The Striker's Forbidden Love

icular energy of someone who'd been sitting on gossip all night and

g up from the laces she was tying with

Mia. By accident. That's basical

od kind of famou

asked, tilting her head like

inally looked up long enough to shoot her a lo

g her hands up in surrender, tho

about me by accident, I fully intend to lean in

le it when I film you missing a penalty." Mia

Priya said, mock-offended, and Mia la

uder than if she had. Mia caught her eye once, just briefly, and Sofia looked away first which should have

Daniel's voice carried in from the h

me to spare early enough that she caught Daniel checking his watch, then catching her already standing

s something almost like approval in it, b

Mia said, chin lift

bare minimum, Torres." Daniel said, but t

t a hint of a smile , and walked past him onto the pitch bef

ed privately, a l

t players on the roster were bent over with their hands on their knees by the second hour. Mia didn't mind it. She'd never minded hard work; it was the only thing in her life that had ever been fair, the only pl

r miss a far-post cross for the second

, jogging back to her mark, breath c

ng the ball." Daniel said, arms crossed now, watching her l

own anyway, and the next cross found her foot clean and tr

se." Daniel said, unreada

a muttered, joggin

called after her, not

turning around, and this time s

for yet and wasn't in any hurry to find one. By the time the whistle blew for the last time, her legs were shaking and her shirt was so

tomorrow's match had a real shot. Mia peeled off toward the water table, throat raw, legs heavy, satisfied in the sp

, teasing, the kind of comment she probably would've mad

said, capping her water bottle, rolli

rinning now, clearly enjoying herself. "The rest of us only got corre

le is the whole job." Mia said,

ft an impression. That's usually how memory works, Sofia." Mia adde

p in mock surrender. "Forget I said anything. Go

the smile was real, easy, nothing underneath it b

the parking lot. "Try not to get benched again, Torr

er, and Sofia's laugh carried

time all morning. That was the thing about Sofia, nobody outside the team really understood me. The teasing never had teeth in it, not really,

for her car with her legs pleasantly wrecked and her mood

rowaved something that only loosely qualified as dinner. She almost didn't check it.

he reporter

the pitch with a zoom lens that hadn't quite kept up. Her and Daniel, mid-drill, him leaning in close to correct her s

derneath was t

is no

opped straight t

ooking at it. It didn't work. She could still see it perfectly, burned into the back of her eyes the exact angle of Daniel's shoulde

st those three words, sitting there in the dark of her kitchen, patien

dozen different replies and deleting every one before she finished typing it. It

because nothing felt safer than some

hrough a match clearly, without panic, one variable at a time. The account had no name and no followers she could see. That probably meant a burner, someo

they were st

ion links before she closed it again without typing a word. What would she even say? Someone's watching us and I don't know why it scared me this much. That was

before she could talk

One more message, even

ve m