Page 84 of Take Her On

Maya fought a yawn with the back of her hand. “Please.”

Grandma collected the empty mug from in front of her. “You nervous?”

“Extremely.” A heavy feeling, one that she couldn’t seem to shake, had sunk low in Maya’s gut. The nightmares of being caught in quicksand didn’t help, and nor did Jamie’s absence last night. They’d got into the habit of texting each other goodnight, but Maya’s text had gone unanswered.

“Nerves are a good thing. They show you care.” She sighed, and Maya raised her eyes to look at her. “But you really don’t need to worry so much. I worry about you.”

“Well…you really don’t need to worry so much, either.”

Grandma shook her head, flicking the red tea towel at her. “I should’ve expected that one. You want a chocolate biscuit?”

She joined Maya at the table with two steaming mugs, and they raided the biscuit tin.

Dunk. Swirl. Tap twice.

“I wish I could come and watch you play,” Grandma said, her bony fingers tracing the pattern on the table. “But—”

“I wouldn’t want you to leave Grandpa on his own. It’s okay. Really.”

“He always understood the football more than me.” She placed her hand on Maya’s. “But I am proud of you, love. You’re so…driven. You certainly don’t get that from your grandparents. I always wanted to be at home looking after your mother. That was enough for me. And your grandpa, I mean, look.” She nodded towards the wonky kitchen tiles, and the half-sawn kitchen counter. Grandpa had ordered the wrong sizes and instead of exchanging them, he’d decided to saw them himself. Safe to say, it didn’t end well. “He never finished anything he started.”

“That’s okay too, though. People are different.”

She squeezed her hand. “But you’re more like your mother than you think. She was always very driven, too. Look at her now.”

A defensive wall popped up. Maya wanted to deny it.

Grandma continued, studying her face. “I know the two of you don’t always see eye to eye.”

That’s putting it lightly.

“You’re both very stubborn. Headstrong. You want to carry the world on your shoulders. But you don’t always have to do that.”

Maya dunked another biscuit, choosing not to comment. Today wasn’t the day to open up that can of worms. She needed to keep her head.

Her mum’s heavy footsteps came clomping across the landing and down the stairs. Maya smelled her perfume before she saw her.

“Good morning!” she sing-songed as she walked into the kitchen. She raised her eyebrows when she saw Maya and placed a hand on her hip. “Was there a fire I didn’t know about? What’re you doing up so early?”

That defensive wall bore arms and loaded. “It’s a big day today,” she said through gritted teeth.

Her mum walked over to the cupboard and pulled herself a mug out. “You have an exam?”

Unbelievable. “No. Exams finished weeks ago.”

“Oh, yes. That’s right.”

Maya tightened the grip around her mug, feeling Grandma watching. She took a sip to steady herself but could feel annoyance creeping in at the sides. She didn’t have enough sleep to deal with her mother this morning.

When it was clear she wasn’t going to volunteer information, Grandma continued for her. “It’s Maya’s big football game later.”

“Oh.” Maya could almost feel the rolling of her mum’s eyes as she fetched the milk from the fridge. “That’s nice.”

She shook her head. Nice? That’s nice? Is she serious?

“Have you got something to say, Maya?” her mum asked.

Maya realised she’d said the last part out loud. She stood up, scraping her chair on the wooden floor. Grandma’s eyes pleaded with her to stop, but now the anger was controlling her.