Rags 2 Pitches: A Secret Baby Sports Romance by Jessica Evans Page A

hours and playing football. I should get my BTECs, which is mainly practical stuff, so the rest I can do at night. Instead of working like a slave.”
    Then he hesitated as he said, “Let me call and then we’ll go down and have breakfast together.” He smiled as he kissed me on the head, “Or we could have it in bed?”
    I squealed like a little kid, the thought about us just chilling in bed together, eating and getting to know each other better properly. This was going to be a fantastic weekend. I quickly got up to pee, while he made the sick call. Then, I grabbed my phone to listen to any messages. It was only ten, but I thought that I would check, just in case. There was nothing, like I had hoped that there wouldn’t be.
    Today was Ryan and my day and nothing would get in the way of that. Especially not my mum and dad.
     
    ***
    “So, what is the deal with your mum?” He had said stuff about her a few times, he knew about my mum and her drinking habit, but he would say stuff about his mum in pieces, and then always change the topic back to football.
    “I can’t remember the last time I had a full English,” he said as he put a piece of bacon in my mouth and then started to stuff the fried egg in his mouth as if his life depended on it.
    I thought for a moment about my constant obsession with my weight and I agreed, “But then I don't think that I’ve ever had a full English.”
    My Mum had made a point of pointing out every girl that was in my school that was overweight. Telling me the type of woman that they would be when they were older and it never was a pretty picture. The funny thing was the fact that Mum wasn’t overweight, but her life was far from pretty. People are so quick to judge others, but don’t see their own life for what it really is; and in my Mum’s case, it was one big nightmare.
    “Well.”
    He drank some juice as if he was considering his words carefully. We were facing each other across the table like a couple, and it hadn’t felt official until now. He had explored my body and I in turn had done the same with him.
    How long I had waited to do it with someone; I never knew it would be with the guy that had watched me every day from across the street.
    That boy was Ryan Thompson and I was head over heels in love with him.
    “Mum is the kind of woman that believes a man could make her happy.”
    We had more in common then he thought. “Like mine.”
    “Errh?”
    “Well, Mum hangs on to my dad thinking that one day he will be faithful and maybe they can go back to the way things were, but that’s not going to happen.”
    He shook his head, disappointed with my words, “Why do you say it like that? It may happen one day.”
    I argued, “He cheats on her. I don’t even know if it’s the same woman that he goes to each and every weekend or different ones. Actually it doesn’t matter. He cheats on her and doesn’t even pretend that he’s not doing it.”
    His reply shocked me, “Well, maybe if your Mum stopped drinking, then he would stop.”
    “How could you say that? You don’t even know what she’s like.”
    He nodded, “True. I’m just thinking of her like my Mum. Selfish. Always thinking of herself, and no one else. My Mum’s got four kids by three different guys and, instead of trying to make things right for her kids, all she does is think of herself.”
    He looked sad as he continued to talk about her abusive boyfriend, the last one that had tried to have sex with his sister. The whole thing kind of made me feel sick. And then I started to realize that maybe he was right. Mum drank like a fish because she wanted to get to Dad. Even though she took me to school or picked me up, we’d never had a conversation. It would only consist of, “Bye.” or “What time should I pick you up?” “Do you have an exam today?”
    I didn’t even think that she knew that I was going to study medicine at uni. She didn’t even bother to ask what unis I’d applied to. Dad only