"Why do I get the feeling you're planning something?"
Jordyn turned to smile innocently at her boyfriend - or at least, she hoped it came across as innocent.
"Maybe I am," she winked at him.
"Damn, whenever this confidence came from, I like it," Auba chuckled. "Can you at least tell me where we're going? This is supposed to be my territory."
He was right, in a way, but Jordyn had no intention of telling him anything just yet. The two of them were walking through the Arsenal training centre, and to all intents and purposes, Jordyn had no idea where she was headed, purely going off directions given haphazardly by Hector.
"Trust me, this is a good idea," she told him, and Auba was forced to be content with that for an explanation.
In due course, they reached the door to what Auba knew to be an old cafeteria that had once been used by the youth teams. It had stood empty for some time now, and as Jordyn twisted the handle of the door, the Gabonese frowned in confusion.
"Why are we going in here? There's nothing in here."
Jordyn paused her hand on the door, turning to look at him, and there was something in her gaze that made him hesitate.
"Whatever happens today... I just need you to know that I love you unconditionally. Nothing that happens in here will change that, okay?"
"What? Jord, I dont..."
"Just, please Auba, give this a chance."
She did not give him the chance to respond before swinging the door open, and gesturing to him to step into the room before her. Upon entering the old cafeteria, he was greeted with the sight of Hector, Lia, and Laca, the latter's eyes widening upon meeting his gaze.
"What the hell..."
"I asked you to give it a chance, so give it one," Jordyn spoke from behind him, and he turned to see her shutting the door and clicking the lock. Her gaze was more stern than he'd ever witnessed before, and she looked at him seriously for a moment, before nodding curtly to Hector.
"This is Arteta sanctioned, for your information," stated Hector. "I was made captain earlier this week since Kos bailed on us, as I'm sure you're aware, and this is my first act as captain. Auba, Laca... we love you two to death, but you need to stop pretending there's nothing going on, and sort yourselves out. And I'm completely serious about this. We are not the only ones who've noticed how much this issue, whatever it is, is affecting every aspect of your lives, including your ability to play football together."
"Hector, you can't do this..." Began Laca, but Hector cut him off.
"No, Laca, I CAN do this. As I told you before, the boss agreed with me that this needs to be done, and the only reason he's not officiating this himself is because I convinced him that having people who know you both well and who care about you on a personal level would be helpful. Now, if you both decide you want to sort this out privately, that's fine, Lia Jord and I are more than happy to wait outside the doors until you're done. But you do not leave this room until you've either sorted out your issues and worked out how you're going to move forward, or, you die of hunger and thirst and a lack of basic human comforts."
"Sheesh, Hector, it's not that bad, honestly," said Auba, holding up his hands defensively. "Can't you give us some time to work things out?"
"It is that bad!" Jordyn exclaimed suddenly. "Trust me, I've heard this already, Hector can and will take it to Arteta if you can't fix this. And dont try and pretend this is something that needs time because if my guess is correct, and I like to think I know you pretty well by now, this is an issue that has been going on since long before you came to Arsenal."
At Jordyn's words, both strikers turned to look at each other guiltily.
"I guess you're not wrong," Auba admitted.
"Do you want us to leave you in peace to work it out privately?" Asked Lia tentatively, but Laca waived away her concern.
"You deserve to be here for this," he told her. "I just... Auba, I tried, man. I really did. I thought that once we were no longer rivals anymore we could go back to the way things were."
"But it doesn't work like that," Auba sighed. "When you tell your best friend to his face that your job is more important than his friendship, it hurts, Laca. When you want to act as though nothing happened the minute your job doesn't prevent you from being friends, that hurts too! I got them, okay? When I left France, when I went to Germany... I got all those texts and calls from you. The minute we were no longer rivals, suddenly I was important to you again?"
"But we spent time together once you were here in England!" Laca exclaimed. "I thought we were okay, you made it seem like we were okay!"
"Because I missed you!" Auba retorted. "Considering this was before I started dating, you were the best thing to ever happen to me, and suddenly we had our friendship back! I hoped things could go back to the way they were too, but they just can't, Laca. The scars, and the hurt you left behind from cutting me out all those years ago run too deep."
Laca sighed, and threw his hands up.
"What am I supposed to do then? It's not like you told me when you got here that - oh, by the way, I'm only pretending to be friends with you again because I want to save face."
"It's not like that," Auba grumbled at him.
"Well it sure seems like that to me!"
"This is getting nowhere, you two," Lia stepped in. "What exactly is it that you want from each other?"
The two strikers hesitated, and turned to look at one another.
"Friendship," they both spoke at the same time.
"You're actually idiots," Jordyn rolled her eyes. "You both want the same thing, so get over yourselves! Shake on it, hug it out, learn to forgive! If that's really all that's bothering you, you're making this into a far bigger deal than it needs to be."
There was silence for a few moments.
"Auba... I am sorry for how I acted back then," Laca finally admitted. "I was a kid who was finally getting to live his dream, and I couldn't see past that. After everything we went through together, cutting you off like that was childish."
Auba breathed out heavily, and raised a hand to run it through his hair.
"I... I'm sorry too, for not telling you when I was hurting. I shouldn't have expected you to understand when I hadn't explained anything to you."
Laca smiled a little.
"I wanna make a promise to you," he stated. "And we're gonna shake on it."
"We are?" Auba's lip quirked up in soft amusement.
"We are," Laca nodded seriously. "I want to promise you that we're going to communicate properly from now on."
"I'll shake on that," Auba shrugged, and put out his hand.
The two of them shook hands so solemnly it was almost comical. Jordyn and Lia both saw the funny side of it simultaneously, and burst into delighted giggles.
"What?" Asked Laca defensively.
"Phew," Hector sighed. "That was wild. This is harder than actual relationship counselling, I swear."
"Tell me about it," Jordyn laughed. "I am so happy that went well - it went far better than I expected, to be honest. I expected much more yelling."
"You thought there'd be more yelling?" Auba asked in wonder.
"Well you had more than ten years of angst to get out," Lia shrugged. "I'm happy it ended how it did though. The handshake was kinda funny, though, so you have to excuse me for laughing. You looked like two gentlemen agreeing on a serious business proposition, and I'd have believed it if it weren't for the Arsenal tracksuits."
"Huh. Perhaps a new goal celebration?" Asked Auba.
"Oh no," Jordyn groaned, but she was still smiling.
"Oh yes!" Laca exclaimed. "Consider it payback for you lot dragging us into a literal abandoned cafeteria and locking us in here!"
"Hey, bet you appreciate it now though," Hector beamed at them. "Go on, get out of here. I have to go and report the good news to the boss. And no more giving each other the stink eye! I've got my eye on you two."
"I got ma eye on you, Jay Quellin!" Jordyn mimicked joyfully, and Auba and Laca turned to look at them in confusion as Lia, Hector and Jordyn dissolved into laughter.
"Everything is funny to them," said Laca, his voice dripping with confusion.
"I don't know! I don't get it."
"Look who's talking," Hector rolled his eyes. "You two will be back to laughing at things that dont make sense the minute youre back in the changing room, I've seen it all before."
"Long may it continue," Jordyn smiled, as Auba and Laca departed out the door together. "Thank you, Hector. You're the best."
"Agreed," put in Lia. "We owe you one, honestly."
Hector looked a little awkward.
"Now that those two are gone... I do need to ask you both some advice of my own."
"Oh wow," Lia's eyes widened. "Can't say I'm that great at giving advice, I can't speak for Jord, but..."
"Ask away, by all means," said Jord, with a shrug.
"Okay," Hector breathed, and he looked strangely nervous. "Do you... do you think Adri likes me?"
Jordyn and Lia stared at him for a second, and then each other, before bursting into delighted laughter once again.
"What?" Asked Hector, a little defensively. "Come on, don't laugh at me."
"It's just..." Lia heaved in a breath between laughs. "It's so obvious Hector."
"You're both so head over heels for one another it's diabetes inducing," said Jordyn. "Please ask her out already."
"Please," added Lia.
"You think?"
"YES!!" The two girls exclaimed, and this time Hector laughed.
"Okay, okay, I will! Calm down."
"Good. You better," stated Lia. "And I want an invite to the wedding."
"Better," said Jord, "we expect to be bridesmaids."
"Let's not get ahead of ourselves," Hector smiled at them. "You two will be married long before anything like that."
"Please, those boys aren't mature enough to hold a friendship together, let alone a marriage," Lia giggled.
"Lucky they won't be marrying each other then," Hector chuckled.
~.~.~.~.~
"This is dreadful, I tell you! DREADFUL!"
Jordyn giggled, and pushed Lia out the door of her apartment playfully.
"Shut up, you, my clothes are fine. You sound like Adri."
"Why does she sound like me?" Adri seemed to materialise from nowhere, large red suitcase in hand.
"Jordyn's only allowed to take this tiny case on the filming trip with her!" Lia exclaimed indignantly. "I dont know how she's possibly able to fit anything nice in there to wear!"
"The animals are going to be on camera, not me," Jord chuckled at her best friend. "Calm down, idiot. You can take as much clothing as you like."
"Oh, best believe we have," Adri grinned, pointing to her own suitcase. "Hector has my other case, and I saw Lia's massive one in the van earlier."
"What do you mean, ONE of your cases?" Ally wanted to know, joining the group of girls at the sidewalk by Jord's apartment block. Venus was with her, the brunette's much smaller pack was strapped onto her back.
"Thank you, Ally! Back me up!"
"I'll back you up too, Jord," stated Venus. "Lia and Adri are taking more clothes than the entire Kilimanjaro team combined."
"True!" Jordyn beamed.
"You're all dreadful," Lia muttered.
"That's her new favourite word, if you weren't already aware," Jordyn grinned at the dark haired girl. "Come on, are we going or not?"
Today was the day that the entire group scattered for the summer. Well, almost. To begin with, the entire group, boys included, were headed to the Maldives to soak up as much sun as possible, and be thankful they weren't in Russia in the cold. Well, perhaps some of the boys would be pretending they didn't wish they were in Russia, but they planned to watch all the World Cup games that mattered. Jordyn was a bit doubtful about supporting a country that wasn't her own, but Auba was confident she'd be so caught up in the excitement of watching the World Cup for the first time that she'd forget she was Australian as soon as they were knocked out.
Then, after the World Cup was over, Jordyn was headed to India, where the BBC filming crew was going to begin their work with a pregnant female tiger. They hoped to be able to capture footage of the cubs as soon as they were born, and the Australian was looking forward to it. At some point in the filming trip, they would end up in Gabon, and she and Auba had plans to meet up once she got there.
Lia and Adri were following Jord to India briefly, before leaving her with the crew, and flying to Paris to attend a fashion event. Auba, Laca, and Hector were going with them, and it promised to be an entertaining trip. Adri, Auba, Hector and Jordyn had been let in on the secret that Laca was planning to propose to Lia in Paris, and Jordyn wished she could be there for it, but wished Laca all the best. She knew Lia was ready for it, but she doubted she'd be expecting it to happen in Paris.
Ally and Gabi, who had finally started dating properly, were planning to stay on in the Maldives for the duration of the summer, although they'd come to a mutual agreement that if either Brazil or England made it to the finals, they'd fly out just for the games before returning to the sun. The two spent their time in playful arguments over who would win, if it came down to England vs Brazil, whilst the rest of their friends quietly hoped that for the sake of their relationship, it didn't come to that.
Venus and KT were finally off on their Kilimanjaro hike they'd been preparing for over the past six months, and it was all the two of them could talk about. The others couldn't help smiling at their infectious excitement, whilst Jordyn told them to make sure they took lots of photos.
Jordyn had met with the film crew on several occasions before the trip, and they had a rough plan of where they wanted to film, but not so much how long they wanted to spend in each location. They were planning to be as flexible as possible, allowing the crew to spend time at each location if they wanted. They were well ahead of schedule for when the documentary was planned to be released, and therefore had plenty of time to play with. Jordyn and Venus had spoken briefly about a potential meet up in Tanzania, either before or after the mountain climb, but nothing was set in stone.
For someone who usually liked to plan everything in advance, it surprised Auba how well Jordyn was taking the trip in her stride, and better yet, was excited about it.
"I guess I'm growing into a stronger person," Jordyn had said, when he questioned her on it.
"That's great," Auba smiled at her. "I'm proud of you, you know. You deserve all of this."
"Thank you, Auba," Jord leaned up to kiss him sweetly. "I love you."
"I love you too," he beamed. "And you know if you start panicking about anything whilst you're on the trip, or if you're scared, or you just need to talk... I don't care what time of the day or night it is, call me. Promise me you will."
Jordyn's smile grew even bigger at his words, and she nodded.
"I promise," she told him. "Anyway, we're going to the Maldives first, my pale skin badly needs the sun. My body was not built for London."
"You and me both," Auba stated, taking her hand. "Let's get in the van, then, or we'll be late to the airport."
"You? Late? Never," Jordyn giggled, but allowed herself to be pulled towards the van that had been hired to drive the group to their destination.
Laca, who heard the tail end of this conversation, snorted with amusement.
"Man's'd be late to his own funeral."
Lia sighed, and held her head in her hands, turning to look pleadingly at Jordyn.
"Why do our boyfriends think they're British? What did he say? What did he just say?"
Jordyn giggled at her.
"He can only have picked it up from you, bestie," she laughed.
"Dreadful."
"Is everyone in?" The driver of the van called to them from the front seat, and Jord felt briefly sorry for the man who'd have to deal with potentially the most chaotic group of friends on the road that day.
"I think we're all good to go," stated Hector, doing a brief head count. "Yep, everyone's in."
And so, the trip began loudly, as it meant to go on. And not for the first time, the over excited noise did not cause Jordyn any anxiety, as it once would have. Instead, warmth filled her heart at the sound of all her friends interacting happily. And when Auba's arm circled her shoulders, and pulled her into his side as though she were meant to be there, it made her happy too.
It was going to be a good summer.
THE END