The Big Fish by Madison Henley (best free e reader .TXT) 📕

in her ears and her body felt hollow. Sweat bursted out of the pores of her skin and she gripped onto the remains of her coffee cup as her hands began to tremble. She looked down the snowy grounds to see if she could cross the street but there it was a four lane cross and the taxis were speeding. Gabrielle noticed the dryness in her throat and began to take a sip of her coffee but realized her trembling hand would only cause it to spill.

“Gabrielle?”

Gabrielle snapped out of her anxiety attack as the three Compton sisters approached her. Roelle ran and gave her a hug. Gabrielle stiffened as arms were wrapped around her.

“Now what is the likelihood of you and I being in Sweden at the same time!”

Payton laughed.

Gabrielle shrugged, her brain too disoriented to formulate words. Meredith was walking when she thought she saw Gabrielle but she always thought she saw Gabrielle since her flight had landed. And the time she actually did see Gabrielle, she didn’t think it was her so her heart went into double overdrive when she locked eyes with the blue eyed beauty. Gabrielle looked more like a goddess today than Meredith had ever seen her and Meredith was trying everything in her power not to lose consciousness on the very streets of Stockholm but the sight of Gabrielle took her breath away.

“What are you doing here?”

“I um,”

Gabrielle’s voice was unfamiliar to her ears. She could hear the quiver in her voice and just hoped she wouldn’t say something she regretted.

“I play soccer here.”

She guessed that was an okay answer.

“So that’s why you haven’t been answering my phone calls?”

Payton interjected. Gabrielle nervously laughed and kicked a piece of ice with her boot.

“So, what the hell are you doing playing soccer here?”

“I play for Sonde here.”

“Yeah, I’ve heard of them. So you’re a big shot now?”

“Yeah I guess.”

Gabrielle looked at Meredith who had her head down and playing with the loose string of thread on her coat.

“Do you have an upcoming home game? Maybe we’ll be in town long enough to see one.”

Gabrielle bit the dry skin off of her lip roughly and frowned. She couldn’t think straight. Meredith was standing in front of her yet she appeared to be far away from the conversation. They hadn’t said one word to each other and it was nerve wracking.

“I-actually have a game Saturday if you guys are gonna be here that long. I can get extra tickets.”

“Seriously that would be great.”

“Cool. So, um, let me get your number.”

“Mer, give her your number.”

Payton slapped Meredith on the arm and Meredith looked up for the first time and quickly looked to the left when she locked eyes with Gabrielle. She stuffed her hands in her pocket to hide them trembling and looked for a focus point so she wouldn’t have to lock eyes with Gabrielle’s again, finding herself staring at her shoes instead.

“Yeah, um sure.”

Meredith batted off her seven digits quickly and tapped her fingers in her coat pocket impatiently hoping the conversation would be over so she could breathe again.

“I’ll text you-guys with details. Nice seeing you.”

“You too.”

Gabrielle brushed past the Compton family just as abrupt as she ended the conversation and blew out a shaky breath as she prayed she would make it to her hotel room before bursting into tears.

***

Meredith had a pained expression on her face as her sisters continued to walk back home. Payton rambled on about how nice it was to see Gabrielle again but Roelle’s turned a deaf ear to the conversation. Her main focus was on her youngest sister. She had watched Meredith from the corner off her eyes with an eyebrow shot upward when speaking to Gabrielle. She was a statue the entire time she was there. Her face, even as cold as it was, was completely flushed and Gabrielle’s demeanor was even worse; the closed-ended sentences, and hesitation. It was there, on the streets of Stockholm, as she walked behind her sisters when she finally realized what had been going on with Meredith.

“Shit.”

CHAPTER TWENTY ONE

Keliah wiped her nose and stuffed her hand in her pocket as she used her other to hold the nozzle, filling gas into Georgia’s Range Rover. It was two o’clock in the morning and Keliah was getting weary. Georgia promised they had just a few miles to go an hour ago. The pitch-black roads were practically empty, sparse with an eighteen-wheeler here and there. Keliah looked through the window of the lit convenient store and saw Georgia handing her cash to the registrar. Keliah smiled dumbly, still on the high that she was spending the holidays with Georgia. I mean, this is what people who enjoyed each other’s company did, right? Vacation together in foreign countries? Or maybe Georgia was planning to propose and knew the only way was to do it out of America. Either way, Keliah was excited. Georgia turned and pointed in Keliah’s direction through the window to show which pump she was paying for. Keliah lifted her hand out of her pocket and threw Georgia an excited wave. Georgia rutted her eyebrows and waved back slowly. Keliah then looked above the gas pump and realized Georgia wasn’t looking directly at her. With a pang of embarrassment, Keliah stuffed her hand back into