Never Really Over

Chapter 8

June 2014

John flies home from England's pre-World Cup training camp straight into the waiting arms of his mum. He needs her reassuring arms around him because his head is full of mixed emotions; disappointment at how close he came to being involved in the tournament and pride over exactly how far he has come in a year. He goes home to Barnsley for some TLC and tries his hardest to be happy for Ross, who did make the full squad.

By the time the day of the first England game arrives, it's over three weeks since he has last seen Beth. He has missed her more than he'll admit to anyone. He reckons if she'd been with him in Miami then maybe he wouldn't have got so carried away over his prospects of making the full squad, she's good at keeping him in check, and she'd have reminded him that it was clear from the outset that if Phil Jones was fit, he'd keep his place in the squad and John would fly home. But John had allowed himself to dream that he would impress enough to make the place his own, and that meant he was even more crushed when he didn't.

Beth arrives having braved the rush hour traffic after work, with a bottle of wine in one hand and a salad bowl in the other. John bounds down the path to where she is parked and throws an arm around her neck, almost knocking her off balance, "I missed you, you dickhead."

"You look like a knob, why are you wearing this?" John won his first two England caps whilst he was away, he's been sporadically wearing them around the house and is currently sporting his one from the Panama game.

"Because I play for England now, so you need to start treating me with some respect," he puffs out his chest and Beth laughs in his face.

"Respect is earned Stones, get my stuff out the boot, will you?!"

John's family are in the kitchen prepping for their barbecue, Beth has met them at Goodison several times over the course of the season and they have grown fond of the girl who seems to have John right under the thumb.

"Oh, for fuck's sake," Jenny rolls her eyes when they enter the room. "Mum, he's wearing that stupid hat again."

"John, will you take it off!?" Janet scolds, "You're going to ruin it. Go put it somewhere safe." Then she gives Beth a hug, "Hello sweetheart, how are you?! How's was your drive?! Is that for us?! Oh, you shouldn't have!" Beth's family are quite the opposite of John's warm one, and she always feels as though she needs to thaw out a bit when she is with them before she feels completely relaxed. She has no idea what question to answer first, so instead she holds out the salad that has spent the day in the fridge at the training ground, and she just hopes no-one has had their fingers in. "I made a salad."

"You cooked?!" John says in disgust, he's currently eating a ready-to-eat chicken drumstick, too hungry to wait for later.

"I didn't cook," Beth rolls her eyes; she is well aware of her own failings in the kitchen. "You don't cook salad."

"What's in it?!" John pulls the tin foil off the bowl. "And why is it in the punch bowl?!"

"It's not a punch bowl," Beth rolls her eyes again; okay, maybe they use it as a punch bowl, but it's supposed to be for salad. "And probably nothing you'd eat."

"Why are there beans in this?! You don't put beans in salad! And is that melon!?"

"Black beans, it's not like I've put baked beans in it." Beth tried really hard to find a nice summery salad recipe and John is really not doing her confidence any good, she knows his mum is a wonderful cook and she wants to impress her.

Janet and Jenny exchange looks behind John and Beth's back; all day he has been counting down the hours until she arrived like a kid waiting for Christmas and now, she's here and all he's doing is winding her up.