new romantics - A.P

wembley dreaming.

Late July 2022 

"Watch your step, Williamson," Rauch's harsh shove knocks me to the ground for maybe the fifth time in the last fifteen minutes. Her tone is snarky, and my conscience tells me she's yearning to bring a reaction out of me. I bite my lip, carefully calculating my next move. I could retaliate, give in to her and ultimately end up sent off in a European championship final. I could also just as easily walk away, be the bigger person, gain the moral high ground. Before I can act, Keira and Lucy take it upon themselves to pull me away. 

"Come on, we don't need you going off on one, kid. Go take the corner. Put it right over the keeper. We've got fifteen minutes to get a goal." Lucy places her hands on my shoulders, looking me straight in the eye. I only nod back at her, turning towards the corner flag. 

The 90,000 England fans jeer as I pick up the ball, rubbing it against my shirt before placing it back down on the corner. I turn to face them, smiling and wildly gesturing with my arms until they cheer louder. It feels nice to have 90,000 people support you so unconditionally. 

I raise both my hands, beginning our usual corner routine. The ball swings inwards, as Lucy towers over everybody, jumping to connect with the ball. Blocked. Chloe connects with the ball on the rebound. Saved but still a chance. Its a bit of a toe poker, but Chloe stabs the front of her foot into the ball, flicking it past the defenders lightly. The crowd erupts, Georgia and Ellie are jumping on my back as we run to celebrate with Chloe. Alessia, still on the floor from her "injury", jumps up to run with us. This feeling is electric. I don't think I ever want this type of elation to end. 

----

A harsh knock on my door wakes me up, the clock next to my bed glares at me: 8:03am. The ghost of a body lies next to me in bed as I get up to answer the door. I peer into the ajar bathroom door, a woman, in the mid-20s maybe is standing fixing her hair. I have no recollection of ever meeting her. What the actual fuck is she doing in my hotel room.

The knocking sounds again. I pull open the door roughly. It's Leah. She stands, hands on hips with a newspaper in her hand, her eyebrows furrowed. 

"Took your time to answer the door did you?" Leah comments sarcastically. 

"I was sleeping. I've barely had a wink of sleep Leah," I grunt back at her, agitated at her waking me up, with some woman in my room. 

"I know, I heard you were having a great time last night?" My older sister laughs again, but really, I don't see the humour in the conversation. 

"Go back to Jordan, go take the piss out of her. I'm not assed with you this morning," Leah wedges her foot in my door as I try to slam it in her face. 

"No, you can't go back to sleep now. We have to be at Trafalgar Square in two hours. Get dressed and ready and then come downstairs. Take this paracetamol for your hangover." She hands me a box of the medicine and then takes off down the hallway. I sigh, turning to face this unknown woman now standing in the middle of my hotel room. 

---- 

"And then she has the guts to say, 'Last night was lovely, we should do it again' as if I even remember anything she's referring to! I didn't even know her name, where she's from. I mean who even is she and how did she get in? She could be carrying an STI, what if she's given me chlamydia, I could be deathly ill right now and I'm too hungover to notice." I ramble to Ella and Georgia, who are pissing themselves laughing at me as we sit on the bus. 

"So what was her name?" Georgia asks. 

"I honestly don't really know, I was too busy trying to get her out of my hotel room before anyone saw her leave. She must be related to a staff member. Kill me now." I mimic a dagger stabbing myself in the chest, before dramatically collapsing against my seat, faking my own death. Leah turns around abruptly from her seat in front of me. 

"Stop bashing my seat Bri, not everyone wants to hear about your post-celebration sex alright?" Leah huffs at me. 

"Did Jordan not hit the right spot last night, must be tough being the England Captain this morning," I mock sympathy to spite her, patting her shoulder gently making everyone who's watching the interaction unfold laugh gently

"Piss off," She tutts at my childish remark, and I'm glad she can't see the mischievous twinkle in my eye from behind my ski-google sunglasses that match my teasing smirk. 

I pull out my phone, cringing at the battery level staring back at me. 4%. I look around, locating a USB cable next to an outlet on the side of the bus next to Keira.

"Ke, chuck us that charger would you, my phones absolutely dead," I gesture towards the white cable, which she chucks at me. I laugh as it hits my face, playfully scowling at her.

"What, I'm tired and you said chuck it so I did?" Keira closes her eyes, clearly still tired from yesterday.

"You and Luce had a good time last night aswell?" Georgia teases, and I let out a loud cackle as we almost fall out of our seats laughing. Lucy chucks her empty crisp packet at us. 

"Shut up the pair of youse," Keira's thick Mancunian accent only makes us laugh more as we pull in to Trafalgar Square. 

----

There must be 20,000 people packed into the square with the sheer volume of the crowds as the Lionesses stand on the small stage, kitted out in Nike 'Home' t-shirts and regular England tracksuits. Its a warm morning, as it is the first day of August and the buzz around the country is electric, every newspaper has the Lionesses faces on it, plastered across the front page.

"Now, we have to talk to the Lioness that delivered the corner ball that ended up in the back of the net." Alex Scott beckons Lucy and Jill away after their very clearly still intoxicated interviews. "It's Briar Williamson!"

The crowd erupts with the mention of my name, as I arrogantly strolls towards Alex, smirking. 

"Briar on a scale of 1-10 how hungover are you right now?" Alex jokingly asks me, and I laugh dryly, "11."

Laughter erupts the square, cheers sounding as I mockingly toast my Lucozade bottle to the crowd. I stand next to Lucy so Alex can ask us questions about the tournament.

"So Briar, Lucy; how does it feel to be standing here right now?" Alex asks, gesturing to where we are stood on the stage. 

"On top of the world," Lucy says into the mic, laughing. 

"On top of Europe," I add, smirking. 

"Ok, ok, and Lucy what makes this team so special," Alex laughs at our joke. 

"Jill Scott." We all laugh, as Jill is pushed to the front of the group as the crowd goes mad for her. 

"And Briar, last night I was hearing a few renditions of a few tunes, are we going to get one today?" Alex knocks into my shoulder, egging me on.

"Absolutely not, I'm on voice rest from last night," The crowd laughs as I walk off back to my hangover. 

"That was Briar Williamson, the Lionesses resident little shit," Lucy speaks into the mic, earning another laugh as I salute her. 

----

"God I needed this," I took a slurp of my MacDonalds chocolate milkshake and shoved a handful of chips in my mouth, sat in the back of Leah's car whilst her and Beth ate in the front seats. 

"Feels good after a month of tournament food, innit," Beth replied. 

"Pure hangover food isn't it," Leah sighs, relaxing into the drivers seat. 

"You better not be hungover if your driving Le, I'm not dying after I've just won the Euros," I commented, fiddling with the air con filters in the car, "Lets get back to London, I'm exhausted."

a/n - bit of a filler, boring chapter. next chapter will be briar's big move to barca.

{NOT PROOF READ}