𝐚𝐝𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮 - 𝐛𝐞𝐧 𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐥𝐰𝐞𝐥𝐥

𝐜𝐮𝐚𝐭𝐫𝐨

The Vardy barbecue had been going on four hours and it showed no signs of stopping.

It was now eleven at night and with all of the kids passed out and in their beds, most people had migrated to the other end of the garden where they hoped that any noise made, wouldn't wake the sleeping children.

"Shall we play a game of Truth or Dare?" Some stranger that Maggie had never met before suggested which resulted in an eye roll from herself. She had no time or patience for childish games and 'Truth or Dare' was most certainly one of them.

"What are we? Twelve?" The brunette muttered under her breath, glad that nobody had heard her. 

All of the guests sat in a circle on the cool grass, an empty beer bottle laying on top of the covered sandpit that the kids used to play in during the day.

A guy named Jeff was the first to spin.

In Maggie's opinion, the game started out very tame. She always felt if this is the game that people chose to play, it should at least be a bit exciting and not so vanilla.

After many turns without the bottle landing on Maggie, it finally did when a boy named Jack spun it.

"Okay, Maggie Montez. I heard you acting all tough earlier with my friend Ben so I want to know why you put on a front." The words left the Brummie boy's mouth before she even had a chance to choose whether or not she even wanted truth.

"You really want to know? Okay," She sighed as she felt everyone's eyes watching her with intensity.

"I put up a front to protect myself. In fact, I think we all do. Brummie boy, you're Aston Villa's star player who is surrounded by transfer rumours. You can't escape them!" Jack looked at her, curious as to where she was going with this and how she knew who he was was a mystery to him.

"You've got to choose whether or not you stay should your club get relegated. Stay and you may lose your chance to make it big in the Premier League. Leave and you risk hurting the fans of a club that you've supported since boyhood. You put on a confident front to distract people from the fact that you live a daily battle with these thoughts." The tanned girl finished, an eyebrow raised and a smug look on her face as jack looked at her stunned.

"Okay, how about James." He pointed to the blonde boy sitting beside him and she let out a small laugh before diving into what she had picked up from him earlier in the day.

This continued for a good few minutes before Jack pointed to Ben. Ben didn't like what Jack was doing to Maggie. She acted tough but it was obvious that it was for a reason and besides, Ben was curious as to what Maggie had to say.

"Ben... I don't know about Ben. He's the only one that I struggle to read and that scares me." Before anyone had a chance to respond to what Maggie had revealed, she stood up from her spot on the grass and walked to the front of the house.

"I'll go." Ben ran, following the direction that Maggie had walked in just moments before, not giving Rebekah a chance to object.

The tall, brunette boy found Maggie sitting on the front porch of the house, sitting with her knees tucked into her chest and staring out at the view.

"Maggie," Ben took a seat next to the girl that he was so intrigued by, making sure to keep his distance so as not to freak her out.

"What are you doing here?" She asked, no emotion coming through her voice which only made Ben nervous. He didn't know why he suddenly felt a rush of nerves. Perhaps it was because he didn't want Maggie to be mad at him, despite not knowing what he would have done to anger her.

"I came to check that you're alright-" Before the footballer had a chance to continue, Maggie had cut him off and turned to face him. Her eyes sparkled in the light and Ben felt himself becoming lightheaded at the sight.

"Ben, you don't have a duty to check on me." She explained, her face softening as she noticed the genuine concern on his face for her.

"I know I don't but you seemed upset and nobody should have to be upset by themselves." He offered her a small smile but she shook her head and looked back out at the busy road that was in front of the house with a blank expression.

"What do you want, Ben? You want to get into my pants? I can tell you right now that that's not going to happen." Maggie let out a bitter laugh as Ben furrowed his eyebrows. Maggie had been in this position all too often. All men wanted these days was a quick fuck.

"I don't have an ulterior motive." The brunette boy informed the girl that was sitting next to him. Maggie simply scoffed, not quite believing what the footballer was telling her.

"Don't you? Everyone else in my experience has." She retaliated, still refusing to look at his face. It was in this moment that Ben realised that Maggie had been hurt before and it made him worry for her. Her life was sad and she was left questioning everything and everyone around her. 

"Well, count this as a new experience. one where a person checks up on you without having ulterior motives." The brunette girl turned her head at this, seeing the genuine smile on his face and it made her feel warm inside. She wanted to believe Ben, she really did but some part of her was holding her back, unwilling to trust the guy who was still technically a stranger to her.

"You confuse me, Ben Chilwell. You're the one person that I haven't been able to read." She admitted ashamedly as she turned her whole body to face him.

"You like to people watch?" He asked, a smile growing on his face, glad that he had finally gotten through to her after all this time.

"I love it." Maggie returned the smile and they spent the rest of the night sitting on the porch, talking about their likes and dislikes.

That night, Maggie found out that she had a lot in common with the Leicester player and found herself being pulled in by him which scared her, massively.

a/n: aww, maggie can be soft when she wants to be.

so sorry this is late!

i just want to say again, thank you all so much for reading, voting, commenting and adding my stories to your reading lists. it means the world to me because i have worked so hard on these and for people to enjoy them, it's a bit surreal!

what are we thinking about maggie and ben?

enjoy and stay safe!

lots of love, e x