The Heart of the Stars

by Nicole Shay

  She opened the door to find Imogen sitting, silent, and staring intently at nothing.

  “Imogen? What happened? Are you okay?” Ornella rushed out unsure how her friend was.

  Imogen shook her head in disbelief, still not letting a word out.

  “How could you let me get that drunk Nella? I mean Olivia McBray?” Imogen declared in a frenzy.

  “Whoa Whoa partner hold up…” Ornella replied not liking Imogen’s accusatory tone.

  “I kissed...no made out with Olivia McBray!” Imogen yelled as if Ornella couldn’t hear her.

  Ornella pretended to act like she didn’t already know this fact but couldn’t help but laugh a little at her friend’s drunken overreaction.

  “It’s not funny! It’s Olivia McBray!” Imogen repeated as if spitting out the girl’s name would be enough to make her forget her lingering taste in her mouth.

  “Dude chill okay? You were drunk, I’m sure she was drunk. Next time you see her, just make some snarky comment and move on with it..it’ll be like nothing ever happened.”

  “I wish it were that easy” Imogen sighed before continuing “You can’t tell anyone about this! Okay squirrel?”

  “Got it but uh one question….who was it that you kissed again?” Ornella asked mockingly.

  “I swear….if you weren’t my best friend, and the person driving me home...I would kill you right here, right now” Imogen muttered.

  Ornella just looked at the girl with a smirk knowing full well that Imogen wasn’t capable of hurting a fly let alone a person.

  The two drove in silence for awhile until Imogen started up again.

  “I mean what are the chances of me kissing Olivia? Of all people?”

  “I don’t know, just sleep on it” Ornella said with a reassuring pat on her friend’s shoulder. She pulled out her phone to text Elaine before she pulled out of Imogen’s driveway.

  Imogen’s home safe and sound and freaking the hell out…..how’s your end?

  As soon as Ornella left, Elaine made her way to Olivia, maneuvering around people to get to the striker. As she grew closer, she noticed the girl’s face was pale and her jaw was hanging open. Elaine hid a smirk at the sight. “Hey Ollie? I think it’s time we head home.”

  Olivia only offered a nod and a weak, “Y-Yeah…”

  Knowing the girl wouldn’t be able to move due to shock, Elaine placed her hand on Olivia’s back and guided her out of the party and to the parking lot, where silence finally found the both of them. Neither spoke a word as Olivia was still in shock and Elaine was trying not to make a teasing comment about what just happened.

  As Olivia buckled her seat belt, Elaine decided it was time to speak. “Do you want to tell me how drunk you are or do you want to talk about why you’re so shocked?”

  It took a moment for Olivia to reply. “I...too much. I drank too much.”

  Elaine nodded slowly, still not starting the engine. “Okay...and now why do you look like you just saw a ghost or something?”

  Olivia shook her head, looking out her window. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

  “Olivia...come on.”

  “It’s so embarrassing.”

  “It can’t be that bad,” Elaine offered, and she meant it. Olivia wasn’t the only one kissing their rival. “Who was the girl I saw you with?” she asked carefully, reminding herself that she had to pretend she had no idea what was going on.

  Olivia cringed at the reference of the event. “Um..”

  “Olivia McBray, tell me right now or I swear to God-”

  “It was Sloane,” Olivia spat out, the name still sour in her mouth although her lips were still on fire.

  “What?” Elaine faked surprised.

  The striker nodded, looking like she was about to cry. “It was Imogen Sloane. I didn’t...I didn’t know it was her, Elaine. I just saw her and we started talking and then we were dancing and the next thing I know we’re making out and then we take off our masks and it’s her and..” she trailed off, her rant wearing her breath out.

  “Olivia, breathe. You’re so wasted right now. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen you so wasted,” Elaine chuckled, starting the engine. “More than likely, she was wasted past her limit too. If you see her again, just say something you’d usually say to her and she’ll do the same and it’ll be okay.”

  “But Elaine…” Olivia croaked out as they left the parking lot.

  “What?”

  “I can’t stop thinking about it.”

  Elaine rolled her eyes. “Of course you can’t. It just happened and you’re still drunk. It’ll be okay Olivia, I promise.”

  “Okay,” Olivia nodded, desperately needing to believe Elaine’s words. “Can we keep this between us? The team would freak.”

  “Of course kid,” Elaine confirmed. They drove the rest of the way to Olivia’s house in silence.

  Once Olivia stumbled into her house, Elaine checked her messages and sighed, typing back a reply.

  Ollie’s pretty much about the same. Promised her that it’d blow over soon.

  Monday afternoon Olivia found herself lacing her cleats up in her locker room. Game day rituals were finishing around her as she adjusted the pre-wrap on her hair. After the tie against their rivals, they needed to win the games following it to stay on top. The team needed to be focused, Olivia included, but there was one thing clouding Olivia’s mind; Imogen Sloane. She couldn’t forget the way they effortlessly held a conversation for hours, or the way it felt so right to hold Imogen while they danced or the way Imogen’s lips felt against her own. It disgusted and frightened her how she could think of Imogen, her rival, like that. She was counting on Elaine to be right, but so far it hadn’t blown over.

  “Hey,” Elaine said, sitting next to Olivia. She’d checked on her the following day and made sure Olivia’s hangover wasn’t killing her, but besides that they hadn’t talked about that night much. “You ready?”

  Olivia let out a shaky breath, nodding. “We’ve got this.”

  “How are you?” Elaine asked, and the two knew it was more than just a casual question.

  “Still shaking it off,” Olivia admitted.

  “It’s okay Olivia. It’s over and it’s game time. We need a goal or two from you today.”

  The striker offered a weak smile. “And some saves from you.”

  “If we’re lucky I won’t be making any saves,” Elaine joked, nudging her shoulder. “Come on, Captain. Let’s win this.”

  Coach called them in for last minute tactics and the two stood, joining their team.

  The game started easy enough. The team was finding their rhythm easily with passing mainly in their offensive third. Ten minutes in, Maeve found the back of the net giving them a 1-0 lead. As the game went on, their opponents begun to step out, making it harder for the girls to connect passes closer to the goal. Olivia’s touches were off completely; her tackles were either too early or too late and her shots weren’t where they were supposed to be. No matter how hard she tried to focus on the game, there was one thing on her mind and it needed to get out of there fast.

  When the half time whistle blew, Maeve was the first on Olivia’s case. “What the hell is wrong with you?” she asked, jogging over to join Olivia’s side.

  “I don’t know,” Olivia shrugged, still confused on how she’d been so distracted during the game.

  Hailey joined them on Olivia’s other side. “Yeah Olivia, where’s our baby horse?”

  “She’s here,” Olivia promised.

  “Well she needs to wake up,” Maeve said. “If Captain’s game is off, everyone’s game is off.”

  Olivia sighed, the reminder of being captain weighing heavily on her shoulders once again. “I know, I know. I’ll be better second half.” Her eyes met Elaine’s before she entered the locker room, and with one glance they knew Olivia needed to clean up her act.

  Fifteen minutes into the second half, Olivia grew frustrated with the way she was playing. This wasn’t her top per
formance she, along with everyone on her team, knew it. Maeve had the ball and was going towards the end line, but lost her control as a defender came in and swept the ball away from her. Olivia went in for the tackle and was successful. She began to dribble, looking up for an opportunity to shoot it, but she was denied as another defender took the ball away. Knowing she should’ve shot as soon as she had the ball, Olivia sprinted after the defender and went in for the slide tackle, but was too late as the ball had already left the defenders feet.

  Shit was the only thing running through Olivia’s mind.

  The whistle blew after the defender’s body hit the ground. Olivia struggled to get up as the referee held up a yellow card in front of her. She tried her best not to roll her eyes as she limped away.

  “Olivia, what was that?” Justine asked. “That was a really hard tackle.”

  “I thought I could get it,” Olivia explained, frustration evident in her voice. “Should’ve shot sooner,” she muttered.

  Two minutes later, Olivia was subbed out.

  “McBray,” her coach said, scolding her. “I don’t know what the hell is wrong with you, but you need to fix it or else you’re not playing next game. A yellow card, really?”

  Olivia hung her head, unsure of what else to do. She joined her other teammates on the bed and watched the game, trying to shake off the feeling of Friday night.

  Imogen looked around her huddled group of teammates. It had been four days since the party and she still couldn’t shake the feeling of Olivia’s lips on hers. She wished the idea of doing it again wasn’t such a sobering thought. She knew she had to be one hundred percent for the game, her team deserved that much.

  “Alright guys, we got this, ‘Team’ on three!”

  As she broke from the huddle and took her place on the field she managed to find Ornella’s worried eyes. Imogen gave a quick thumbs up to the girl suggesting she was ready and focused.

  Oh God Ornella thought as she could see the distraction etched all over her captain’s face.

  The game started off fast causing Imogen to exhaust much quicker than usual. That and the fact that her head was somewhere other than the game. One mistake after another and Imogen finally and carelessly let the ball slide to the other team’s feet in a bad pass. The girl swiftly carried the ball up the left side and crossed it over to one of her teammates who managed to head it into the net. Imogen heard her coach yell out to her “Imogen! Focus!”

  The team was still down by one as the halftime whistle blew. Imogen jogged over to the bench to get some water before heading into the locker room.

  “Imogen...whatever ‘this’ is, whatever is going on, you need to step up okay? Come on you’re better than that” Her coach stated. She nodded as she saw Ornella waiting for her up ahead.

  “Imogen, You need to forget about Friday night okay? Right now, you got to be here!” Ornella said hoping to snap the girl out of it.

  “I’m here, I’m here, I swear” Imogen declared knowing full well that she wasn’t at her best.

  No one else acknowledged her first half performance knowing that it wouldn’t help much pointing out the obvious.

  An hour later and Imogen was sitting on the same bench with the same lingering thought. Her second half performance was better but she was still obviously distracted. Her team lost by one goal, off of a slip up on her part.

  What am I going to do?

  She took a few long breaths before finally accepting what she knew she had to do. She had to confront Olivia about Friday night. It wasn’t going to be pretty, she was sure of it, but it had to be done.

  To get over the day’s game, Imogen needed something to clear her head. She decided a nice jog down to the town park was exactly what she needed. She hadn’t thought much about how she would ever reach Olivia until she finally stopped running to take a break. She sat down under the tree’s big branches knowing that she could find some peace of mind there. It was her favorite spot in the park and what was better yet was that it was the late afternoon and no one would be around. Before she could brainstorm about what she might say to Olivia or even how to reach her she heard an exasperated sigh on the other side of the tree and a rustling of leaves.

  All Olivia wanted to do the day after her game was forget everything that happened Friday night. The very fact that she was craving Imogen’s touch was enough to freak her out. Unable to do any homework, she grabbed her phone and pulled on a hoodie before driving to a park she normally didn’t go to very often. With her headphones in she took off, willing herself to forget anything on her brain and allowing herself to be consumed with the breeze hitting her face and her legs pushing through. Later on, she needed to catch her breath, so she stopped at the next tree she saw, putting her weight against it with the palm of her hand as she caught her breath, headphones still in.

  Imogen gingerly cocked her ahead around the tree to see if she could recognize the source of the noise.

  She was surprised to see a girl who looked to be about her age. She couldn’t really get a good look at the angle she was at, and the impending darkness of the night was settling in. She carefully got up to walk away since two people can’t share her tree when she heard a gasp from the girl. She turned to apologize for startling the girl.

  “Oh sorr-..oh..Olivia.”

  Olivia’s eyes were wide with surprise when she heard someone and she yanked her headphones off. It took a moment in the dim light, but once she heard the voice it only took a second later to recognize the face. “Imogen,” she said as she tried to force Friday night’s memories to the back of her mind.

  Imogen coughed to keep from being awkward but it was no use. She had no idea what to say to the girl. The last thing she expected was to see the one person she was running away from right in front of her.

  “Umm” She began as she rubbed her neck nervously. “What are you doing here?”

  The striker bit her lip, fingers fidgeting with her headphones. Out of all people and all places, why Imogen and why now? “I um...needed to go for a run. Why are you here?”

  “Had a bad game, needed to clear my head-” Imogen said cutting herself off not wanting to bring up Friday night.

  Olivia’s eyebrows raised as Imogen cut herself off. “I had a bad game yesterday. Head’s kind of all over the place, too.”

  The two stared in silence for a second before Olivia finally said, “Are we going to pretend nothing happened or--”

  Imogen left her jaw unhinged as the words failed to come to her.

  “We...were drunk” Was all she could manage to say as she didn’t dare move her eyes from the ground.

  Olivia watched the girl with her bright eyes in the dark. She was still unsure how to approach the situation at all. “I-I know. Too drunk really,” she continued for her. “No one knows about it, right?” she asked suddenly, a thought of the rest of her rivals finding out coming to her. She wasn’t sure if she could handle that.

  Imogen immediately shook her head “No..You didn’t tell anyone, did you?” she managed to say as she shifted her weight right to left.

  “No no,” Olivia said quickly. “Of course not.” Obviously she wasn’t about to say Elaine had taken her to the party and saw the whole thing happen. She wasn’t sure what the purpose of this conversation was but she was still trying to shaking the need to feel Imogen’s lips against hers again.

  “Um..well that’s good, would hate to stir anything up” Imogen replied wondering how she could escape the conversation. The increasing temptation to take a step closer to the girl was telling her to run the other direction.

  Olivia nodded, clearing her throat. “Yeah…” she said weakly. Her eyes flickered to Imogen’s lips before looking at the girl’s whole face. It was only steps separating them and Olivia’s resistance was growing weaker. The craving she’d been feeling for four days was stronger than ever with the culprit right in front of her.

  “I-I mean we can just forget it ever happened right?” Imogen said a little more so
ftly as she was feeling more and more vulnerable. She noticed what she thought was Olivia moving a little closer to her and she was all too ready to assume it was because the girl couldn't hear her.

  At Imogen’s suggestion, Olivia moved a little closer. She could hear the girl perfectly fine, but there was something drawing her to Imogen and Olivia wanted more than anything for it to stop. “O-Of course we can. It was just a stupid mistake,” Olivia reasoned. There was something in her telling her not to forget, to hold on to it, but she was still trying to remain level headed and smart about the situation. She noticed Imogen licking her lips and she told herself it was because of the air leaving them a little chapped.

  “Good so..stupid ..G-good” Imogen said again. She looked at Olivia’s lips as the girl was about to say something else but before she could she took a step forward silencing her. “So stupid” She said aloud more to herself than to Olivia. “Like this” she said before smashing her lips against the girl’s. The familiarity of her kiss almost taking her breath away.

  The fact that Imogen was so close to her was making Olivia dizzy. Her heart was pounding so loud she was scare the other girl could hear it. Flashes of Friday returned as Imogen silenced her and her eyes flickered down to those lips again, this time not looking up. The next moment Olivia felt Imogen’s lips on hers and she completely lost all common sense. Her arms wrapped around Imogen’s neck as she kissed her back, her cravings finally being fulfilled. Every little bit of resistance dissolved as she held Imogen closer, missing the contact she’d first felt days ago.

  Imogen pulled back a little as the realization of what she had done finally came to her senses. It was like déjà vu to Friday night except both girls were sober and that’s what scared Imogen the most.

  “Sorry” She breathlessly said unsure of what else would be appropriate.

  It took Olivia a moment to process what happened. The buzzing sensation was on her lips once again because of Imogen and she heard the apology, but shook her head. “I’m not,” she whispered before tugging Imogen towards her again and locking their lips together.