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Julia sat with her head in her hands, deflated from the events of the day. She heard footsteps, and after a few seconds she became fairly certain they were moving in her direction. She sighed as they got closer, dreading having to have another conversation she didn’t want to have in a place she didn’t want to be. “Alright?” She was relieved to hear it was Liz, she decided she’d feel slightly better after talking about how awful the day had been for her.
Liz had smiled at first, but slight confusion was brought onto her expression on seeing Julia, sitting alone with her gaze fixed on the ground. She received nothing in response to her initial greeting - Julia kept her head in her hands and let out a sigh that sounded slightly more strained than her usual stressed groans. In fact, it had sounded rather shaky, almost as if she was holding back tears. Liz hoped not. “Everything alright?” She tried to soften her tone slightly. Usually she was careless when it came to the way she spoke as long as she was saying something along the right lines, but recently she’d been more aware of how much her accent occasionally made her tone sound harsher than intended. She wasn’t quite sure why she’d bothered adjusting for Julia, she only just managed to get her words out in the correct order when she prattled on about her morning, tripping over at least half of her words trying to let her mouth catch up with her brain, but she looked genuinely upset today. She took a seat next to Julia. “I can’t wait all afternoon, you know, I’ve got box sets to watch.” She abandoned the idea of softening her tone pretty early, but still made it fairly obvious she meant it in jest. “Today, today, just…disappointing. Disappointing and just really dreadful. I wanted to come and cheer them on and I couldn’t even do that, Liz. I mean, I remember my Mum coming to sports day and it was the highlight of my year, and I just wanted them to have that memory with me and it just…I’m failing, Liz. As a mother, as a wife, as a daughter.” her voice cracked somewhere in her last sentence, a rasp over her last few words. She looked down. Liz caught her with teary eyes before she’d turned away. They sat in silence for a few seconds, Liz now sure Julia had started to cry. She sniffed a few times before Liz spoke again. “If it’s any consolation, Charlie didn’t even notice I was here.” she mentioned. “Not really, but thanks.” Julia looked at her now. “Listen, I know all that lot’ll post about it on Facebook like it’s the event of the year, but James and Ivy won’t remember all that. They’ll just be glad you cheered them on and they won a medal from Poundland.” Liz explained. “More tat for the kitchen drawers, great.” Julia still kept a straight face. “Anyway, I suppose you’re right. What’s a telling off, eh? Compared to…I don’t know, a good day with friends, and…supporting your kids.” she rambled. “The good news is, it’s still an hour ‘til pick up, and Lamb’s back at school.” Liz pointed out that the field has slowly emptied, only a few teaching assistants and parents remaining to take back equipment while the children were taken back to school by their teachers. “Drink?” Liz smiled, reaching into her bag.