The Heart of the Stars

by Nicole Shay

  Imogen openly welcomed Olivia’s lips on her own, the familiar feeling returning to her. She still wasn’t satisfied with her apology yet though. Before Olivia leaned in for another kiss Imogen pulled away and took the girl’s hands in her own.

  “Livvie” She said low and serious as she looked into her girl’s eyes.

  Being away from Imogen and not seeing her on a regular basis that week because of the game had only made Olivia miss Imogen’s touch like crazy. As Imogen took her face into her hands, the striker looked at the girl intensely. “Imogen?”

  “I’m really sorry I wasn’t there when you needed me, and I’m sorry the first time I got to say ‘I love you’ was over a text message...you deserve better than that and - I-I’m just happy and grateful to call you mine.” Imogen didn’t look anywhere else but straight at Olivia, she gave the slightest of smirks as she awaited the girl’s response.

  “You’re here now,” Olivia said. “And we’re not a normal couple. I’m always going to be yours, Imogen,” she said and she meant it. There was no one else she’d rather have by her side than the girl right in front of her.

  Imogen’s heart fluttered at Olivia’s words. They were more than Imogen could have ever expected given yesterday’s events. Feeling more comfortable now that things were resolved Imogen resumed to her usual witty comments. “Well if you’re always going to be mine I guess I should always be yours huh? It’s only fair.” She said with a cheeky smile.

  The younger girl couldn’t help but giggle as their typical routine returned. “I guess so, you know...if you want.”

  “Oh, I insist, as long as you handle me with care you know, I don’t come with an instruction manual”

  “I guess I’ll have to make it up as I go along then,” Olivia grinned, quirking an eyebrow. “That won’t be a problem, will it?”

  “Such a problem” Imogen exaggerated as she leaned in to kiss Olivia again.

  Olivia was about to let Imogen kiss her before she was reminded of something. “Oh wait!” she said, ducking out of Imogen’s direction. “So uh...Ornella isn’t the only one who knows about us...”

  Imogen’s eyes grew wide as she took the information in. “Well don’t leave me hanging there!” She said curious and a little scared of who else knew.

  “Well um, I didn’t actually tell her we were together,” Olivia went on, not exactly sure how to break news like this to Imogen. “She was pissed and quiet yesterday before the game and then she kind of lashed out on me…” An idea came to her. “Oh, hey...do you know if Ornella’s ever mentioned being with someone?”

  “Uh, yeah as a matter of fact she did, why?

  “She has? Did she tell you who?” Olivia asked curiously.

  “Oh no? Olivia? Who is it?” Imogen asked feeling more anxious by the second.

  The striker looked down at her lap and quickly mumbled, “She was with Elaine until Friday.”

  Imogen wasn’t sure if she was hearing things or Olivia just said what she thought she said.

  “What was that??” She asked to clarify.

  Olivia let out a sigh and bit her lip as she looked at Imogen. “Ornella was dating Elaine…”

  Imogen’s jaw dropped and her eyes grew even wider with surprise.

  “Your Elaine? Elaine Strongman? Elaine Strongman who Ornella took a penalty kick against?”

  If this wasn’t such shocking news to Imogen, Olivia would’ve laughed at her reaction. “Yes baby, my Elaine. The one who—that’s why she panicked during penalty kicks!” she exclaimed.

  “It all makes sense now!” Imogen stated as she thought about the past month or so.

  “..Did something happen between them? Nella has been acting really weird lately” Imogen asked figuring this was where the conversation was supposed to go before she freaked out.

  Olivia made a face, hesitating. “Well uh...Elaine didn’t tell me specifics, but it may or may not have to do with us making out at the park a few days ago?”

  Imogen buried her face in her hands “Well then it’s our responsibility to get them back together.” Imogen stated, a new determination in her eyes.

  “And how do you suggest we do that?”

  “Oh we could invite them to the same masquerade unbeknownst to them?” Imogen joked .

  The younger girl rolled her eyes, but a small smile found her lips anyway. “You’re such a dork, you know that?” Olivia thought for a moment, trying to figure out the best way to approach the situation. Suddenly, an idea came to her.

  “Hey, can you get Ornella to the indoor gym tomorrow?” she asked, her eyes lighting up.

  Imogen shrugged “Oh yeah, probably! What do you have up your sleeve McBray?”

  Olivia smirked. “Well…”

  “Come on Nella, it’ll be good for you to get your mind off of whoever it is I need to beat up” Imogen joked as she drove them to the indoor gym.

  “Really Imogen, I’m fine! No one broke me! I’m still the little squirrelly ball of energy that you’ve always known.” Ornella explained.

  Imogen had to mentally remind herself that Ornella didn’t know that she knew Elaine was ‘the girl’ she had been talking about all along.

  She sighed “Good, then a little pickup won’t hurt!”

  Ornella shook her head with a chuckle “Oh Imogen..”

  Imogen pulled into the parking lot and looked around for Olivia’s car as planned. She spotted it and parked a few cars over. She figured, if anything went wrong at least Ornella and Elaine wouldn’t have to walk side by side back to the cars.

  “What’s up with you?” Ornella asked as she eyed her friend carefully.

  “What? Nothing, just looking for a good spot is all.” Imogen said trying hard to not seem obvious. It had crossed her mind that her horrible acting skills could ruin the whole plan but she went along with it anyway. “Alright, Ready to go?” Imogen asked as the two headed into the gym.

  “Oh Nella, let’s take a quick look at the cleats over there in the shop” Imogen said pointing to the shop next to the reception desk. Ornella looked for Julio at the desk but didn’t see him much to her relief. She lazily followed Imogen into the shop as they eyed the wall of cleats. Imogen looked down at her watch eyeing it carefully.

  “Olivia why are we here, you can’t even play,” Elaine groaned, helping the injured girl out of the car.

  Olivia shrugged, grabbing her crutches. “I thought you could relieve some stress and whatever else you have here while I enjoy watching you almost break a wall,” she joked, grinning.

  Elaine chuckled softly, rolling her eyes. “You’re so weird.”

  “I’m being thoughtful,” the striker corrected before hobbling into the store. She immediately found Julio and made eye contact with him. She gave a warning look before continuing to crutch over to the other employee at the desk.

  Elaine also saw Julio and gave him one of her infamous bitch faces before following Olivia. “I still hate him,” she hissed in Olivia’s ear.

  “I know,” Olivia murmured. You’re going to hate him even more soon, she thought to herself nervously. She looked at the time and knew everything was possibly going to go crazy in a few minutes.

  Once Olivia and Elaine were set up, Olivia took a seat on one side of the field while she watched Elaine on the other, punting balls and then pounding them into the wall. She knew this wasn’t even half of what the girl was capable of, but she liked watching her anyway, seeing Elaine without anything else distracting her. She turned her head to see Julio and his co-worker beginning to pass their small field and braced herself for what was coming.

  “Oh dude, that small, freckled girl?” Julio asked.

  “Yeah, dude her. She’s a defender I think? Number 5 or something…”

  At this, Elaine stuttered in her run.

  “Hell yeah,” Julio nodded. “She’s so fine.”

  Olivia watched Elaine tense up and her jaw clench.

  “I’d get in her pants no problem,” Julio smirked cockily. “When I�
��m done with her, she won’t be able to play for days.”

  The keeper had been staring at the ball in her hands but immediately dropped it when she heard the last few words. She immediately stormed over to Julio. “You think you’re hot shit or something?”

  Julio looked at her, raising an eyebrow. “What?”

  Elaine scoffed. “You think you can get anyone you want? You think you can get into girl’s pants like that no problem?”

  Julio’s co-worker took this as his cue to walk away. Julio opened his mouth to speak, but got cut off.

  “It’s not okay to talk about a girl like that! Especially not Ornella!”

  Olivia bit her lip, watching eagerly. Julio met her gaze, but Olivia nodded for him to continue.

  “What’s she to you, anyway?” he asked, crossing his arms. “Don’t you hate her or something?”

  “Don’t bring me into this!” Elaine snapped. “No one talks about Ornella like that! She deserves so much more respect than what you’re worth. She’d never go for you anyway,” she spat.

  “What makes you so sure?”

  “She has higher standards than people like you,” Elaine stated, glaring at him. “Hell, I don’t think anyone’s worthy of her.”

  “Dude if I strike it rich, I’m buying all those clea-” Ornella started but stopped as she heard a familiar voice up ahead. She looked up to see her ex confronting Julio. Getting over her initial shock, she tuned into what the keeper was saying. She only caught the last couple bits but that was enough for her. Seeing that Elaine was getting more and more tense as to whatever Julio was saying back to her Ornella dropped her bag and started to run over as the girl’s fists clenched tighter.

  “Bet I could get it done in a week,” Julio tested Elaine, actually kind of getting anxious about what was about to happen, but knew he had to keep going.

  “You’re such a dick I swear,” Elaine spat, her fist backing up as she got ready to swing.

  “Elaine!” Olivia’s eyes widened, but she was almost positive the keeper couldn’t hear her over the amount of anger she had at the moment.

  “Elaine! Stop!” Ornella exclaimed as she jumped in between her and Julio and nudged the girl a step back.

  Elaine’s eyes had so many flames in them that it took a moment for her to notice Ornella. “Nella?”

  Olivia quickly motioned to Imogen to get help her up so the two of them could leave before either Ornella or Elaine noticed it was all planned.

  Imogen sneakily rushed to Olivia’s side to help her up.

  “Good plan Livvie” Imogen whispered with a smirk as she got the girl to her feet.

  “Let it go, okay?” Ornella said softer not letting go of Elaine’s still tense arms.

  Elaine looked at Julio, then back at Ornella, who was able to calm Elaine just a little with her gentle touch. The two of them were too focused on each other to notice Olivia and Imogen running off with Julio quickly following them.

  “Okay,” Elaine said softly, unsure of what else to say.

  “I uh- should probably let go of you now too huh?” Ornella nervously stated as she released her hands from the girl’s toned arms. She didn’t realize how much she missed and maybe even needed Elaine’s touch until she let go.

  Before she could even think about saying no, the contact was gone and Elaine found herself missing it even more than she had an hour ago. She looked at Ornella for a long moment before asking, “What are you doing here?”

  “Keeping Imogen company, speaking of which, where did she go?” Ornella wondered as she did a three sixty, Imogen nowhere in sight.

  Elaine gave her a look before turning to check on Olivia, but instead found the place the crippled girl occupied empty. The pieces clicked in her mind. “Little shits,” she hissed. “Olivia is gone too.”

  Ornella slowly turned to Elaine as she also realized what was going on. The smallest of smiles crept onto her face as she should’ve known what was up her best friend’s sleeve. A seriousness came back as her eyes found Elaine’s again.

  “Well, now what?” She asked hoping the goalkeeper would know what to say.

  Elaine was mentally cursing Olivia out in her head for setting her up like this. At the sound of Ornella’s voice, her heart thudded a little faster than it should have, faster than it had in awhile. “Well...obviously, we’ve been set up.”

  “Maybe ….maybe it’s for the best” Ornella nervously said as her eyes wandered to the ground.

  The keeper gave Ornella a curious expression. Though they last conversation they’d had was one with both of them yelling, Elaine couldn’t find it in her to bring the anger back now. “How?”

  “I um- heard you defending me just now” Ornella stated.

  Elaine offered a small shrug, thankful she didn’t get embarrassed easily. “He’s an asshole for saying that.”

  Ornella knew her ex was a hard egg to crack but she just wished in this moment she let her walls down for once and said how she really felt.

  “Listen, I’m not saying we should get back together or anything, but I’m sorry Elaine, for everything.”

  Elaine usually wasn’t one to look back on her past. But if her past included Ornella, she’d always turn around for a reminder of what she had. She looked at the smaller girl, the freckles seeming more prominent than ever. She knew Ornella down to the curves of her bod, and it didn’t feel the same without her. Nothing felt the same without her.

  “It was really stupid, I guess,” Elaine mumbled. “You know I’m hot-headed sometimes.”

  “It wasn’t stupid...I should have told you, you had...have every right to be mad at me” Ornella truthfully stated. She felt so small next to Elaine and she wanted nothing more than for the older girl to hold her tightly and tell her everything would be alright but she also knew life didn’t always give away happy endings so easily.

  The taller girl let out an exasperated sigh, knowing exactly how this was looking to go. “Let’s not do this, Ornella.”

  “Alright Elaine, then I guess all that’s left to say is that.. I miss you” Ornella let out surprised at how forward she was being.

  Elaine looked at Ornella straight in the eyes, not even missing a beat. “I miss you too.” Majority of the time, she was the one who led. Now it was Ornella, and she was more than willing to follow Ornella’s lead.

  Ornella nervously licked her bottom lip as her eyes flicked to Elaine’s. She slowly moved closer to Elaine and stood on her toes as she leaned up.

  It was almost like instinct to Elaine when she was able to process what was about to happen. She immediately grabbed Ornella’s hips, tugging her a little closer before pressing her lips against the smaller girl’s.

  Ornella felt her heart skip a beat as she felt Elaine’s strong hands pull her closer to the keeper. She kept her eyes shut as the two pulled away from each other. Almost breathless from the kiss she took a breath “I missed that too” She said as the smile grew on her face and she finally opened her eyes.

  Elaine laughed at Ornella’s comment, watching as her smile grew wider. “Come on, let’s get out of here. Olivia can ride home with Imogen. We’re stealing baby horse’s jeep.”

  “You thief! First my heart, and now Olivia’s car?” Ornella exclaimed as she took the girl’s outstretched hand waiting for her to take it.

  “Arrest me then,” the keeper teased, gladly taking Ornella’s hand as they walked out of the indoor gym.

  Imogen squeezed Olivia’s hand as they watched from their hiding spot off to the side. “We did it!” She whispered excitedly.

  “She’s taking my car!” Olivia whined with a big pout on her face.

  “Oh come on Livvie, look at the bigger picture here!” Imogen said with a cheeky smile all the while laughing not able to contain her punch line any longer “..At least they won’t be making out and getting their love juices all over my car!”

  Olivia’s eyes widened as she hit Imogen’s arm. “Imogen! I hate you!”

  “Love you too babe!�
� Imogen said still laughing as she rubbed her arm.

  CHAPTER 11

  Imogen mindlessly stared at the passing wave of people as they left the movie theater. Olivia had decided it was time for her and Imogen to have an official movie date like ‘other couples’ so they went to go see the latest rom com that was out. Imogen spent the entirety of the movie laughing at the overly cheesy scenes while Olivia punched her in the arm to shut her up. Imogen looked over to the bathroom entrance as she waited for Olivia so they could leave. Before she could check her watch to see the time a familiar voice instantly stiffened her body.

  “Imogen?” Chloe’s voice asked from afar.

  Imogen slowly turned to see Allie, Chloe, and Lilith making their way into the theater.

  “H-Hey guys!”

  “What are you doing at the movies alone??” Allie asked curiously.

  “Maybe she’s not alone, eh?” Chloe quipped as she nudged Allie and Lilith on both sides of her.

  The three stared at the girl even more intently as they waited for her response.

  Imogen gave a nervous smile as her eyes darted from girl to girl. This was bad news, and she knew it. She just wondered how she was going to make it out of the night alive.

  “I like going to the movies alone actually!” She finally said as confidently as she could.

  “What did you see?” Lilith asked not convinced .

  “Uh- that new one..about the girl who falls in love-” She began until Chloe cut her off.

  “You went to go see a rom com by yourself? Now I know you’re hiding something!” She exclaimed.

  Imogen shook her head “Guys, I swear I went to go see a rom com by myself! Why is that so hard to believe?” She knew immediately why it was so hard to believe as soon as the question came out of her mouth.

  “Hey is that? Oh my god, it’s McBray!” Allie said fuming as she said Olivia’s name.