Sunsets and footballers

Lucy Bronze x Reader (6)

"Argh yeah, you're right, I do... but YFN and I have been talking a lot and I think I just need my space. I can't give her what she wants right now."

Lucy nodded. "Maybe you should tell her that.."

"Well I planned to tonight but I just couldn't. She took me by surprise when she came over and I wasn't ready."

"Maybe... maybe it would be easier to text? Face to face is better but I think she'll understand a text, Dory."

Jordan sighed and nodded. "I've been thinking the same to be fair. Can you help me?"

"You mean can I do it all and you proof-read?" YFN chuckled. "Anything for you."

Jordan gave an exaggeratingly toothy grin and tossed her phone over with a loud air smooch. YFN wrote out a message she thought would be sufficient. Lucy watched her little face concentrating as she quickly wrote.

Leah: Hey, I really appreciate you trying to have a chat with me tonight, and I'm sorry I wasn't really responsive. I'm not going to throw all of my baggage onto you, but you need to know the basics. The truth is that I really haven't been doing well after losing you and then deciding I had to leave Arsenal. Being left off the England Squad was the nail in the coffin for me. I played tough but it hit me harder than I realised, harder than anything has, really. I will always love you, you're an incredible human being and an even better friend. I did hear what you were saying tonight and appreciate that you want us to be friends, but I just can't give that to you right now. I don't have the capacity. I'm working on myself and will continue to do so. I hope when I'm a bit more healed and feeling like myself that you'll still want to be friends and we can go back to that. I miss our friendship.

I'm sorry I couldn't say all of this to you tonight, I'll admit I chickened out.

Take care of yourself Leah x

YFN read out the message to them both. God, she was good with words, Lucy thought.

Jordan also seemed impressed. "Can you add 'I'm really lucky to have some good friends around me' please? She'll worry otherwise. Well, she'll worry regardless but it'll make her feel better."

YFN nodded and added it in. She gave the phone back to Jordan who sent the message, then took a deep breath and threw her phone to the other end of the couch.

"I'm really proud of you, Jords," Lucy stated softly. The emotion in her voice was evident. YFN didn't like seeing Lucy upset and she brushed the back of her hand up against Lucy's under the blanket. They both twitched at the contact and then hesitantly hooked pinkie's together. They both smiled and relaxed.

"Thanks Luce," Jordan said, tired. "I feel so much better already."

The trio sat silently and continued watching their movie. With the stress of that burden now eased off her, Jordan fell asleep in minutes, her little body curled up in the corner of the couch, her mouth slightly open. The other two were very aware that their feet and pinkie's were still touching.

"Can we talk?" Lucy whispered to avoid waking Jordan. Her head was leaning back on the couch and she was staring at YFN like she had been for the past few minutes. YFN had been too involved in the movie to notice. She broke her eyes away and found Lucy's face. Lucy's face was welcome sight and she had a very vulnerable look in her eyes.

"Sure... this is my favourite movie. Do you like it?" She whispered, cheekily avoiding a deeper conversation.

"The Taming of the Shrew?"

YFN's eyes lit up. "Most people don't know that it's loosely based off Shakespeare. I'm impressed. You must be a hopeless millennial romantic like me."

Lucy just grinned, watching her get so excited about a movie.