"William watching television, how strange." I heard Noelle comment from her room.

"I heard you!" I yelled at her in response. Though I had to admit, she was right, I spent a lot of my evenings watching rugby matches. It was my favorite sport and I didn't miss a single game of the Glasgow Warriors, the team I'd supported since I was a kid. I was just celebrating the halftime win when I saw Noelle quietly approach the couch.

"Do you need anything?" I asked.

"I was thinking... Could I watch the rest of the game with you? I always see you very captured when you look at a game, and I would like to understand what is so interesting about rugby," she replied.

"Of course you can watch it with me," I replied with a smile. I was glad that she wanted to take some time to learn more about one of my passions. She went to the kitchen, got some chips, and sat down next to me again, just in time for the end of the break.

"Do we root for the blue ones or the orange ones?" she asked.

"The blue ones, the Glasgow Warriors. The orange ones are Edinburgh Rugby," I explained.

"So we're ahead for now."

"That's right, we're winning," I replied proudly.

As soon as the teams were cleared up, Noelle began to gaze intently at the screen. I took a moment to look at her expressions instead of the game, and I saw joy, amazement, disgust, and confusion cross her face. After a good five minutes of strange expressions and several sighs, I decided to go back to watching the game. The Warriors were really giving their best, breaking down opposing defenses and scoring points back-to-back. After ten minutes of pure action, the game came to a standstill, and I took the opportunity to ask Noelle what she thought.

"How do you like it?"

"Honestly? I don’t like it that much. I think it's extremely violent, and even after all this time I haven't found the point of any of the rules. I don't really understand how you can follow a whole game and understand what's going on."

"Do you want me to explain you some of the rules?" I asked.

"Yes, I would like to understand something. But first I want to learn something on my own," she replied, placing the bowl of chips on the table. She picked up her phone and searched the internet for one of the words she didn't understand, but she was also confused by the web's response. I read on the screen that he had searched for "Offload."

"Give continuity to the action through a pass made after contact with a tackler. I didn't understand a word," she said, turning to me.

"It means that if the player holding the ball comes into contact with an opponent who could potentially knock him to the ground, he can pass the ball to a teammate before the contact, without wasting precious time of the action."

"Okay, I think I get it. But why such complicated terminology," she said, turning off the phone and picking up the chips. With that confused expression and the way she ate trying to reflect she was really cute, especially when she wrinkled her nose and frowned to concentrate better.

"It's normal to not immediately understand the rules of a sport that you never practiced, when I started playing it took me months to memorize them all." I replied without thinking about the words that came out of my mouth.

"Wait, you used to play rugby?" she asked surprised. It took me a moment to understand what I had just said to her, and I immediately regretted it. The rugby years had not been happy years for me, and I usually didn't talk much about it. But I knew Noelle wanted to know more.

"Yes..." I answered, remaining vague.

"Judging by your answer, you don't seem so happy about it..."

"Let's just say that they were years in which many unpleasant things happened in my life, which affected my sporting performance, making those years a bad memory for me." I replied sincerely. I didn't feel like talking about it, but it didn't feel right not to say anything to Noelle, given how much she had opened up about her grandmother.

"William, I'm so sorry. Had I known, I wouldn't have asked you anything."

“Don't worry, it's not your fault. Besides, talking about it is better for me than keeping it all inside."

I didn't really know what to tell her, so many things had happened in those years that I didn't even know where to start.

"I'll keep it short. I was in my third year of highschool, I must have been fifteen years old. It was an already very difficult period of my life, my uncle was sick, which affected my mother's mood a lot, and therefore the situation at home wasn’t the best. This began to affect my academic performance, as well as my athletic one. The coach began to notice my difficulties, which were more and more as time went on, and my teammates also began to distance themselves from me. As if that wasn't enough, my girlfriend at the time decided to leave me because, apparently, she was only with me because she wanted a guy who was part of the rugby team. Sadly, I was in love with her, and I ended up getting my heart broken. Luckily I had an opportunity to talk about it with the coach and the team, and I managed to save my relationship with them, but they were still difficult months. They offered me a place on the team again, but by then I felt that taking a break from rugby altogether would be the only thing I could do to have a fresh start and feel better again." I finished the story, and only at the end did I dare to look up and look at Noelle, and in that moment I saw the effect my words had had on her.

She had placed the empty bowl on the table and placed her hand on my arm, which I hadn't even noticed because I was so caught up in memories. Her eyes were shining, and a few tears streamed down her face.

"William, I could have never imagined you went through all of this. It must have been very hard," she said, moving her hand up and down my arm. I tried to answer her, but my gaze stopped on her hand, the movement making me forget whatever I was about to say. I forced myself to look away, bringing my gaze back to her face.

"Don't worry, we're talking about more than ten years ago. It's a thing of the past now. I watch the games with pleasure and I will forever remember the support of my teammates once they knew of my situation."

"Thank you for opening up to me, I know it must have been really difficult," she added, taking her hand off my arm and using it to wipe away her tears. I immediately felt the lack of that light pressure on my skin, so I placed my hand on her, drawing her gaze to the point where our fingers touched.

"I'm the one who has to thank you for listening to me. Maybe I needed to talk about it more than I thought."

"William, I know we've only known each other for a short period of time but... If you ever need to talk about these things, just know that I will always be here for you."

"Thank you Noelle. You too, should you need someone... I'm here."