The party obviously continued on in the locker room which was completely made uswnt proved while we were outside playing with the confetti and greeting the fans.
Now we were inside and to say it was chaotic was just a complete understatement. When I walked in they gave me ski goggles.
"Ski goggles?" I looked confused at the thing in my hands. "You're aware we're in the middle of summer here in France. We can't ski until later in the year?" I looked at Jack, the staff member who had given me the goggles and gave them back to him, not sure what to do with them.
Before I knew it, I was drenched with champagne from head to toe by Sam Mewis and Sonnet, who were wearing the goggles. "MVP!!!!" they yelled.
I pressed my eyes shut, desperately trying to stop my eyes from burning because of the champagne. "Never mind." I snatched the goggles back from Jack who had the biggest smirk on his face you'd ever seen.
During the celebration in the locker rooms Ash was recording everything and posting it on her insta stories. "MVP!" She yelled, shoving the phone in my face.
"Champions baby!" I held out a peace sign to the camera while Ash threw an arm around my shoulder.
"All because of this girl! Where are you now, mister president!" She yelled into the camera. I hit her chest lightly, my cheeks flushing from the attention she put on me.
Kelley jumped up behind us pouring champagne over me. "MVP!" I opened my mouth and she poured it into it. I tried to drink as much as I could before Crystal grabbed my wrist and dragged me with her to dance.
Kelley passed me yet another beer and I started dancing with Crystal and Sonnet without a care in the world.
"Queenie, you're wanted by the press." Kathrine, one of our staff told me.
"Nooo!" I whined. Out of all the times I absolutely didn't want to do press, this would be one of them. Crystal and Sonnet laughed at my reaction.
"Come one Queenie, time to go. They want to see the star of the tournament. Their words, not mine, even though I do agree with them." This ticked me off to no extent. So the whole tournament they talked shit about me, doubted me and my team and now suddenly I'm the star of the tournament?!
My teammates must have noticed my change in demeanor and started laughing their heads off. "Bitch, hold my beer." I pushed my beer into Sonnet's hands making most of the team whoop.
"Shit's about to go down!" Pinoe yelled when she saw me walking to the door with so much determination that I even surprised myself.
I took my place next to Jill and listened to the journalists talk. Jill took it upon herself to answer most questions but eventually one of the journalists grew tired and directed his question to me.
"I never doubted that the USA would win their fourth star in this tournament but did you have the same confidence as we did going in?" He asked me as if I believed what he had just said. I scoffed at his question and rolled my eyes.
"That's bullshit." I scoffed, completely catching the journalist off guard.
"Excuse me?"
"You heard me." I simply said. "78% of the people here in this room and a big portion outside of it doubted us even before this tournament started. Whether it was our defense, our goalie, hell you all doubted Jill for selecting me." I pointed at myself.
"But here we are seven games later, we scored twenty five goals, conceded only three. How's that for a goalkeeper and back line that according to a lot of you was the weakest we had in ages?" I emphasized on the 'you' while pointing at them.
"I scored eight and assisted twelve other goals, earning me the golden ball for player of the tournament, the FIFA young player award and the silver booth. But to answer your question, no I didn't always believe we would make it." I looked him dead in the eyes.
"I'm human. I have doubts, I fall sometimes, I make mistakes, I get hurt but that's okay because I knew I had teammates who had my back no matter what. I may not always have believed in myselfs thanks to you but I did believe in my teammates and staff and they believed in me and that is enough for me. You said we were arrogant. I say we just were prepared for this moment." I told the men off and stood up.
"Now if you'll excuse me I have a celebration to attend." And with that I walked out. Done with all the rumors and the hate. Tonight I was going to enjoy myself and they could all fuck off.
Both Jill and I were walking back to the locker room. "Well said." She smirked at me.
"Yeah, sorry about that." I sheepishly looked at her.
"Ooh no, don't apologize. It was iconic." She snickered. We approached the locker room and it was awfully quiet. Jill and I looked at each other with a worried look, wondering why it was so quiet but we soon got an answer when we walked in.
Before I could even wrap my head around what was happening, I got sprayed on with champagne by my whole team. They were all chanting my name.
The celebrations continued on once everyone was now here. Kelley and I poured beer in our mouths, Rose joined our jumping and poured some champagne into my mouth while we were dancing.
I hadn't eaten in awhile and I was kinda getting hungry. Ash was eating an apple on the other side of the room. Kelley and I strolled over to her, biting her apple on both sides, making the keeper laugh.
We all sat down on the floor for a picture with the trophy and one with just the defenders, Alyssa and I since they were doubting us so much. While the photos were taken, we were singing we are the champions. Eventually we all jumped up and started yelling out the lyrics instead of singing them. I grabbed one of the cameras that was filming us and sang into it.
Eventually the song 'All I do is win' came on and we started singing along. Tobin, Sam, Alex, Kelley, Ash, Abby and I were rocking out to the song but it wasn't till the rapping that they stopped and looked at me impressed.
"Is there anything she can't do?" Sam asked Alex who just shrugged her shoulders.
"Apparently not."
After a while of celebrating, I saw Becky jumping up and down with the gash on her forehead. Somewhere during the game she had budded heads with someone causing a big nasty cut on her forehead.
Becky being Becky told the medical staff to just staple it on the field so she could continue the game but they did a crappy job.
"Becky, have you to see someone for that gash." I walked up to the defender and tried to convince her.
"I'm fine, I'll do it tomorrow or so." She pulled me by the hands and started dancing with me.
"No, you have to do it now, it is not done well. It was a temporary fix but now you need proper stitches or it's gonna scar." I told her more forcefully this time. I'm a med student after all, this was textbook first year stuff.
Becky wasn't convinced and I knew she wanted to protest more until it was like a light bulb went off in her head. "You can do it." She grabbed me by the shoulders.
"What?" I asked her in shock.
"You can do it. You're the smartest med student in your year, hell probably even in your school. I trust you to do them and I will get it checked tomorrow."
"I don't know." I hesitated but with a little persuasion I finally gave in. I grabbed the med kid and gloves and started my work.
"So you and the Spanish girl." She wondered but I just groaned.
"Not you too." I kept my focus on my work in front of me.
"Well it's pretty obvious."
"Apparently it isn't because there is nothing going on." I told her matter of factly.
"Why's that?" She wondered, trying to look at me.
"Will you sit still?" I stopped and looked at her. She sheepishly looked back at me.
"I will if you tell me why."
"She's just a good friend Becky." I resumed my work. "Besides, nothing can happen. People always leave. It's what they do and I don't know if I can handle her leaving."
"Queenie." She softly said but I cut her off.
"That and the fact that my track record of dating isn't really that great. The two relationships that I had ended with either me in the hospital or with betrayal so I don't do feelings, I just sleep around and she doesn't deserve that. She deserves better."
She was about to say something but I beat her to it. "There, all done." I looked at my work and was pretty proud of myself.
Becky seemed to understand that I didn't want to talk about it anymore and left it that way. "Thanks Queenie, you're a lifesaver." She kissed my cheek and we both resumed our celebrations.
We got on the bus on our way to the hotel so we could change into actual clothes. Pinoe dragged me into the seat next to her and started an Instagram live.
"Yo, yo, what's up guys? Pinoe here with our MVP. We just wanna thank all the fans!" Pinoe greeted everyone, I just waved at the camera.
"Yeah, what Pinoe said. We couldn't have done it without you. Thanks for sticking with us!" I added.
"We love you!" She yelled, kissing the camera.
"And that's the motherfuchking tea!" I said, making everyone laugh that heard it.
Eventually we got changed and were ready to meet our family and friends. A bus brought us to a location with a big garden where our families were currently waiting. We stopped in front of the gate that separated us from them.
Carli shoved the trophy in my hands saying that I should hold on to it and we each got a champagne bottle with fireworks.
"I swear if any of you burn my eyebrows off or my hair, I'm gonna kill you even though I love you!" I glared at all of my friends while waiting with the trophy and firework in my hand.
"Chill, it's gonna be fine." I heard Ali say from behind me so I turned around to face the defender but while doing so I nearly hit JJ with the bottle.
"Are you sure, you are the one who's gonna kill someone because if you ask me it's going to be you who will be killed." She playfully glared at me making my sheepishly scratch the back of my neck.
"Oops." I innocently shrugged my shoulders.
There was a big count down before we walked in. Screaming and singing to 'We are the champions' while doing so. It was pure chaos.
Sam's face was just hilarious, totally overwhelmed by it all and in complete shock, Tobin's fireworks wouldn't work, Alyssa's and AD's were already finished while others tried to film and coordinate the fireworks at the same time.
Finally, I was able to properly meet up with my family after months of preparation and being apart.
"My baby!" My mom was the first one I reached. Melting into her embrace I felt the weight of my shoulders being lifted, all the emotions I was holding were subsiding now.
"Hey mom." I kept my head buried in her shoulder, not ready to let go just yet.
"I'm so proud of you kiddo." My dad took over from my mom. My dad was probably my biggest hero, although I would never admit that to him. Him telling me that he was proud of me meant the world because he only used that sentence in situations where it really counted.
I was taking pictures with my family and the trophy when suddenly a voice behind me made me spin around.
"You think we could have a picture too?" I saw my mom and sister smirk so I knew they were in on this. In front of me stood Lea Michelle, Amber Riley, Naya Rivera, Heather Morris, Chris Colfer, Darren Criss and Chord Overstreet.
"What are you guys doing here?" I asked them in disbelief.
"You thought that we were not gonna be here cheering you on in your first of many world cup?" Chord asked, offended.
"That's just rude." Naya was the first to pull me into a hug. From all the glee actors, she probably was my favorite and next to Cory she was the one I was closest with.
"He is SO SO proud of you." She whispered in my ear. "And I told you so. I told you you would play in and win a world cup final."
"Thanks Naya. It means a lot." I hugged her a bit tighter.
After catching up with my glee friends and taking some pictures, I was finally done with all the meet ups and greetings.
I snook away and went straight to Alexia and her friends who had been patiently waiting. Once I was within reach, she pulled me into a tight hug. Maybe it was the effect of the alcohol that had already kicked in but I couldn't help but wonder if our hug lingered for a bit longer than usual. I felt her kiss my neck, sending shivers down my spine and setting my skin on fire.
"So it seems like one of my best friends is a world champion now." She snickered, releasing me from the hug.
"I couldn't really stay behind now could I, la Reina?" I winked at her, making her blush.
"Shut up." The brunette lightly punched my shoulder.
"Hey, you started it." I laughed, swapping her hand away.
'But hey, really I'm proud of you. After everything you've been through, you never gave up. You kept working and it paid off."
"Nah, I can't take all the credit.
She scoffed. "Typical for you to downsize your achievements. You may have great people in your corner but it was still you who did it all. You went to therapy, you went to practice, even did more hours besides the ones you had to do, you were the one who played phenomenal this tournament. That was all you and no one else" She told me sternly.
"Thank you. For being there." I smiled.
"You can pay me back by taking a photo with me." She threw her arm around me and pulled me closer. Virginia took Ale's phone for the picture.
"You know, I never told you this but our shirt looks good on you." I whispered while posing for the picture.
"That's because it's your shirt." She discreetly kissed my cheek.
With a small blush I shook my head. "Yeah, you definitely are hot with my name on your back."
Now it was her turn to blush. We took some more pictures together with the trophy. I wanted to pull her in for another hug but Pinoe had different ideas and pulled me with her.
"Kiss your girlfriend later. We need to speech." She said dragging me along.
"Not my girl- wait what?! No no no." I said fighting back. "I'm not good with those, that's all you." I tried to get out but she was having none of it and before I knew it I was standing on top of the bar with Pinoe and everyone looking and cheering for us.
"Alright, everyone, may I have your attention! In the name of the team I want to thank every single one of you! Without your patience, commitment and support none of us would have made it this far, so for that, thank you!" Pinoe addressed the crowd before continuing.
"Now before we open the champagne bottles and get absolutely wasted, I and well the whole team and staff want to thank one more player in particular."
I looked around confused, trying to figure out who we were gonna thank. I took a step closer to Pinoe. "You're talking about Alyssa right? And how she saved our asses against England?" I whispered to her which only made her laugh, totally missing the fact that she looked at me.
My head snapped in her direction once she said my name. Confusion written all over my face I pointed to myself.
"Me?" I looked confused. Everyone laughed at my confusion.
"Yes you! The last year you received a lot of hate about being called up. You had people doubting you whether or not you would be good enough to be part of this team. But in the all Queenie way, you kept your cool and shut them all up by playing incredibly." She placed her hand on my shoulder and gave it a light squeeze.
"You had a foot in twenty of twenty five goals, scoring eight of them and assisting twelve, making you the player of the tournament."
"Not only were you one of the most important players of the team, also outside the pitch you were of major importance. From the first press conference to the last you had everyone's back. Standing up for everyone even if it made you seem like a bitch which I know you are far from."
"Queenie, you're one in a million, you are our hero and I know for a fact that they are proud of you."
At this point I had tears in my eyes, doing my best not to cry.
"So thank you Queenie! Now I bet I can open this bottle of champagne a hell lot faster than you!"
Right after she said that we both started opening the bottle. The song 'Celebrate' blasted through the speakers. We looked at each other and nodded, having the same idea.
Right before the bottles opened we gave it a good shake and sprayed them over everyone. Cheering and jumping up and down we drank some of our bottles and handed them to the bartenders.
Julie was the one helping me off the bar but I had a feeling that I would be up there again some time during the night.
Kelley handed me a beer, clinking them together.
'Bottoms up!" We yelled at the same time, downing the drink in our hands. We repeated the gesture a couple more times till Rose jumped on my back.
"Champions, baby!" She yelled, pumping her fist in the air.
"Four stars!" I yelled.
"We got four stars on our shirt, we got four stars on our shirt" She started singing and I joined in.
"We got four stars on our shirt, we got four stars on our shirt!" We continued. Rose let go of me and wandered off again. That gave me the opportunity to look for Alexia.
"ALE!" I jumped at the older woman who luckily caught me just in time. I was hugging her like a koala now. My legs wrapped around her waist while my arms were around her neck.
"Well, hello there." She smirked.
"Dance with me." I told her, letting her go.
We started dancing very closely to each other, both feeling the effects the alcohol had on us. Every opportunity to flirt or to tease was used to drive the other one crazy and it was definitely working.
Her hands were traveling down my body, landing on my waist, pulling me even closer. Where her hands met my skin, my skin was on fire. My hands were on her shoulders, to steady myself.
I swiftly turned around pressing my back into her and slowly dropping down and back up with the rhythm of the beat.
I felt her dig her fingers into my waist more. When I stood up, I pressed my back into her again. I felt her lips against my ear. She placed a soft kiss right below my ear and lightly traveled down along my neck and jaw. I pressed my eyes shut, doing my best to not let a moan escape my mouth.
"Where my girls at?!" I heard a drunk Allie yell. She was standing on the bar and was looking down in the crowd, trying to spot some more teammates. I opened my eyes again and tried to focus on her even though it was extremely hard with the hot Spanish midfielder kissing my neck.
"Queenie, come on!" She waved for me to get over. I chuckled at her antics.
I turned around in Alexia's hold, staring at her. I kissed her neck and gave it a little bite, getting her to release a soft small moan.
"Wait for me." I kissed her on the corner of her mouth and got on the bar. Allie helped me up.
"Fuck her already." She pushed me a bit, making me laugh.
We were soon joined by most of our teammates dancing our asses off. Kelley, Rose and Chris standing around me. JJ handed Rose another bottle of champagne. She tapped my shoulder and brought the bottle to my mouth pouring the champagne in it.
'Can't hold us' from Macklemore started playing, causing us to cheer. We started jumping up and down, singing along to the lyrics. I locked eyes with Alexia for a minute, she was smiling at me, slightly shaking her head at my antics while biting her lip.
That was all it took to make me wanna jump off this bar and go to her but before I could Kelley shoved a microphone in my hands.
"Sing! Sing! Sing!" My friends chanted.
"No! No! No!" I waved my hands in front of me.
The crowd soon followed my friends into chanting for me to sing. I looked into the crowd and for a second time in five minutes I locked eyes with Alexia again. She smirked and started chanting with the rest of the crowd. Of course she did.
I sighed out. Damn that woman could make me do anything. I turned to Kelley, who was standing next to me and grabbed her beer out of her hand, chunking down the whole thing, making everyone laugh.
I saw Alexia slightly shake her head at my antics.
"What? I'm way too sober for this so I can use all the courage I can find." I chuckled, shrugging my shoulders.
I grabbed the tequila shot, Abby was about to take and downed it in one go myself. "Hey!" The blonde defender playfully glared at me.
"Ooh shut it, you wanted me to sing in the first place." I gave her a smug smile.
"So apparently, you guys want me to sing." I said, making the crowd cheer. I chuckled at their reaction. "Alright then." A shook my head once and leaned down to the DJ to tell him which song I wanted to sing.
"So ever since the start of this tournament and even before that, people talked about our team. Saying that our backline wasn't good enough, that our goalie wasn't good enough, that we would never get that fourth star but, we never let that change us or our view we have on this team. Instead we proved them wrong because we all know haters gonna hate and I have the perfect song for that." I pointed to the crowd and smirked.
"Yo Pinoe, you're live?" I asked the older forward who had a phone in hand.
"You bet your ass I am!" She yelled out, putting her thumb up.
""Perfect." I mumbled. "Well dear mister president, this one's for you." I winked at her and the camera.
The beats of 'hate on me' started playing and I moved along to the beat. I was way too sober for this but the moment I looked at Alexia, my worries subsided and I started singing.
"If I could give you the world
On a silver platter
Would even matter? You'd still be mad at me
If I can find in all this a dozen roses
Which I would give to you, you'd still be miserable
In reality I'm gon' be who I be
And I don't feel no faults for all the lies that you bought
You can try as you may bring me down when I say
That it ain't up to you, go on do what you do"
"Hate on me hater
Now or later
'Cause I'm gonna do me
You'll be made baby
(Go head and hate)
Go head and hate on me hater
I'm not afraid of
What I got I paid for
You can hate on me"
I lost myself in the song, singing and dancing along. All the frustrations I had bottled up over the last couple of weeks were coming out through the song.
The moment I sang my last note, I dropped my mic to the ground and leaned into Pinoe.
"Four stars baby!" I held out four fingers and yelled in the camera.
I jumped off of the bar again, much to the dismay of Allie, grabbed Alexia's hand and pulled her incredibly close to me.
"How about you and I dance some more?" I whispered in her ear.
"I'm all in." She smirked. She draped her arms around my neck pulling me even closer than I thought was possible and that's how I spent most of my night, dancing as closely as I could to her.
Ever since my break up there was this tension that was building between us. There was no denying that but we never were so close to crossing that line like we were now.
We were completely lost in each other's company, dancing, drinking and laughing together. While doing so, there was the occasional touch or kiss on the neck or cheek, well they were more than occasional.
We were so close to crossing that line and something in me wanted nothing more but there was this small voice telling me not to do it. I understood that people weren't meant to stay in your life. I've learned that the hard way and it would destroy me if she turned out to be one of those people.
How we ended up in the bathroom, I have no clue. I had just exited the toilet stall. Alexia was waiting against the wall while I went to wash my hands.
I felt her arms wrap around me from behind. I leaned into her embrace more, soaking up her warmth. She softly moved my hair to my other shoulder.
Shivers ran down my spine and she wasn't even touching me, she was simply hovering her lips over my neck, like she was looking for the perfect spot to drive me crazy and she did.
She placed light featherly kisses on my neck while her thumbs were softly rubbing little figures on my exposed skin right above the waistband of my ripped Denim shorts.
It started off slow but it turned needy within seconds. Moving my head to the side to give her more access, I needed to grab the sink to properly hold me up. My breath hitched in my throat.
"You need to stop." I mumbled, on the edge of losing control that I so desperately wanted to keep.
"Why's that?' She continued her attack on my neck, going lower towards my collarbone. She gently pulled the top of my crop top to the side so she had more access.
"Because." I breathed out.
"Yeah, that's not a good enough answer." She kissed my ear and then continued to kiss my jaw. Somewhere between my jaw and neck she left a small bite which turned out to be my breaking point. Let's be honest, it was bound to happen.
I turned around in her hold instantly. My hands that seconds ago were gripping on the sink now swiftly went to her waist. Now it was my turn.
I guided her to the wall and pinned her against it. Just like she did moments ago I kissed her on her neck. Starting down on her collarbone, leaving a trail of small kisses and bites up her neck.
My knee found its way between her legs while my hands were firmly placed on her waist, fiddling with the button of her jeans. She let out a moan in the process, turning me on even more.
I kissed her neck and now reached her jaw coming closer to her mouth when suddenly I heard her name being yelled from outside the door. We both jumped apart in an instant when Jenni walked into the bathroom.
"Here the two of you are. I've been looking for you. Alexia, we need to go if we wanna catch our flight." The dark haired striker informed us.
"Yeah, uhm, okay." She said, following Jenni outside.
"Well Ellie, it was a pleasure meeting you but we've gotta go to catch our flight." Virginia was the first one to pull me into a hug. "But I have a feeling we'll be seeing each other again"
"Yeah, it was lovely, finally meeting the person two of my best friends won't shut up about." Jenni laughed, wrapping me in a hug once Virginia let me go.
"Likewise, thank you two so much for the support the last few games and sorry again for kicking you out of the tournament." I let go of Jenni.
"Nah, don't worry about it. We'll get our revenge on you." Virginia smirked.
"Next time, we're the ones kicking you out of the tournament." Jenni said, making me snort.
"I wouldn't dream of it if I were you." I turned to Alexia and she didn't waste time hugging me. Once her arms were around my shoulders she kissed my neck.
I closed my eyes wishing that I hadn't made that stupid promise to myself. I wanted nothing more than to take her back to my room to finish what we started just moments ago and lose myself in her but there was this little voice in my mind reminding me of all the heartache love brings.
"I will see you again in Barcelona?" She softly whispered in my ear.
"Yeah, I need to go back to the States for some press and then I will come back straight away." I smiled when we pulled away from the hug.
"Good, I'll count down the days." And with that she was gone.
I turned around and was met with a disapproving team behind me.
"Idiot." Sonnet flicked my head.
"Ow! What was that for?!" I rubbed my forehead, that Sonnet just had hit.
"What's wrong with you if a hot gi-" Ash started but got cut off by Ali.
"And a nice girl." She piped in.
"Yeah yeah that too, if a hot and nice girl," Ash looks at her girlfriend, "flirts with you, you don't just flirt back, you go for it!" She threw her hands in the air. I just rolled my eyes.
"Yeah I don't get it. You have so much game, I've witnessed it so many times and now you just let her walk away!" Rose looked confused.
"Guys let's just drop it." Christen intervened.
"Thanks Pressy." I smiled at the forward.
Everyone started walking away partying even though it was slowly coming to its end. Pressy threw her arm around me with Tobin on the other side. "But you are an idiot."
"Shut up."