so happy for her. Yeah, I thought about how it would feel if it had been me, but being happy for her felt good.

Despite the painkillers and the ice that Niall had brought me, my leg hurt so much.

I had no idea how Niall was going to sort the house out by himself. But he tried. I’ve never seen him do so much cleaning in his life.

We didn’t talk. I sat there while he went from room to room, picking up more bottles and scrubbing bits of carpet.

Megan showed up in the evening.

‘I can’t believe you tore it. Does this mean you can’t …?’

‘Play football for ages,’ I said, finishing her sentence and bursting into tears. It was like I’d been holding it in all afternoon, and now that some of the painkillers had worn off everything felt even more unfair.

She leaned in to hug me.

‘That’s amazing news about the scout, Meg.’

Megan just listened as I cried, about the pain, about the fact I couldn’t play football, about Shane.

‘She’s OK,’ I heard her say.

I pulled myself from Megan’s shoulder and looked towards the door. Niall was standing there staring at me with a look of horror on his face. Megan pulled away and walked over to him. They left the room and I could hear them whispering outside.

I took out my phone and checked WhatsApp again, just in case I’d accidentally turned off notifications and hadn’t noticed that Shane had sent me a message.

But nothing. He’d read the ones I’d sent last night, but no reply.

I thought about sending him a picture of my leg, but that wasn’t fair, so I flicked on to his Instagram.

To the page that he barely updated. Some old photos of kids playing football in mismatched green kits.

I looked at the picture carefully and spotted him.

He was laughing at something, and he looked so happy.

I ached to be near him again. Maybe I could forget it all, everything that had happened, just to have him back.

And then it hit me how much I wanted him to tell me all his secrets, when I hadn’t actually told him all mine.

Yeah, he knew that I loved football, but he didn’t know how it had completely taken over my life, that I was willing to do so much that an injury was inevitable.

Niall walked back into the room. ‘Mum and Dad are coming back,’ he told me. ‘Sorry I didn’t tell you – you were out of it, and I kind of freaked out. I phoned them earlier to tell them what had happened. I figured they’d want to know. They’ll be back in about an hour.’

Panic rushed over me. The house still didn’t look the way they’d left it. There was no way they wouldn’t guess.

‘But the house,’ I said.

‘I’ll do some more now, but I think we’re just going to have to wing it.’

Niall and Megan worked their arses off, trying to make it look like we hadn’t had a huge house party last night. They even opened all the windows and doors in a useless attempt to get rid of the smell of alcohol.

Niall dropped Megan home before Mum and Dad got back, so for about fifteen minutes it was just the two of us again. But this time without the chaos of the hospital.

‘You need more painkillers?’

‘Yes, please.’

I swallowed the pills.

‘Lexie …’

Niall hesitated when I turned to him, my face tear-stained.

‘What?’

‘Nothing, it doesn’t matter,’ he said.

And then the front door opened.

‘Oh my goodness, Lexie.’ Mum’s voice sounded shaky, like she’d been crying. She rushed into the living room and had my face in her hands in seconds. ‘What happened?’

‘Calf muscle,’ I said, and fell apart again, feeling about ten years old. ‘I tore it.’

‘It’s OK, love, it’ll be OK. It’s just a setback and it’ll force you to have a good rest.’

I shook my head. I didn’t want to rest. I never wanted to rest.

‘We’ll get you better, pet,’ Dad said from the doorway. I could tell he was stressed about something. ‘Niall, a word?’ He motioned for Niall to step into the hall.

I tried to listen to what he was saying, but I could barely hear over Mum telling me all the things she was going to do to make my recovery as quick as possible.

‘I’m sorry,’ I heard Niall say. ‘It was only a few people.’

My blood ran cold. How had he figured it out already?

‘You’ve had too many chances, Niall. I’d hoped by now I could trust you, but it’s clear that I can’t. Get out of my sight.’ Dad’s voice was clipped and cold.

I heard Niall disappear up the stairs and my heart sank.

‘How you feeling, love?’ Dad came in, his tone immediately warm.

‘OK,’ I said.

‘A party, Georgina. Niall had a party here when we were gone.’ He looked at Mum and shook his head in disgust.

‘No, he wouldn’t have. He knows better than that,’ she said.

‘An empty beer can in the plant pot by the door was the first indication. He admitted it when I asked. I haven’t even looked through the rest of the house for damage.’ Dad scanned the room, looking for evidence.

‘Lexie, you tell us. What happened?’ Mum looked at me, desperate to hear that it was all a lie and we’d actually just sat and watched TV together when they were gone.

But I couldn’t do it to him. Dad’s face. The disgust. I knew how much it must have hurt him. I was touched that he hadn’t thrown me under the bus, but it wasn’t his fault.

‘It wasn’t Niall who had the party.’

Dad looked right at me. ‘There’s no point lying, Lexie. He told me everything.’

‘It was me. He didn’t want it. He tried to stop it.’

There was silence.

‘Oh, Lexie,’ Mum said beside me.

And I burst into tears again because I was such a mess. On top of everything else, I was a crap daughter.

‘I didn’t expect this from you,’ Dad said. ‘You’ll be paying for any damage to this house, regardless of the injury.’

‘OK,’ I said quietly.

‘OK, let’s just forget about the party for now. We need to focus on getting you better.’ Mum put her arm round me and Dad left the room with another piece of my heart.

‘You know, I’ve been away too much recently. I’m going to stay with you guys from now on. And I don’t want you to worry about the house. Dad is over the top about it. It’s only stuff,’ she said.

‘Thanks, Mum,’ I choked out.

I felt terrible. For so long I’d seen Mum as this kind of superfluous part of our family.

Like she was just there to be nice. But I couldn’t have been more wrong.

I thought back to when she’d told me about her tennis and for the first time, I truly understood how hard it must have been to tell me, and how she’d just been trying to protect me.

Wrong about Mum, wrong about Niall, who actually still seemed to care about me. What else was I wrong about?