Football Imagines

Jesse Lingard (Requested)

"What's that?" Jesse asked, carrying a plated sandwich into the library one afternoon. Kevin grinned when he sat down and held up the book he'd been reading.

"Y/n's diary."

"Dude, what?" Jesse asked. "You should not be reading that."

"She left it out."

"Left it out where?" he asked accusingly. Kevin's smile faltered and he cleared his throat, lowering his eyes back to the page in front of him.

"In her room."

"Dude, give that to me!" Jesse said, reaching across the table but Kevin quickly hid it underneath.

"Don't you want to hear what she wrote about you?" he asked quickly, scooting his chair back when Jesse tried to tear the book out of his hands. Jesse stared at him.

"She wrote about me?" he asked and Kevin started flipping back a few pages. Jesse watched, curious to know what you'd written, but then shook his head quickly. He stood up and moved around the table towards his friend. Kevin flew to his feet and backed away from him. "No, Kevin. Stop. Give that to me."

"'The boys and I played football this weekend,'" he read as Jesse shouted, "Kevin!" and tried to swipe the book out of his hands. Kevin  dodged him and moved a chair between them. He continued, "'We split up into teams, and I was with Jesse, Alexis went with Kevin. During break time, We were alone for an hour and I still couldn't tell him. Not even after I was almost hit by a football and he saved me. I don't think I've ever seen him run so fast. It kind of made me feel like he might love me too, but he was just doing his job. I think he only sees me as a sister anyway..."

Jesse wasn't moving quite as fast towards his friend now. He'd moved the chair out of the way and almost tripped over one of the legs when he'd heard the word 'love'. He stared at Kevin who grinned at him over the top of the diary.

"Want me to keep going?"

"Uh..."

"What are you doing?" came your voice from the doorway and both boys looked over at you quickly. You looked at each of them in turn, frowning at their guilty expressions, and then noticed the book in Kevin's hands. Your expression darkened.

"Uh," Kevin said, closing the book, "I'm, uh..." He turned to his friend. "Help me out here, Jesse."

"You're on your own, dude," he said, watching you stomp towards Kevin. Before he could take a step back away from you, you snatched the book from him with one hand and caught him hard across the cheek with the other. He yelled out and you slapped him again once he'd recovered.

"Hey!" he shouted. He grabbed your wrist before you could slap him a third time and was about to snap at you to calm down when he noticed the tears in your eyes. You'd seen the page he'd been reading out loud and your face was red with embarrassment. "Y/n-"

"I hate you," you whispered and, with a quick glance at Jesse, you raced out of the library and towards your room. Jesse glared at his friend and followed after you. He heard the door slam and cursed, slowing to a walk as he approached it.

"Y/n?" he said through the wood. There was no answer. "Hey. Can we talk?" He twisted the knob but you'd locked yourself inside. "Y/n. Please open up."

"Go away!"

"It's Jesse." You were silent. "Please, can I come in?"

"No," you answered quietly from right on the other side of the door. Jesse leaned his head against it and closed his eyes, sighing.

"Please." You didn't say anything so he decided to just starting talking through the door in hopes that you'd let him in eventually. "Did you mean what you wrote, Y/n? That you...you think I only see you as a sister?" You were still quiet. "Because...that's not true."

Nothing.

"Is she okay?" Kevin asked down the hall and Jesse looked over at him, furious. Kevin's eyebrows raised and he backed up, disappearing around the corner. Jesse turned back to the door.

"Y/n..."

After a moment, you finally muttered, "What?"

He shook the doorknob gently and asked, "Can I please come in?"

Another moment passed before he heard the soft click of you unlocking the door and he pushed it open slowly. You were just sitting down on your bed, facing away from him, when he walked inside. He sat down beside you and your cheeks reddened.

"You okay?" he asked and you nodded. "I'm sorry Kevin's such a jerk."

"Not your fault," you muttered.

"I tried to stop him."

"Okay." Jesse was quiet as he tried to piece together what to say next. You sighed and asked, "Can we just get this over with?"

"Get what over with?"

"Talking about my stupid crush on you. I know that's what you're in here for."

"Well hey, if it's just a stupid crush," Jesse said, standing up. You looked up at him quickly when he took a step towards the door. He smiled. "is it?"

"No," you whispered. He sat back down. "I'm just embarrassed you found out like that."

Jesse slowly moved his hand to rest it on your leg. You pretended like this was an every day occurrence but, on the inside, you were screaming. On the outside, your cheeks were bright red again.

"I, uh, I didn't save you from the football,because 'it was my job'," he told you. "I mean...I would've done it anyway, yeah, but that wasn't what was going through my head at the time."

"Oh..."

"Yeah, I..." He ran the hand not on your leg through his hair. "I, uh, sort of love you too."

You looked over at him, eyes glistening.

"Really?"

"Yeah," he breathed and grinned, showing off his dimples. You smiled. "I've been wanting to tell you that for a while."

"Why haven't you?"

"I didn't know if you felt the same," he confessed. "I didn't want to make things awkward since we live and hunt together."

"Oh. Okay." Jesse lifted his hand to stroke your cheek with his thumb. "You can kiss me if you want."

"Thank you," he chuckled and leaned in. You met him halfway and when your lips touched, the reality of you finally kissing Jesse came crashing down on you. Your breath caught in your throat and you choked. He pulled back, concerned. "You okay?"

"Yeah," you gasped, pulling him back in.

"Wehell," came Kevin's voice from the doorway. "Would you look at that?"

You and Jesse turned to glare at him.

"Get out of here," you said. He scoffed, offended, and accented it with a hand over his chest.

"That hurts, Y/n. Especially after what I just did for you."

"What you just-?!" you started to shout, standing up, but Jesse grabbed your wrist and pulled you back down beside him. "You're an ass Kevin De Bruyne."

"Y/n, have I mentioned yet that Kevin also has a diary?" Jesse asked and you looked at him, raising your eyebrows in interest.

"He does?"

"It's a JOURNAL!" Kevin yelled and then turned to you. "And no, I don't have one!"

You laughed, stood up and said, "I'm gonna go find it."

"Like Hell." Kevin disappeared from the doorway and you laughed again, sitting back down by Jesse.

"That should keep him busy for a bit while he re-hides it."

Jesse chuckled, "I love you," against your lips before kissing you. You smiled warmly. You'd been waiting months to hear those words and just as long to be able to say them back.

"I love you, too."