#x boxer!reader

“What?” You frowned, but allowing your girlfriend to tug you into the place anyway.

She’d yet to give you a solid answer as to why she’d pulled you into a sticky, LED lit arcade, because she was too busy rummaging around her purse looking for change.

“Are ye lookin’ for change? I have some” you said, proceeding to simply stick your hand in your pocket and take out a couple of coins.

She took a pound coin out of your hand and raced over to a machine, that you had to almost sprint after her just to keep up.

“This one!” She shouted excitedly when she eventually found it what she was looking for.

There she was, stood looking at the boxing machine that gave you a score for how hard you punched the bag. She had this smug look on her face, almost like she was telling people that her girlfriend was the only person in here that was capable of breaking this machine.

“What do ye want me to do? Hit it?” You laughed.

“As hard as you can” she teased back, slotting the pound coin inside as the machine came to life.

“I don’t think these machines were built for people like me” you chuckled, a nonchalant tone in your voice which was just adding to Alessia’s smugness.

“Well, let’s make a bet” Alessia began as your eyes flicked up to her to show that you were intrigued by her little wager. She began to move closer to you, pulling the bag down to be face to face with the two of you.

“Beat the top score, and you can do whatever you want to me when we get home” she whispered, standing back to get a good look at how your teeth had sank into your bottom lip out and your eyes traced her body.

“Ye have a deal” you eventually said, adjusting the bag a little as you threw a bit of a practice shot just to get your stance correct.

The top score stood currently at 952 and you had no idea what the highest score you could get on this machine was, but you knew you were more than capable to get to 953.

“Okay, in your own time” Alessia snickered, pulling out her phone and tapping record.

“If I fuck it up, ye have to delete it” you added as you were met with a shake of her head.

You rolled your eyes and let your shoulders relax before you swung your arm back and gave the bag a lethal punch. The bang of the bag landing back into its latch was so loud that a few members of staff actually ran over to check that something serious hadn’t occurred. Your lips curled into a smile as the points hit 953 but the machine showed no signs in slowing down.

“Did you break it?” Alessia hysterically laughed, still recording the moment as you flexed your right bicep and put your face right up to her camera.

“That’s a new record!” A staff member shouted, glancing over at the machine displaying 1,690 points.

“Obviously, look who it is” Another member of staff inputted, shoving her colleagues arm.

“We usually get people’s photos when they break the record” the first staff member explained. “But you don’t need to-”

“I’ll get a photo” you smiled. “Is it with ye?” You asked as both staff nodded, but you knew they were lying about that part.

You took photos with the staff and they got you to autograph the machine before they eventually let you leave the arcade again.

“They were completely drooling over you” Alessia hummed on your walk out. You noticed a little hint of jealousy in the way she said it.

“They can do whatever they want, neither of them are the one I’m goin’ home with” you replied, gripping her hand tightly and slotting it back into yours.

“Speaking of, any idea what you want your prize to be?” Alessia smirked, wiggling her eyebrows at you.

“I’d just really like ye to stay tonight” you mumbled, squeezing her hand a little tighter as her expression softened and she stopped walking. She looked around, seeing nobody else was there as she cupped your face and pulled you in for a kiss.

“I’d stay with you every night if I could” she smiled when she pulled away from you.

“Let’s go to bed” she whispered in your ear. It wasn’t often that you needed to stray further than the couch for things to go further, but you knew exactly what Leah was after when she suggested that.

You picked the blonde up, feeling her legs wrap around your waist as you dragged the two of you up the stairs and into bed, kicking your bedroom door behind you. Leah had gotten onto the bed, trying to bite back a giggle at how easy it was her for to get her own way with you. Meanwhile, you went to your drawer to get what you needed out of it as Leah smirked at what it was exactly that you were taking out.

You got everything ready while your friend that you regularly had sex with put music on, blaring it loudly from your TV. The routine was just so natural to you both by now. You’d start slowly, just teasing and toying, before it would get a bit more intense.

“What’s up?” Katie huffed loudly, unlocking your front door and stepping inside, out of the pouring rain.

Katie knew Leah was here, she’d seen her car outside, but you and Leah had been seeing each other for so long now, nobody barely batted an eyelid anymore.

“Where are ye?” Katie shouted a little louder. When your sister got no answer again, but heard the TV blaring from the living room, she presumed the two of you were in there.

“I’m just goin’ up to grab a spare hoodie, mine’s soaked” Katie called into the empty living room.

She thundered up stairs, the noise of your bed frame banging off the wall being completely drowned out by the noise of the TV as well as the noise of music coming from your room.

“Fuck, don’t stop” Leah moaned.

“God, I wouldn’t dream of it” you groaned back.

Leah’s hands were squeezing your shoulders and she was just about to fall off cliff’s edge, when your bedroom door swung open.

“Oh my god” Katie stuttered loudly, falling backwards and slamming off the wall outside your bedroom as you scrambled to get off and out of Leah.

“Ow” Katie whined.

“What the fuck?” You shouted from inside the bedroom, thankfully your duvet covering the both of you.

“Don’t act like this is more traumatic for ye than it is for me” Katie shouted back.

She was still not in your eye line due to happily taking comfort in the hallway and not having to look at you fucking her teammate. You got up and dressed quickly, waltzing outside to your sister and closing the door to give Leah some privacy.

“Are ye actually serious right now?” You groaned, knowing she’d interrupted at the worst possible moment for Leah.

“I thought when I heard the TV on that ye were downstairs” Katie tried to explain.

“I just needed a hoodie” she shrugged.

Katie had walked in on you more times than you could count by this stage, which was one of the main reasons you moved out of her house. This was the first time however, that you and her knew the name of the girl that was naked in your bed.

“Ye can’t just walk into my bedroom when-”

“Please” Katie gagged, clutching her mouth. “I actually feel sick after seein’ that” she dramatically hunkered over, placing her hands on her knees.

“Ye didn’t even see anythin’” you frowned, pushing her away so hard that she almost toppled over.

“Hey!” She grumbled, attempting to push you back, but you stood backwards, away from her hands reach. It always annoyed Katie how fast your reflexes were, and had been since you were old enough to fight with each other.

“What do ye need? A hoodie?” You asked, opening the door again and stepping back into the room.

Leah was lying under the covers and scrolling on her phone. You gave the girl an apologetic look and stuck up your pointer finger to let her know you’d be back to finish her in a minute.

“Uh, yeah” Katie nodded, not making any type of effort to look into the room.

“Here” you mumbled, throwing her one of your hoodies. “Just give me five minutes” you added.

“No, ye cannot be serious right now” Katie sternly looked at your smirking expression.

“Five minutes, max” you repeated, closing the door and twisting the lock as Katie nearly gagged, sprinting downstairs and turning the TV up louder.

“Five minutes? Romantic” Leah sighed playfully.

“Don’t think ye will need more than that, do ye?” you shrugged, still smirking at the older girl.

“Prove it” she bit back, tugging you back in to bed and taking the top you’d put back on straight back off you.

Katie 💕

Remind me to never come to Y/n’s house

Ever again

Cait 😍

What happened???

Ellaaaaaa

Bahahahahaha Y/n just text me

“Oh big boy” Leah smirked. “Showing off your muscles for me today?” She asked, squeezing your bicep as you winced and turned off away from her.

“What the fuck” you mumbled under your breath in pain, heading to your bag to grab something.

“What is that?” Leah asked, pointing at a weird mark on your arm.

“What’s what?” You frowned, looking down to where she was pointing before you shook your head and pulled your jumper over your head.

“Nothin’” you mumbled.

“It doesn’t look like nothing” Leah said, immediately coming to your side to attempt to pull your sleeve up and inspect the mark further.

“I said it was nothin’, can ye just leave it?” You snapped.

Leah left it.

She left it every time going forward when she noticed a weird mark or a bruise on your arm, or your collar, or anywhere. There was no way it could be that small, tiny girl that she met in the bar all those months ago now. She could remember panicking when she saw Dara square up to you that Gabriella was the only person there to help.

Gabriella was too small to ever hurt you properly, and she knew that. You often found since you’d properly gotten back together she was a bit more comfortable with putting her hands on you, tugging you or pushing you. You didn’t really like it, but you’d never say it. She meant no harm in it, but it did hurt sometimes. You hated it more when she raised her voice at you and constantly told you to listen, regardless if you were or weren’t.

But Gabriella told you she loved you, she was the only person who ever told you she loved you. So, maybe being in love with someone just meant that was normal.

-

“Leah?” You shouted, alarming the girl enough to prompt her to come into where you were in her bedroom.

She was going to England camp tomorrow and after a bit of a rough patch with Arsenal, she just needed a little distraction before she left. That’s more or less why she’d called you to come over tonight. Katie had already gone back to Ireland and Ella had gone with her, wanting to go to watch her games and see your family. You were busy with training, so you couldn’t go home with them, and that left you with only one choice.

“Oh, you look so cute” Leah giggled as she came out of the bathroom and into the bedroom.

“It’s a bit tight on you though” Leah chuckled, watching you attempting to slot her jersey on.

“Ye don’t say” you mumbled, struggling to move with how tight this jersey was.

“I have a bigger one somewhere” she hummed, heading to her drawer to try and find the bigger jersey she had. She looked back at you in the mirror, trying to get the other jersey off, arms bulging out of it like you were the Incredible Hulk.

“Stupid fuckin’ thing” you groaned, struggling to get the jersey off of you, before Leah turned around, larger one in hand and began tugging the bottom of the one you had on.

“Put your hands up” she ordered, as you lifted them as high as you could, although it was a bit of a struggle. Leah pulled the jersey over your head and tossed it onto the top of her drawer before handing you the new one.

“Yeah, this one is better” you chuckled, fixing the jersey to sit correctly on your frame while you stood in front of the mirror.

You could see from behind you that Leah was looking at your back, fixated on her name and number displayed on you.

“Do ye like me in this?” You asked, catching the girls eye through the mirror as a smirk grew on your face.

“Yeah” Leah nodded, blushing slightly that you’d caught her staring.

“What do ye like about it?” You teased, turning around to face her and placing your hands gently on her waist.

“Hmm” Leah chuckled, squeezing your arms to let you know that her answer was your arms. Her answer was always your arms. Most girls’ answer was always your arms.

“I appreciate you stayed to come to my match and didn’t go home” Leah hummed.

“I’ve seen Katie play loads of times” you shrugged. “I wanted to stay and see ye” you met Leah with a smile as she gently placed a kiss to your lips.

Your relationship with Leah had gone far beyond casual, you’d really started to like her but were just too afraid to say anything. That was your issue, you were always too afraid to make the other person uncomfortable by telling them how you actually felt. That’s why it was easy with Gabriella, she told you continuously that she loved you, and maybe she didn’t show it that well or that often, but at least she told you that she did.

“Are you okay sitting with my mum at the match?” Leah asked.

“Yeah, absolutely” you nodded. “Is she alright sittin’ with me?” You smirked, already knowing the answer was yes.

You’d met Leah’s mum just one other time since the encounter in Leah’s house, and Amanda had chatted the ear off you for the entire time. It was Amanda who had actually given you the idea of staying in London to watch Leah’s game.

“Don’t you dare start flirting with my mum” she huffed playfully as you rolled your eyes and swapped her jersey back to your own T-shirt.

“I think I’ve forgotten how to flirt” you chuckled.

“As if. I’d say you’re still pulling girls for sport” Leah laughed as you frowned at her.

“I haven’t been with anyone except for ye since we started” you admitted as Leah’s frowning expression matched yours.

“Have ye been seein’ other people?” You innocently asked, hoping her answer would be no.

“Yeah” Leah nodded. “Sorry, I just thought this was casual?” Leah added as you waved your hands.

“No, sorry, it is” you clarified. “I just haven’t been seein’ anyone else”

“If you want, I can stop seeing-”

“No” you shook your head, cutting the girl off. “This is just casual, ye can see whoever ye want. I don’t mind” you shrugged.

You did mind. You wish you could have found some courage in you to tell Leah you wanted to try with her.

“You have me all to yourself tonight, if that is any consolation” Leah smirked, wrapping her hands around your neck as your eyes flicked up from the ground just in time to see she was pulling you into a kiss. She gave herself no time to comprehend that you looked genuinely gutted, too busy just wanting you to take her to bed.

-

The next morning, Leah had gone already, headed for England camp by the time you woke. You’d been in this situation multiple times, knowing how to lock up Leah’s house properly before heading home. You took a shower and got dressed, sitting at the edge of the bed and staring at the England jersey that was waiting for you to take home and wear to Leah’s match. You picked up the jersey and looked down at it. A match jersey she’d never worn, printed in the wrong size for a friendly game against Australia.

All that you were to Leah was a friendly game that you’d sized up wrong.

You left the jersey where it had been before grabbing your things and going, leaving the jersey there and taking whatever dignity you had left with you.

Leah had been fairly distant, which she always was when she got into a camp. You were really just trying to work out in your head what you wanted from your relationship with her, and to be fair, it was easier not speaking to her to do that.

-

The day came of Leah’s game in Wembley and you headed to the box office to check your name and get your ticket. You’d stayed in London and abandoned your family to watch the game, so you were going to still go and support her. Regardless, Leah had been a good friend to you the last few years.

You were sat in the seat, scrolling on your phone and sipping from your almost empty cup of tea when you were interrupted.

“You took me up on my suggestion I see” Amanda smirked, sitting down next to you and rubbing your arm.

“Yeah” you nodded back to Leah’s mum. “Can I get ye anythin’?” You asked, standing up to let her know you’d planned to go anyway and it wouldn’t be an inconvenience.

“I’ll just have the same as you, sweets” she smiled as you headed off to get two cups of tea and a mountain of chocolate bars.

The beauty of being in these particular seats was that there was no kiosks to queue up and get your stuff, you just walked up and got it yourself.

“Oh shit” a lad beside you said. “You’re Y/n McCabe, aren’t you?” He asked.

“Uh, yeah” you nodded.

“I’m Luca, this is Gio” he smiled. “We’ve seen you at a few Arsenal games, we’re Alessia’s brothers” he added.

“Oh right. Yeah, yeah” you stuttered out, shaking both of their hands as they extended them out.

“You’re friends with our sister aren’t you? Are you here to see her?” Giorgio asked, eyes flicking to your lanyard and frowning when he seen Leah’s photo on it.

“No, uh, I mean yeah, I dunno, I-” you tried to explain.

“Lads, have you seen Liam?” Another older man asked the boys as they shook their heads and shrugged. He’d thankfully interrupted your stuttering attempt of an explanation.

“Never mind Liam, where is your nonna?” A woman asked them, causing a bit more of an alarm to be set off in both their heads. That’s when you really started to panic.

“It was nice to meet ye” you muttered, quickly running off, not wanting to bump into Alessia’s grandmother and have to explain in your very limited Italian that you were a horrible person.

You got back to the seats and handed Amanda off her cup of tea.

“You alright? You look as pale as a ghost” she frowned, rubbing your shoulder and watching your lip quiver.

“Are you cold?” She guessed, giving you an easy escape to nod and stick your jacket and hat back on that you’d taken off. “Better?” She asked.

“Yeah” you nodded.

“So are either of you ever going to tell me what’s going on between the two of you?” Amanda smirked, causing you to whip your head around to make sure the Russo family were nowhere in earshot.

“We’re just mates” you mumbled, shrugging your shoulders.

“Well, I know you’re more than mates” Amanda replied quickly, and you shrivelled up in your seat.

“I just don’t wanna make Leah uncomfortable or anythin’. I’d rather do whatever she wants” you sighed.

“And when do you do what you want?” She quipped, making your head wobble, not fully understanding what you were supposed to say. “I’ll be honest with you, you’re not Leah’s usual type”

“I know” you nodded back.

“Is she yours?”

“No, not really” you admitted. “I’ve only really had two girlfriends and they, uh, they just didn’t work out” you whispered.

“How long were they your girlfriends for?” Amanda pushed. It was weird how natural it felt talking to her.

“One of them was only like four months, but we’d been friends for a good bit before. I really liked her” you stopped yourself and let your eyes wander to where Alessia was stood on the pitch, reminding yourself how good it was with her, before you remembered you were in the middle of a conversation.

“The other one was eight years, we took a break and then were on and off for a couple of months”

“Eight years?” Amanda gasped.

“She was the one, do ye know? My whole life was just laid out so perfectly bein’ with her and then god, it just got so bad” you shook your head again as Amanda gestured you to go on.

“She cheated on me with this guy and then she got with this girl called Dara who I really don’t like. But when we started seein’ each other again, she wasn’t the same Gabby anymore. She was constantly screamin’ at me and puttin’ me down and then she broke up with Dara and we got properly back together and it got so much worse” you breathed out as Amanda looked a bit shocked.

“Have you spoken about this to anybody before?” She quizzed.

“Uh, no” you mumbled.

“Is there more?” She whispered, sidling up right next to you as she felt your body tense up and watched you nod.

“Did she physically hurt you?” Amanda asked as you just nodded again, not being able to put anything into words right now as you felt your chest become a little tight.

She cooed a few gentle words into you as she wrapped her arm around you, eventually wandering off to get more tea and snuck you some biscuits and a few more chocolate bars to add to your collection, which obviously made you smile.

At the end of the game, she’d gestured you to where the squad met their families after the game. A big dining hall, unfortunately, without the option to dine. You met Leah’s eyes as she instantly smiled at you, excusing herself from another one of her England teammates that you had no idea who they were before falling against you.

“Ye played great” you smiled, feeling her collapse against you before she pulled her head off your chest.

“You didn’t wear my jersey?” Leah sighed, smile dropping off her face.

“Forgot it at your house” you shrugged.

“You have a key, you could have went back” she poked your chest before she chuckled at you.

“Is there bathrooms here?” You asked.

“Just down there to the right” Leah pointed as you let her squeeze your arm before you jogged off down the corridor. Leah turned to find her mum with her arms crossed and staring at her.

“Hello to you too” Leah smirked.

“I want you to do one of two things” Amanda began as Leah rolled her eyes but knew her mum was about continue on. “Marry her, or stop stringing her along” she bluntly stated.

“What?” Leah whispered out, eyebrows squeezing tightly together.

“Enough now, Leah Catherine. I mean it. She is not okay and she needs a friend, an actual friend, or a partner who’s going to be supportive” her mum explained.

Amanda continued on, quietly, while you were in the bathroom. Leah, of course, knew a lot of what had went on with Gabriella, but not that. She also didn’t know you had another ex but that felt severely less important than the other piece of information her mum had just given her.

You’d just left the bathroom, working your way through the packed out room that had properly filled up now as you made your way back to Leah.

“Less, isn’t that Y/n?” Ella nudged her best friend in a whispered tone.

“Where?” Alessia asked, looking around the room eagerly and landing her eyes on you. She thought you’d moved to America, she thought you were still with Gabriella. Yet here you were with -

“Leah?” Alessia’s voice raised a little which seemed to distract the conversation going on between the two families.

“You okay, love?” Liam asked, wrapping his arm around Alessia’s waist.

“Yeah, fine” Alessia nodded, faking a smile as the boy pressed a kiss to her cheek.

Liam was Alessia’s new boyfriend, together just a little while, but moving fairly quickly. If you’d have seen it, you probably would have thought how painful it was that her new boyfriend was sat happily with her family, his hand wrapped around her waist and openly kissing her. Thankfully though, you saw none of it. Tonight had actually worked out really well for you. Apart from on the pitch, you hadn’t seen Alessia at all.

When you got back to Leah, her eyes were glued to you, much like Alessia’s were. She met you with such a soft smile, you felt like you wanted to just let the room melt away and allow for it to just be the two of you. She brushed her hand lightly off of yours, almost like she wanted to show come type of care, but she quickly pulled back.

“I know I, uh, forgot your jersey, but ye forgot this” you added, scrambling to open your bag and pulling out Leah’s heat pad. “Just incase” you shrugged, handing her the item before you zipped your bag back up.

That was the moment Leah realised that this wasn’t a casual thing for you anymore, and she regretted it the second she did it, but she pressed a kiss softly to your cheek before you said your goodbyes and you left to head home.

“Maybe they’re just friends” Ella tried to ease the situation, while also trying to not let Liam hear anything.

“They just kissed” Alessia hissed back.

“She kissed her cheek, I kiss your cheek all the time” Ella brushed off. “There’s no way-”

“Shut up Tooney!” Alessia moaned, causing the conversation to stop yet again before Ella laughed it off, trying again to defuse the situation to get Alessia off lightly.

-

Alessia’s suspicions around you and Leah might have began that night, but they were fully cemented the first day back at Arsenal. Katie and Caitlin had just walked into the changing room, Leah following in behind them wearing an oversized - no - a baggy jumper that didn’t belong to her, but Alessia knew who it belonged to. She’d been in that exact jumper before.

Leah wanted to stop seeing you, but she couldn’t. She didn’t know if her feelings would ever get somewhere where she wanted a relationship with you but she didn’t know how to cut you off completely.

“So has Y/n applied for citizenship yet?” Katie teased, almost like this conversation had started outside and was continuing into the dressing room.

Not one of the three of them even batted an eyelid towards Alessia, or recognised she was there. Despite her being the only other person in the room. They were too busy in a conversation that for whatever reason, you were the topic of.

“I actually got her into an England jersey, but she didn’t wear it to the game” Leah sighed, playfully.

“Dead right, she knows I’d have killed her” Katie laughed.

“What’s your mum think of her?” Caitlin asked.

“Adores her” Leah rolled her eyes. “I think more than me” she added as all three girls laughed.

“She’s definitely the favourite in the family” Katie scoffed. “Which, in fairness, is impressive cause like, there’s so many of us” she smirked.

“My parents loved her when they met her at the World Cup” Caitlin inputted.

“Tried tellin’ her to swap sisters” Katie added, watching Caitlin laugh.

“Maybe after Leah breaks her heart, I can swoop in” Caitlin teased, heading out of the room with Katie following after her giving her an earful about how that wasn’t funny. Leah stayed behind, lacing up her runners and now for the first time noticing Alessia in the room.

“Morning Less” Leah smiled, but was only met with a scowl from the younger blonde sitting opposite her. Alessia’s suspicions had become a reality. You and Leah were actually a thing, and Katie and Caitlin seemed totally on board.

“Nice hoodie” was all Alessia could come up with as Leah looked down to the jumper and back to the girl.

“Thanks?” Leah replied, an anxious yet questioning tone to her response.

“I didn’t think Y/n fit your usual type” Alessia blurted out. “You usually go for dumb blondes, but instead went for someone that fucks anything with a pulse. Classy” Alessia quipped ironically, because she’d been there too.

“A little harsh, Less? Don’t you think?” Leah frowned.

“Whatever” the striker snapped. “Enjoy my sloppy seconds” Alessia huffed.

“Excuse me?”

“You heard me” Alessia replied, poking Leah’s chest. “Before you, there was me. And I mean she had me about 20 minutes before you two kissed that night”

“I didn’t-”

“You two suit each other” Alessia added before storming out of the changing rooms and heading to God knows where in the facility. Leah couldn’t think straight, but the first thing she did was rip your hoodie off of her and shove it in her locker.

How could you have kept this from her? Sure, you’d both slept around and you knew that about the other, but not telling her about Alessia was crossing some type of line.

Alessia couldn’t quite believe what she’d just admitted, but she knew Leah well enough that the captain wouldn’t mention it to anybody.

Leah had a disastrous training session, not being able to concentrate on anything. Every time she looked at Alessia, the blonde just shot her a filthy look before turning away to do something else. Katie’s teasing today was also a bit unnecessary and over the top, but she had warned Leah she wouldn’t let her live it down, ever.

When training ended, Leah took a shower and got changed, getting into the car and deciding to just go and confront you right now. She took the long drive, through the shit London traffic and the horrific weather, eventually pulling up outside your house and banging on your front door until you opened it.

“Lee?” You frowned. You hadn’t been expecting her over today.

“You were sleeping with my friend and never said anything?” Leah shouted.

Your eyes bulged out of your head as the girl stormed into your house. You shut the front door behind her and for whatever reason, she decided the place she wanted to have this argument was your bedroom.

“No, Leah, I-” you stuttered, sprinting up the stairs after her.

“Are you a fucking dickhead or something?” Leah snapped as she cut across you

“Leah, I can explain. Please just sit down and-” you’d taken the girls hand and both of you sat down, almost like she was going to hear you out until she snapped into her senses again.

“Fuck off, Y/n” Leah groaned as she stood up and headed towards the door of your bedroom.

“Lee, please” you sighed and quickly stood up as she stopped, but only to continue shouting at you.

“I wasn’t really expecting this, us, to lead anywhere, but you could have told me on day one” Leah grunted.

“I couldn’t” you pleaded with her, trying to hope she would just understand without you saying it.

“Yeah, because you wanted to fuck us both over” Leah ripped into you further.

“No, because I loved her” you moped as you sat back down and Leah turned to you.

“What?” Leah whispered.

“Lessi wasn’t just a casual thing, she was my girlfriend. I loved her and she didn’t want anybody to know” you admitted.

“Oh, this is so much worse than I thought” Leah sighed as she sat on the bed opposite you. “Do you still love her?” Leah asked.

“No” you shook your head, you hadn’t thought about Alessia in a long time.

“Did she-”

“I don’t think so” you shook your head. “We were still together the night she kissed that guy and I kissed ye” you admitted, although Leah had a feeling with what Alessia had told her earlier.

“This is fucked” Leah sighed, shaking her head in disbelief.

“I’m sorry I dragged ye into it” you whispered, but the girl didn’t reply.

“We can’t keep doing this until I know she’s okay with it” Leah stated as your body went tense. “You need to speak to her” she added.

“Why me?” You asked.

“This is your fault!” Leah shouted as you flinched a bit, causing you to a stand up a little out of fear and Leah felt an instant sense of guilt that she’d just shouted at you.

“Okay, yeah, I’ll talk to her” you nodded. “Do ye wanna stay? I can make ye tea or I can-”

“I’ll have a cup of tea” Leah said, standing up to get beside you. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have shouted at you” Leah breathed out.

“It’s grand, I deserved it” you shrugged.

“No, I-”

“I’ll be back in a minute” you mumbled, rushing out of the bedroom door and down the stairs.

Your body was stuck in flight mode, too sensitive to stand there and take being shouted at anymore. Instead, just running away and trying to take deep breaths to calm down. You noticed your hands were shaking a little, and felt quite sweaty as you tried to focus on your breathing.

You let yourself find a regular breathing pattern again, washing your hands and making Leah’s tea before going back upstairs. By the time the two of you had argued and got to this position, Leah wasn’t in any state to drive home, so just stayed the night. She changed into something from your wardrobe and got into bed, turning something on the TV to fall asleep to. You quickly realised that, despite changing into your clothes, and being in your bed, she didn’t want you anywhere near her.

After a few minutes, when you noticed Leah was asleep, you climbed out of bed and went downstairs. You made yourself a cup of tea and grabbed a vape, for the first time in a while. You really needed it right now, to help you figure out how the hell you were going to talk to Alessia.

You never came back to bed, so when Leah woke this morning, she presumed you were just gone to training. Only, when she got dressed and went downstairs, she found you asleep on the couch. You’d only been asleep for roughly about an hour, you couldn’t settle your mind whatsoever last night.

“Did you sleep here?” Leah sighed, nudging you awake as she watched your eyes flicker open.

“I couldn’t sleep” you shrugged, sitting up properly.

Leah noticed you had bags under your eyes to back up the fact you hadn’t slept great. She also noticed you were sweating, but the house wasn’t overly warm and you were only wearing a T-shirt and shorts.

“Do you feel okay?” She asked, placing her hand to your forehead to check to see if you had a temperature, which you didn’t.

“Yeah, just tired” you mumbled. “I’ll talk to Alessia today” you added, shuffling off the couch and going to the kitchen to make tea.

You waited until after Leah left until you took your phone out and hovered over Alessia’s contact. When your name popped up on her phone, she reminded herself to change your contact name.

Y/n/n 🐻

Can we talk?

Lessi 👸🏼

I’ve got nothing to say to you.

You didn’t want to change her contact name.

Y/n/n 🐻

Can you just give me the chance to talk?

Lessi 👸🏼

You can come here if you want to talk

I’m not speaking to you on the phone

Begrudgingly, you got in the car and drove for what felt like hours until you got to Alessia’s house. You didn’t feel nervous, maybe the car was warm and that’s why you were pumping sweat on the entire drive. You hadn’t physically seen Alessia since the night at the bar when Gabriella and her got into a fight, which you mentally noted you needed to apologise for before you spoke about Leah.

You obviously wouldn’t know, but when Alessia realised you were coming over, she took a shower, got dressed into a pair of shorts and her boyfriend’s jumper. She’d put some make-up on too, wearing the perfume you always liked that she wore when you were together. You knocked on the door and despite being stood behind it, she waited a serious amount of time before she opened it.

“Uh, hey” you mumbled as she opened the door.

She didn’t reply, just started walking towards the sitting room as you came in and closed the door behind you. You followed her into the sitting room, but you didn’t sit down beside her.

“Just say what you want to say” Alessia grunted.

“I wanted to say sorry” you began.

“Skip it” Alessia huffed.

“Okay, uh, well-”

“You wanted to speak to me, and you don’t even know what to say!” Alessia spat as she rolled her eyes. “This is why we never worked, you’re impossible to deal with. That’s why I’m so happy now that I’m with Liam”

Who the fuck was Liam?

“Oh, yeah, sorry” you nodded. “I just wanted to let ye know that there’s nothin’ serious goin’ on with Leah really”

“Nothing serious?” Alessia frowned. “You kissed her in front of everyone at the England game”

“She kissed me on the cheek” you shrugged.

“Well, I’ve moved on, so you can too” she shrugged.

“Is it serious with this lad?” You asked, watching Alessia glare at you before she stood up and left the room.

You don’t know why you’d convinced yourself she was bringing this Liam lad back from wherever in the house she’d wandered to, but instead she’d brought back a box.

“This is everything you left here, Leah clearly likes wearing your clothes so I thought it was better you had them back” Alessia said, shoving the box into your hand. You knew it wasn’t everything, but you sure had left a lot of stuff.

“You can go now” she added as you tried to stutter a response out.

“Th-thanks” you said, not sure if you were thanking her for your box or letting you leave, but you ran out the door and got into your car. One thing was for certain anyway, Alessia hated you.

Meanwhile, Alessia couldn’t even comprehend that you’d just really been in her house. She’d prepped herself to put that mean girl act on, but all she wanted to do was kiss you and scream she was sorry the entire time.

-

You spoke to Leah briefly, just to let her know Alessia was fine with the two of you doing whatever you were doing. You decided to put a bit of distance between you and Leah though, because you’d told Alessia it was casual, when you in no way felt like it was. But when distance wasn’t really making your feelings for Leah go away, you decided to speak to Katie.

“I like Leah” you blurted out, but Katie’s expression didn’t change.

“Well obviously, ye are both at it every night of the week” Katie laughed.

“No, like, I actually really like Leah” you further explained as Katie’s smirk wiped off her face.

“Oh, yeah?” Katie asked as you nodded. “Ye gonna tell her?”

“Yeah” you sighed. “Can I practice what I’m gonna say?” You mumbled as Katie rolled her eyes. “I’m nervous” you admitted and Katie was a bit taken aback that you were being genuine.

“Yeah, go on” Katie smiled as you stuttered along what you wanted to tell Leah. “That sounds good” Katie said when you got to the end.

“Ye sure?” You asked.

“I’m sure” she nodded, “Happy for ye” she added, pulling you into a hug that made you feel the most relaxed you’d felt in months. “When ye gonna tell her?”

-

A few weeks had passed since you’d seen Leah, you had a fight organised for a few months time and you were going into camp in the next few days, so you decided to tell Leah before you left.

Realising you liked Leah a little more than what you let on hit you a lot harder than it should have. You wish you could have just kept pretending that you didn’t want anything serious with her, but that wasn’t the type of person you were. You thought when Leah invited you over tonight, a bit unexpectedly after everything that had happened with Alessia, and the distance between the two of you the last few weeks that she was going to admit the same thing you were going to, but god you were wrong.

“Hey” you smiled warmly as you came into the house.

You’d reminded yourself the whole way in the car about how badly things had been for the last two years with Gabriella and Alessia. But now you had Leah, a person that cared about your feelings and told you often that she loved you, a person you thought that you were in love with. You had to tell her, because you wanted more.

“Come here” Leah said, pulling you in for a tight hug as you frowned. Now realising something was wrong you followed her into the living room and sat down beside her, but she quickly stood up and started pacing.

“I was thinking, because, you know, Alessia, maybe we should stop” Leah mumbled.

“I don’t think she cares, she has a boyfriend” you shrugged.

“I know” Leah nodded. “But I- I’ve actually started properly seeing someone”

“Oh” you sighed, heart smashing into a million pieces the minute you comprehended what she’d said. “Is she nice?” You asked, still trying to work out why you just asked that question.

“Yeah, she is” Leah smiled. “Would you want to meet-”

“I completely forgot, I have to, uh, I have to be somewhere” you stuttered.

“Y/n” Leah sighed, trying to hold onto your arm to stop you from leaving.

“I’ll see ye later” you coughed as you bolted out of Leah’s living room and rushed to your car.

You felt like you were going to collapse as you closed the car door. You didn’t even check your mirrors, just reversed out of the driveway you’d pulled up in only a few minutes ago and took off driving. You could have went to Katie’s, you could have cried and let them comfort you and tell you it’d be okay. Instead, you just drove, and drove with no set destination. You were sweating again, and for the first time you think in your life you became hyper aware of everything. You could feel your heart was beating to a different rhythm than the one your chest was rising and falling to. You could feel the blood coursing through your body, rushing to your head as your vision went slightly blurry. You felt hot and cold, you could feel your hands shaking and becoming sweaty, so much so you had to keep wiping your palms off your tracksuit bottoms to get an accurate grip of the wheel.

At least you had camp soon, that was something you were good at and nothing could go wrong in there.

-

Camp had been going fine. It was still early days so you weren’t doing anything too mental. You were easing yourself back into camp, having not had one in a good bit of time now. Only, on your second week in, three weeks after the incident at Leah’s house, you came into the gym, replying to Ella’s voice message that she’d sent you this morning.

“Don’t say anything” you heard mumbled by the group of your coaching team as your head shot up from your phone.

“Is somethin’ wrong?” You frowned, looking at them all shaking their heads, apart from your head coach who you knew would tell you.

“What is it?” You asked him directly.

“I know you haven’t been too pushed on the idea of it in the last while, but I think you’ll want the fight to go ahead now” he said softly, almost like he didn’t want to upset you as he turned his phone around.

He had Gabriella’s instagram opened, showing a picture of her and Dara in America, where Dara had recently moved to also, settling into a gym over there.

“They’re back together?” You grunted, taking a hold of his phone in your hand and staring at the picture so hard you’d swear you could burn a hole through the screen.

“Get the fight on” you muttered, throwing your bag down where you usually did.

“Don’t be rash, let’s just talk about this and-”

“Get her to sign the fuckin’ contract” you snapped.

Your blood was boiling, and a million thoughts were running through your head as you wrapped your hands up, but the main one had you feeling sick. She’d played you, her and Dara definitely hadn’t actually broken up for real. You didn’t need this right now, after just finding out about Alessia and her boyfriend, then Leah and her girlfriend, you didn’t need Gabriella and Dara being added to the mix.

You’d been left alone for a little while, punching the bag and just getting your pent up anger out before you could actually move on to something structured. You had your headphones on, blasting music as you worked the bag, but as you turned you caught your coaches just huddled up and aggressively shaking their heads and wagging their fingers. You took your headphones off and stopped punching the bag.

“You alright?” One of them asked as the conversation fell flat.

“Yeah” you nodded. “What are ye arguin’ about?”

“We have this new kid in to train. She’s just gone 18 and we can really see something in her” your coach explained.

“We wanted you to spar with her today, show her the ropes a little bit” He informed you as he smiled and patted your shoulder, meaning they weren’t going to make you do it. You remembered back to when you were the 18 year old they gave the opportunity to.

“Yeah, grand” you shrugged, walking off before they could give you the option to opt out of it again.

You hit the bag again for a little while longer, and jumped rope just to keep warm while you waited for the kid to arrive. She came in with bundles of energy and when her eyes landed on you, she almost collapsed. You knew nothing of this kid, but your agency were quite good at picking up talent that were unheard of.

“Hi, I’m Nia” the stocky little teenager said, just buzzing she was in the same gym as you.

“Alright?” You asked.

“I can’t believe I’m working with you, you’re so cool. You’re like my hero” she gushed on as you chuckled.

“Get your gloves on, yeah? We’re gonna do a bit of sparrin’” you pointed at her gym bag as she eagerly nodded and started to get ready, while you hopped into the ring and put your gloves back on.

You didn’t bother warming up properly, you hadn’t planned to hit her in any way hard. Your coaches more so just wanted to get a look at her feet and movements, they knew already she could throw a punch.

“Go as hard as you want Nia” your coach shouted in as you chuckled.

“Yeah, bring it on kid” you laughed as she nodded, not seeming to get it was a joke. The first punch Nia threw landed on your neck as you squirmed and stepped back.

“Leah” your coach intervened immediately.

“It’s Nia” she corrected him. He’d went off on a tangent about maybe not hitting people in the neck while your mind spiralled.

Leah had Elle.

You got back into another bout with the teenager, this time her fist landing into your ribs full force.

Alessia had Liam.

You got your breath back and dropped your hands momentarily to try and hit her back into the ribs to give her a taste of her own medicine, but the girl was quicker than you anticipated, and connected her glove against your nose.

Gabriella had Dara.

You leaned over and watched the blood drip down from your nose and you knew this stupid little idiot had broken it. You don’t break people’s noses, punch them full force into the ribs or punch them into the neck when you’re sparring in training. This kid had to be taught a lesson, and you were losing the plot the more your mind was racing.

You stood back up straight, throwing your hand up to your coach who was just about to intervene, suggesting he let you handle it. He backed off, not coming through the ropes as he watched you roll your shoulders and put your hands up. He let you go for maybe about 40 seconds before him and another two coaches hopped in to pull you off the teenager, who you’d rightly battered.

“She’s a kid” he shouted, shoving you into the ropes as another one of them took your gloves off.

You couldn’t hear him grilling you, you couldn’t hear Nia crying, you couldn’t feel the pain coming from your nose or your wrist. All you could hear was a high pitched ringing in your ears and your body felt numb.

“Fuck sake, they both need to go to the hospital, get them in the car” he grunted.

You can’t really remember much of the drive, your head was pressed against the window and the ringing in your ears hadn’t fully gone away. You felt the same way you did the night at Leah’s party, tight and heavy chest and the palms of your hands pumping sweat.

“I’m sorry” you heard a little voice whisper beside you in the waiting room.

“Don’t say sorry to me” you mumbled back to little Nia, sitting beside you and looking rightly banged up. “I was way over the line, I’m just really strugglin’ at the minute” you admitted, maybe you were slightly concussed too.

“Do you have somebody to talk to?” Nia asked.

“Yeah, yeah. Don’t worry about me” you lifted your arm to wave her off and the pain that zipped from your shoulder was excruciating. “Oh my god, what did ye do to me?” You laughed, gripping your shoulder.

“Look what you did to me” the girl giggled, covered in a bit of blood with bruises starting to form already.

“I’m so sorry” you sighed.

“Are you joking? Do you know how cool it is that you beat me up?” She almost sprung out of the chair in excitement. “When my friends ask me Nia, who gave you that black eye? I get to say oh you know, just my super close friend and sparring partner Y/n McCabe” she smugly wiggled her eyebrows.

“Nia?” A nurse called as the girl stood up and looked back at you.

“If ye need anythin’ at all, ye just let me know, yeah?” You said as the girl nodded with an eager smile and skipped off over to the nurse.

It was a little while later when you were called, you’d fallen asleep in the chair and a nurse had gentle rocked you back awake to take you down to the doctor. She was the one who confirmed your right wrist was broken, two ribs fractured, your nose was broken and you’d slightly torn your rotator cuff in your shoulder.

“Do you have someone that could drive you home?” The nurse asked as you were about to say no, until you looked up and seen Ella.

“Yeah” you nodded. “My sister” you pointed with your free hand that wasn’t slinked up. The nurse explained to Ella about the different kind of medication you had to take and the exercises you needed to do for recovery.

“Come on, we get ye home” Ella said, when she was finished talking to the nurse.

“How’d ye get here?” You asked.

“Passed my drivin’ test” she smiled. “And in Ella’s car there are no secrets. So, ye are gonna sit there on this drive home and tell me everythin’” she added, opening the car door of her Fiat 500 as you squished into the passenger seat.

You told Ella everything. You spared no detail, apart from maybe the way it was making you feel, because you hadn’t really figured out that part yet. You didn’t even realise in your rambling that Ella wasn’t driving you to your house, she was driving you to hers. You only noticed when she pulled up outside, and your car was parked there.

“Caitlin drove it here from the gym. I dropped her there on the way to collect ye. She got your bag and all” Ella explained.

“I can drive home from here” you mumbled.

“Get in the house ye eejit” Ella huffed. “Ye are stayin’ here tonight”

When you got inside, you went off to locate Caitlin to thank her for getting your car and bag from the gym. She was alone in the living room, so you sat down beside her on the couch, showing her your, in Caitlin’s words, poor little arm in the cast and sling, and your poor little broken nose. You really liked Caitlin, she treated you as if she was your mam and you were her favourite child, much like your actual mam did. Ella had shuffled off up the stairs once you’d gotten comfortable on the couch, and Katie was in the kitchen cooking. Once she’d heard footsteps running upstairs, she took a quick peak inside the living room to find you and Caitlin chatting, so knew it was Ella that was upstairs.

“Ye alright?” Katie asked the youngest of the three of you.

“I’m takin’ her home” Ella huffed, shoving clothes into her suitcase as Katie watched from the bedroom door.

“Are ye gonna stay with her for a few days?” Katie tilted her head, confused as to why Ella was packing her own clothes.

“No, we’re goin’ home” Ella corrected Katie. “I just can’t keep doin’ this. She’s so sad all the time, she needs a break from being in London and away from people she’s been seein’”

“Ye know I can’t go, don’t ye?” Katie asked as Ella nodded.

“I just think a few weeks at home with mam would help” Ella sighed. “I’ll just get her there and come back. Otherwise, my job are goin’ to sack me” she laughed.

“I’ll book your flights” Katie mumbled, waddling back downstairs and pulling out her phone.

-

It didn’t take much convincing when Ella suggested going home to Ireland for a little while. When you agreed, you were on a plane home within two days, your mam and dad waiting for you both at the airport and taking you home.

It was well known amongst all your siblings that you were the favourite. Your mam and your dad’s favourite. You were pretty much babied from the second you got home, Ella passing over your recovery and medication duties to your mam who happily took over.

After a few days, Ella had to go back to London for work, but she sent the next best thing your way to keep you entertained.

“Stop it please, she’s just inside” Amanda whined, listening to two screaming kids coming through the front door of their grandparents house.

“Now what did we say?” Amanda tried to remind them of their promise to be careful with you as you were in pain.

“Auntie Y/n” Bobby screamed, running at you as soon as he saw you, Lily quickly following behind him.

“What’s this?” Bobby asked, poking your shoulder that was covered in the sling.

“A sling” you explained, trying not to wince at the pain that was ripping through your shoulder.

“Whys your arm blue?” Lily poked the cast on your wrist

“My wrist is broken” you answered. “So I only have this arm to hug you” you chuckled, squeezing them both into a hug with your free arm as both of them giggled. They went off running towards the kitchen to find their grandparents as you stood back up.

“I give up” Amanda sighed, relaxing a little when a smile took over your face. “I’m sorry” she mouthed at you.

“How are ye?” You asked your older sister, hugging her and feeling such a tight grip whip around you. “Fractured ribs, Manda” you wheezed, feeling her let go quickly.

“Sorry” she chuckled. “You know you can talk to me about anything, anytime?” She smiled as you nodded.

You felt your phone buzz in your pocket as you pulled your phone out to see Leah’s contact appearing on your phone.

“Can ye give me a minute?” You asked and your older sister nodded, heading into the kitchen after her kids. “Uh, hey” You said, answering Leah’s call.

“Hey” Leah replied. “I went by your house earlier when I heard your fight got cancelled, but you were there” Leah mumbled.

“I’m in Ireland” you sighed.

“Oh, is everything okay?” Leah asked, hearing a beep on her phone and pulling it away from her ear. You were requesting to turn the call to a FaceTime, so, she accepted.

“Christ” she murmured, looking at your nose first before you moved the camera back to show your arm in the sling.

“Got into it a bit at trainin’. Ella thought it’d be a good idea to come home for a bit” you shrugged.

“I miss you” Leah admitted. “I’m so sorry for everything that happened”

“You’re grand” you mumbled. “We were just casual anyway” you added.

“I know that’s not what you wanted, Y/n” Leah sighed.

“Honestly Lee, I’m happy for ye” you nodded. “She is definitely more your usual type” you chuckled, having seen a photo on Instagram of Leah’s new girlfriend yesterday.

“She’s a model” Leah smirked.

“I can see that” you laughed. “She’s fit”

“Don’t you start, she’d leave me in a heartbeat if you tried it with her” Leah sighed playfully. “I’m having a party in a few weeks, just a small one in my house, you’ll come, won’t you?” Leah asked.

“Yeah, I’ll be there” you said.

“You can text me or call me whenever you need me, okay?” Leah smiled as you nodded back.

You were thankful for everyone telling you that, but not one of them was who you really wanted to hear it from.

-

You stayed in Ireland until you were fully recovered. On the second last night you were there, Amanda took you out for a drink, inviting her friends that you’d briefly met at the wedding to come along too. You’d gone to the bar as Amanda and her friends continued chatting.

“She just needs an ego boost” Amanda explained.

“I’ll happily give her an ego boost” Amanda’s friend, Amy added.

“Not you” Amanda shook her head with a chuckle.

“Why not? Amy needs her bit, your sister needs hers, it’s perfect” another one of her friends inputted.

“Oh god, fine” Amanda sighed. “But I’m not watching you and my little sister go at it” Amanda added.

“That’s fine, I can take her to the bath-”

“Amy” Amanda warned.

“Okay, I think I got them all” you mumbled, holding multiple drinks in your hand as you dished them out to the girls.

“Come on girls, let’s go dance” a member of the group shouted, dragging people to the dance floor as you pushed your way into a seat, noticing all but one of the girls got up. Your sister squeezed your shoulder as she left, winking at you while you frowned back at her.

“You’re Amanda’s little sister, aren’t you?” Amy asked.

“Yeah” you nodded. “It’s Anna, isn’t it?”

“Amy” she corrected you, reminding you that you were still shit with names. “I just find it funny you’re her little sister when you’ve got arms like these” she giggled, sitting down beside you and squeezing your arm.

“I go to the gym a lot” you shrugged with an awkward laugh.

“I can see” she smugly squeezed your arm again. “I saw you at Amanda’s wedding, and I thought you were really fit”

“Ye didn’t say anythin’ that night to me” you replied.

“Well I had my ex boyfriend with me” she explained. “And our kid” she added. You don’t think you’d ever been with someone who was a mother before, but there was a first time for everything.

“So ye are single now?” You asked.

“Yeah, and I hear you are too” she smirked, watching you nod. “C’mere then” she whispered, pulling you by the T-shirt to get closer to her. You flinched slightly at the motion, as you shot backwards away from the girl. You hated that the feeling of someone tugging you like that scared you now.

“Sorry” you mumbled, realising the girl looked a bit concerned.

“You’re okay” she said softly. “Is that better?” She asked, wrapping her hand around your neck, feeling you nod. She tugged you in as your lips connected to hers, and it was getting quite heavy.

“I don’t know if I want more” you whispered.

“I’m happy just to kiss you” she whispered back, pulling your lips back into hers. “But if you do, I’d let you do whatever you wanted” she smirked, and you couldn’t really resist when she said that. You followed the girl into the bathroom, not hearing the group of girls you’d just passed start to give your sister a right slagging.

You had your confidence with girls back, and you needed it, because going back to London was going to be difficult.

-

This party was not just a small get together like Leah had explained. Her house was packed to the brim with people. You’d arrived with Caitlin and Katie and just decided the easiest way to get through this would be with multiple drinks and multiple vapes. Leah introduced you to her girlfriend, who seemed to know that you’d been with Leah, because the girl wasted no time in playfully suggesting a threesome that you and Leah both laughed off.

Only as the night went on and you’d lost Caitlin and Katie and noticed that Alessia was here too, clearly having made amends with Leah, all you wanted to do was go home. You felt like your head was going to explode. You looked to your right and seen Alessia kissing her boyfriend and to your left you had Leah kissing her girlfriend. It was like if you could have payed for exposure therapy to your worst nightmare, this would have been it. You could feel your heart was thumping and your palms were sweating. Your chest was becoming tighter and tighter and you were starting to panic. You never understood when this happened what you were meant to do, or how you were meant to make it stop.

“Excuse me?” A voice interrupted your mental breakdown. “Hi, sorry to disturb you. I’m Ben” he smiled.

“Hey” you breathed out, a little quietly.

“I just wanted to say I’m a really big fan of yours” he added. “I’m sitting with a few of my mates over here, do you want to join us or are you busy?” He asked.

“I’m not busy” you said as you shook your head and he gestured you over to a couch with a group of lads on it.

He introduced you to them one by one as you felt your heart start beating at a regular rhythm and pushed the thoughts of the two blondes behind you with their respective partners away. Thankfully, the thought of Gabriella being back with Dara didn’t even come to your mind, otherwise, you might have become harder to bring down from the moment you were just having.

“Ah there he is” Ben chuckled as another lad approached the group, a fresh drink in both of his hands as he handed you off one and opened one himself.

“I’m Liam” the boy smiled, and you felt sick at the fact you’d just watch him kiss Alessia, but you smiled back anyway.

“Y/n” you replied.

“Are you joking? You don’t need to introduce yourself” he chuckled. “We go to like all of your fights mate” he added as the boys around him all started nodding.

“Next time I’m fightin’ just send me a text, I can sort ye with tickets” you nodded as you took a sip of the drink he’d just handed you.

Why were you such an idiot? Stop being nice to Alessia’s boyfriend.

“We had tickets for your last one, before it got cancelled. Are you alright now?” Liam asked, taking a grip on your shoulder.

“Yeah, yeah” you coughed. “I got injured in trainin’, but I’m grand now” you waved your now healed hand around as the boys cheered.

“So do you know one of the girls or something?” Liam teased, raising his eyebrows.

“I’ve heard you get serious amounts of girls” Ben chuckled.

“My sister plays with Leah” you mumbled.

“Oh, do you know my girlfriend too then?” Liam smiled, pointing over towards Alessia who was caught up in a conversation with a few of her friends.

“Uh, not really” you shook your head.

“When are you fighting James?” Ben piped in, cutting across Liam.

“I’m just waitin’ for her to sign the contract” you shrugged.

“Didn’t she rob your bird?” Ben laughed.

“Mate” Liam sighed, giving him a stern look. “Sorry about him, he’s just a bit of an idiot” Liam explained.

“You’re grand” you mumbled back.

“Here, I’ll get you another one” Liam smiled as he took your empty bottle out of your hands, that you’d drank way too quickly, and headed to get you another.

“In all honesty, how many girls in this house have you shagged?” Ben smirked, pulling you down onto the couch as you shook your head with a smirk.

“Do I have to name names?” You asked as the boys broke out into a fit of laughter.

“Ah mate, you are so fucking cool” Ben chuckled, as you laughed back with the rest of the group. You looked up to notice Liam dragging Alessia over to say hello to the group as your heart sank.

“Liam, this lad is mental” Ben howled as Liam gave him another look. Alessia was smiling at them all, until she saw you.

“I just need to get my vape from sister, I’ll be back” you mumbled as you got up and excused yourself from the group. You brushed by Alessia, not even acknowledging her with a hello.

“Do you know her?” Alessia asked her boyfriend.

“She was just sitting with the lads when I left you, she’s cool though” Liam smiled.

“She’s one of the lads now, Lessi” Ben laughed.

“I didn’t realise she was Katie’s sister” Liam added as Alessia was getting more and more flustered.

“Yeah” Alessia nodded. “I’m just going to get another drink” she stuttered as Liam kissed her cheek and he sat back down with the boys.

Alessia raided the fridge, pulling out the bottle of wine she’d left in there and heading to the back garden to get some air. Thankfully, there was nobody else out here, or so she thought.

“Look, go if ye want. Ye were good enough to come, if ye want to go it’s okay” Katie whispered to you.

“Don’t feel bad about leaving” Caitlin reiterated.

“It’s just so difficult seein’ her with someone else” you sighed, speaking more about Alessia and Leah in that moment but neither of them knew that.

“Just take a few minutes, have a puff of this, and if ye wanna go don’t be stressed” Katie reiterated, handing you a vape. “Ye okay, yeah?” Katie asked as you gave them both a brief nod and Caitlin squeezed your cheek before they both left you alone.

“I’ve never seen her so-” Caitlin tried to whisper but Katie nudged her to get her to stop talking.

“Alright Less?” Katie mumbled, watching the blonde nod as she sat on one of Leah’s garden chairs.

Your sister and her girlfriend headed back inside and Alessia gave it a minute or so before she stood up and rounded the corner of Leah’s garden, finding you sitting with your back against the wall, puffing at a vape and staring at the sky.

“You alright?” She asked, causing you to jump as you got a bit of a scare she was stood there.

“Yeah” you nodded, wiping your eyes as you took a puff of your vape.

“Does your new little friend know you used to fuck his girlfriend?” Alessia snarled and folded her arms.

“No” you shook your head. “I wouldn’t do that to ye” you mumbled out.

“Since when?” She scoffed as you shot her a look. You tried to bite your tongue, but you decided you’d had enough of people making you out to be a bad person.

“Ye do realise everyone that found out we were together, you told them, don’t ye?” You said, watching Alessia frown. “Ye told Leah, ye told your Nan and ye told both Ella’s. I even denied it to Ella and ye told me not to bother” you continued.

Alessia went silent for a minute, realising you were right. It was her that had told everyone, and you’d done nothing but respect her wishes to keep it between the two of you.

“Did you actually like Leah?” Alessia asked.

“Yeah” you sighed, taking another puff of your vape, arms wrapping around your shins to pull your knees in closer to your chest. Alessia pouted looking at you so upset and wondered selfishly if you were this upset when you saw her with someone else.

“Can I sit down?” She asked and you nodded, letting the girls arm press against yours as you sat shoulder to shoulder on the ground. You put the vape into your pocket, remembering she hated them and deciding not to puff it again until she had left you alone.

“Your boyfriend seems nice” you mumbled.

“He is” she whispered back, almost not wanting to add insult to injury. “I’m sorry for everything that happened between us” Alessia added.

“I get it” you sighed. “I understand ye didn’t want people knowin’ and I’m just sorry that-”

“Why are you apologising?” Alessia frowned. “I ruined it, not you”

“I didn’t exactly help the situation” you continued.

“Maybe kissing my friend wasn’t the best idea, no” Alessia said, finally making eye contact as you both laughed at how ridiculous the entire situation was.

“I miss bein’ your friend, Lessi” you admitted, feeling the girl’s head fall on your shoulder after you said it.

“I miss you too” Alessia cooed, squeezing your arm that had gotten even bigger. How was that even possible? “Maybe we could be friends again?” She suggested

“Yeah, I’d love that” you nodded back, standing up and helping her back to her feet. “I did promise your boyfriend tickets to my next fight” you smiled at her.

Alessia and you hadn’t spoken properly without roaring the head off each other since the night before you broke up, but she knew everything, well, almost everything. She knew about Gabriella and Leah, she knew about you breaking your hand, she knew about you going home for awhile, and still, she couldn’t fathom how you were stood here, just taking it all on the chin.

“You’re a really good person, Y/n” Alessia sighed, hugging you tightly as you tensed up. It all felt too natural, and you felt that tightness in your chest and your heartbeat picking up again. You pulled back away from the hug and took a bit of a deep breath.

“I’ll give ye a text” you mumbled, leaving through Leah’s side gate so you didn’t have to go through the house and pulling out your vape again.

Alessia went back into the house through the back door, as Liam left the house through the front.

“Y/n, wait” Liam shouted, running after you. “I’m really sorry if they said something that made you uncomfortable. They can be such fucking idiots sometimes” he huffed.

“You’re alright mate” you nodded.

“Listen, uh, do you golf? Or like, eat lunch?”

“I try to eat lunch every day” you smirked as he laughed. “I do golf a bit too” you added.

“We could go golfing together, just the two of us and grab lunch after, sometime” Liam stuttered.

“Yeah, sure” you smiled. “Alessia has my number” you stupidly blurted out.

“Grand, I’ll get it off her so” he said, not really taking into much consideration that you’d only told him a few minutes ago you barely knew each other. “See you soon then?”

When the first person that Katie spoke to was Leah, the blonde had told her to maybe not invite Alessia, without giving specifics as to why, not that Katie asked for them or Leah even had them anyway. While Katie sorted out her side of the deal, Ella sorted out her own secret side.

“Hello?” Alessia frowned, looking at Ella’s contact pop up on her phone.

“Hey, how are ye?” Ella mumbled.

“Are you sure you called the right person?” Alessia asked.

“Yeah” Ella hummed. “I didn’t mean to ignore ye the last few weeks, it’s just been a bit mental” Ella meant it in some way. Sure, she was trying to manipulate your ex girlfriend, but she still knew Alessia was a nice person.

“No, it’s fine. I wouldn’t have expected you to speak to me after-”

“Katie was out of order, it was like she was tryin’ to test ye even though she didn’t know” Ella frowned, thinking back to that night.

“And Y/n shouldn’t have kissed Leah, that was fucked” Ella explained, as Alessia tried to hold back tears at the thought of that happening again.

“Do you think Katie knew?” Alessia whispered.

“Well if she did, ye both certainly did enough to put her off the scent” Ella laughed.

“Anyway, I was just ringin’ ye to see if ye wanted to catch up soon? We could go for a drink?” Ella shot out, and when Alessia innocently agreed, Ella knew that the plan was now in motion.

-

Ella waited and waited, she was extremely patient in letting time move closer and closer to you leaving. Although, the thought of the plan not working hadn’t really came to her mind, it had to work.

Ella had organised with her new bestie, Gabriella, to make sure you were at the place for 8pm, telling her it was just a few of you and Katie’s friends. Gabriella knew Ella had known about you and Alessia, and she was just so shocked that she’d welcomed her back into your life with little to no hesitation. She was even more taken aback when Ella was so on board with the move that she’d organised this going away party for the two of you, with no ulterior motive whatsoever.

You were pretty shocked when you walked in too, seeing your older sister, Caitlin and a few of the girls from Arsenal who’d been to your fights.

“What ye all doin’ here?” You frowned.

“Can’t let my boyfriend go all the way to America and not say goodbye, can we?” Leah smirked, pulling you into a hug that was a little flirty and way too close for Gabriella’s liking. If only she knew Leah had been the last person you’d kissed, then she would have really flipped the lid.

“Did ye organise this?” You asked Katie who shook her head.

“Do you think she’d be capable of doing this?” Caitlin laughed, as Katie scoffed.

“No, Ella did it” Katie mumbled.

“Where is she?” You quizzed.

“No idea, she just said she’d to meet someone before comin’” Katie shrugged, before she tugged you off to the bar.

“Vape?” She asked, attempting to shove one into your hand.

“Nah, I’m off them” you mumbled, but you really wanted the vape. It was a new flavour, one you’d never tried before and everytime Katie blew it into your face your will power was fading a little bit more.

“Back whipped then I see” Katie teased as you rolled your eyes, listening to her rattle off some drinks as you innocently tapped your thumbs on the bar to the beat of the song.

If Katie was honest, she was upset you were leaving, so she was doing anything to keep you at this bar to try and talk to you, making sure it was really what you wanted. She was a bit disheartened as the conversation went on that your mind was made up, meanwhile Caitlin was trying to make small talk at a table with Gabriella, hoping Ella would burst through the door any minute.

Ella had met with Alessia a few bars up from where you were, they’d had a glass of wine and just chatted briefly, before Ella suggested moving to another place, which just so happened to be the place your going away party, which Ella had organised, was taking place. What a coincidence.

A loud cheer, unheard by you and Katie erupted as Ella walked in with Alessia, and the girl was a bit taken aback to see all of her teammates there.

“Hey, good for you for coming” Leah smiled, thinking Alessia was being the bigger person in your twisted situation to come and say goodbye.

“What?” Alessia frowned.

“Shots?” Ella asked, tugging the girl towards the bar and away from anyone who seemed to have any idea that you two were ever together.

“Ah there’s the little pest now” Caitlin chuckled as Gabriella turned her head, only catching the back of the two girls, and not really showing much bother as to who the blonde beside your sister was.

The bar was pretty much out of sight from where the Arsenal girls and your girlfriend were sitting. You and Katie were in the middle of a very deep chat, almost needing to be shoulder to shoulder and shouting in each other’s ear to hear the other one correctly.

As Ella and Alessia got to the bar, Ella told the girl what she wanted, before excusing herself to go to the bathroom. On her way there, she squeezed your right arm, causing you to look over your right shoulder, but your sister, quick as anything, slipped by you on the left and tugged Katie with her towards the bathrooms. Katie tried to protest and shout for your help, but you didn’t hear it, the second you saw her, everything went quiet.

“Lessi” you whispered, and even through the pounding music, she looked up from her phone to see you.

“Y/n” she gasped, shoving her phone into her purse and standing up straighter.

“What are ye doin’ here?” You frowned.

You wanted to pull the girl into a hug and tell her you were sorry for everything. You could leave with her and run from the mess you’d gotten yourself into. You wanted to kiss her, you wanted to tell her she looked beautiful, to tell her you loved her. You wanted your life with Alessia back.

“I came out with someone” she shrugged.

“Someone? Are ye on a date?” You asked, heart sinking, even though this was your going away party with your girlfriend.

“No, of course not. No, sorry, I phrased that so badly. I-” Alessia stuttered.

“Bit weird ye show up at this exact place” you cut across the girl, and it was like any sign of love and care you’d had for the girl was gone. It was more so just suppressed, but you couldn’t show her that.

“I could say the same to you” Alessia scowled back. “Can’t accuse me of tracking you because you blocked me on everything” she hissed.

The moment when you first locked eyes with each other was gone now. You longed for it to come back.

“Baby? You do realise you’re here to say goodbye to everyone, don’t you? Not just Katie” Gabriella giggled, wrapping her hand around your arm as she tucked into your side and took Alessia in for the first time.

“Really?” Alessia and Gabriella both bluntly asked at the same time as they turned to face you.

“Did you invite her?” Gabriella snapped, squeezing your arm so tightly that you could feel her nails almost breaking your skin.

“No” you shook your head.

“Then why the fuck is she here?” She screamed, tugging you down to face her by the collar area of your t-shirt.

“I don’t know, please Gabs. I kept her blocked like ye asked, I don’t know” you pleaded with her to calm down, but she’d completely lost the plot.

Gabriella was never like this before. She wasn’t possessive, jealous or aggressive, but since Alessia, she had been. That’s when it clicked with Alessia, you didn’t block her, Gabriella did.

“You can’t touch her like that” Alessia inputted, pulling your girlfriend’s hand off your t-shirt as you stood up right again.

Alessia didn’t pay much attention to the action, it wasn’t like it was a regular thing, right?

There wasn’t many times you thanked yourself for being a professional athlete, all those gym sessions, every punch you’d taken to the face or the ribs, they’d all went mostly forgotten. But when Gabriella turned to face your ex girlfriend, with nothing but rage in her eyes, you thanked whatever fucking God there was that you were strong enough to rip two girls away from each other.

“Don’t touch me, you bitch” Gabriella screamed, lunging at Alessia as the two of them got into an all out brawl.

You’d tried getting in the middle, you’d tried catching Gabriella’s hand, but the two of them were fighting dirty.

“I know everything about you, I could ruin your life” Gabriella added.

“Fuckin’ stop it” you grunted. Thankfully, Leah had walked towards the bar alone, and found you trying to separate the two girls.

“Why is it me everytime?” Leah groaned as she picked up the pace to get beside Alessia. “Want to tell me what the fuck is going on?” Leah shouted over both girl’s heads to you.

“You slut” Alessia shouted, and you weren’t really sure if she meant you or Gabriella.

You kind of weirdly found this entire situation, hot? If Alessia was referring to you right now, you didn’t really have any defence due to the fact you’d slept with two of these girls and kissed the other one.

You and Leah eventually separated them, Leah pulling Alessia away and out the door, and you pulling Gabriella further towards the bar.

“Did you know she was coming?” Gabriella continued yelling at you.

“Baby, no, I promise ye. I haven’t spoken to her since you blocked her, look at my phone, please look at it, I haven’t-” your stuttering excuse gave Gabriella a sense of satisfaction that you were a crumbling mess and she had you wrapped around her finger.

“Please can we go home?” Gabriella asked, cupping your face as you nodded. “We will do something nicer with my friends, okay?” She added, as you just repeated the nod.

Outside, Leah had pulled a sobbing Alessia into a taxi, instructing the driver to go to her own house. Alessia didn’t know what to do, but she found comfort in just crying against Leah, knowing the England captain wouldn’t ask too many questions. Leah didn’t have to ask questions, it was so obvious what had happened now between you and Alessia.

She was annoyed you’d gotten back with your toxic ex and she couldn’t stand to watch you do that, being the good friend to you that she was. It was so obvious, Leah couldn’t believe she didn’t realise it before!

Caitlin hadn’t even seen you leave, so she could offer no solution when Ella and Katie asked where you and Alessia went. Funnily enough, neither of them cared enough to ask where Gabriella was. Katie called your phone and you’d made some excuse that Gabriella wasn’t feeling well and you left.

That’s when Ella had a complete mental breakdown knowing the plan had failed and she had lost you. There was nothing she could do to stop you leaving now and it was killing her. But she had to face the facts, there was nothing she could do now.

-

You had never planned to sell your house. You’d bought the thing outright when you got your first big pay day and it was special to you. There was a possibility at one stage that you were going to rent it out, but you instead offered it to Ella, if she ever wanted a break from Caitlin and Katie’s.

It was four days to the move, two days until you were giving Ella your keys and tonight was the night you were meeting Gabriella’s friends so they could say goodbye.

Gabriella’s friends were all very similar to her, almost like carbon copies of each other. All of them had girlfriends or boyfriends ranging from not so serious, to married. She’d known a lot of these people since starting uni, and a few were actually long term friends she’d had before she moved to Ireland as a teenager.

Her friends also had mixed opinions of you, some liked you, some really liked you and some of them hated you. Some of her friends you didn’t even recognise anymore, you hadn’t seen some of them in years and others you’d only met once or twice.

Gabriella hadn’t even looked in your direction since you’d both arrived at the bar. You had been mid conversation coming into the venue, but once she saw her friends, she threw her stuff in your hands and ran to them with a high pitch squeal. So you’d spent your night at the bar, drinking and allowing your eyes to drift to the packages of vapes for sale every few minutes.

“Excuse me mate, can I get you a drink?” This preppy British lad smiled, sitting down next to you.

“You’re alright, thanks” you shook your head.

“I’m one of Gabriella’s mates” he clarified. “Come on, I’ll get your next” he insisted, not allowing you to interrupt him this time as he ordered two pints for you and him.

“Cheers” you mumbled, but unfortunately, he sat down next to you to continue the conversation.

“So America? What do you plan on doing?” He asked.

“I’ve a few offers for coaches, so I’ll test a few before decidin’” you explained.

“Wicked” he smirked, holding up his glass for you to clink yours against.

You couldn’t take this guy seriously whatsoever. He was like a want to be royal family member that looked weirdly familiar.

“You know, I’m not into boxing, but you have gotten very good since we first met” he shrugged, taking a massive gulp of his pint.

“Yeah” you nodded, although you couldn’t recall ever meeting this lad before.

“Although, I knew you would have been able to kill me that night” he laughed hysterically.

“What are ye talkin’ about?” You frowned.

“You walked in on me and Gabriella, remember?” He smiled, almost as if it was a joke.

“I’m sorry?” You huffed, turning in your chair and fists clenching up already.

“I couldn’t actually believe of all the times we’d had sex, you walked in on the time she told me she wanted to be with me” he sighed.

Gabriella had told you that it was a one time thing, something she didn’t want but felt guilty saying no to. She’d also told you that they’d never slept together and that they’d just kissed. It was a game of bluff, and you had to find out who was lying.

“She told me it was mistake” you stuttered, still trying to act stern as you stood from your seat.

“Which time?” He asked, extremely casually.

“Listen-” you began, grabbing this guy by his stupid expensive shirt and pinning him up against the wall. You didn’t kill him before, but you were about to now.

“Gabby, not to alarm you, but your little pit bull has someone pinned against a wall” her friend giggled as Gabriella looked over, almost getting sick when she saw who exactly that was. Gabriella raced over, a few of her friends following her as they got freaked out by how fast she ran.

“Please” the boy yelped as you pulled him almost fully off the ground.

“Ye ran off that night, ye ran off sayin’ ye didn’t know. Did ye know?” You shouted as he nodded. “Then ye deserve this” you grunted, swinging your hand backwards before feeling a familiar hand grip hold of it.

“You can’t” Gabriella pleaded, forcing you to look between both of them for the second time in your life. You let the boy down as he sprinted off and you saw red, again.

“I don’t know what he said, but it’s a lie” Gabriella began, and that’s when you knew who the real liar was here.

“What do ye think he told me?” You quizzed, watching a guilty expression appear on her face. “Do ye think he told me about all the nights ye slept with him? Or that ye told him ye wanted to be with him?”

“Y/n come on, it’s so meaningless now, it was so long ago” Gabriella groaned.

“Ye ruined my life” you shouted, and the girl and all of her friends froze.

“Ye are a manipulative, toxic, gaslightin’, twisted little freak” you spat

“Y/n” Gabriella gasped at how shocking that string of words leaving your mouth was.

“Go back to my house, get your shit out of it and leave your key” you demanded as you tried to walk away.

“Don’t leave it like this” Gabriella pouted, pulling you back towards her.

“You’re right” you nodded. “I’ll leave it like this, fuck you, Gabriella” you sighed, wiggling out of her hold and walking away as her friends pulled her in the opposite direction.

You headed straight to the bathrooms, going into a cubicle and punching the wall inside repeatedly until your knuckles were raw red. You’d planned to leave this bathroom, collect your things and go to Ella, knowing Gabriella will have went to yours to do what you’d asked her to do.

Only, as you got out of the bathroom, there she was, almost like in some type of weird twist of fate, she was the one that was here again.

“Y/n? Are you alright?” Leah frowned, swearing she could see steam shooting from your ears.

“No” you huffed, trying to brush by her to get to the exit.

“Are you here with someone?” Leah asked, trying to keep your focus on her.

None of the girls Leah was here with really knew you, they were her friends from outside of football. Gabriella had left with her friends, who had pulled her away from arguing with you, so technically you weren’t lying when you said-

“No” you repeated. “Who are ye here with?” You asked.

“It doesn’t matter” Leah shook her head. “Can I get you something? You seem stressed” she asked softly.

“Yeah” you nodded. “A vape”

“You’re back vaping?” She sighed. “I thought your girlfriend got you off them” she chuckled.

“I don’t have one” you shrugged.

“A vape?” Leah looked at you confused.

“A girlfriend” you corrected her.

“I’ll get you that vape” Leah nodded and raced off to the bar.

When she got back, she handed you the vape, noticing the state of your hands, but deciding not to bring it up right now. She brought you over to her friends, and introduced you briefly. They seemed like nice girls, and one of them was definitely trying to flirt with you, which for some reason seemed to be pissing Leah off. You watched as her eyes burned into the back of her friend’s head, who was whispering in your ear on the dance floor.

“Ye okay?” You mouthed towards the England captain who smirked that your focus seemed to be on her.

“Come here” she gestured you over as you left her friend’s side without so much as an apology, to get beside Leah.

“I want you” Leah slurred, pulling your t-shirt towards her as her eyes fell to your lips. Here you were again, drunk, fucked over by the girl you were with at the time, with Leah in a short tight dress all over you.

“Have me then” you shrugged with a smirk as Leah pulled your lips into hers, kissing you for a few minutes before dragging you to the bathroom.

She pushed you into a stall, locking the door behind you as she leaned against it, tugging you back towards her. Your lips found hers fairly quickly again and your hands tightened on her hips, keeping her pressed against the door. Somehow, Leah had became an even better kisser since the last time you did this. Her hand was rested on the back of your neck and she tugged your head into her own neck, needing to feel some type of release.

“Get on your knees” Leah whispered in your ear as you quickly removed your lips from her neck and smirked at her.

“Gladly” you replied, wasting no time in actually doing that.

You tried to keep Leah quiet, although drunk, you still recognised you were in a public bathroom. You eventually felt her legs tighten around your head and her fingers gripped your shoulders and pulled you back to your feet.

“Do you want to come back to mine?” She asked, your mind a little fuzzy but your brain somehow being smart enough to nod.

When you got back to Leah’s and after, you know, you explained the situation to the blonde girl who again, lived for the drama. Leah loved a yap and a gossip, and you definitely offered that to her.

Only, as you and Leah became a very regular thing, that relationship kind of broke down. Too busy sending each other late night messages asking if the other was up, drunken hook-ups, not speaking before, in between, or after, really. You’d almost felt like the friendship you’d been building with her was completely gone within weeks, replaced by this new dynamic where you just had sex.

Leah’s relationship also changed with Katie, she’d became a little bit more distant, not wanting to admit to her friend that she was sleeping with her younger sister, in an overly casual way.

The dynamic was working with Leah, you didn’t need to talk to her about your feelings on your situation. Leah didn’t pass comments when she came to your house and seen it was dramatically changed again since Gabriella moved out. You didn’t ask each other how you felt, or how your day had been. On the nights you spent together, you just did what you needed to do and you left, or she left, depending on whose house you were in. It was weird, but you liked it.

You were speaking to your sisters often, who unsurprisingly were supportive of your break up and your cancelled move to America. Katie was helpful in talking you into going back to your coaches, and you’d made sure to go see Ella a lot, but refrained from telling her you were sleeping with Leah. Much preferring to tell her you were taking some me time, and not really seeing anybody at the moment.

-

About a month after the break up and sleeping with Leah way too regularly, you finally bit the bullet and arrived down to your old gym. Your hood was firmly up and your gym bag slung over your shoulders as your hands were tucked into your hoodie pockets.

Leah had texted you just before you left asking if could she could come over later. You knew you’d be a bit frustrated when you got home today, and Leah was always the perfect distraction for that.

“Well, well” your coach smirked. “Look who came back”

“Don’t be a dickhead about it” you sighed.

“Get warmed up and in the ring” he nodded towards it, sticking his hand out for you to give him a fist bump.

“Cheers” you mumbled, knocking your fists against his as you sat on the stool and strapped up your hands.

You went through a warm up, nothing too strenuous, but you’d stayed fit from doing out of ring work. When he was happy you’d warmed up, he gestured you into the ring and ran through some pad combinations.

“You’re rusty” he sighed. “There’s no power” he grunted, deciding to switch you to a spar rather than pads.

You were convinced they were getting you back, as punch after punch landed on your ribs, stomach and face. You were absolutely spent by the end of the session, they’d left you rightly banged up.

“Fuckin’ hell” you sighed, lying on the ground, clutching your ribs.

“Welcome back” your coach smirked. “You deserved it” he shrugged.

“I know” you nodded.

“You take it easy for a few days, come back in when your eye can open again” he laughed as you stuck the finger up at him before he helped you to your feet.

When you got back to your house, you took a shower, moaning in pain anytime you moved, before you threw on comfortable, baggy clothes and tried getting comfortable on the couch. You’d put on an episode of a reality show that Alessia used to force you to watch, and you hated. You hated it so much you’d just put it on again, while you were alone.

When a knock came on the door, you winced as you stood up and limped towards it, finding a shocked looking Leah on the other side.

“What happened?” Leah frowned.

“Sorry, I forgot ye were comin’ over” you sighed. “Come in” you gestured her in as you went back to the living room.

“Can you tell me what happened?” Leah asked, stepping inside and closing the door before she followed you inside.

“Was my first day back trainin’ and the lads were a bit overexcited” you chuckled but your eye that could open went a little wide at how your ribs hurt when you did.

“Just stay lying down, okay? Do you have a bag of something frozen in your freezer? Your eye is swollen” Leah frowned, staring at it a bit carefully.

“Yeah, bottom shelf” you nodded, watching as she pushed herself off the couch and headed for the kitchen. She came back with something cold wrapped in a tea towel and placed it over your head.

“Do you want anything?” Leah asked.

“I’m sorry” you huffed. “I just forgot ye were comin’ over, but we can still-”

“Don’t” Leah shook her head. “I’ve actually been kind of meaning to talk to you” Leah admitted.

“Oh, did I do somethin’ wrong?” You pouted, your eyebrows creasing a little as you dropped the cold item off your eye, but Leah quickly pushed it back up again.

“No, you didn’t do anything wrong, it’s just-” Leah sighed. “We used to be mates, we used to talk about things and we don’t anymore since we-”

“I didn’t think ye wanted to”

“Wanted to talk to you?” Leah frowned.

“I thought ye just wanted to just, ye know, and then go” you shrugged.

“I just wouldn’t have done this if I knew you’d stop talking to me” Leah admitted.

“I never meant it in that way” you frowned, attempting to pull the ice off your head, but again, Leah pulled it back up.

“We just don’t always need to meet up for that” Leah said.

“So do ye wanna like, start seein’ each other?” That wasn’t really what you wanted to happen, not that Leah was a bad person to be with, you just didn’t want things to be official with her.

“Jesus no” Leah laughed as you sighed in relief. “We can continue being like this, but I just want to be friends too” she explained.

“I’m happy bein’ friends” you smiled, feeling the girl lean over to hug you gently.

“Lee?” You mumbled, as the girl expected you to ask her to go make you tea or something. “Can ye stay tonight?”

“Yeah” she nodded and gave you a hint of a smile.

You’d went into the kitchen to replace the ice for your head and make two cups of tea, while Leah had went to your room to change into some of your clothes to get more comfortable. She ordered you both some food and you settled on the couch, eventually finding some way to not be in too much discomfort with how you found yourself tucked up beside each other. Leah had stuck a film on for both of you to watch, and due to your long day, you’d been in and out of sleep.

“Tired” you eventually mumbled, making the girl chuckle.

“I could have told you that you were when you fell asleep at minute two” she shook her head.

“Go to bed, I’ll see you in the morning” she smiled.

“Come with me” you whispered, in a tired tone of voice that Leah didn’t get mistaken for anything suggestive.

“You sure?” Leah asked as you just grumbled back a noise before she sighed playfully and helped you off the couch.

You locked up downstairs before getting into bed, noticing that Leah looked good in your t-shirt and in your bed, but you didn’t let yourself overthink it, you were too tired.

“Night” Leah breathed out, feeling a weird sense of relief when your arm slung over her waist after a few minutes of silence since you first got into bed.

“I’m so glad ye stayed” you mumbled, and that’s when Leah realised, you were talking in your sleep.

“Me too” she replied anyway, before snuggling into you and going asleep.

That was your and Leah’s next chapter in your relationship. You weren’t just fuck buddies anymore, you were friends. You confided in each other, you talked about your feelings and how your day was. You met at normal times, and not always with sex being the end goal, although, it did lead there most times you met up.

But even with that aspect of your relationship, it got better. There was more intimacy and better communication, leading to better sex overall. There was rarely a night now you didn’t stay up chatting until late with Leah nestled into your arms. Once you started training properly again, Leah was added to the long line of girls who loved your arms, but they weren’t her favourite thing about you.

Her favourite thing about you was that you showed her you genuinely cared about her. You made an effort when Leah came over to your house to have the place looking tidy or having fresh sheets on the bed. She liked that you didn’t treat her like just a casual hook up, but understood that it was a casual hook up.

You didn’t argue with her when she asked to keep your hoodies or T-shirts, or any of your clothes for that matter. In return, Leah bought you little gifts to make up for the fact that half of your wardrobe was now in her house. She did buy you new clothes sometimes, but they’d quickly leave the house with her.

Your favourite thing she’d bought you was one of those gigantic mugs for tea that could hold nearly a litre at a time, due to her being sick of the fact you drank around a thousand cups a day.

Leah was really thankful for your relationship, and you were thankful Leah had the courage to speak about things to you, because you didn’t know how much you really needed her right now.

-

You had to learn how to decode Leah’s messages for when she meant she wanted to come and chill, or if she wanted you to make her eyes roll into the back of her head.

Lee 🧎🏻‍♀️

Up for coming over later?

Y/n/n 🦦

Yeah 👍🏻

Unfortunately, your texting abilities still hadn’t improved.

You got to Leah’s house a few hours after she finished training, knowing she usually liked to go for a nap and have a shower first.

“Lee?” You shouted, coming into her house and frowned at the fact the girl hadn’t answered you yet.

You threw your car keys on the table and took your shoes off before starting to wander the house to look for Leah.

“Lee? Where are ye?” You called out again, a little louder this time.

“In here” you heard a weak voice call back, as your head and body whipped around to follow the direction it had came from.

The voice had brought you towards Leah’s en suite bathroom in her bedroom, where you found her lying on the floor, clutching her stomach.

“Leah” you breathed out, becoming more and more concerned at the sight of the girl. A million thoughts went through your head as to what could have happened.

“I just need the tablets” she winced, clutching her stomach again and struggling to point towards the shelf situated above the sink.

“Orange cap” she added as you stood up without a second thought to look for the tube of tablets she was after.

“These ones?” You asked, crouching back down and holding the correct tube out in front of her, watching the girl give you the slightest of nods.

“I’ll go get ye a glass of water, okay? Two seconds” you mumbled, taking off the cap before rushing downstairs to grab her a glass.

You handed her the glass of water when you came back in and watched anxiously as she washed down two of the tablets as quickly as she could.

“Just give me five minutes” Leah sighed, leaning against the sink.

You noticed she was still in her Arsenal gear, so you went to her wardrobe to pull out comfier clothes for her.

You knew, despite not actually being together, Leah liked wearing your clothes, and had a rake of your stuff in her house. Knowing she was in a bit of discomfort, you decided to be extra nice and leave the clothes on the bed for her. But only as you went to the bed, you noticed that the sheets and duvet were covered in blood. You couldn’t help but wonder what had happened, but you couldn’t stop thinking about how it looked like a murder scene.

You set the clothes off to one side and started stripping the bed, taking the ruined bedsheets down to the washing machine before you grabbed new ones and remade the bed for her. Just as you had set your clothes on the freshly made bed, Leah emerged from the bathroom, covered just in a towel and her training gear in her hands, which she quickly disposed of in the washing basket.

“Ye okay?” You asked, sitting at the edge of the bed as the girl looked up, slightly embarrassed, until she realised what you’d did.

“Yeah, sorry” she nodded, sitting down beside you.

“Here” you mumbled, shoving the clothes onto her lap.

“Thank you” she smiled softly before standing back up.

You turned around, although, by this stage, you’d seen Leah naked multiple times, but you thought she’d be more comfortable right now if you weren’t looking at her. She dried off before pulling your tracksuit bottoms up her legs and your hoodie went over her head. You only turned back around to her when you felt her head hit your shoulder.

“I’m really sorry” she sighed.

“Don’t say sorry” you shook your head, sliding your hand down to rest on her thigh. “Are ye okay though?” You asked again.

“I don’t know if I ever told you, I um, I-” Leah hesitated.

“Ye don’t need to tell me anythin’” you reassured her but she shook her head at you, almost like she was telling you that she was comfortable to tell you anything.

“I have endometriosis” Leah whispered.

“Oh” you breathed out, still somehow managing to sound sympathetic in one syllable.

“It’s not a big deal or anything, it just can hurt a lot when I’m on my period” Leah explained.

“Is there anythin’ I can do?” You asked.

“Could you make me a cup of tea?” She asked as you nodded and stood up.

“Y/n?” She called you back softly, stopping you as you walked towards the door.

“Yeah?” You replied, watching as she walked towards you with a smile.

“Thank you for not being weird” she wrapped her arms around your neck and pulled you into a hug, your hands wrapping themselves around her lower back but being careful not to put any type of pressure into the hug.

“It did scare me a bit when I thought I was about to be murdered” you chuckled as you felt her body vibrate against yours.

Her hands slid from your neck to your cheeks and she pulled you in for a kiss, a sober peck, that caused you both to jump away from each other quickly. You’d never kissed her sober or without it trying to lead to sex, and now you had.

“I’ll, uh, I’ll go make the tea” you scooted away anxiously.

“Yeah, yeah, the tea” Leah nodded, sitting back down just as anxious and stressed as you were as to why she’d just kissed you when you were meant to be just friends.

You stuck the kettle on and sunk into the seat at the kitchen table. You didn’t really know much about endometriosis, or whatever it was called, and you didn’t know what to label Leah right now, but you gave it your best shot in trying to type in a well worded Google search to help her.

How to help your girlfriend with her endometriosis symptoms.

If you were honest, you had no idea what that even was when Leah had said it upstairs, but usually when someone tells you they have something, it’s never a good thing. You scrolled through a couple of things, trying to just wrap your head around how it affected her as the kettle boiled.

When you got back upstairs with her tea, you found her tucked into bed, still snug in your jumper and scrolling on her phone.

“Ye okay?” You asked, placing the tea on your bedside table. She never liked it piping hot.

“Yeah, thank you” she nodded. “I am sorry, it just came early” Leah sighed.

“It’s okay, the guy on Google said that was normal” you nodded as Leah shot you a look.

“The guy on Google?” She giggled.

“Yeah, well I was lookin’ up endro- how do ye say it again?”

“Endometriosis” Leah smiled, a little taken aback you’d went through the trouble of looking this up.

“Yeah, that one” you nodded as Leah couldn’t help but laugh at how clueless you were at times.

“They said it can just come early sometimes and not to be panickin’” you shrugged.

“Did you learn anything else during your biology lesson in the kitchen?” Leah smirked.

“He said that some girls prefer heat pads and some prefer ice packs” you added. “Which one do ye prefer?”

“Heat pads” Leah was practically melting at this conversation having just followed your kiss.

“Here” she said, throwing you the heat pad.

“Ye want it heated up?” You asked.

“That’s the whole idea, yeah” she teased as you rolled your eyes.

“Can you bring back chocolate too?” Leah asked as you gave her a thumbs up and jogged downstairs.

When you came back up, Leah made grabby hands for the heat pad and the chocolate you were holding. They were far apart from each other to make sure the chocolate didn’t melt. You handed her the bar and you put the heat pad on her stomach yourself.

“Can I get into bed now or ye gonna start throwin’ out more demands?” You smirked as she stuck her finger up at you.

“Do you want to watch a film or something?” She asked as you hopped in and she snuggled in beside you.

“Yeah, go on” you nodded, watching the girl pick up the remote to start scrolling through options.

Your hand slipped down Leah’s side to her stomach and held her head pad against it. You pressed a kiss to her forehead, for the first time in your relationship.

Leah froze for a second, and you gulped loudly at how natural it felt. Leah looked up at you as your eyes met and both of you simultaneously leaned in, kissing each other properly now, not really wanting it to lead more. This kiss was different than any of the other ones you’d shared with her.

“Is this okay?” Leah asked.

“Yeah, absolutely” you nodded, pulling her gently back in to continue.

From then, Leah noticed you never really took your hands off of her stomach when you were relaxing together. She believed that you fully thought that endometriosis wasn’t a manageable problem, and that she was dying. But Leah wasn’t complaining. It was comforting, especially now that you were both softening up to each other. You were sleeping together a little less often now, but sneaking quick kisses in more and more often. You were also spending an obscene amount of time together and how nobody knew that you two were doing this together was mental to you.

-

You were at training, taking a swig of your water bottle on the rotation between the bag and pads when you seen Leah’s ID on your screen. She knew you were training, so it must have been urgent that she was calling.

“Do ye mind if I take this?” You shouted as your coaches all gave you a simultaneous nod.

You gripped the strap of your glove in your teeth and ripped it off, swiping to accept Leah’s call.

“What’s up? I’m at work” you panted.

“I’m so sorry, I forgot you were working early today” Leah sobbed.

“Lee, darlin’ what’s wrong?” You frowned.

“It’s so bad” she cried, and you knew instantly she was talking about the pains that came with her condition.

“Did ye take your tablets?” You asked.

“A few minutes ago” she nodded.

“Just give it a few minutes, I’ll stay here with ye until they kick in” you added.

“Are you not busy?” She pouted.

“I can take a few minutes” you reassured her. “I’ll come over this evenin’ when I’m done as well, okay?” You smiled.

“Thank you” Leah winced.

You rambled on about something random to keep the girl distracted until she started feeling better. When you got off the phone, Leah rang her mum and the older woman had agreed to come over.

You, however, put your gloves back on and jogged back over to the lads.

“All alright mate?” One of the coaches asked.

“Yeah, grand” you nodded.

“Do you need to go? Sounded serious” He toyed, trying to get any sort of information from you.

“Was just my mate, she’s alright” you shrugged.

“A friend, or a special friend?” He smirked.

“Fuck off” you playfully scoffed.

“If you need to go though, honestly, it’s fine. You’ve done good this week” he smiled.

“Yeah, okay, cheers” you smiled back.

“So it’s a special friend then?” He teased.

“Bye” you shouted, dumping your stuff into your bag and racing towards your car to head straight to Leah’s.

The minute Leah saw you at her door, the idea of her mum coming over had been completely forgotten.

“You left work?” She frowned.

“They said I could go. I was worried about ye” you shrugged. “Can I just go grab a shower?” You asked.

“Would you mind making me a cup of tea first?” Leah shot you puppy dog eyes and you instantly caved, allowing her to press a kiss to your lips before you headed into the kitchen.

Leah had just sat back down when her front door flew open again and her mum burst through the door. The blonde went as pale as a ghost when she realised that her mum and you were currently in this house, and her mum was definitely the type of person to say something. Leah knew her mum way too well, because the first thing that came out of the woman’s mouth was a question about the mysterious figure in the kitchen.

“Leah, who is that beautiful woman in your kitchen?” Her mum queried, peaking her head in to where you stood at the kettle, staring into space.

“Mum, Jesus Christ” Leah groaned. “It’s Katie’s sister, Y/n”

“And are you and Katie’s sister, Y/n, a-”

“No” Leah huffed. “It’s-” Leah struggled to find the words to explain what you were to her, and her mum seemed to pick up that.

“Right” Leah’s mum nodded. “And does Katie know?”

“No” Leah repeated, watching as her mum’s head leaned out the living room door again to get another look at you in the kitchen.

You were wearing shorts and a sleeveless vest, just having came straight from training and being forced into making Leah tea before you took a shower.

“Well, good for you darling” Leah’s mum smiled.

“What do you mean?” Leah frowned.

“You’re always dating footballers, or these models, she looks like fun” she clarified.

“Mum” Leah sighed.

“I just mean the people you usually date are so dull” she added.

“That didn’t make your sentence any better actually” Leah protested.

“Oh sorry, I didn’t know ye had someone here” you said, coming in from the kitchen with two mugs in your hands. You shot Leah’s mum a smile, despite not knowing who she was.

“Hi, I’m Amanda, Leah’s mum” she smiled at you.

Leah expected you to be a little standoffish or taken aback that her mum was introducing herself to you, but you were actually good with parents. Much like you’d been pleasant to Gabriella’s parents and Alessia’s grandmother when you were introduced to them.

“Nice to meet ye, I’m Y/n” you stuck your hand out and shook hers, politely.

“Can I make ye a cup of tea or anything Ms Williamson?” You asked.

“No, no, I just had to drop something off, I’ll be heading home in a minute” Amanda shook her head and shooed you away.

“Sorry I’m probably stinkin’, I just came in from the gym” you explained as Leah’s mum smirked. She found you quite charming.

“Do you come to my daughter’s house often after you’ve been in the gym?” She asked casually as you practically froze on the spot. You weren’t that great when parents asked you questions like that.

“Can you heat this up for me?” Leah asked, sensing your panic as she handed you her heat pad that had been resting on her stomach.

“Yeah” You nodded. “Nice to meet ye, Ms Williamson” you smiled, gently squeezing Leah’s shoulder as you went to the kitchen.

“You too” Amanda smirked after you.

“And chocolate” Leah shouted after you.

“Yeah, I know” you called back, already used to the drill by now.

“I’ll tell you something love, if I was 10 years younger, I-”

“No mum, please don’t tell me anything” Leah groaned and waved her hands.

“Please just go and I will call you tomorrow” Leah begged as her mum finally caved and hugged her goodbye.

“Bye Y/n” Amanda called.

“Bye” you waved from the kitchen with a soft smile, watching as the older woman left and Leah closed the front door.

“Your mam is nice” you laughed.

“My mum just found her new girl crush” Leah sighed as your laugh just grew louder.

“Here, this is ready” you said, tugging the heat pad from the microwave and putting it against her stomach yourself. Leah allowed herself a minute of comfort, feeling your hand holding it against her and the other resting gently on her lower back.

“Would you be okay if we told Katie?” Leah asked as your hands froze in place, slowly becoming hotter and sweatier from the radiating heat of the cushiony item.

“I didn’t think ye wanted to say it because we’re not really together” you mumbled.

“I’m happy with the way things are and don’t get stressed thinking I want a committed relationship” Leah laughed.

“But we are obviously close friends now and I do love you, so I don’t want you or her to get hurt if she finds out from somewhere else about us” she added.

“Okay” you nodded. “And I know ye don’t mean it in that way, and neither do I, but I love ye too” you smiled and pulled the girl in for a hug.

“God you really do smell, can you please go take a shower?” Leah gagged as you laughed.

“Ye usually love when I’m all sweaty” you teased.

“If you think I’m touching you again while you smell like that, you can think again” Leah warned, picking up the chocolate from the counter that you’d put there and headed back into the living room, warning you to be back down soon because she was feeling needy.

You weren’t really bothered about the idea of telling Katie, it wasn’t like you and Leah were in a serious relationship. Leah also remembered the fact that Katie had told her she didn’t care when you kissed, so she was hoping she would have the same reaction now.

Leah wanted to do it in a public place, so there would be witnesses if it went badly. You went along with the idea because you thought the possibility of Katie having a breakdown about the girl you were sleeping with in the middle of a café was hilarious.

Katie, Caitlin and Ella pulled up and headed into the café, thinking they were just meeting you. They ordered their drinks and took a seat, waiting for you to arrive. Meanwhile, you’d actually been here for 10 minutes, you were just in the car trying to remind Leah about the concept of regular breathing.

“We don’t have to do it” you reminded her.

“No, we need to” she argued back, nodding her head to let you know she was ready.

“Whatever she says doesn’t really bother me” you leaned in and pressed a kiss to her cheek, hopping out of the car as she followed suit. You spotted Katie when you got in and waved as she smiled and waved back, and then Leah came into view.

“Oh no” Ella sighed, already understanding why you’d asked to meet up once she saw Leah.

“Here we go” Caitlin lightly giggled as you both pushed into the booth at the café.

The waitress had just brought over the girls drinks before you’d even said hello, you were ordering drinks too and you were the only one at the table that ordered food.

“So, how’s every-” you tried to casually begin.

“Are ye together?” Katie straight out asked.

“No” both you and Leah replied.

“Just ridin’” you shrugged.

“Y/n” Leah sighed, not really noticing that the three didn’t bat an eyelid at how upfront you were being.

“It’s about time” Caitlin said as her and Ella laughed, but Katie wasn’t as amused.

“There’s nothin’ else to it? Just ridin’?” Katie asked.

“Yeah” you nodded, letting the waitress slide your tea and sandwich to you.

“Crack on” Katie shrugged, attempting to rob a few crisps off your plate but you swatted her away.

“As long as you’re not with Gabriella, I don’t care anymore who ye are with” Katie laughed.

“Are you serious?” Leah frowned.

“See I told ye she’d be grand” you chuckled, digging into your sandwich.

“Yeah it’s grand” Katie smirked. “But I’m gonna rip the piss out of ye for it forever” she poked as Leah rolled her eyes.

-

Later that evening, you and Leah were on your couch, eating the dinner you’d made and watching TV.

“Happy everythin’ is alright?” You asked as Leah nodded.

“I really appreciate that you told her, because I know you didn’t want to” Leah sighed.

“It’s grand” you shrugged.

“That’s all you say” Leah rolled her eyes as you chuckled. “Come here” she whispered as you both dropped your bowls on the coffee table and lost yourself in Leah’s lips.

“Do you want to talk about it?” Gabriella asked, coming into the bedroom a few minutes later with a cup of tea.

“No” you shook your head.

“Did something happen with that girl?” Gabriella guessed as you nodded. “I get the situation with us wasn’t ideal, but you told me you and her were just friends”

“We were” you sighed, trying not to burst into tears. “Sorry” you added with a sniffle.

“Explain it to me, I just want to help” Gabriella said softly, stroking your shaky hand with her thumb.

“We slept together at the weddin’ and then she told me wanted to try bein’ together and ye know me. Ye know I give everythin’ to a relationship and I know it was wrong I didn’t explain it to ye before but-” you were speaking so fast and barely coherently that Gabriella was really struggling to keep up.

“Don’t apologise” she shook her head. “Keep going”

“It was goin’ really well and I really thought that I might be in love with her” you explained, as Gabriella bit her lip to stop herself from getting sick that you’d just said that.

“We went away together, she told her best mate and her nan and I told Ella. It was just goin’ so well and, I dunno, we were out with her mates and I left to get us drinks and I came back and she was kissin’ this lad and then one of her friends kissed me and-”

“Okay, slow down” Gabriella interrupted you as she watched tears fall from your eyes and your fists clenching up.

“Come here, it’s okay” she cooed, pulling you into a hug.

You didn’t mind being vulnerable around her, she’d seen you cry multiple times through the course of your relationship, yet strangely, she was never the cause of it.

“I’m sorry, Gabs” you sniffled against her as she tugged you in a little tighter.

“It’s okay” Gabriella repeated. “At least we’re even now” she smirked as you pulled away and frowned at her.

“What?”

“We’re even” she echoed. “I cheated on you, by mistake. You cheated on me, not really by mistake, so we’re even” she explained.

“I don’t get how it’s the same thing? You’re still with Dara” you moaned as the girl scoffed at you.

“And imagine I was about to break up with her for you, and you cheated on me” Gabriella hissed. “I was just about to end things with her when you got back from Ireland and then you ghosted me”

“I-”

“There’s no excuse for what you did to me” she pouted, crossing her arms and turning her head away from you.

“Fine, we’re even” you huffed, just willing to accept whatever the girl said to make your head stop pounding.

“Do you even want to be with me?” Every ounce of care that was in Gabriella’s voice had left, and you noticed it was since you told her how you felt about Alessia.

“Yeah” you nodded.

“I want you to block her” Gabriella quipped, tapping on your phone that was sat on the bed.

“I need to talk to her before-”

“It’s me or her, Y/n” Gabriella growled and picked your phone up this time. You couldn’t make the mistake again, but you felt trapped.

“Just block whoever ye want to, I don’t care anymore” you mumbled, closing your eyes and sighing deeply, letting your head fall back onto the pillow.

You felt the phone hit the bed again after a few minutes, not sober enough yet to comprehend Gabriella had just had full access to your phone, all your texts on every app. Gabriella was horrible, but she wasn’t evil. She’d never expose your private conversations, but she would definitely have a look at them.

“So this is how this is going to work” Gabriella began as you sat up at the feeling of her hands touching your arms. “I’m going to break up with Dara, and you are going to stay loyal to me, okay?”

“Okay” you nodded, not really sure why you were agreeing.

“I do Dara’s accounts, which is obviously going to stop when I finish things with her, so I want to take over yours” she added and again, you just nodded.

“Great, because I’ve been offered a contract with an American accountancy firm who are looking for high profile athletes, so we can switch you to them” she continued.

“Wait, are ye movin’ to America?” You frowned.

“No, we are” Gabriella continued.

“But, I can’t just leave. I train here, ye know I can’t just up and leave. Ye saw how difficult it was with this contract and movin’ to London”

“We were kids back then” Gabriella huffed. “We’re adults now, you can move and train with new people” Gabriella shot you a look as if you were stupid.

“I don’t-”

“What? You don’t want to be with me?” Gabriella snapped.

“No, it’s not that” you shook your head.

“If you want to be with me, we’re moving. Are you going to do that or not?”

“Yeah, okay” you nodded as you felt her lips press against yours. “I just need time to speak to my coaches” you mumbled as she pulled away.

-

Gabriella had pretty much blocked everyone you’d ever spoken to by the looks of things. She had blocked who she felt necessary, but missed one key link, not putting any lines together that the friend of Alessia’s that kissed you, was none other than Leah Williamson.

You went to speak with your coaches about moving to America and they were shocked, to say the least. You’d been training with them since you turned professional six years ago and now suddenly you were just up and leaving them.

“Is there not anything we can do to convince you to stay?” Your coach asked, trying to make the slightest bit of eye contact with you.

“No, we’re movin’ in the next little while” you shook your head.

“We?” He frowned.

“Just- thanks for everythin’” you sighed, turning on your heels and heading to the door.

“You’re making a massive mistake” he shouted after you as you walked out of the gym. “Y/n, wait”

“I’m sorry” you pouted, knowing this was a bad decision.

“Look, you know where we are okay? If anything happens, the door is always open to come straight back” he squeezed your shoulder, waiting for you to nod before he headed back into the gym.

-

You kept to your side of the deal and Gabriella kept to hers. She ended things with Dara and moved in with you in Sutton. She was busy while she was finishing up with her job in the U.K and getting ready to move to America, with you, who’d agreed to move to the opposite side of the world with the person who ruined your life.

You’d been out of training since you left your coaches, not really eating properly and losing weight rapidly from sitting around. It’d been a few weeks since the night of hell had taken place, and you hadn’t heard from anyone, not that they could contact you in anyway because you’d Gabriell had blocked them.

Alessia, Katie and Ella had been busy too with their own careers, too busy to come all the way to Sutton to talk to you about why you’d blocked them. It was getting to Katie and Ella a lot more because obviously, Alessia knew why you blocked her. But Ella and Katie couldn’t really pinpoint a reason, especially Ella. Katie thought maybe you were embarrassed you kissed Leah, and that’s why you did it, but then why hadn’t you blocked Leah? Ella on the other hand was just miserable, because all she’d done was use your vape, but she’d done that thousands of times.

“Leah” Katie moaned, breaking the silent treatment she’d been giving her since that night as she approached Leah in the empty changing rooms.

“Oh, you’ve remembered my name, have you?” Leah huffed as Katie rolled her eyes.

“Have ye heard from Y/n?” Katie frowned, not even attempting to look up towards the blonde girl she’d interrupted you kissing all those weeks ago now.

“Do ye know if she’s alright?”

“How would I know?” Leah shrugged.

“I just thought ye might have been talkin’ to her” Katie mumbled. “She, eh, she blocked me and Ella and I dunno why” Katie pouted as Leah’s expression softened.

“What do you mean she blocked you?” Leah frowned, scrambling at her phone to check if she’d been blocked on anything and surprised to see she hadn’t been.

“Why am I not blocked?”

“This is what I’m sayin’” Katie added. “I just can’t check to see if everythin’ is alright, so I was just seein’ if ye were talkin’ to her just so I know she’s okay”

“I can ask” Leah gave your sister an empathetic smile as Katie nodded. “You know we were both just drunk, don’t you? It wasn’t anything serious” Leah clarified.

“I don’t really care that ye got with her” Katie shrugged with a soft laugh. “I just thought something else had happened and she felt guilty and wouldn’t speak to me”

“I’ll happily go see your fit sister and get to the bottom of what’s wrong” Leah teased as Katie rolled her eyes at her. “Where’s Caitlin?” Leah asked.

“Canteen” Katie replied. “Why?”

“I want to ask her which McCabe she thinks would be a better kisser” Leah smirked as Katie chuckled, but quickly ran after Leah when the blonde girl took off to actually ask Caitlin that question, shouting her protests on the way there. The two of them came into the canteen in fits of laughter as they grabbed some food and sat down beside Caitlin.

“All friends again?” Caitlin smiled, wiggling her eyebrows.

“Yeah, we’re fine” Katie mumbled with a nod.

“Have you not asked Alessia to speak to her?” Leah asked, gesturing her head towards the girl who was sitting on a table between a hyper Kyra and Vic who were shouting at each other over the blonde’s head.

“She’s seemed a bit spaced the last while, we think she might have stuff goin’ on” Katie shrugged.

“Has anyone checked in?” Leah frowned.

“Kyra” Caitlin whispered.

“Kyra?” Leah’s frowned deepened.

“We gave her the responsibility to make sure Less was alright and she came back and repeated what she said” Caitlin explained.

“And?” Leah added, looking over at her England teammate who seemed to be in a trance, staring at the wall and subconsciously poking her food with her fork.

“Just said it was personal and she didn’t wanna talk about it” Katie shrugged.

Alessia and Leah had been friends for a long time, playing for England together for several years, and Leah being a key figure in getting Alessia to move from Manchester to London. So, she wasn’t overly convinced that Kyra was the best person to get to the bottom of Alessia’s issues, but she’d promised Katie she would deal with you and knew she needed to do that first.

Leah hadn’t even bothered to message you, she just asked Katie for your address and her mouth dropped when she realised you lived so far away. But she drove all the way out to Sutton in anyway, knocking on your door as if she’d been here thousands of times.

Luckily Gabriella had an actual job and wasn’t there when Leah came over, because you think if your current girlfriend had met the friend of Alessia’s that you kissed, she’d have flipped. Gabriella and you were actually in a really good place since she ended things with Dara, and you didn’t want anything to get in the way of that.

“Leah?” You frowned, not knowing why the blonde girl was here, or how she even knew where you lived.

“Hey” Leah smiled, looking up from her phone now to face you, smile dropping instantly and turning into a frown to match yours when she saw you.

“What are ye doin’ here?” You asked. Leah was a bit concerned when she saw you that you didn’t look like yourself. You were still rapidly losing weight, shrinking into a shell of your former self.

“Can I come in?” Leah asked as you hesitated briefly. You knew Gabriella wouldn’t be back for hours, but you didn’t want Leah to get the wrong impression that you were in anyway interested in her.

“Yeah” you nodded. “Do ye want a cup of tea or anythin’?” You asked and the girl gave you a thumbs up.

She made herself comfortable in the living room while she waited on you to come back. Your house was very neat and tidy, nothing out of place and well furnished. Gabriella was a bit of a self-made interior designer and a clean freak, so once she moved in, she’d practically redesigned your entire house.

“Here” you mumbled, shoving the mug into Leah’s hand.

“Thanks” Leah hummed back. “How are you?”

“Sorry, not to sound bad, but why are ye here?” You mumbled, your tone a little bit dismissive.

“Oh, yeah” Leah nodded. “I guess, I haven’t heard from you since-”

“It didn’t mean anythin’” you shrugged.

“What didn’t?” Leah asked.

“Us, the kiss, it meant nothin’” you rephrased. “I was just drunk”

“No, sorry” Leah groaned, now realising you thought she was here to talk about that night.

“Look, Katie is worried about you and she doesn’t know why you blocked her, and frankly, I don’t know or care why you did either. But your little sister is losing her mind and Katie just wants to know that you’re okay to ease her stress” Leah word vomited, deciding to stop beating around the bush as you shrunk into the chair.

“Oh” you sighed.

“You don’t need to tell me anything, but Katie just thought because you didn’t block me that you’d talk to me. I know you’d probably prefer Less but she seems to be on another planet at the minute” Leah laughed, not understanding why that was funny to her and not you.

“Ye can tell Katie that I’m grand” you nodded.

“You don’t seem yourself” Leah added softly, squeezing your shoulder with her free hand that nearly made you jump out of your skin.

“Sorry” she frowned, knowing she’d made you uncomfortable.

“If I tell ye somethin’, can you keep it between us?” You asked the girl who was sat beside you, nodding her head. “Do ye remember a few months ago we were out and we were talkin’ and I got into a fight?”

“Yeah, I can remember trying to separate you and screaming for help” Leah chuckled.

“Yeah, well, the girl” you choked.

“The one you hit?” Leah asked and you shook your head.

“The other one” you corrected her. “She was-”

“Your ex” Leah inputted.

“Everyone knows now that after that night we started sleepin’ together again but she was still with the-”

“One you punched” Leah gasped, tucking her knees up and putting her free hand under her chin. She was glued to this gossip.

“Yeah” you nodded, you decided to skip over the entire Alessia chapter in the story and cut right to now. “I know I shouldn’t have kissed ye that night, but after I left I just felt so bad that I went to her house and-”

“Oh my god did you kiss me and sleep with her on the same night?” Leah laughed.

“I didn’t sleep with her” you shook your head. “She told me that she’d break up with Dara and get back with me” you sighed.

“Okay? So you’re back with your ex?” Leah frowned, knowing Katie would flip the lid if she found out.

“See, Gabs is an accountant” you mumbled, not exactly answering Leah’s question, but she was allowing for you to side note.

“She got this contract in America and is movin’ there in the new few weeks and she told me if we got back together, I’d have to go with her”

“Which you obviously can’t do because you train here and you live here and-” Leah rambled until she saw the guilty look on your face. “You’re going?” She asked.

“I have to go” you shrugged. “So, I left the gym here and I’m movin’ my books to Gabriella’s accountancy firm in America” you replied.

“Okay, well, I don’t think you should give your cheating ex- sorry, your girlfriend, full financial control” Leah explained. “Move and be with her in America, that’s fine, but please just don’t move your finances to her” Leah added.

“Why?” You frowned.

“Can you just trust me, alright? If you need help with it, I can do it or I can get someone to help you, but don’t let her take control of your money” Leah sternly told you.

“What would ye know about money?” You laughed.

“I have a degree in accountancy” Leah mumbled, sipping from her tea. “So clearly your type is just accountants” she laughed as you rolled your eyes.

“Very funny” you shook your head, letting out a soft chuckle.

“If anything came from this, I just want you to know you’re a really good kisser, and if you ever find yourself drunk and single again, call me” Leah smirked and squeezed your cheeks.

“Do ye ever give it a rest?” You asked as the girl shook her head, still smirking.

“Listen, I’m injured at the minute” Leah lied. “I need to get a few extra gym sessions in, would you maybe want to come with me?” She asked.

“Yeah, okay” you nodded.

You loved the gym and training, but since you left your coaching team, you hadn’t touched anything. Leah seemed to have figured that out by looking at the size of you in comparison to the you she sat on top of a few weeks ago, and she was going to try and help you.

“Can ye please just not tell Katie anythin’? I’ll talk to her and Ella properly before I go” you added.

“Maybe you could talk to Alessia too, because Katie for some reason trusted Kyra to do it and I don’t know if you know Kyra but Christ, I don’t know what they were thinking” Leah laughed.

“Me and her don’t speak anymore” you shook your head, not even saying her name out of fear you’d just break down crying.

“Right” Leah nodded with a sympathetic smile, not really wanting to push further but presuming whatever you’d argued about that night had ended your friendship.

“I’ll see you in a few days” Leah hugged you goodbye and headed home, sighing loudly at how she’d became so heavily involved in the McCabe’s family drama.

-

When Gabriella got home later that evening, you didn’t bring up your house guest that had been here a few hours ago. She came into the house to smell cooking and was shocked to see you’d actually gotten up for the couch.

“I’m home” she called, as you mumbled something back to confirm it was really you in the kitchen.

“What do I owe the pleasure of you cooking for me?” Gabriella giggled as she wrapped her arms around your neck and kissed your cheek.

“Can I not just cook for my girlfriend without it bein’ a big deal?” You shrugged.

“You can” Gabriella nodded. “But I like making it a big deal” she giggled, jumping up on the counter and pulling you in for a kiss.

“Okay then, it’s a big, massive deal that I’m cookin’ for my really pretty girlfriend” you smirked as she rolled her eyes. “How was your day?” You asked.

“Busy” she groaned, rubbing her hands up your arms as yours matched her movements on her thighs.

Once Gabriella broke up with Dara, you noticed she changed dramatically. It was almost like the girl you did once know and fall in love with at the beginning was back, and there was nothing stopping you both from being happy.

“Can I do anythin’?” You whispered as she gave you a soft smile back and shook her head.

“I’m going to go take a shower and get changed, before I tuck into-” Gabriella glanced over at the food you were making so she could finish her sentence.

“Chicken and pasta” you told her as she looked back at you.

“Are you going back training?” She asked, jumping down from the counter and grabbing out two bowls.

“I’m goin’ to go back to the gym” you said softly, testing the waters a little bit.

“That’s great, baby” Gabriella smiled. “I’m proud of you for going back and doing something”

“I just don’t really feel great about myself at the minute” you shrugged.

“Well” Gabriella began, cupping your face as she pulled you towards her. “I’ll always think you look sexy, regardless of if you are training or on a break from it” she kissed you softly again as you melted into it.

“I love you” Gabriella said between breaths.

That was it. That was why no matter what happened, you’d always run back to Gabriella. You didn’t have to guess where you stood with her, you knew she loved you because she told you that she did. She was the only one who’d ever told you that she loved you.

“I love ye too” you smiled back, content you’d made the right decision in being with her again.

“I know you’re not happy you’ve lost a little weight, but you got your arms so big before that they’re at a normal person size now” she giggled, wrapping her fingers around your bicep.

“My arms are tiny” you groaned.

“No they aren’t” she shook her head at you. “Your arms have been gigantic since we were 15” she laughed, making you smirk.

“Stop” you shrugged her off.

“Can you not remember my dad telling you that you had the biggest arms he’d ever seen before?” She wiggled her eyebrows at you teasingly

“Yeah, I can” you nodded, chuckling at her but taking a hold of her hand. She never really brought him up often anymore.

“He was always your number one fan, no matter how hard I tried to be” she smiled. “He was obsessed with you, it was so embarrassing” she shook her head.

“I miss him too” you smiled softly as the girl nodded.

“I’m going to go for my shower, okay?” She said.

“Go on, I’ll have dinner ready when you’re back down” you squeezed her a little harder before you let go.

Gabriella’s dad passed away a few months before you originally split up, which is why the break up was harder for you to get over knowing that you’d dumped a girl whose dad had just died and kicked her out of your shared house. Gabriella didn’t really like talking about him anymore because she just got too upset, so you always treaded lightly when he was brought up. You wouldn’t have been surprised if Dara didn’t even know if Gabriella had a dad, she was very cautious around who she brought him up too. But Gabriella knew how much you loved him and how much he loved you, but she didn’t know the last conversation you had with him was you telling him your plans to propose to his daughter.

“Thank you” Gabriella whispered when she scooted up next to you on the couch and you picked her bowl up to give it to her. She’d came back down from the shower snug in your jumper and a pair of small shorts that left very little to the imagination.

“Can I speak to ye about somethin’?” You asked and the girl nodded. “I miss Ella, and I know ye blocked her, but I really want to talk to her” you mumbled as you felt a hand fall on your arm.

“I really didn’t have the right to block them, I shouldn’t have blocked your sisters” she breathed out.

“Can you just keep her blocked?” Gabriella sighed and was a bit shocked when you agreed so quickly. Alessia wasn’t sorry for what she’d done, not like Gabriella was.

-

Alessia was sorry. Guilt ridden since the night everything went to shit and just longing for the day you’d somehow forgive her and talk to her again.

Of course when Kyra and Leah asked, she’d said she was okay, she was just working through some personal things, but neither of them knew that the personal thing was you. The only three people that knew the extent of how badly she’d fucked things up with you, were you, Ella, and Ella Toone.

Despite being blocked, your Ella was always going to remain loyal to you, and hadn’t reached out to Alessia to see if she was alright after she watched you and Leah go at it and proceed to have a front row seat to the screaming match that occurred between you and your then girlfriend. So, Ella Toone was the only option Alessia had, and it wasn’t a bad option, being her best friend and all, but the Manchester girl did at times struggle to take anything seriously.

“Less, it’s not that bad” Ella sighed, watching as her best friend was sobbing on the couch, wrapped up in your jumper that Ella didn’t know was yours, but took a good guess that it was.

“I know I messed up, but I can’t even talk to her because she blocked me on everything” Alessia sobbed.

“Well, let’s think of another way” Ella suggested.

“What other way is there?” Alessia shouted. “She unblocked Katie and they’re back talking, she never blocked Leah, and Katie and Leah are talking again, so is she with Leah?” Alessia was choking on her words, trying to get them out coherently.

“I doubt her and Leah are together” Ella sighed, sitting next to her and resting her hand on her shoulder. “She really loves you Less, there’s no way she just moved on that quickly”

“She never told me she loved me during our whole relationship” Alessia mumbled as Ella regretted mentioning it. “There was times that I thought she was going to tell me and then she just went completely off topic” the blonde explained.

“Did you tell her?” Ella asked.

“No, because I thought it was too soon to feel that way about someone” Alessia cried. “And the last time I told someone I loved them, they hurt me and I didn’t want to put myself in that scenario again with her”

“Lessi, there’s no way in hell she’d move on so quickly. She was mad about you. After I found out and the three of us would do something together, she would only talk to me about you” Ella laughed.

“It was like she was trying to get it out of her system how much she liked you to me because I knew about it”

“I just miss her” Alessia shrugged, tucking her knees up to her chest. “I miss having her around, even when we were just friends, she was like this comfort that I’d never felt before with anyone”

“Wow, thanks Less” Ella sighed playfully as Alessia rolled her eyes, but a hint of a smile displayed on her face.

“It was different, Tooney” Alessia groaned, watching as her best friend folded her arms and playfully pouted.

“I get it, you felt like you were yourself” Ella smiled, watching Alessia nod. “Girlfriend, boyfriend, partner, whoever you end up with, Less, isn’t my business. As long as they make you happy, I don’t care what they are or who you are” Ella added, causing Alessia to crash against her into a hug.

“Thanks, Tooney” Alessia whimpered.

“Have you thought about telling your parents?” She asked.

“Not yet”

“You know they aren’t going to care either” Ella encouraged her best friend. “Your dad would love someone like Y/n”

“So would my mum, with the amount of tea she makes, they’d be best friends” Alessia sighed with a small laugh.

“It’ll work out, okay? Even if it’s not with Y/n, someone will come into your life and make you happy” Ella smiled as the girls hugged again.

-

You’d been really coming back to yourself, training with Leah, who was more so just watching you as you worked out. You asked the girl multiple times about her recovery programme and if she needed help, but she didn’t seem to be doing anything at the gym whatsoever, other than keeping you company. Leah would sometimes come straight from training to the gym to meet you, realising after she watched your gym routine for the first time that faking an injury to spend time with you, wasn’t the option she should have went with.

With the move to America just around the corner, Gabriella had came up with a plan for both of you to meet Katie and Ella to tell them about your move, and that you were back together. So, you’d invited Katie and Ella over, knowing Caitlin would come with them too, for dinner in your house.

They took the drive out to Sutton, finding you alone in the house, as expected. Gabriella was stuck at work and vowing to get back as quickly as possible. Katie hadn’t been to your house in quite a while, but Ella had stayed in this house right before the wedding, and had been over while you were with Alessia, and it looked very different.

“Hey” you grinned when you seen all three girls at the door.

“You think a hey with a cheeky little grin will work instead of an apology?” Katie asked, but before you broke the silence, Caitlin did.

“Works for me, hey puddin’” she giggled as she brought you into a hug.

“Caitlin” Katie groaned. “Ye agreed not to break that fast”

“Look at her little face, of course she’s sorry” Caitlin gushed, squeezing your cheeks before she headed towards the nice smell in the kitchen.

“I am sorry, to both of ye, it’s a long story that I’m goin’ to explain” you pleaded your innocence with them both as they gave each other a knowing look before turning back to you.

“Fine” Ella moaned. “But ye better have made somethin’ nice” she added, leaning her body against yours for a hug, but not wrapping her arms around you.

“Ye look strong” Katie said, as Ella wandered after Caitlin.

“I feel strong” you nodded. “Been goin’ the gym a lot with Leah”

“Yeah, yeah, she was tellin’ me” Katie mumbled back. “Was that just a once off?” Katie asked.

“Leah?” You frowned, watching Katie nod her head but refusing to make eye contact with you. “Yeah, a drunk mistake” you stated, your sister not understanding how much meaning the word mistake had in that sentence.

“Cool, yeah, grand” Katie shrugged. “What did ye make?” She asked, shuffling off towards the kitchen as if all was forgiven now, which it was.

You’d served up food for them after Gabriella had texted you to say she was still held up and to go on without her, she’d just make something when she was back or order something in. You’d been chatting with the three girls and just catching up as you all ate dinner.

You’d missed them. You saw them all a lot when you were with Alessia from being over that side of London, and after that night, you hadn’t seen or spoken to any of them. It just made you wonder how much you were going to miss them when the journey for them went from an hour’s drive to an eight hour plane trip.

Your cough seemed to break the conversation they were having and you went pale as a ghost, causing some concern until you opened your mouth to speak.

“I need to tell ye somethin’” you mumbled, staring at the ground as both of your sisters looked at you. “I wanted to invite ye over because I wanted to tell ye in person that I’m- we’re movin’” you eventually got out.

“We?” Katie asked

“Movin’?” Ella frowned.

“Sorry baby, traffic was chaos” Gabriella shouted from the door, kicking her shoes off and coming into view as she got to the door frame. Both of your sister’s heads whipped around, looked Gabriella up and down and turned back to you.

“No” they both said simultaneously.

“Hear me out” you grunted.

“Get up, we’re goin’” Katie stood up and tried to pull your little sister out of the seat as Caitlin scrambled to get a grip on your older sister to get her back sitting down. Ella hadn’t moved, rooted to the spot on her seat and waiting for you to explain.

“Katie, please” Caitlin begged as she watched her girlfriend’s breathing become more and more irregular.

“Are ye stupid?” Katie snapped.

“Don’t speak to her like that” Gabriella grunted, and suddenly you were flashed back in time, back in Katie’s house in London, both of them arguing like cat and mouse, just like the used to.

“Ye can stay out of this” Katie pointed at her. “Ye are the reason for her bein’ the way she is”

“Katie” you scowled. “I know both of ye have your differences but fuck sake will ye just stop and let me explain” you shouted. Whenever you shouted, it caught everyone’s attention, because despite you looking terrifying, you were a very soft individual.

“Would it be better if I left?” Gabriella whispered as she slinked her fingers through yours.

“No darlin’, stay” you shook your head and pulled out a seat for her to sit down. “Me and Gabs are back together, actually together” you began. “There’s nobody else involved and it’s properly serious” you continued.

“See, what I don’t understand is, you’ve spent nearly two years gettin’ over her, after she fucked ye over and ruined your life, just to end up back with her?” Katie scoffed.

“I’ve told her I was sorry, she knows I was going through a rough time and that it was a mistake” Gabriella inputted as you squeezed her shoulders to let her know she didn’t need to explain herself.

“My sister came home early from a trip that you yourself sent us on just so ye could ride some random lad” Katie began.

“Katie” you warned, but she continued.

“She fuckin’ rushed home to propose to ye and found ye fuckin’ him” Katie shouted as your head dropped.

Ella was just staring at a wall and you felt Gabriella want to shrivel up and die on the spot when Katie said that. She had no idea.

“So don’t tell me that ye have fuckin’ changed, because ye weren’t there to pick up the pieces when ye did that to her, I was”

“Katie, enough” you grumbled.

“You were going to propose?” Gabriella asked as Katie froze, not knowing she didn’t know that you had planned to do that.

“You idiot, just shut up” Caitlin whispered to her.

“Gab’s been offered a contract in America, and we’re movin’ there” you mumbled.

“Am-” Katie tried to say.

“When?” Ella asked.

“In a few weeks” you continued. “Gabs moved to London with me for my career, and it’s only fair I go with her now” you explained as Ella nodded.

“As long as ye know what you’re doin’, I’m happy for ye” Ella shrugged.

“Ella, ye can’t-”

“I know what I’m doin’” you said, cutting across your older sister who was now just staring blankly at both of you.

“Thanks for makin’ my sister happy, whatever ye did in the past is done now” Ella smiled at your girlfriend and you felt yourself completely relax.

“I’m not overly happy but if it’s what ye want, I’ll support ye” Katie shrugged.

“Thank you” Gabriella smiled towards your sister. “I promise I won’t hurt her again” Gabriella tried to ease your sister’s worries, but Katie still wasn’t overly comfortable, not like Ella, who was acting like her and Gabriella had been best friends for years as they chatted and got to know each other properly as adults.

It was a little while later when they headed off that you finally took a breath.

“That didn’t exactly go the way I wanted it to” you hummed as Gabriella sat down on your lap.

“It went pretty much like I expected from Katie” she laughed. “Ella is so nice though, she was such a cute little kid” Gabriella recalled.

“Yeah, she was” you smiled.

“Is what Katie said true?” Gabriella asked.

“About proposin’?” You sighed, hoping that would just be forgotten about and you could move on.

“Yeah” she nodded.

“Yeah” you echoed.

“I’m so sorry I ruined that, Y/n” Gabriella pouted and you shook your head.

“Please don’t get upset, darlin’” you hummed as you felt her nails start running through your hair and she pulled your head against her chest.

“I’m not” she muffled. “Did anybody else other than Katie know?”

“Your dad” you whispered. “I asked him a few days before he passed, it was the last thing I said to him and we’d planned to go pick the ring together” you added and that of course broke her.

You eventually got the girl calm again before you’d decided to just chill out for the rest of the evening and watch the next episode of the series you were watching. Gabriella didn’t watch bullshit TV like Alessia did, she watched proper TV shows that you both enjoyed.

Meanwhile, on the drive back to St. Alban’s, Katie was going ballistic in the car.

“And don’t even get me started on ye in the back, sidin’ with that evil little bitch” Katie snapped. “Are ye bleedin’ stupid?”

“Are ye stupid?” Ella shouted back. “I’m obviously not happy about it, but she said we have a few weeks so that’s enough time to break them up and stop her goin’” Ella explained.

“What?” Caitlin asked.

“We’re goin’ to break them up, she’s not stayin’ with her” Ella huffed, puffing her vape as Katie aggressively hit the button to roll the window down.

“You’re evil” Katie snickered.

“I’m logical, unlike ye are, ye snappy fucker” Ella smirked.

“So, what’s the plan?” Caitlin asked, fully invested in the drama.

“Good mornin’” you smiled as the blonde pushed herself a little further back into you, and your grip on her tightened.

“Good morning” she whispered back, a tone of pure happiness that was not even a little bit hidden in her voice.

“Ye okay this mornin’?” You asked as she nodded against you. “Ye don’t like, regret-”

“I don’t regret anything, Y/n” Alessia cut you off, turning around quickly to face you and cupping your cheek, allowing her eyes briefly fall to your lips before she tugged your head in to kiss you.

The feeling of her lips against yours was almost addictive, and you knew there and then that you’d never be able to get enough of it. The kiss was soft and terrifyingly natural for two people that one of them was straight up until about ten hours ago and the other had a blatant disregard for commitment. However, as you pulled away and her lips curved into a smile, you realised that all the rules around girls that you’d set for yourself, the no exchanging numbers, no spending the night, no going on dates, you’d broken them all with Alessia. Yet, you felt happy, because you’d broken them all, with Alessia.

“If this is what ye want, then I’m yours, Lessi” you said softly to the blonde who smiled at you with a nod. You didn’t really expect that you’d jump so quickly from sleeping together one night casually, to fully committing to her, but it felt right in the moment.

“All mine?” She smirked as you nodded. “Are you sure?” She asked.

“Ye are all I want” you clarified.

“This is still quite new for me” she explained. “I don’t know what I am or how to explain things so quickly” she added.

“We can keep it between us” you reassured her, placing your palm protectively on her face. “It’s our business, nobody else’s”

“I want to be all yours” Alessia whispered, pulling her lips closer to your ear as you groaned.

“There’s nobody else, Lessi” you shook your head as the girl swung her leg over yours and allowed her knees to dig into the mattress, placed on either side of your thighs.

It was around twenty five minutes later that the two of you showed up downstairs for breakfast, acting quite casual despite what the two of you had just gotten up to upstairs.

“Took ye long enough” Ella rolled her eyes as you both got closer to the table. “Ye can grab hot drinks up there, we haven’t ordered food yet” she added.

“You sit, I’ll go” Alessia smiled. “Tea?” She asked, slyly allowing her fingertips to brush off your hand.

“Yeah please” you nodded as she took off and you sat down.

“Should I even ask?” Ella smirked.

“Not here” you mumbled back, shaking your head and looking down at your hands as your fingers began to anxiously intertwine with each other.

“Katie didn’t see” Ella whispered as you shot her a stern look.

“There wasn’t anythin’ to see” you bit back, turning your head to see Alessia talking to Caitlin and Katie and rolled your eyes as you realised you weren’t getting your tea anytime soon. “I’ll be back in a few” you told your younger sister as you left the area you were in for breakfast and headed outside to sneak a few stress puffs of a vape.

You were soaking up all the time you could spend with your flavoured little stress reliever, knowing when you were back training you couldn’t even look at it. You’d only been gone for a couple of minutes, before you had been found by your - girlfriend?

“There you are” you heard the posh British accent chirp from the smoking area door. “Your tea is getting cold”

“Sorry, I’ll be in in a minute” you mumbled, turning back away from her.

“You regret it, don’t you?” She sighed, slouching against the door frame.

“No, no, it’s not that” you shook your head and slipped your vape into your pocket. “Ella saw us, and I don’t think she’ll tell Katie but I just- I know ye said ye don’t want anybody to know and-”

“Hey, stop” Alessia interrupted you and cupped your face, trying to get you to take proper breaths and speak at a normal pace. “I kissed you in a very open area, I expected a few people to see. Your sister knowing doesn’t change the fact that I still want to be with you” she smiled and pulled you in for a hug.

“Just to be clear, if I regretted it, I wouldn’t have went back for seconds this mornin’” you smirked and felt her giggle against you, before she pushed you off and began to walk back inside with you trailing behind her.

She’d tugged you by the hand and released it just as you got to the door that your entire family were sitting behind.

-

You spent another night at the hotel, actually grabbing a proper dinner together, alone, instead of ordering room service. A few of your siblings were heading out to a nightclub but you made an excuse for you, Alessia and Ella to not go. The three of you sat in your hotel room, watching a movie on your bed but it was being drowned out by the billion questions that Ella was asking both of you.

“So, are ye, like, together?”

“Can we just watch the film?” You moaned.

“Come on, it’s just me” Ella protested, although she didn’t really need an answer. All she had to do was just look at the way the two of you were snuggled up against each other and she would have got her answer.

“Yes, we are” Alessia smiled and nodded and your head whipped around to the blonde girl.

“I thought-”

“There’s no point denying it to her, she saw it happen” Alessia shrugged and squeezed your arm.

“I promise both of ye that I won’t say anythin’ to anybody. Nobody else other than Manda saw and I can tell her not to tell Katie” Ella explained and you rolled your eyes.

“I’ll be back in a minute” you mumbled, getting off the bed and heading outside, down the corridor to Amanda’s room to give her an earful.

“I might stick a no returns policy on her” Ella smirked, making Alessia laugh.

“I don’t want you to think I don’t want people to know because I don’t like her, I just, I’m not ready to tell people I’m-” Alessia stuttered at the end, not knowing what word should fit in there just yet.

“Don’t worry” Ella smiled. “I can tell she really likes ye” Ella nudged her as Alessia blushed and the hotel door flung back open.

“Sorry” you said as you squeezed back in between them.

“I love when you come back smelling like fruit” Ella teased, making you roll your eyes. “What is that?”

“Banana and watermelon” you said, handing her the vape for her to look at it.

“Think I’ll keep this one” Ella winked, jumping off the bed and skipping into her room, taking the vape with her as you huffed, but you hadn’t began to move yet to go after her.

“I wish you didn’t vape, it’s like your one little thing I don’t like” Alessia mumbled, gripping your arm, almost as if she was stopping you following Ella before you’d even thought to do that yourself.

“One day into this relationship and you’re already bossin’ me around? Red flag Russo” you chuckled.

“Get used to it” Alessia smirked back and pressing a kiss to your cheek, which turned very quickly to your lips. Your vape became long forgotten.

“When we get back, I will be a bit busy trainin’” you explained as you broke away from the kiss.

“That’s okay” Alessia nodded with an encouraging smile. “We can make up for it now, if you want” she suggested as your hand gripped her waist tightly.

“You’re so fit, do ye know that?” You grunted in the girls ear.

“So I’ve been told” she winked playfully before pressing her lips to yours again.

If Ella didn’t know that the two of you were together before tonight, she definitely would have after.

-

As you sat on the plane back to London, you found it funny how you came here with a friend and were leaving with a girlfriend. You weren’t complaining though, your girlfriend was arguably the most beautiful girl who’d walked the planet.

But dynamics changed quite quickly when you got back to London. You both lived separately and were both professional athletes that were straight back into heavy training. You weren’t seeing each other too often, but the distance was being made up for with constant FaceTiming and texting.

You’d practically just ghosted Gabriella and you knew she was smart enough to know why. You also knew she wouldn’t say anything, because if she did, you could tell everyone she’d cheated on Dara.

You and Alessia agreed to see each other at least once a week, and then you would also go to her matches if you could. You’d sometimes chill at hers, or yours, and other nights you’d take each other out. You’d done everything at this stage, shows, cinema, dinner, bowling. Any date you could dream of, you and Alessia had done it.

You hadn’t went to any of the nights that they’d gone out because you weren’t drinking on the lead up to your fight. You trusted Alessia with your life, she wasn’t like Gabriella, she wouldn’t do anything to hurt you.

Although you weren’t attending any of these night outs, when Alessia would call you drunk, you’d press your foot on the accelerator in your car and go and pick her up, usually with a few stragglers tagging along for a lift home. The girl would consistently forget the whole idea of hiding your relationship when she was drunk and would always get a bit touchy with you, but luckily everyone else in your car was always too drunk to recognise it and you would be able to subtly brush her off.

You’d spend the night with Alessia and rush off early in the morning to head to training. She’d send you an apologetic text for getting you out of bed and forcing you to collect her from the other side of London, but you’d wave her off and tell her that you’d do it for her whenever she wanted.

-

You had a break from training tomorrow, so you headed to Alessia’s house to spend the night. You’d gotten there quite late but she’d cooked you dinner and greeted you at the door by jumping into your arms and peppering your face with kisses.

“Give my arms a break, I feel broken” you chuckled as the girl jumped down. You’d been training for a good few hours today and your arms were aching. Alessia loved your arms, they were probably her favourite part of your body.

“I made you dinner” she chirped, gently tugging your fingers towards the kitchen.

You’d been seeing each other now for about two and a half months, and it was weird how natural it felt with her. You’d only ever been in love with one other person before, but you knew that this is what it felt like.

“Thanks, baby” you smiled, pressing a kiss to her cheek as the girl blushed at the little pet name you’d become used to calling her now.

It took about ten seconds for you to wolf down the food she’d made you and you shoved her away when she tried to clean up, instead telling her to go find something to watch while you did it.

“How do I buy a ticket to your fight?” Alessia asked when you got back into her on the couch, noticing she’d stuck on the Arsenal men’s match that was on tonight.

“Ye don’t buy tickets, I give ye them” you chuckled.

“Katie charged me the last time” Alessia gasped as you tried to contain your laughter.

“That’s a good side hustle” you smirked.

“You’re meant to support me in these arguments” she said as she pinched your cheek.

“I do, I’m just sayin’ that it was smart” you laughed. “Speakin’ of my fight actually” you coughed as she muted the TV, knowing your tone was a bit more serious.

“Yeah?”

“I have this like weird superstition thing” you began to explain. “Basically, there’s like a particular seat that I like people that I, uh-” you stuttered at the thought of telling her you loved her, it was way too early to tell her that “Care about to sit in” you continued.

“Okay?” Alessia frowned, a little confused.

“Ye sat in the seat the first time ye came and I fought really well and I think like, deep down my brain was tryin’ to tell me that it was always meant to be that ye are sittin’ there” you stated.

“I don’t want it to be by chance that that’s where ye are sittin’ this time. So, can ye just make sure ye sit in that seat?” You asked.

“That’s why you stared at me that night” Alessia realised.

“Well, that, and I thought you were really fit” you smirked as the girl rolled her eyes before giving you a giggle. “Ella will know which one it is, but it’s fourth from the right”

“I’ll gladly sit there” Alessia nodded as you leaned over to kiss her. “Every time” she added.

“Every time” you nodded.

-

You drove Alessia to training the next morning, sneaking a quick kiss in the car park and telling her you’d be back to pick her up later. You’d planned to spend the day with Ella, who was off work, and then take Alessia out for dinner. Ella was really supportive of your secret relationship, she thought Alessia was really good for you and started to see you acting like the real you lately. You spent the day just catching up, but most of her questions were about your new girlfriend.

“Ella enough, please” you groaned.

“All I asked was if ye love her” Ella teased, not really expecting you to say anything back. But when she saw you starting to stutter her eyes went wide at the realisation that you were trying to answer her.

“Oh my god, ye love her” Ella gasped excitedly.

“It’s not a big deal” you shrugged.

“It’s a huge deal” Ella corrected you. “Have ye told her?” She asked.

“I don’t wanna wreck it and rush into somethin’ she’s still gettin’ used to” you shook your head.

“Suppose” Ella groaned and sat back in her seat.

“Can I ask ye somethin’?” You mumbled as your sister nodded. “Ye know, everyone obviously thinks we’re just friends, yeah? But like, friends go on holiday together, don’t they?” You asked.

“Yes, Y/n, friends go on holiday together” Ella laughed at how stupid you were being. “Do ye wanna take her away?” She smiled.

“Yeah, after my fight” you nodded.

“That sounds lovely” Ella encouraged. “But I’d suggest ye leave and pick her up shortly if ye want her to say yes” Ella laughed as you checked your watch and shot up from your seat.

You zoomed towards the Arsenal training facilities and picked your girlfriend up, catching the attention of your sister who frowned at you and walked towards your car.

“What ye doin’ here?” Katie asked.

“Was up to see Ella, was just gonna do somethin’ with Alessia tonight” you shrugged awkwardly. You almost had to stop yourself calling her Lessi, you wanted to give your sister no inkling you were dating her teammate.

“What ye’s doin’?” Katie pushed further.

“Get food or go cinema or somethin’” you gulped, noticing the look in your sister’s eye was a mischievous one.

“Cool, we’ll come too” Katie smirked. “Lads, anybody up for the cinema and food?” She announced to the entire car park as a few heads nodded and thumbs shot up.

You rolled up the window as your sister went off back to her own car. You gave Caitlin a quick wave as you pulled out of the car park.

“Sorry, she’s bein’ a fuckin’ dickhead” you grunted as Alessia shook her head.

“It’s okay” she smiled and squeezed your arm.

“The one day I get off to spend with ye and she just puts herself in the middle” you continued.

“Y/n, it’s okay” Alessia repeated as you sighed. “You can make it up to me later” she smirked and pressed a kiss to your cheek as a grin appeared on your face.

You pulled up a little while later outside the cinema, the girls had decided in their group chat what film was being seen and Alessia had bought your two tickets. You headed for food first, just for a quick Nandos trip and you sat between Caitlin and Leah and Alessia sat opposite you, between Katie and Kyra.

You and Alessia had found the fine balance of acting like just friends in front of people and it worked on most people, they all seemed to fall for the facade. But as Katie watched Alessia pick food off your plate, and not be swatted away by your hand, and then again in the cinema as she watched you sharing your bundles of sweets that she saw Alessia paid for, she knew there was more going on. Since you were a teenager, you would almost strangle someone if they attempted to touch your food. There was only one person you openly shared with, and that was Gabriella, and now it seemed, that was Alessia.

Katie didn’t say anything, she couldn’t just start accusing the two of you of being together. She waited and waited for the right moment to come to bring it up, she’d told you it wasn’t going to happen, and it seemed like you’d just blanked her.

She kept her lips shut that night. She kept her lips shut the night of your fight when Alessia sat in the seat, and she kept her mouth firmly closed when she saw the two wander towards the bathrooms together in the club after your fight.

You’d beaten the girl by KO in round two, you’d fought her a few years ago, and at least one of you had improved since that fight, and it was safe to say that it wasn’t her. You weren’t too heavily banged up, much to the delight of your girlfriend who’d specifically restocked her own personal first aid kit at home, just incase.

She’d convinced you not to vape tonight and to try stop vaping all together, instead giving you something else to suck on when she pulled you into the bathroom stall behind her. It’d been two weeks since you had even saw each other, so to say there was a lot of sexual frustration built up, was a bit of an understatement. You always wanted to treat her with more respect than having sex with her in a nightclub bathroom, but when there’s a need, there’s a way.

You’d thought nobody had even noticed the two of you were gone, and when you got back to the bar, Alessia giggling beside you, you asked her to go on holiday with you. She very quickly agreed, obviously, and then even quicker had to stop herself from kissing you now that you were back in an open area.

Neither of you noticed Katie’s eyes were glued to both of you, watching as the two of you laughed and gently brushed off each other. Katie realised that you two must have been keeping it to yourselves, so in return, she kept the information to herself too.

-

You woke up the next morning, you and Alessia had stayed in a hotel last night that had been booked for you. Nobody had taken notice that you’d left together, it was often a common occurrence now that you were best friends, that you came and left everything together.

Before you checked out, you both had breakfast delivered to the room and decided on where you were going on holiday. Alessia wanted to take you to Italy, being part Italian and all that, she decided it would be the ideal destination for you both. You’d argued about it, but not in a serious way, because you wanted to pay for everything to thank her for being patient with you while you were training. Eventually, you’d agreed for Alessia to sort accommodation and you would sort out everything else. Alessia had a week long break coming up in two weeks, so you’d booked it to go then.

Although she was busy during the two weeks, you’d made sure any night she wanted you over, that you were there.

The night before your flight, Alessia asked you to come over and stay so you could go to the airport together, and you instantly said yes. She told you to come over for around 6:30pm and you eventually showed up at 7:15pm

“Sorry Lessi, I stopped to get us a pizza” you announced, coming through the door using your key she’d given you a few weeks ago.

“I wish you would have called or texted me” Alessia sighed. “I made dinner”

“Ah, fuck” you huffed.

“Don’t worry, I’m sure you’ll eat it both anyway” she giggled. “I’m really excited for tomorrow” she said as you put the pizza box on the kitchen table and she wrapped her arms around your neck.

“Me too” you smiled as you kissed her quickly. “You still haven’t told me the name of the hotel” you mumbled, squeezing her waist.

“Because it’s a surprise” Alessia teased, jumping up and into your arms.

“Did you check us in on the flight?” Alessia asked and noticed by the smirk on your face it meant you hadn’t. “Phone please” she hummed, jumping down and placing her hand out to take your phone.

Alessia proceeded to check you both onto the flight and you dished up dinner and brought the bowls and the pizza into the living room.

“Do ye wanna watch somethin’?” You shouted as Alessia hummed back a response, leaving you to proceed to start looking for something to watch.

She joined you shortly after, the two of you ate and watched a movie before she asked to go to bed. You had an early flight tomorrow morning, so she double checked the bags were all packed and then you both headed to sleep.

The plane didn’t take long, both of you had slept for most of the flight and Alessia had packed a lunchbox of food to keep you occupied for the three hours.

“Okay, so about the hotel-” Alessia mumbled when you walked through the arrivals gate.

“Lessi, la mia ragazza” you heard an older voice shout.

“Nonna” Alessia giggled as she ran towards her grandmother. “Questo è Y/n”

“Ciao” her grandmother smiled at you.

“Ciao” you smiled and stuck your hand out but Alessia’s grandmother pulled you into a hug and placed a kiss on your cheeks.

“Puoi guidare?” Alessia’s grandmother asked her and you watched the girl hesitate in her reply. Alessia was a good driver, but driving in Italy was like being in a fast and furious movie.

“Io so guidare” you inputted, as both of their heads whipped around to face you.

“You speak Italian?” Alessia frowned.

“I did it in school, I was actually good at it” you chuckled.

Alessia’s grandmother handed you the car keys and instructed you where to go to get the car while her and Alessia waited with the bags.

“So, is she the one you told me about?” She asked your girlfriend when she got her alone.

“Yes, but only you and her sister know” Alessia anxiously brushed her fingers through her hair as she waited for you to come back.

Alessia and her grandmother had always been really close. When her nonna lived in the U.K, Alessia would spend every weekend with her and would force her to come and watch her play football. So, when Alessia had literal gay panic about you, she didn’t tell anybody. But when you became a couple, she told her Nonna.

You pulled up eventually in the car, getting out and putting the bags into the boot before helping Alessia’s grandmother into the passenger seat and Alessia buckled herself into the back.

“Where we goin’?” You asked. Alessia still hadn’t said the name of the hotel.

“I’ll direct you” Her grandmother smiled and you started driving. It took about 30 mins and some very tight turns, but you eventually made it to the villa. “Now, the villa is yours for the week” she announced when you arrived.

“You’re not stayin’?” You frowned, feeling a bit guilty that the woman was giving up her house.

“I have some friends to meet this week, we are going sailing near the coast” she smiled and squeezed your confused looking face.

You both jumped out of the car and you grabbed the suitcases and brought them to the front door while Alessia stood and chatted with her grandmother.

“Mi piace lei” Nonna chuckled.

“Anche io” Alessia giggled and hugged her grandmother goodbye.

“Ciao” you waved from the door as Alessia skipped over and opened it. “When were ye gonna tell me we were stayin’ in your nan’s place?”

“I didn’t want to freak you out because I knew she wasn’t going to be here” Alessia explained. “When were you going to tell me that you can speak Italian?” She nudged you, causing you to chuckle.

“Eventually” you shrugged.

“You should probably know, I told her that you were my girlfriend” Alessia whispered.

“You did?” You raised your eyebrows.

“Is that okay?” Alessia asked and you nodded.

It felt like the right moment to tell her that you thought you were in love with her. You knew for a fact you were in love with her, but the words just wouldn’t come out of your mouth.

“I, uh-”

“Let me guess, you are starvin’” Alessia teased while imitating you accent as you bounced quickly back to reality.

“Yeah” you nodded and faked a laugh, following her towards the kitchen. You had a week, that was plenty of time to tell her, right?

alessia posted on their story

y/n_mccabe posted on their story

As the week went by, you’d tried to make yourself concentrate on ensuring Alessia had a nice time on the holiday rather than potentially ruining something that was making you happy. You just hoped she knew you loved her, despite having still not told her. Alessia knew the area you were staying in like the back of her hand, so she’d taken you to lots of nice places to eat and get nice views. Each time the moment felt right to discuss your feelings, you chickened out of it.

The way you felt about Alessia was different than how you felt about Gabriella at the beginning. You understood that when you fell in love with Gabriella you were really young, but it didn’t feel as comfortable as it did with Alessia. You couldn’t really pinpoint how you’d fallen so fast and hard for the England striker.

The holiday was really special, and you already couldn’t wait to do something alone again with her.

-

You got back to London late into the night and Alessia had mumbled something about you spending the night and going home into the morning. At least you were hoping that’s what she said because that was what you were doing in anyway.

Alessia went to the kitchen to make tea and you had headed upstairs with her suitcases, opting to leave yours at the bottom of the stairs to grab them quickly in the morning. You had just thrown the suitcase into her room when you heard a scream and something smash downstairs.

“Lessi” you shouted, racing downstairs and into her in the kitchen.

You couldn’t see her anywhere, only a different person was stood in the kitchen, in a pair of tracksuit bottoms and a hoodie.

“What the fuck do ye think ye are doin’?” You frowned and lunged towards this very small person, lifting them up off the ground by their jumper.

“Y/n, stop” Alessia shouted, coming out of the extension to her kitchen where she kept the cleaning supplies to sweep up the smashed mug that had splattered across the ground.

“Ye can’t just come into someone’s house” you huffed, gripping a bit tighter.

“Baby stop, it’s just Ella” Alessia scrambled at your arms, trying to free her best friend from her grip.

“That’s not Ella” you grunted, making eye contact with the girl.

“Not your Ella, my Ella” Alessia corrected you. Alessia’s best friend, Ella, was currently being held up against the wall by you and she was absolutely shitting herself.

“I just came to drop off bread and milk, I have a key” Ella explained.

“Let her down” Alessia whispered calmly and you released the little footballer back to the ground.

“Sorry, thought ye had broke in” you shrugged and patted her shoulder once she’s found her feet again. “Did ye say ye brought bread and milk?” You asked as the girl nodded.

“I’ll make you a cup of tea and toast, just go to bed” Alessia smiled, shoving you out of the kitchen and closing the door behind you.

“I have so many-”

“You can have three” Alessia mumbled.

“Girlfriend?”

“Yes”

“How long?”

“Over four months”

“Who else knows?”

“Her younger sister and my Nonna” Alessia sighed. “And now, you”

“Despite her almost killing me, I was wondering why you seemed so happy the last little while” Ella teased.

“Well, there’s your reason” Alessia giggled, starting to pour your tea and butter your toast.

“She looks familiar” Ella hummed.

“Yeah, she’s a boxer” Alessia laughed.

“Is she Irish? She sounded Irish” Ella continued to think.

“Yes, she’s from Dublin” Alessia nodded, seeing how long this would take Ella to align the two worlds.

“Irish boxer from Dublin that lives in London” Ella recited. “The only boxer from Ireland that lives in London that I know is-” Ella stopped

“There you go” Alessia shook her head.

“How did it happen? How did-”

“I said you had three questions” Alessia smirked, heading out of the kitchen and up the stairs with your tea and toast.

-

The next while, Ella had warmed up to you after she eventually forgave you for the first encounter you had with each other. She was Alessia’s best friend, so she wouldn’t do anything to upset your girlfriend. She was trusted with your secret of being together, and much like your Ella, Alessia’s Ella loved the two of you together.

A few weeks had passed and Alessia had invited you to come out with her friends tonight, a mixture of Arsenal and England girls to celebrate having some time off. Despite Katie’s suspicions, nobody knew, apart from Ella and Ella, that you were together and that you were both hopelessly in love with each other, which had been growing stronger every day the past 5 and a half months.

Alessia had convinced you to fully stop vaping and you’d been off them for just over a month now, too busy with her tongue in your mouth most of the time to even bother thinking about puffing on a vape.

There was no sitting around tonight in the club, Alessia wanted you to dance with her and you couldn’t say no to your girlfriend. It felt good calling her your girlfriend, although you only got to call her that to the Ella’s or the girl herself.

You’d both been drinking and dancing together happily during the night, and the more you both drank, the closer you got to each other. The boundaries you’d both talked about having in public were fading and fading as she pressed her back against your front and grinded against you. Your free hand slinked around her waist, using the other to grip your drink while her free hand swung around your head, trying to shove it into her neck. It was when she felt your breath against her neck that she suddenly remembered where you both were and pushed you off.

“What are you doing?” Alessia snapped, frowning at you as if what you had been doing was unnatural to you both.

“We’re just dancin’ Lessi, relax. Nobody saw” you reassured her, placing your hand on her forearm, but she quickly shoved you off.

“Just go get us drinks. Just go away for a couple of minutes” Alessia was a bit flustered, anxiously looking around the dance floor to make sure nobody had caught sight of the two of you. L

Meanwhile, you had wandered off to the bar and stood and ordered drinks, while Alessia sat back down beside the group. The group were all chatting about random things, just getting caught up after all having some time away from each other. Viv and Beth were talking about a West End show they’d just seen.

“We saw that too” Alessia inputted. “I thought Y/n was going to fall asleep. I had to keep feeding her to keep her awake” she giggled

“Ye know, there’s a lot of we did this, we went here, we love this from ye both lately” Katie frowned. “Are ye a we then or what?” She added as the whole group turned to look at the blonde girl.

“What? No” Alessia stuttered out quickly, adding a nervous laugh which she hoped didn’t come across as nervous.

“So why are ye ignorin’ that lad who’s been lookin’ over at ye all night?” Katie asked, gesturing her head towards a guy who’d been staring at your girlfriend since you got in.

“Go talk to him” Katie challenged.

“Leave her alone” both Ella’s inputted and shot each other a look. Despite not really knowing each other, both of them knew from that look that the other one of them also knew.

“Go on Russo” Katie chuckled, pulling her up and out of the seat and lightly pushing her over to the boy.

You didn’t see any of this, still stuck at the bar trying to get drinks for the both of you. When you finally got to the front, you shouted your order to the bar man who started working on your drinks.

“How does someone’s arms get this big?” A voice asked before wrapping a hand around your bicep.

“I box” you replied sternly, not paying much attention to the girl but also removing her hand from your arm carefully.

“You going to buy me a drink?” The girl hinted.

“Does it look like I’m gonna buy ye a drink?” You frowned at her.

“Yeah it does, actually” The girl smirked. “Aren’t you single?” She added, almost as if she knew who you were.

“No, I’m not, actually” you mocked her.

“The Y/n McCabe is with someone? I hope she knows what she’s in for” she giggled and walked off as you frowned at her.

That girl didn’t know you, she didn’t know how well you treated Alessia. You shook your head to rid the thought of the conversation and walked back towards the group, sitting beside Ella and anxiously looking for Alessia.

“Where’s Lessi?” You asked your sister but she could hardly look at you. “Ella? I said where’s Less-” as you spoke, you could see Ella’s eyes were fixated on something on the dance floor, so you matched her gaze and followed them right to where Alessia’s lips were planted against some random guys.

Your whole body numbed and you went into fight or flight mode. You wanted to go over there and kill him, but you couldn’t do that when everyone thought you were just her friend.

“Can ye get me a vape?” You asked your sister.

“I thought ye were off-”

“Just get me a fuckin’ vape” you shouted as Ella scrambled to her feet and went off towards the machine.

You couldn’t even look up, the sight of her with someone else was going to make you sick. You downed your full drink and Katie gave you a signal as she walked off to the bar that she’d get you another. She felt slightly guilty knowing by the look on your face that maybe there was actually nothing going on between you and Alessia, but you definitely liked her. Worse, maybe something was going on and she’d possibly just ruined that by trying to get Alessia to admit it.

“Now, why does my boyfriend look so sad tonight?” Leah teased as she sat down beside you, but you were sure if you even attempted to speak right now, you’d burst out crying.

“Y/n?” Leah said, a little bit more concerned this time that you hadn’t answered her in the playful tone you usually would, or any tone at all.

You looked across to Alessia again, still attached to the random bloke she was kissing as you felt your face being forcefully turned towards Leah.

“Are you alright?” Leah asked, trying to find any signs on your face that would tell her what was wrong or if you were just drunk.

You don’t know why, you knew it was a bad idea and you didn’t want to do it. Maybe it was because Leah was an unknown yet familiar person you felt comfortable with, but you leaned in and kissed her. Leah kissed you back, both of you were drunk but it was the blonde that seemed to snap to her senses first.

“What are you doing?” Leah asked, pushing your shoulders lightly backwards away from her.

“Sorry” you closed your eyes and sighed loudly at what you’d just done.

“Do it again” Leah whispered as you looked back up at her and reconnected your lips.

This time, Leah allowed herself to kiss you back properly. The kiss was just getting more intense and eventually, Leah had positioned herself on your lap, deepening the kiss further every few seconds. Ella had came back and quickly left again, stressfully puffing the vape she’d gotten you herself.

You and Leah had been going at it for quite awhile, in a usual circumstance it would be around now that you’d probably suggest going back to yours or hers, but you weren’t fully comprehending what was evening happening right now. Alessia had finally pulled away from the boy, realising it had been probably going on a bit too long and everyone would be convinced by now there was nothing going on between you two. Only, everyone was convinced now there was nothing going on for not one reason, but two.

“You okay?” The boy asked as Alessia pushed his chest away from her.

She knew the hand gripping the top of Leah’s skirt was yours. She knew the person Leah was currently straddling was you. She just couldn’t believe that it was you. Alessia, without even thinking, marched straight over to the two of you, but she was interrupted from telling you both off by someone else, who’s eyes had just been nudged over to look at you and Leah for the first time.

“Leah” Katie snapped as you broke off each other. “That’s my little sister” Katie argued, sliding a drink and a vape across to you on the table and not even looking in your direction.

“It was just a kiss” Leah shrugged back, walking off and getting an earful from your older sister who followed her towards the group’s seats. You sat up properly on the sofa, only to make eye contact with the worst person possible right now.

“Are you serious?” Alessia asked.

“Am I serious? Are ye jokin’?” You scoffed, getting up and walking away from her.

She followed after you, continuing to argue with you as you stayed completely silent, just trying to stay calm on your walk towards the smoking area.

“Lessi, will ye just fuck off?” You shouted, becoming more and more frustrated that the girl who just cheated on you was pretending as if she’d done nothing wrong.

“Who even are you?” Alessia shouted, putting her hands towards you almost like she was going to shove you, or hit you, but she pulled them back before she got near you.

“I never want to see you again” she added, turning her body away from you.

“Why are ye playin’ the victim here? Are ye forgettin’ that ye kissed him?” You snapped as the girl stopped walking.

“I told you I didn’t want anybody to know yet” she whispered back to you, a little hard to hear in the middle of this nightclub.

“That doesn’t give ye any excuse to get with someone else” you grunted back.

The two of you were getting into another heated argument, back and forth shouting and screaming with Alessia flying hand gestures at you to really get her point across.

“Go get your boyfriend to stop arguing with Less” Caitlin nudged Leah before letting out a laugh.

“You don’t think that’s over me, do you?” Leah asked, titling her head at the sight of you two and frowning. With Katie and Ella nowhere to be seen, Caitlin and Leah sat at the booth just watching as the argument went on and on.

“Lessi, this is pointless. Can we just forget it?” You pleaded, trying to grip her hands and stop her waving them about.

“Leah’s my friend” Alessia shouted and you knew this wasn’t going to stop.

“It wasn’t like I did it unprovoked” you grunted.

“You’re a dickhead” Alessia huffed, poking your chest a little harshly that sent you a step or two backwards.

You looked up at her when you found your feet again, not really sure how you’d gotten into this position with someone you wanted to tell you were in love with them for the last few weeks.

“This isn’t workin’ for me anymore” you shook your head.

“What?” Alessia pouted, almost entirely shifting personality.

“I don’t wanna be with ye if this is how it’s gonna be” you shrugged, stepping back further from her as you watched her eyes fill up with tears.

“No, Y/n, please” Alessia tried grabbing your hands now, trying to rid the pout that was forming on her face.

“Sorry” you mumbled as you freed yourself from her and walked straight off and headed to where you could see Ella, leaving the girl stood on her own and starting to cry. You quickly walked over and grabbed your stuff and tried to make a quick escape.

“Is everythin’ okay? Are ye two-”

“Just fuck off, Ella” you grunted, storming off and out of the nightclub and straight into an Uber.

“Where to?” The driver asked.

A drive back to your house right now would cost you an absolute fortune, so you only really had one option.

“Two seconds” you said, taking your phone out and banging a text off to the only person you could think of texting right now.

Y/n

You up?

Gabriella

Yeah, come over x

Dara’s not here

Y/n

“And after that fight, is there anybody else you can see yourself coming up against over the next few months?” She smirked, almost like she’d been told to ask the question.

“Think everyone knows the answer to that already” you laughed. “It’s bein’ sorted out with agents, but I’m ready for Dara whenever she wants to stop bein’ a little bitch and move up the weight” your smug expression caused the presenter to giggle, and then proceed to apologise for your use of language on live TV.

“Enjoy the celebrations” she smiled.

“Thanks darlin’, might see ye there” you winked and handed her back the microphone.

Your coaches were waiting for you to finish the interview before wrapping their arms around your shoulders to bring you back to the changing rooms. You were the second last fight of the night on the card, so nobody was out of the venue yet.

“Heard your little speech, McCabe” the annoying voice you hated to hear piped up.

“Heard your girlfriend screamin’ my name the other night too” you mumbled under your breath with a chuckle.

“Have you something you want to say?” Dara shouted after you, having, thankfully, not heard what you mumbled.

“We’ll talk when ye sign the contract” you shot the girl your middle finger and proceeded to be pulled off. Gabriella was stood a bit further up, away from Dara, who had now been pulled off for a ringside interview.

“Two seconds, I’ll follow ye in” you said to your coaches as they headed into your changing room.

“Congratulations” your, whatever Gabriella was to you, smiled and squeezed your arm.

“Thanks, baby” you replied, not even a hint of hesitation behind the pet name.

“Looks sore” she pouted, cupping your face.

“Maybe ye can come over later and kiss it better?” You smirked as the girl giggled.

“I’ll see you before the week is out” she promised, looking around to make sure the coast was clear before kissing you quickly and scooting off. She had you hooked all over again. Not too hooked that you would refuse if another girl offered, but hooked enough that you’d choose her over any other girl right now.

It felt like you blinked and you were at a club, music blaring and a few drinks in already. You’d puffed your way through the entirety of a vape and had begged Ella to go get you another one so you could avoid the dance floor. Your younger siblings and parents had left and a few of the older ones that were here were gone now too.

Amanda, the bride to be, had begged you to not have anything wrong with your face for her wedding photos and you laughed straight in her face, much to her annoyance. Ella had came back with a fresh vape each and sat down beside you, watching as your leg bounced anxiously and you started puffing the vape like it was a race to see who could finish it first.

“I’m not goin’ to get ye another one if ye finish that one mad quick” Ella warned. “Should ye not be happy tonight? Ye won didn’t ye?” She asked.

“I’m grand” you shrugged, letting the loud music be the only thing heard and allowing the conversation fall flat.

“Were ye hopin’ she’d come?” Ella hummed.

“Yeah, a bit” you nodded.

“When did ye see her last?” Ella continued, rubbing your arm sympathetically.

“Earlier, after I won” you mumbled.

“Anythin’ happen?” She raised her eyebrows at you, only you were still fixated on the weird stains that covered the ground.

“She kissed me” you admitted. “Then just told me she’d see me before the end of the week” you added.

Ella felt god awful for you, she’d never seen you so distant and mopey before. When things first happened with Gabriella, Katie was the one who’d picked up the majority of the pieces, but now Ella was older, you let her see a lot more vulnerability in you. She was just about to give you a speech, telling you that you were too good for Gabriella, and that she was ruining your life all over again, until Katie interrupted.

“What’s up? Should ye not be happy? Or did I miss somethin’ and ye actually lost?” Katie laughed, pulling you up from your seat. You felt a pain in your ribs and shoved Katie off you to try and sit back down.

“Piss off for a minute” Ella huffed to your older sister, but she was met with a middle finger to the face as Katie dragged you to the dancefloor.

“What’s wrong with ye?” Katie asked.

“Nothin’” you mumbled, although you were in a fair bit of pain from the fight, probably the worst pain you’d ever experienced after a fight.

“I’ll get ye a drink” she patted your shoulder and bolted off to the bar.

“Is it just me, or are you getting even better looking?” Leah smirked as you rolled your eyes, in absolutely no mood for her tonight. “Gonna dance with me?” She asked, tugging you by the hand towards her.

“Not tonight” you shook your head and freed yourself from her grip. “Do ye know if Alessia is comin’?” You whispered to Leah who shrugged.

Since you left her that evening, in a bit of a rush to get to Gabriella, you’d both been pretty distant with each other. You hadn’t really been texting as often as usual and the last message you’d sent her to ask if she was coming tonight she’d left on the seen. Ella was the one who sat in the special seat tonight, watching you struggle for the first time in your career.

“I don’t think she can make it” Leah shook her head. “She said she had a family thing she couldn’t get out of” Leah added as you gave her a defeated looking smile.

“Eyes on you” Leah smirked, nodding over to a girl on the dance floor who was staring at you and the minute your eyes met hers, she gestured you over.

“Be rude not to, wouldn’t it?” Katie laughed, shoving a drink into your hand and pushing you towards the girl.

“Hi” the girl smiled.

“Ye alright?” You asked.

“I am now” the girl nodded with a grin. “You fought so well” she added, tracing her fingernails up your arms.

“Thanks, yeah” you replied, wincing as she brushed over a cut on your arm.

“Sorry baby, did that hurt?” She asked as you shook your head and she pulled your arm to get your ear next to her lips.

“Does it need to be kissed better? Or would you rather I kissed somewhere else instead?” She smirked, adjusting her head and pressing her lips roughly against yours.

“Who had fifteen seconds?” Leah, who’d been timing the interaction to see how long it would take for her to kiss you, shouted sarcastically.

Whatever this girls name was, you don’t think she’d actually mentioned it, she was a good kisser. She was distracting you enough not to think about Gabriella and she was long forgotten as the girl’s tongue slipped into your mouth. When you realised this kiss was probably going to go on for a while, you took the girl over towards the couches to continue. You pressed your back against it as she dug her knees into the couch and sat on your lap. The music was far too loud and your tongue was too deep down this girl’s throat to even comprehend when there was a loud cheer for the blonde, who had finally arrivied.

“Where’s Y/n?” Alessia asked the group as Leah couldn’t help but burst out laughing.

“Bit busy at the minute” Katie smirked and pointed over to the couch. Alessia couldn’t actually see you, just a girl in a short dress. She presumed the hand firmly gripping her ass belonged to you.

“Want a drink?” Leah asked.

“Need a drink” Alessia nodded, heading off to the bar and Leah jogged after her.

When you came up for breath about forty five minutes later, the girl had slid you a spare room key for the hotel next door and you’d wandered off to find Ella to tell her you’d see her tomorrow.

“Ye confuse the shit out of me” Ella laughed, eyeing over to the girl leaving and then to the key card in your hand.

“I confuse the shit out of myself” you chuckled with a shrug. “I’ll see ye tomorrow, alright?” You smiled as she hugged you gently, knowing you were in a bit of pain still. You’d just turned away from Ella before you were met by a mop of blonde hair, in an equally short dress to - god why are you so bad at remembering names.

“Leaving without even saying hello? That’s a new low” Alessia teased, having not looked up at you yet.

“I didn’t know ye were here” you replied with a shrug. “How are ye?” You asked, the girl finally looking up at you and the teasing smirk instantly wiping off her face.

“Jesus Christ” she gasped, cupping your face and scanning over it. “It didn’t look this bad on TV” she added.

“Ye watched it on TV?” You frowned.

“Practically forced my entire family too” she chuckled. “Is it sore?” She asked.

“It wasn’t til ye started pokin’ at it” you smirked, sticking the keycard in your pocket and taking hold of her wrists to remove them from your face.

“Sorry I haven’t seen ye in a while, been busy with camp and-” you tried explaining.

“You don’t need to explain yourself for being busy” she smiled. “Do you have somewhere you need to be?” She reminded you.

“Think I’m alright here with ye instead” you confirmed, watching as the girl nodded and you inhaled your vape like it was a life support machine.

“Blow that in my face and I’ll make you swallow it” she took the colourful machine out of your hand and walked towards the dance floor, stringing you along after her.

“No fair, you wouldn’t dance with me” Leah moaned as Alessia handed you back your vape.

“I had to, she took my vape” you laughed.

“Another?” Leah asked both of you and you gave her brief nods as she scooted off to the bar.

“Despite all the- you look good tonight” Alessia whispered, her fingertips on the edge of skimming your hand.

“Yeah, well, ye look good every night” you bit back, not in a flirty way, just a complimenting your friend kind of way. The same way Alessia said it to you, right?

Alessia’s hand had moved a bit, about to take hold of yours, until you were pulled off.

“Y/n, need you” your agent shouted, pulling you by the shoulder towards a group of promoters that wanted to speak to you.

“Here, hold this til I’m back” you threw your vape to Alessia and wandered off, allowing your agent to ramble on about what they wanted to talk to you about.

Just like that, Alessia had tried, again, and you’d left just before she could tell you what she’d wanted to scream at you for weeks.

-

The week rolled on and Gabriella had told Dara she was going away for a girl’s break or something, you weren’t really listening to her explanation of how she got away from her current girlfriend to come and sleep with you. She’d nipped down to your kitchen to make tea, starting to become accustomed to where everything was in your cupboards.

“Thanks darlin’” you mumbled when she handed you your mug. She always made the best cup of tea and something about it brought you some weird sense of comfort.

“You’ve got a scar here now” she frowned, pointing at a permanent scar that had formed on your eyebrow.

“Yeah, a deep cut from a few fights ago” you shrugged, not really paying much attention to the fact she looked genuinely concerned.

“Your face was quite bad the other night” she pointed out, again.

“I’m fine now though” you smiled.

“Bet all the girls were after you at your party” she teased as you laughed.

“Didn’t really see past the first one” you teased back, but her face dropped.

“You actually got with someone?” She frowned.

“What’s the problem?” You asked.

“You’re seeing me” she shouted.

“Ye have a girlfriend, Gabs” you tried to get her to calm down, but that seemed to make it worse.

“If you want to keep doing this, there can’t be anybody else” She demanded.

“We only kissed” you inputted, but she wasn’t having any of it.

“I don’t care” she almost screamed. “I want you all to myself, so no anything with anybody, okay?”

You didn’t want anything to stop with Gabriella, but you couldn’t give your entire commitment to the person who firstly, had a girlfriend, and secondly, gave you these commitment issues in the first place, could you?

“Yeah, okay” you nodded as she smirked and kissed you again.

-

From that night, you’d basically removed yourself from everything and everybody. Due to your time off, you didn’t have to go anywhere, so you were pretty much just waiting to go back to Ireland next week for the wedding. All of your calls and text messages had went unanswered, unless they were from Gabriella, who seemed to have consumed your entire existence now.

Seven days before you were set to go for the wedding, it was lashing rain outside. You decided to stay tucked up on the couch, watching TV and flicking through social media, while drinking endless cups of tea. You were eventually dragged off the couch when there was a knock at the door, and you trudged along to pull it open.

“Ella?” You frowned, looking at the soaking wet girl who was fit to kill someone.

“Get out of the fuckin’ way” she mumbled, pushing you to one side and storming straight upstairs.

“Ella what the fuck are ye doin’?” You shouted, closing the door and sprinting up after her.

“I’ve been callin’ ye and textin’ ye every poxy day and I got nothin’ back. What was I meant to do? I thought ye were fuckin’ dead” she huffed.

“How did ye even get here?” You asked, knowing she didn’t drive and she definitely didn’t get a lift from the sheer wetness of her clothes.

“I had to get like five different tubes and a bus and then ran the rest of the way” she groaned. “Can I take a shower?”

“Yeah, I’ll get ye fresh clothes” you nodded.

“Here” she said, throwing you the massive bag she had with her.

“What?” You frowned.

“Can ye wash and dry them? They’re soakin’” she added as you stared at the bag. “Oh, I’m stayin’ for a few days, until ye learn how to work a phone again” she stated, shoving you out the door and getting ready to go for a shower.

You headed downstairs, throwing her clothes into the washing machine and starting to make lunch for you both. Ella eventually came downstairs, looking snug in your shorts and hoodie.

“Made ye a cuppa” you mumbled, nodding your head towards the mug as your little sister bypassed it and instead crashed herself against you.

“Missed ye” she sighed.

“Missed ye too” you replied softly, wrapping your arms around her.

“I’m gonna take a wild guess that things are gettin’ a bit more serious with Gabriella” she mumbled as you nodded.

“Think she wants to start goin’ out again” you said, almost like you were trying to convince yourself that that’s why she’d asked you not to see anybody else.

“I was thinkin’ of asking’ her to come to Manda’s weddin’ with me” you continued.

“That’s a great idea” Ella smiled, pulling away from you and grabbing her tea.

“Really?” You smiled back, happy your little sister was happy for you and your - you were still trying to figure out what Gabriella was to you right now.

“No, not really, you fuckin’ twat” Ella huffed in frustration and headed into the sitting room.

“Why not?” You pouted.

“Well firstly, Manda will kill ye” Ella laughed. “Then secondly, Katie will kill her” Ella added. “And lastly, she’s not your girlfriend anymore, and everyone in our family hates her for what she did to ye” she reminded you.

“Ye don’t get it, she said it was a mistake” you moaned, following after her to sit down in the living room.

“Mistake or not, she’s not good enough for ye” Ella said, bluntly. “And she’s not worth ye closin’ off actual real relationships for somethin’ she sees as casual”

“Well, who am I gonna bring then? Manda thinks I’m bringin’ someone and if I don’t she’s gonna murder me now for changin’ stuff” you pinched your nose with your thumb and pointer finger, waiting for Ella to offer a solution.

“Alessia” Ella shrugged casually.

“Haven’t even talked to Lessi since the night of my fight” you shrugged, trying to forget the fact that you’d been ignoring the English girl.

“Few days away back home then to catch up” Ella added, offering another solution to another problem. “The worst she can say is no” she flicked your phone as you sighed.

Actually, the worst Alessia could say was yes.

Y/n/n 🐻

Hey, how are you?

Are you free next week?

Lessi 👸🏼

Hi, I’m good

It’s nice to hear from you 💕

I’m free, what do you have in mind?

Y/n/n 🐻

Will you come to my sister’s wedding with me?

Alessia was currently at home, pacing back and forth looking at your message. The problem Alessia was having was that she’d realised she really liked you, in a way she’d never like another girl before. Only, while she was still trying to figure out her own feelings, she didn’t want to start labelling herself or explaining herself to anybody. So, she kept her feelings for you hidden, and didn’t call anybody to explain the fear that was running through her body looking at your message.

Lessi 👸🏼

If I say yes, do I need to ask your sister for the actual details? 😂

Y/n/n 🐻

Defo 😂

I haven’t a clue 🤷‍♀️

Lessi 👸🏼

What’s the theme?

Y/n/n 🐻

What do you mean theme?

Wedding

Lessi 👸🏼

Oh my god 🤦‍♀️

Give me Ella’s number

Ella had arranged for Alessia to come over to yours tomorrow, and you, weirdly, messaged Gabriella to say you were busy and that you’d see her when you got back from the wedding. For the remainder of the night, you and Ella just relaxed out on the couch, tucked up together and watching a film that you fell asleep during.

When you got downstairs the next morning, Ella was sat at the kitchen table. You were just about to moan about being tired, until you saw the two heads of blonde hair instead of one.

“Lessi” you smiled.

“Morning” she smiled back, getting up off the chair and coming to give you a hug. You squeezed the girl tightly, regretting every second that past you by the last while that you hadn’t spoken to her.

“You ready?” She asked.

“For?” You frowned back at her, sticking the kettle on.

“Well, your sister has informed me that you do not actually have an outfit yet, for the wedding that’s next week” Alessia explained. “And I also need to get something” she added as you rolled your eyes.

“Can ye both not go shoppin’ together and I’ll stay here?” You smirked as Ella laughed.

“Go get ready” Alessia giggled, shoving you out the kitchen door, all the way to the bottom of the stairs as you released a defeated sigh. “Stop moaning” she squeezed your arm.

“Thanks for agreein’ to come” you mumbled, pulling the girl in for another hug as she completely melted against you.

“Dare I ask, have you booked flights yet?” Alessia smirked, feeling your head shake as she finally pulled away from you. “Y/n” she hissed.

“I’ve been busy” you laughed. “Ella have ye booked flights?” You shouted.

“Are ye jokin’? I sent ye flight details weeks ago to book it” Ella appeared at the kitchen door, probably the most angry you’ve ever seen her. You didn’t even give her a second to take a step out of the kitchen as you’d sprinted up the stairs to get ready for your fun day out shopping.

Once Alessia had the theme of the wedding, she set out looking for clothes for both of you to wear. You had good style, more masculine, opting for slacks and a shirt. Alessia, on the other hand, picked up a dress that complimented your outfit as well as the theme. You thought after that, that you were finished, until she then moved on to shoes, a bag and finally, jewellery.

“Are we nearly done, Lessi?” You groaned, slumped over the check out counter while the cashier was scanning the endless items.

“She gets hungry” Alessia explained to the cashier as both of them laughed.

“My boyfriend is the exact same” the girl giggled, continuing to scan the items. You waited for Alessia to correct her, like she did all the time when people made the mistake, but she didn’t.

“That’ll be £780” the girl stated and you shoved Alessia out of the way to tap your phone.

“Y/n” Alessia squeezed your arm, but the transaction had already went through and the receipt was being placed in one of the multiple bags.

“Thanks” you smiled at the cashier and took all the bags in your hands, heading for the exit. “I’m gonna throw these in the car and we can go get food or somethin’” you suggested.

“Sounds great” Alessia smiled, following behind you to the car. “You didn’t need to pay for my stuff” she mumbled.

“Ye wouldn’t need to buy stuff if ye didn’t agree to come with me” you shrugged. “Should be everythin’ sorted now though. Clothes, hotel and flights” you nodded.

“I can pay you for-”

“No” you shook your head at her, tossing the bags in the boot of your car. “You’ve saved me bein’ murdered by my sister by sayin’ ye’ll come, trust me” you laughed.

“Okay, well, I’m buying food” she smiled as the two of you took off towards the shopping centre again to head into a restaurant.

“So, how have you been?” Alessia asked as the smile you’d had on your face since you seen her this morning wiped off your face.

“Yeah” you shrugged. “How’re ye?” You asked.

“That wasn’t an answer” Alessia frowned. “I’ve been kind of worried there’s been something wrong” she added.

“It’s nothin’” you mumbled.

“If it’s nothing, you can tell me” Alessia encouraged you, putting her hand over yours. Alessia was your friend, a person you could open up to and not be afraid of being judged.

“Remember that night a little while ago I got into a fight with Dara?” You asked and the girl nodded. “The next mornin’ Gabriella texted me to apologise and, I dunno” you shrugged.

“What?” Alessia pushed further.

“She said she missed me and wanted to see me and we’ve been sleepin’ together since” you admitted as Alessia’s heart dropped.

“You’re back with Gabriella?” She asked.

“It’s complicated” you mumbled. “She’s still with Dara, but she asked me not to see anybody else while she figures it out”

“And you’re happy with that?” Alessia huffed as you shrugged.

“And what? If the person that cheated on ye wanted ye back, ye’d say no?” You grunted, making stern eye contact with the girl.

“Yeah, I would, because I know I’m worth more than that” Alessia bit back, and your head dropped in something what felt like embarrassment. “You’re worth more than that” she added, gripping your hand.

“Ye didn’t correct that girl” you mumbled under your breath as her head tilted.

“What girl?” Alessia asked.

“The girl workin’ in the shop basically called me your girlfriend and ye just smiled at her” you explained. “Ye usually correct people”

“Well, if you can be Leah’s boyfriend, then you can be mine too” she giggled, making a lighthearted joke she knew would make you laugh, which it did.

When you started laughing, you caught the girl’s eye who was smiling at you, the same way Gabriella used to smile at you when you were together. You were too fixated on her to even notice when the waitress came over to take your order, your mind was spinning.

Okay, was Alessia attractive? Yes

Did she make you feel good about yourself? Yes

Did she care about you? Yes

Wait, do you have actual feelings for her? No, because of Gabriella, but-

“Y/n” Alessia kicked you under the table, pulling you out of your trance and eyeing towards the waitress who was waiting to take your order.

“Sorry” you mumbled before proceeding to order your food and continuing to go back to a somewhat normal conversation with Alessia.

This was going to be the longest few days of your life.

-

You saw Gabriella before you left, briefly, in the back seat of your car. You told her you were bringing a friend to the wedding and were then forced into showing her Alessia’s Instagram profile.

“How did you meet her?” Gabriella frowned, until she scrolled down further to see her in Arsenal gear. “Katie” she added, watching you nod.

“I wanted to ask ye to come with me, but I didn’t think ye would be able to” you lied, deciding not to tell her that your little sister talked you out of it.

“Well, I obviously wouldn’t” she scowled, almost like you were an idiot for even thinking of asking her. “So what? That thing and you are friends? Since when?”

“A while” you mumbled.

“She’s your type” Gabriella added with a huff, folding her arms.

“You’re my type” you said softly, pulling her back towards you. “Lessi is straight and there’s nobody else Gabs” you shook your head and kissed Gabriella’s forehead as she settled back against you.

“Keep it that way” she smiled, tugging your T-shirt towards her and melting into a kiss.

You weren’t confused anymore. It was Gabriella. It was always Gabriella. It had to be Gabriella.

-

Alessia and Ella both stayed with you last night, Alessia took the spare room and Ella shared your bed, which resulted in you sleeping on the floor due to her fidgeting like a fish in her sleep. She woke you up this morning and you flung a pillow at her, almost knocking her to the ground with the force you threw it with.

“Get up ye moron” Ella shouted again as you reluctantly pushed yourself off the floor.

You were just wearing a sports bra and shorts, and trudged down the stairs to put the kettle on before you could even think about getting ready. Booking an early flight is always a good idea when you book it, but waking up for that early flight was hell, for some.

“Morning” Alessia smiled from the kitchen table, fully dressed, breakfast made, not having looked up from her phone yet.

“Mornin’” you grumbled back, heading towards the kettle.

“Is someone grumpy this-” Alessia tried to say until she looked up at you.

“She’s grumpy every mornin’” Ella laughed, coming into the kitchen also fully dressed.

“Do ye notice how me and Alessia are ready before we come downstairs?” She teased, squeezing your arm.

“Need a cuppa tea” you moaned, shoving your sister away from you.

“Go get ready and I’ll make ye one” Ella shoved you back, towards the kitchen door this time.

“Ye alright?” You asked Alessia who was absentmindedly staring at you from the kitchen table. “Lessi?” You frowned when the girl didn’t reply.

“Sorry, yes. I’m fine” she nodded, waiting until you were out of the room and up the stairs to squeeze the bridge of her nose.

Ella knew you liked Alessia and she also knew Alessia liked you. She prided herself in that she figured it out before either of you did, but she wasn’t one to push either of you to act on it.

Thankfully, there was two free seats beside Ella on the flight. Caitlin and Katie had headed the day before and you’re not sure if Ella or Alessia had told either of them you were bringing their English blonde teammate, because you certainly hadn’t. You sat between the two girls on the flight, and both of them took hostage of a shoulder each to fall asleep on, while you munched on the snacks Alessia had packed in her bag, which you presumed were for you.

Katie was the one that was assigned to pick you both up from the airport and Alessia being stood with you was not on her wedding bingo card. Before you even saw her, or she had a chance to say anything, Ella had ripped her away and was grilling her.

“Trust me, it was better than the other option of who she was goin’ to bring” Ella mumbled as Katie pressed her to explain further, which Ella did.

After hearing that the options were Alessia or Gabriella, Katie felt a weird sense of relief that her colleague was here as your date. She drove the three of you to the hotel and you checked in, now finding out Ella had booked conjoining rooms for you and her.

“We could do us in one room and then Alessia in the other one” Ella suggested.

“I’m not sharin’ with ye ever again. Ye flopped about like a fish last night” you huffed.

“It’s two double rooms” Ella explained as you grabbed a key card out of her hand.

“Ye alright with that?” You asked the blonde who nodded at you. “Do ye flop like a fish in your sleep?” You chuckled as she laughed at you.

“Guess you’ll find out” she teased, tugging your arm towards the lifts. You both flung your bags into the room and you went off to take a shower while she flicked through the TV. You’d left your phone on the bedside table and both yours and hers buzzed simultaneously.

Katie added you to a groupchat

Katie

Booked the 4 of us in for a game of ⛳️

Tee-time is at 2pm

Caitlin

So sorry in advance for how bad I am

Lessi 👸🏼

Y/n is just in the shower, but we’ll be ready 😊

“So what? They’re a we now?” Katie huffed.

“Would it be so bad? Alessia is nice” Caitlin added.

“That’s my issue” Katie sighed. “Ella told me when I collected them that Y/n is seein’ Gabriella again”

“No” Caitlin gasped, prolonging the o sound. “Since when?”

“I dunno” Katie shrugged. “But if she’s stringin’ Alessia on too-”

“We don’t know that” Caitlin interrupted. “I’m also pretty sure Alessia is straight”

“For her sake, I hope she steers clear of being anything more than friends” Katie mumbled, pulling out clothes to get ready for your golfing trip.

You arrived up to the green, carrying a set of clubs that you and Alessia were going to share, putting them in a golf cart and driving the two of you to the first hole.

“Afternoon” you smiled at your sister and her girlfriend. “Good to see ye” you said to Caitlin, giving her a hug.

“Ready to go, yeah?” Katie asked and all three of you nodded. “Ye both can tee off first, it’ll take ye both longer than us” Katie said to the two girls as you laughed, giving her a subtle fist bump that she stuck her hand out for.

“You’re both bullies” Caitlin huffed, but both of them hit off anyway and took the first cart to go find their balls.

“So c’mere, ye are back with Gabby?” Katie asked.

“Really? Hole one and you’re already on my case?” You shot her a stern look. “Ella tell ye?” You asked

“She’s worried about ye” Katie explained.

“I already told her she doesn’t need to be” you frowned. “Can we just play?” You gestured her to hit the ball, as she sighed and played on.

You spent the rest of the course with Alessia, mostly, teasing her about being god awful at golf. After what felt like hours, the four of you went back and got ready for dinner that your entire family were having in the hotel restaurant.

Your mam had quizzed Katie and Ella on what the situation was with you and Alessia, but they both were reluctant to give a straight forward answer. If your mam knew you were seeing Gabriella again, she’d murder you. Your family were very outspoken and you were actually one of the quietest siblings. You were also, in the eyes of your older sister, the most responsible of the ones that didn’t have their own kids, which is why she banged on your door this morning to wake you up.

You pulled your arm away from where it was resting on Alessia’s waist. Your hand on her stomach, slid under her T-shirt. Wait - what? Did you fall asleep like this?

“Y/n, open the fuckin’ door” your sister, Amanda, shouted as you jumped off the bed and Alessia woke up too.

“What do ye want? We were asleep” you groaned as you swung the door open to reveal your sister. “Sorry, didn’t know it was you knockin’, what’s up?” You asked.

“I’m sorry to ask, I need you to look after the kids today” she sighed, and you noticed she looked stressed.

“Yeah, no hassle” you smiled. “Everythin’ alright?” You raised your eyebrow and she nodded.

“Just tryin’ to get everythin’ sorted and I love my kids, but I’m goin’ to kill them” she groaned as you laughed.

“Just give me 15 minutes and I’ll come get them” you said as she squeezed you tightly in a big hug before rushing back to her hotel room. You shut the door of the room, and headed back towards the bed to grab your phone.

“Good morning” Alessia smiled.

“Mornin” you smiled back. “Sorry, she’s just a bit stressed” you explained to the girl as the reason you were both woken up.

“Don’t worry about it” she shook her head. “So we’re babysitting today?” She asked, jumping out of bed.

“Well I am” you laughed. “Ye don’t have to-”

“That’s what wedding dates are for” she giggled, squeezing your cheeks and heading off to the bathroom.

You both got ready quickly, both of you grabbing showers and getting dressed. You’d sent Alessia downstairs to grab tea and a coffee and you went to collect your niece and nephew who both jumped into your arms once they saw you.

“What do ye wanna do?” You asked both of them as they both started shouting ideas at you, and poking your face. “Did I hear zoo? Do ye wanna go the zoo?” You smiled as they screamed in excitement in your arms.

“Here, take my card” your sister offered, opening her purse.

“I’m alright payin’ for my niece and nephew to go the zoo, Manda” you laughed. “Come on then, have to introduce ye both to Lessi” you smiled, squeezing them both as you brought them downstairs to the lobby with you.

“Well, hello” Alessia giggled at the twins that were occupying both your arms.

“This is Lessi” you introduced them. “And this is the twins, Lily and Bobby”

“Hi Lessi” Bobby shouted, making grabby hands for her.

“Hi Bobby” Alessia giggled, fully accepting that he wanted to transfer from your arms to hers. Lily was a bit more shy with strangers, she usually only went with people she knew.

“Ye wanna say hello?” You whispered to Lily who gave Alessia the slightest of little waves before tucking her head into your shoulder.

“She’s a bit more shy than that mad man” you laughed, squeezing your niece a little bit tighter to let her know it was okay.

You used the car Katie had been given to drive the four of you out to the zoo, spending the day with Lily on your shoulders and Bobby pulling Alessia in every direction towards the animal enclosures. You stopped around half way through to get more tea and Alessia bought the two of them ice cream.

“Do you want one too?” Alessia asked, handing the two of them their ice creams, as you nodded.

“What do we say?” You reminded them.

“Thank you, auntie Lessi” Lily smiled, giggling before she bit into the ice cream.

“Yeah, thanks auntie Lessi” Bobby repeated the thanks and the motion of munching the cone before going for the ice cream.

“Lessi isn’t your auntie” you corrected them.

“Yes she is!” They both shouted back.

“Here” Alessia said, handing you your own ice cream cone.

“Thanks, auntie Lessi” you smirked as she pushed your arm and rolled her eyes.

“Don’t encourage them” she laughed quietly.

“Can we go see the lions next?” Bobby asked.

“Yeah, just finish that first” you pointed at the mess in his hands of what was an ice cream cone roughly 60 seconds ago. “And aim to get it in your mouth, Bob” you laughed.

You got them cleaned up and continued to walk around the zoo, stopping anytime Bobby so much as saw a leaf on the ground.

“Lessi, look” Lily shouted, pulling her by the hand towards the lion exhibit as Bobby ran after them. You felt a sense of comfort that both of them warmed up to the blonde so easily, so much so, they wouldn’t stop referring to her as auntie Lessi.

You continued to walk around, both of you trying to race after the pair that kept running anytime they seen an animal move. You felt a head fall on your shoulder and knew that it wasn’t either of them, because they’d have to be in your arms in order for them to reach it. You froze a little at the realisation of who it was.

“Ye okay?” You asked the girl.

“Having kids is hard” she giggled, continuing to rest her head against your shoulder.

“I know darlin’, I dunno what we were thinkin’ havin’ them” you sighed playfully, reaching your hand down to grab hers.

“Think we made a mistake” she played along, interlocking your fingers and squeezing your hand a little tightly.

“Ye wanna grab dinner alone tonight?” You asked as the girl nodded against you.

“Yeah, maybe” she smiled. “And we could just watch a movie back in the room then” she suggested.

“Sounds good” you agreed, still yet to let go of eachother’s hand. “Bob, Lil, come on” you shouted as the pair ran toward you again, only this time Lily ran to Alessia and Bobby to you. As you picked both of them up, that was the first time you released Alessia’s hand.

You dropped the tired pair back to the hotel room, your sister forcing you into another tight hug to thank you for minding them today. You headed back to your room to find Alessia tucked up on the bed as you let a laugh pass your lips.

“What? I’m tired” she sighed, laughing back.

“Wanna just order room service?” You asked and the girls face lit up at the suggestion.

You grabbed the menu and both of you scanned it, choosing what you want before you ordered it on the little tablet in the room. It wasn’t long until the food arrived and she’d picked a movie for you to watch while you ate. When you finished your food, she did as she usually did and adjusted herself against you to get a bit more comfortable.

“This okay?” She whispered and you squeezed her side to let her know she was alright there. “I meant to say, you are really cute with them” Alessia added as you chuckled.

“Who? Lily and Bobby?” You asked as the girl pushed herself off of you and sat beside you properly on the bed.

“I didn’t expect you to be so-” Alessia mumbled, trying to find the right words.

“Childish?” You guessed with a smirk.

“Caring” she corrected you and her eyes flickered as they met yours and her hand fell over your own.

You couldn’t kiss her, as much as you felt like you wanted to. Alessia was your friend, she was your straight friend and she made that very clear the first night you met each other. You also had Gabriella, who was the love of your life and had asked you to not get with anybody while she was figuring her own relationship out. But Alessia’s lips were tempting you the more you looked at them. In fact, your eyes were fixated on them.

“Do it” Alessia breathed out as you hesitated for a split second, before pushing yourself off the backboard of the bed and leaning in to kiss her. The internal thoughts that had ran through your mind a mere ten seconds ago, now forgotten as you felt her breath against your lips.

“Alessia” Ella shouted, kicking the door between your two rooms open. “My nail broke, I need help” she yelled, as you jumped off the bed in order to create as much distance possible between the two of you.

“Fuckin’ emergency of the year Ella, fuck off” you moaned. This was the second time you and Alessia had almost kissed, and the second time some idiot at a door had interrupted you.

“I have glue, one minute” Alessia scrambled to her feet, rummaging through her bag and following Ella into her room.

You needed a minute to breathe and rethink everything that just happened in the last few minutes, or maybe since the first time you and Alessia met. You grabbed your phone and your secret hidden vape and headed to the hotel bar, ordering yourself a pint and sitting outside. You’d been there for over an hour or so when you felt a hand squeeze your shoulder.

“Do your coaches know you vape?” Amanda laughed, sinking into the couch beside you.

“Can’t sleep?” You asked, watching your sister shake her head. “It’ll go grand, don’t be worryin’”

“Just what every bride wants to hear, that it’ll be grand. Thanks, Y/n” Amanda laughed. “I didn’t know ye were seein’ that girl, Katie said ye were just friends”

“We are” you nodded.

“Well the kids are very much under the impression that she is their new auntie” Amanda laughed.

“I don’t know why they started callin’ her that” you shrugged and shook your head.

“Lily said it was because she bought them ice cream” your sister smirked. “And Bobby told me that it’s because ye hold hands like auntie Caitlin and auntie Katie” she pressed a little deeper.

“She’s straight” you reiterated.

“Is that why you’re hidin’ down here then?” She asked.

“Can’t vape in the room” you lied, waving the toxic device around.

“Well whatever she is to you, just tell her thanks for keepin’ my kids entertained today” she smiled. “All three of them” she added with a smirk.

“Wanker” you scoffed playfully and stuck your finger up at her.

Amanda’s friends came to collect her from the bar, all of them were staying in the same room tonight and you were thankful you were sleeping nowhere near any of them, because they were all shitfaced. You headed back to the bedroom, only to find Alessia asleep and the room in complete darkness. You got ready for bed and slid in beside her, scrolling on your phone for a few minutes before trying to get to sleep, which didn’t take too long.

You woke to the alarm that Alessia had thankfully set, as you’d forgotten there was a certain time you needed to be up for. You had the girl pulled so close against you, it was difficult to comprehend how either of you were even breathing.

“Turn it off” you grunted, feeling the girls stomach vibrate from laughing.

“Let me go then” she giggled, wriggling out of your grip and knocking off the alarm. “Nice of you to come back” she added, turning around to face you while her head stayed comfortably on her pillow.

“I just needed a breather” you explained as the girl nodded and both of you got lost in the other’s eyes briefly.

“We better get ready” she smiled softly as you groaned and pulled the pillow over your head to scream into, causing the girl to laugh again.

The ceremony was early enough, and after the couple shared their I do’s, Amanda seemed to calm down completely. The dinner was unbelievable. You ate the entirety of yours, and then proceeded to finish off Alessia and Ella’s plates, and praying Caitlin or Katie wouldn’t finish theirs.

It wasn’t too long after dinner that more people arrived and you were drinking whatever was being handed to you. There was a big area for dancing and then a mixture of tables and booth type seating for people to sit down. By 10pm, Alessia had been dancing with Lily and Bobby before they were brought to bed and Ella and Caitlin took over dancing with the English girl.

You and Katie were in a booth with some of your other siblings and you were letting the conversation completely fly over your head you were that wasted. You hadn’t touched the dance floor tonight, much preferring to suppress your possible feelings for the person you were going to share a bed with later with alcohol.

“Little baby tired?” Katie teased, poking your face as you slapped her hand away from you. “Oh little baby has good reaction time even when she’s drunk” she laughed.

“I’ll little baby ye now in a minute if ye don’t shut the fuck up” you groaned.

“Coming to dance?” Caitlin asked you, already proceeding to drag Katie out of the booth.

“Yeah, go on” you nodded, following behind them as you made your way to the dance floor.

“Oh my date is finally going to dance with me?” Alessia teased, in a whispered tone that only you could hear. “Thought I had been abandoned”

“Never” you shook your head.

“You look tired” she whispered softly, cupping your face as she said it.

“I’m alright” you smiled back, but she knew now it wasn’t tiredness you were feeling, you were drunk. “Gonna give out to me again if I vape?” You asked and the girl shook her head and you proceeded to inhale.

“We’ll be back in a few” Katie shouted as you shot her a thumbs up and her and Caitlin headed off to the bathroom. Just as they left, Ella was beckoned over by some of your family that were leaving that you’d already said goodbye to.

“I don’t know if I told ye this earlier, but ye look-” usually when you described a girl, you’d tell her she looked fit, or unreal, and that worked, but Alessia didn’t deserve that.

“Beautiful” you mumbled into her ear.

“I don’t know if anybody has told you, but you are incredibly drunk” Alessia giggled. “But it’s okay, because I am too” she slurred.

“Ye make me so confused” you blurted out as the girl frowned at you.

“Why?” She asked.

“I don’t know if ye actually want me to be your friend or not” you shrugged.

“I do want to be friends” she nodded.

“Just friends?” You whispered and the girl shook her head at you, and clamped down on her bottom lip. “Ye told me ye were straight” you added.

“I was- I am” she stuttered. “I’m confused too” she sighed. “I’ve never had these types of feelings for a girl”

“What feelin’s?” You pressed further, letting your fingertips start to find a grip on her waist.

“Feelings that I shouldn’t have” she shook her head, and your fingertips pulled her closer to you. “But I want to have them” she added, whispering in your ear.

“Tell me what ye want, Lessi” you slurred against her, as her hands found the back of your neck.

“I don’t want anything” she shook her head.

“Oh, I thought-”

“I need you” she breathed out, before pressing her lips to yours softly.

There was no interruptions this time, although the one time the kiss was successful was in a crowded room of your family members and family friends. However, everyone else seemed too occupied in their own conversations to even notice the two of you kissing, well, except for Ella and Amanda, who high fived and then Ella sprinted to the bathroom to keep Caitlin and Katie stalled for as long as possible.

The kiss felt better than anything you’d ever experienced before. It wasn’t rushed, it wasn’t forced. Instead, your lips moulded against each other perfectly, almost like you were made for one another. It felt like every relationship, situationship or casual thing you’d ever had, had led you to right now.

“Are ye sure, Lessi?” You asked when the two of you broke away briefly.

“Take me upstairs” she grunted as your eyes went wide.

Without even hesitating for a second, you took the girl’s hand and led her out of the room and upstairs, swiping the key to your shared room and kicking the door closed behind you. Alessia pushed you against the door and immediately started kissing your neck.

“Lessi” you groaned. “Can I take this off?” You asked as your hands went to the zip of her dress and she nodded at you, going back to kissing your lips instead. You unzipped her dress and felt her start to pull your shirt out of where it was tucked into your trousers.

“I should have let you kiss me that night we met” Alessia grunted, starting to undo the buttons of your shirt.

“I’ve wanted you to fuck me for so long” she moaned. Since you’d started kissing her, you had been turned on, but the minute she said that, you were done for. You slid the girls dress off her shoulders and made your way to the bed, your lips not leaving hers for a singular second.

“If ye don’t feel comfortable at any time, just tell me and we can stop” you said, before either of you touched the bed.

“Promise me” you added. Alessia wondered was this a thing you did with every girl before you slept with them, a thing that you just said to make them feel like they mattered.

“I promise” she nodded anyway, and your lips found her neck this time, as she lay back on the bed.

You sunk to your knees, hovering over the girl as you kissed down her body. You got right to the bottom of her stomach, hands on either side of her underwear as she pulled your head up.

“Lock that” she smirked, pointing to the conjoining door between you and Ella’s room.

You jumped up and locked the door, realising now that she wanted this so badly and didn’t want to be disturbed whatsoever. In turn, you wasted no time in connecting your lips to her. She groaned, feeling you against her for the first time and put her hand behind your head to pull you closer against her.

“Ye taste so good” you mumbled.

“Please don’t stop” she begged.

“I don’t have anythin’” you said, hoping she’d understand what you meant.

“I don’t need anything other than you” she replied, pulling your head even closer to try get you to refocus. “Your fingers, please” she moaned and you obliged.

“Whatever ye want, Lessi” you breathed out, as the girl screamed your name and you knew if your sister was next door, that she definitely heard it. But fuck it sounded too good to tell her not to do it.

“I’m gonna-” Alessia panted as you pressed your mouth a little harder against her, and the girl didn’t even get to finish her sentence. “Fuck” she whispered.

“Ye alright?” You asked, standing up before letting your back hit the bed. But before you comfortably took a breath, the girl had straddled you, undoing your belt and unbuttoning your trousers.

“What? Ye want more, do ye?” You laughed as the girl rolled her eyes with a giggle, pressing her lips against yours as you pulled your trousers off.

You knew two things were for certain.

You and Alessia were never going to be just friends.

“Nah, it’s fine. I’ve got a couple bits to sort out. Have to show the main man my face so he knows why I’m missin’ trainin’” you laughed.

“Eat that first” Alessia pointed towards the rake of food she’d made for you that you hadn’t even looked at yet.

“Thanks Lessi” you raised your eyebrows to take in the large amount of food and immediately started digging in.

“Just thought you’d be starvin’” she joked, mocking your Irish accent.

“I’m always starvin’” you chuckled with a mouth full of food.

“Are you sure I can’t drive you?” Alessia asked again. “I can wait for you to talk to your coach or whatever” she offered, staring straight at the cut on your eyebrow that was stopping you from opening your eye fully.

“Well, if-”

“Perfect! I’ll go get ready” she smiled at the fact that you’d caved and raced out of the kitchen before you could say anything else.

You’d never had a friend like Alessia. Or really a friend at all before. You struggled with the fact that she was someone that was so attractive but that it was strictly platonic with. Up until you woke up this morning and looked at your phone, you probably would have continued trying subtly to change her mind. A lot of girls you’d slept with had told you they were straight too. But, once you seen the text from Gabriella, you didn’t give two shits about anybody else. It was her, and it always would be her.

When you got back to the spare room, you’d noticed Alessia had left clothes on your bed and you heard her potter back downstairs. You got changed into the clothes, that definitely were not hers, and followed her back down.

“Whose are these?” You asked from the kitchen door, watching the confused looking girl staring at the kitchen table.

“Where’s all the plates?” She frowned, ignoring your question entirely.

“In this magical place called the dishwasher” you teased, wondering why she was looking at you as if you were God’s gift.

“Thank you” she smiled softly and you noticed her expression looked genuine.

“Yeah, no worries” you shrugged. “Thanks for cookin’ breakfast” you mumbled back.

“Right, let’s hit the road. It’s a long drive to Sutton” she giggled, and you followed out after her to put your shoes on.

Alessia drove you back to your house and on the way there she had the radio blaring with the shittest playlist you’d ever heard. You’d been too busy texting a certain someone to care, but once Gabriella had stopped replying, you went to reach for the radio to connect your phone instead.

“Don’t even think about it. My car, my rules” Alessia said as she slapped your hand, forgetting it was red and bruised as you winced. “Shit, I’m so sorry” she sighed.

“It’s fine” you shook your head and shooed her hand away as she was trying to hold yours to have a better look. “But will ye let me connect my phone to make it up to me?” you smirked. It only took one long eye roll before Alessia agreed and you switched her country playlist to your better one.

“This is just noise. Literal noise” Alessia moaned.

“It’s quality” you argued back. Alessia begrudgingly let you play your music up until you got to your door. You’d messaged your coach and asked him to meet you at your house to save Alessia having to drive you to the gym.

“You fucking eejit, what happened to you?” He laughed, wrapping his arms around your shoulders as you unlocked your front door.

“Got into a bit of a fight with our favourite person” you mumbled with a laugh.

“Well if you look like this, I’d love to see what she looks like” he chuckled, slapping your back. “Who’s the blonde thing in the car?” He asked.

“Don’t be startin’” you mumbled, shaking your head.

“Was the fight over her?” He raised his eyebrows at you.

“No, Gabby” you whispered, almost like you didn’t want to admit it.

“Dara and Gabriella?” He gasped. “She has a type, doesn’t she?” He smirked as you stuck the finger up at him.

“I’m gonna take this week off trainin’. I’ll run and shit but I’m not gettin’ in the ring” you said, hearing the front door close from where you were both stood in the kitchen.

“Yeah that’s fine” he nodded. “I’ll send you over your meal prep and out of ring schedule and then we can start ring work next week” he added, squeezing your shoulder before heading outside. “Alright darling?” he smiled at Alessia.

“Get out ye thick” you shouted from the kitchen as he slipped by Alessia and left. “Ye alright Lessi?” You called as the girl made her way into you.

“He seems pleasant” Alessia frowned.

“Ah he’s harmless” you shrugged. “Make yourself a cup of tea or somethin’ if ye want. I’ll be 10 minutes” you told the girl, before heading off upstairs to pack your clothes.

When you got back downstairs and found the blonde standing at the bottom of the staircase with two travel mugs with steam belting out of them.

“Made you a cup of tea too for the drive” she smiled, handing you the mug.

“Thanks Lessi baby” you grinned, grabbing it off her and ushering her outside. You threw your gym bag filled with clothes and whatever else you needed in the boot, before heading back inside to lock the house up.

“Go on then” you groaned when you settled back into the passenger seat.

“What?” She laughed.

“Your car, your rules. Back to your shite music” you mumbled, a bit defeated.

-

“So, what do you want to do?” Alessia asked as you shrugged. You’d gotten back to Alessia’s a few hours ago and she’d made you both lunch, before joining you to chill out on the couch. She was just about to start dinner so she wanted to source a plan before she did.

“Ye don’t need to cook again, Lessi” you chuckled. “I’m gonna order us somethin’, alright?” you said as she nodded with a smile.

“I’m going to go get changed” she informed you. “I’m leaving it in your capable hands to order something nice” she giggled.

“Challenge accepted” you smirked, taking out your phone and watching the blonde leave the room.

Gabriella

Hey xx

We still on? x

Don’t want you to change your mind ☹️ x

Y/n

Definitely x

I won’t change my mind xx

Gabriella

Can’t wait ❤️ xx

You ordered you and Alessia’s food before the girl stumbled back into the living room, wearing short shorts and a jumper. She sat beside you and grabbed the remote, starting to scroll through some options on Netflix that you could watch. The movie very quickly became a distant background noise because both of you wouldn’t stop talking to each other.

“I’ve never really had like, a mate before” you shrugged.

“A friend like me you mean?” She frowned.

“No. I uh just- I didn’t really talk to many people when I was in school apart from Gabriella and then my house was always just so loud, there wasn’t a need to talk to anybody else” you mumbled.

“Well, I am your friend” Alessia clarified. “Now I’m glad I offered to drive you earlier” she laughed, letting her head press against the back of the couch.

“Why?” Your eyebrows pressed against each other in confusion as you let your head fall back too.

“Well, I was afraid” Alessia admitted.

“Of what?” You frowned.

“If I didn’t drive you, you probably wouldn’t have came back” Alessia whispered. Her eyes bore into yours as both of your heads, still pressed against the cushions on the couch, turned to face each other.

“Yeah, probably not” you replied softly. Your eyes fell to her lips and you watched as her teeth sunk into her bottom one. You felt her shift subtly on the couch and your hand went to reach for her waist instinctively, as if you were both melting into a kiss that hadn’t happened yet. The irritating noise of the doorbell broke the two of you apart and Alessia shot to her feet to answer the door.

“Yes” Alessia shouted, and you scrambled to your feet, thinking something was wrong at the door. Only, you met a confused looking delivery guy at the doorstep and a beaming blonde with the bag of Chinese food in her hand. “I was craving a Chinese” she giggled.

“Sorry, she didn’t know what I ordered. It was a surprise” you mumbled to the boy and took your wallet out as Alessia went off to the kitchen with the bag.

“That’ll be £32” he choked, a bit confused at the situation on your face.

“Boxer” you clarified as he nodded. “Here mate, keep it” you said, handing him a £50 note and closing the door behind you.

You walked into the kitchen to find the blonde plating up the food you’d ordered. You stood in amusement, leaning against the door frame with your arms crossed and a smile creeping onto your face as you watched her humming along to no particular tune.

“Need a hand?” You asked.

“No, no” she shook her head. You walked towards her anyway and picked up the empty containers that were lying on the press.

“I’ll get rid of these, will I?” you said. Your hand fell on her waist as you tried to reach around to the opposite side of her. You felt her push back against you slightly and you didn’t pull away.

“Ye okay?” You asked as the girl nodded and her head fell back to lean against your shoulder. “Will I take them inside?” You asked, removing your hand from her waist and moving it to the bowls of food.

“Yes please” she nodded.

Alessia followed you in a few minutes later and once you both finished eating she pushed herself against you and stuck something for you to watch on the TV.

“Is this okay?” She asked. But she knew it was.

“Yeah” you nodded. “More than” you added.

“I really like having you here, Y/n”

“I like bein’ here, Lessi” you mumbled back and felt her snuggle into you a little more.

Alessia was such a good friend.

-

That chilled out vibe was pretty much how the entirety of your time spent in Alessia’s house went. Although there was definitely less take aways and a lot more cooking to match your meal plan, together. You’d both go for runs together and you’d do what you needed to do while Alessia was at work.

Every night though, Alessia would fall asleep pressed against you on the couch and you’d carry her upstairs to bed, before heading into the spare room. It felt odd leaving her every night for go into the other room. You wondered sometimes what it would be like if she asked you to stay. Or what it would be like waking up beside her.

You remembered how nice that feeling felt with Gabriella that she was the last thing you saw at night and the first thing you saw in the morning. You wondered if you would ever have it again. Even if you did find it again, it wouldn’t be with Alessia.

Maybe it would work with Gabriella this time.

-

It had perfectly aligned that everyone was out of reach when you and Gabriella planned to meet up. Dara was gone to Mexico and all of your footballer siblings and friends were on international duty.

You felt like you were a child again, getting excited on the drive that you weee going to see her. You’d debated buying her something, but wanted to leave no paper trail that you were here, so you didn’t. Instead of knocking, you texted her when you were outside and let her turn the doorbell camera off for you to come in.

“Hi” she smiled.

“Hey” you smirked back at your ex girlfriend, who looked so fit. Alessia who?

She wasted no time whatsoever in putting her lips against yours and jumping into your arms. You were never one to waste time, so you broke away from the girls lips momentarily to ask one question. “Couch or bed?”

Being back with Gabriella just put you back to being that 14 year old that fell in love with the English girl that had just moved to your school. It felt like you’d never been apart from each other, until reality hit and you remembered you were currently lying beside a girl who ruined your life. You got off the bed, leaving the girl who was scrolling on her phone to frown at the sight of you getting dressed and grabbing your car keys from the bedside table.

“Where are you going?” She asked.

“Home” you shrugged.

“Why can’t you stay?” She pouted.

“I’ve stuff to do” you mumbled, taking a step forward to leave before she spoke again.

“Since when did you become this person that just fucked a girl and left?” She huffed.

“Since I walked in on my girlfriend ridin’ someone” you bit back.

“Jesus Christ, we weren’t-” Gabriella sighed and you watched her face drop. “Nothing happened with him” she whispered as your shoulders and neck tightened in frustration.

“So I walked in on nothin’, did I?” You challenged, watching as the girl pushed her back against the bed frame and wrapped her arms around her knees. “What?” You frowned.

“You’ve never let me explain what actually happened” she pouted, threatening to cry.

“Yeah well, I had the right to be fumin’ Gabby” you argued back as she shook her head.

“I know” she sobbed and you stupidly sat back down. “It was a horrible mistake and I don’t know why it happened” she began. “I don’t even like boys, you know that. He was just a guy in my class and we were studying before he kissed me and I didn’t know what to do”

“Did ye wanna kiss him?” You frowned.

“No, but I didn’t stop him either” she winced at the thought of it before shaking her head again.

“Why didn’t ye let me punch him?” You asked, in a serious tone, waving your hands about. A thing you often did in frustration.

“I didn’t want you to get in trouble” she said, taking hold of your hand in hers. “I was afraid you’d lose your contract for punching someone outside of a ring” she added.

“Clearly your new girlfriend doesn’t care that much” you chuckled, watching as the girl got on to her knees and cupped your face. She was scanning your face, looking at the marks from the cuts and bruises that had started to fade.

“Well, she definitely came out worse than you did” Gabriella bit her lip, trying to stop herself from laughing.

“How long is she gone to Mexico for?” You asked as you felt her hand slink around your neck and grip it tightly.

“A week and a half” Gabriella smirked, knowing she had you hooked around her little finger again. “Stay with me tonight” she whispered in your ear as you nodded and re-connected your lips with hers.

You still had the gym bag in your boot that you’d took to Alessia’s with you. So, when Gabriella agreed to do your washing, you stayed with her for a few days, driving from her house to training every day. You’d mostly tried making up for lost time with her, because you knew, as much as she told you over and over again that she loved you, she wasn’t going to end things with Dara.

You still felt content with your current situation when she kissed you goodbye at the door and told you she couldn’t wait to see you again. You were still just that love sick teenager that didn’t want her to be out of your life.

Before your drive home, you decided to stop into Katie’s to check in on Ella. With Caitlin and Katie being gone you needed to check your little sister was functioning and hadn’t burned the house down in their absence.

“Ella” you shouted when you opened the front door of the house, but frowned when you didn’t get a response. You checked the place she normally was, and sure enough, she was there, snuggled up on the sofa watching a stupid reality show as usual. “Did ye not hear me callin’ ye?” You asked.

“I did, I just knew ye’d come in here straight away” she laughed. “Was gonna order somethin’ if ye wanted to stay for a bit” she mentioned casually and you knew instantly that meant she wanted you to stay.

“Yeah, go on” you nodded. Just as she hit place order for the food and had you locked into the fact that food was on the way, she decided to hit you with something bizarre.

“I’m thinkin’ about gettin’ back with my ex” she blurted out.

“What? Absolutely fuckin’ not Ella” you grumbled, as an instant frown hit your face.

“He apologised” she shrugged.

“Ella, no. It’s not happenin’, end of story” you said a bit more firm this time, to really get your point across.

“Listen, Y/n, I wish I was more like ye, havin’ all that will power to keep away from your ex after she done the dirt on ye. Like I know ye’d never go back there because you’re so smart and have everythin’ figured out” Ella smirked and you knew that the little bitch knew. “And I know for certain that if I went back to him I would 100% turn off my location and not let my older sister see where I’ve been for the past few days”.

“Fuck off Ella” you groaned.

“Are ye that simple?” Ella asked.

“No, we talked it out and it’s grand now” you shrugged.

“Oh that’s good then, so she broke up with Dara?” Ella challenged as you rolled your eyes. “Thought so” your little sister laughed.

“I mean it, ye cannot say anythin’” you warned your younger sister in a tone she’d never heard you use with her before.

“It’s not my news to tell, is it?” She shrugged. “But I’d like ye, for your own sake, to think about what you’re doin’” Ella added.

“Yeah” you replied, not really taking much of what Ella was saying in. You stayed and ate with her before driving back home and didn’t end up getting in until late. You were expecting when you took your phone out to see a text from a certain someone, but were surprised to see nothing had came in, from her anyway.

Lessi 👸🏼

Miss you

Earth to Y/n? Stop ignoring me after I nursed you back to health 👩‍⚕️

Y/n/n 🐻

My bad sorry

Been busy

See you when you’re back?

Lessi 👸🏼

Can’t wait x

You were a god awful person to text and always had been. You’d give the most blunt replies possible, but it wasn’t out of a lack of care, it was just that was all you could think to say.

-

You’d been training hard since returning to the ring. Although you weren’t overly concerned with the girl you were set to fight, you never let your standards drop, regardless of who your opposition was.

You and Alessia had arranged to meet up in a few days time, allowing her to settle back into work and whatever. You’d heard from Gabriella briefly, Dara was back from Mexico now so you knew why communication was lacking a little. You kind of liked sneaking around with her, especially because you knew it would ruin Dara if she found out.

Your agent had called you during the week to let you know Adidas needed you for a photoshoot, and you didn’t have any choice but to agree. They gave you free shorts, gloves, oh, and money, so you couldn’t really turn it down.

The morning of the shoot, you’d had a particularly bad start to the day. You’d trained early and you and your coach had gotten into a roaring match over something in relation to fight prep. You’d text Gabriella to ask if she was around to talk, now that you had a support system back that you could openly speak to, you didn’t even hesitate sending off the needy message.

Gabriella

Can’t talk, Dara’s home today. Maybe see you soon? x

So you turned up at the photoshoot absolutely fuming from the events this morning and Gabriella’s lack of interest in anything but having sex with you. But, like an angel sent from heaven, you were assigned to a cute girl who was going to look after you for the day. Although you were sort of back with Gabriella, you could still look elsewhere, right?

“You’ll just be here for the day until someone calls you for your shoot. If you need anything at all you can call me” she smiled. You already had the flirty line sorted in your head of what you were going to say back to the girl, but a barrel of blonde hair interrupted you by crashing into your body.

“You didn’t tell me you were doing this too” Alessia giggled, punching you in the arm. You watched the girl who’d shown you to your station walk off and you shot Alessia a smile.

“Didn’t think ye’d be roped into it” you shrugged, letting the girl give you a hug. She gave nice hugs.

“It’s good to see you” Alessia smiled.

“Yeah, good to see ye too Lessi” you nodded, gripping her a little bit tighter when she went to move away.

“Everything alright?” She asked.

“All good” you mumbled. You couldn’t really explain to Alessia that you were having trouble with Gabriella, because that would require admitting you went back to the person that broke you.

You sat patiently waiting for someone to call you, letting the blonde ramble on about how international camp had gone. When you were called, you noticed it was only the two of you and the camera crew left. All the other athletes had finished up and went home.

“Okay, here’s what we want you to do” the camera man began to explain. They got you kitted up fully and into straps and gloves before a guy who looked like he didn’t even know what boxing was, never mind how to hold pads, appeared with two pads strapped to his hands. “Just hit the pads in some combinations and we’ll just shoot it from different angles” the camera man told you as you nodded.

So, you gave the pads a few solid hits just to test the guy out and he seemed a bit scared.

“That too hard?” You teased him as he shook his head anxiously.

“Go easy” Alessia giggled from the sidelines, getting her make up done as you continued on. You threw the combination the director had called and as your threw a left hook, he moved the pad at the last second, causing your wrist to zing in pain.

“Fuckin’ hell” you shouted, ripping your gloves off with your teeth and clutching your left wrist.

“Wait, stop for a second” Alessia said to the make up artist softly as she jumped out of the chair to get to you.

“If you’re gonna make me hit pads, get me someone that can fuckin’ hold them. He could have broken my fuckin’ wrist” you shouted towards the director.

“Calm down” Alessia cooed, cupping your face and pulling your attention to her. “You can’t speak to them like that” she warned.

“But he could’ve-” you were about to snap.

“I know” she whispered in agreement and gave a subtle nod. “Give me a look” she said, tugging your wrist, which wasn’t actually sore anymore, lightly towards her.

“Sorry” you mumbled towards the director as he shook his head and put his hand up to indicate you were fine.

“Ms Russo” someone shouted as she wandered off, vowing to be back momentarily. “Do you two want to do the rest of today together?” They asked.

“As in, take photos together?” Alessia clarified.

“Yeah, we’ve been looking to do a crossover campaign with two female athletes from different sports. We had both of you in mind but we didn’t know you two were friends” he smiled. “We think we could get her to agree if you could ask? If you wouldn’t mind maybe-” he said again, almost like they were all afraid of you.

“Y/n, we’re doing the rest of the shoot together” Alessia shouted.

“Okay” you shouted back.

“Well that was easy” him and Alessia chuckled.

The two of you actually ended up having a lot of fun. You got to get Alessia in gloves and get her to hit some pads that you were holding. It was the first time all day that Alessia seen you laughing when you had her running combinations. When you’d finished the boxing portion, Alessia got to get you into a different type of gloves and into a football goal, smacking ball after ball at you.

It was during that when you remembered that the first time you smiled all day was when you seen her earlier. Alessia made you happy.

When you both left the shoot, to start packing up, Alessia heard the girl that was assigned to you earlier squealing to her friend that she’d begged to be put with you today because she found you attractive. Alessia couldn’t understand why, but she got so angry at the girl and shot her the filthiest look as she walked back towards you. When you finished up, you walked Alessia over to her car to say goodbye.

“You sure everything’s okay?” She asked as you leaned against her car.

“Yeah, yeah” you nodded, albeit unconvincingly. You felt your phone buzz in your pocket and checked it, zoning Alessia out entirely.

“Do you maybe want to come back to mine?” Alessia asked, a sense of forwardness in her tone.

Gabriella

Dara’s had a change of plans and had to go out, come collect me x

“Yeah sounds good Lessi, I’ll chat to you later” you nodded, not even looking up at the girl as you walked off to your car.

“Dick” Alessia mumbled as she slipped into her own car and went back to her empty house.

You sped off towards Gabriella’s house and smirked at the fact she was stood there waiting for you.

“Hi baby” she said, pressing her lips to yours.

“Hi darlin’” you replied, pulling her waist closer to you and almost dragging the girl over to sit on your lap. “Where’d ye wanna go?” You asked.

“The backseat, preferably” she smirked as you chuckled at her. She buckled herself in as you drove you both somewhere a little bit more isolated and climbed into the back seat together.

Since you’d gotten back with Gabriella, your mind had been a bit all over the place. You seemed angrier than usual and nobody, except for Ella, could pinpoint what who was the cause of it. Things only became a bit more complicated when you got a text from your older sister, Amanda.

Amanda

Hey, just reminding you that I am getting married in two months, and I’m presuming, despite you not having sent your RSVP back, that you are coming to my wedding. Are you bringing someone or what?