When we arrive at Trafalgar square we can already hear the absolute roar coming from the crown before we even come out to the stage. I'm not really sure what the purpose of this is to be completely honest, I think it's just a chill chat with Alex Scott and a little celebration. We are shown to what is basically a make shift dressing room where some of the girls fix themselves up a bit, clearly still feeling a little rough from last night. I grab a bottle of water and just sit down and just chill for 5 minutes, surprisingly I'm not feeling that rough, I think the little balcony action sobered me up long before I got to bed.
After a few minutes we were called to line up next to the stage while Alex introduced the programme and then us. Leah and Sarina were at the front, being captain and head coach, followed by the goal scorers Ella and Chloe and then the rest of us were to follow them. Alex announced us to the crowd and we headed onto the stage, I didn't expect such a reception from the crowd, they were super loud and welcoming. Alex then went on to interview Leah, Sarina, Ella and Chloe before opening out the questions to the other girls. She handed a microphone to Lucy and we all know how this was going to go, as I'm pretty sure Lucy is still drunk.
"So Lucy you have seen your fair share of international competitions, have been part of many teams, what makes this one so special?" Alex directs her question towards Lucy. Without hesitation Lucy just goes as calm as you like "Jill Scott". The whole crowd cheers and we just burst out laughing, typical Luce.
After a few more questions we are told that our time slot is over and the programme is no longer on air. I can tell the crowd us gutted from the booing they are giving the announcer. Leah goes to grab a microphone and tells the crowd we can stay for a little longer just not on the air, they let out a big cheer. "Rach will now give you a performance, over to Rach" she announces handing the microphone over. Leah then comes over to me putting her arm around my waist. We dance around and sing River Deep, Mountain High with Rach and the rest of the girls and then we have to head off back to the hotel to pick up our things and head off to our own individual plans. For me and Leah that involves picking up our things and heading back to her house to pack for Greece which we leave for tonight.
We get back to the hotel and I head to my room where my extra clothes for the holiday have been delivered to my room for me, I placed a shopping order the other day since I wouldn't have time to go home and this was a very spontaneous trip. I packed up what was left in my room into my suitcase, squeezing it tight to the point that it almost didn't close. I did one last check of the room to make sure I didn't miss anything. I took a quick selfie with the room to post on Instagram with the caption "Best memories made here, till next time St George's Park." I text G and asked her to meet me in the lobby so I could say goodbye before me and Leah headed off for two weeks. She was down within almost a minute. "Wow you're quick" I laugh at her.
"Well I couldn't miss saying goodbye to my bestie could I?" she says pulling me into a hug. "So a holiday? You and Leah are pretty serious then?"
"She's done so much for me in such a short space of time I just wanted to return the favour and spend as much time with her as possible until we have to spend time apart during the season" I tell her.
"Yeah have you spoken about that yet?" Georgia asks me sounding a little worried.
"Not yet but I know it is going to come up, but I know we will be able to work through it, I've never felt like this about someone before, I really do love her" I admit.
"Ew you two are gross, but I guess kind of cute too" Georgia tells me, again pulling me in for a hug before she tells me she has to get going for an interview with Man City and that she'll see me in two weeks. (in this story Georgia isn't moving to Bayern, just makes sense for my story)
I sit on one of the sofas in the lobby and text Leah to see if she needs a hand with anything, of course she does so I ask the hotel lobby staff to watch my bags whilst I'm gone and then head up to Leah's room to see what she needs. I walk in and my mouth drops to the floor, if I didn't know better I would of thought a bomb had gone off, her clothes were everywhere all over the room. "Oh my god Le what happened?" I laugh a little as I ask.
"Don't laugh it's not funny, I couldn't fit it all into my case and I panicked and now well this is the current state, please help me" she practically begs.
"Right you fold and I'll pack?" I ask.
"Deal! You're the best" she tells me bringing me in for a kiss, it gets a little heated but I pull her away telling her we don't have much time but we'll have plenty of time for that on holiday. After about 10 minutes we have successfully packed and are heading back to the lobby and Leah's car is being brought round so she can drive us to her apartment.
We drive for about an hour during which we sing, laugh, and just talk about anything. We pull up to the car park and suddenly a wave of nerves overtakes me, I know Leah can tell me she's glancing at me as she is trying to park. She stops the car and then gets out coming to my side of the car, I'm still someone frozen, she takes my hand and places it on her chest above her heart. "Count my heartbeats little one, you're all good nothing is going to happen I promise". After a few minutes I feel my breathing return to normal and everything feels a little clearer.
"I'm so sorry Leah I don't know why it happens so much, I promise I'm okay now" I tell her.
"Don't be silly you have nothing to apologise for, shall we head inside and I'll come back and get out things in a little bit?" She asks, I nod my head in response, she kisses me cheek and helps me out of the car. Once we get in to her apartment you can just tell it's Leah that lives here, there is a chess set on the table, a keyboard in the corner, accounting books on the shelves and Arsenal memorabilia on all the walls. "Do you like it?" she asks clearly noticing how much I'm taking in.
"I love it Leah, its so cosy"
"Well get comfy on the sofa I'll get you a drink and then I'll head to the car to get our bags"
Not long after she returns with a class of milk for me, she knows me too well, I smile and pull her in for a kiss before she heads down to the car. I offer to help but she won't let me she makes me sit on the sofa and pick something for us to watch while we have time before we have to head to the airport. Our flight is at 2am so we have a lot of time to kill, we have chosen to stay awake because when we land it will be night time in Greece so we can sleep when we get there and fit into the timezone. Leah finishes bringing our bags up and then plops herself beside me on the sofa bringing me into her chest.
"So what we watching then gorgeous?" she asks kissing my forehead.
"Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" I tell her with a grin.
"Babeeee you know that one scares me" she whines.
"I do but it's my favourite so you're going to have to deal with sorry" I sit up to give her a kiss before cuddling back into her and pressing play.
We stay in the same position throughout the entire film and I can feel Leah looking at me every now and then, just before the film ends I look up at her and give her a quick kiss.
"I could get used to this" she tells me pulling me in even closer.
"Get used to what?"
"You being here, cuddling like this, being together, all of it I don't want it to ever end. I'm going to marry you one day little one. And I know we have only known each other a few months but I love you y/n and I want this forever". Well that's it she tells me that and I burst into tears.
"I love you to Leah, I don't want anything else but you, I'm so excited for our future together" I tell her pulling her in for a kiss, I'll leave it to your imagination what happens next.
"As much as I would love to stay like this we need to go pack your stuff for the holiday Le" I say dragging her off the sofa and pulling her to her room at the end of the hall. She gets in and just empties her suitcase into her laundry basket telling me it's an issue for another time. We spend the next hour picking out outfits for her and me packing them into the case because as we learned in the hotel she is useless. We then sort out my suitcase, Leah says I can keep my clothes that I won't need here and then I will have something for when I stay over, little does she know I'll be stealing her clothes, but I accept her offer anyway.
After sorting our suitcases we still have about 2 hours until we need to head to the airport so we decide to order some food so that we won't need to drink on the plane. We both settle on a chinese since we feel like we deserve a treat after becoming European champions, I mean if you can't do it then, when can you do it? The food arrives about 25 minutes later and we sit in the living room watching friends episodes as we eat. We finish just in time to do the dishes and throw the rubbish out before the taxi arrives to take us to the airport. We put our suitcases into the boot and then head to the back seats, Leah holds my hand the whole way there as she knows I can get anxious in situations like this.
No longer than 20 minutes later we are at the airport and head straight to the check in desk, I pull up the tickets for the woman to check, she puts our luggage through and tells us we can head through to security and then to the lounge once we are through. "The lounge? You bought us first class tickets babe?" Leah asks.
"Of course I did, only the best for my girl" I smile.
"My girl? I like the sound of that" Leah says with a smile as we make our way through security and into the lounge. I would usually be really anxious through that whole experience but I was so calm and I know it was because of Leah. She does more for me than she will ever know.
We head to the lounge with about an hour to spare before we have to board, we decide to grab a quick drink before boarding and play a few silly games like eye spy just to pass the time. Before I've even noticed how quickly the time has gone they are calling our flight and we head to the gate hand in hand. As we are boarding a little girl points to us and drags who I presume is her mum over to us. "Oh my god you're Leah Williamson and y/n y/ln, I love you guys so much please can we get a picture" she screams at us.
"Of course, what is your name darling?" Leah asks her.
"I'm Charlotte and this is my mum" she tells us. We introduce ourselves to her mother who tells us that she is obsessed with football and has not stopped talking about the Euros, she also thanks us for being such role models and being so open about our relationship. I hadn't even thought that we had been caught kissing at the final and now everyone knows but I guess it isn't a bad thing.
We exchange details with Charlotte's mother and tell her we will sort out tickets for a game of Charlotte's choice once we are back from the holiday. They both thank us so much, we say goodbye and head on to our flight.
"It's moments like that that make this all worth it" I tell Leah.
"You're so right little one, now lets get to Greece" she says kissing me and finding our seats.
A little bit of a filler chapter but I have ideas for the holiday so stay tuned for that.