"This is so unfair," Romeo huffed as he laid on his sister's bed that night, looking at her from his upside down position as he hung off the edge. "Why do you get to go to Porto and I don't?"
Berkley sat on her floor, carefully folding up her clothes as she put them in a suitcase. She shot Romeo a look, shaking her head at the pout on his face. "Maybe if you hadn't ditched me that night, you'd be coming to Porto with me."
Romeo rolled over on her bed, laying on his stomach as he scoffed. "Please," he said, "Mason wouldn't have liked me nearly as much as he likes you, yet alone enough to invite me to a champions league final."
"Everyone likes me more than you," Berkley joked with a shrug, "not my fault."
Romeo's jaw fell agape as he threw the closest thing to him at her. She ducked with laughter as a teddy bear that Mason had given her now flew across the room towards her head.
"Just because Mason Mount wants to get in your pants, does not mean everyone likes you more than me."
"Can you please not say it like that?" She huffed, rolling her eyes at him as he spoke.
"I mean, he does," Romeo shrugged, "obviously he likes you a lot though... not sure why... but no guy would be doing all this stuff if he didn't actually feel something for you."
Berkley hid her smile as she looked down at her clothes, acting as if Romeo's reassurance didn't make her heart swell thinking about Mason's feelings. She tried not to get entirely attached to the boy, knowing partially that in the end, they would more likely than not choose their occupations over each other if it had come to that point, but the butterflies in her stomach never seemed to listen to her brain anyway.
"Okay so I just called Gem and she said she's on her way and April just ordered the pizza so..." Berkley looked up as did Romeo as Kiana Keaton stormed into the room, wine bottle in hand as she plopped down on the ground, leaning against the foot of the bed. She looked at the twins, holding up the bottle with a smile, "wine anybody?"
"Did you bring glasses?" Romeo asked her, obviously seeing the emptiness of her other hand and the guilty look that followed his question.
Kiana sighed as she hopped up to her feet, "I'll be back."
"Americans," Romeo laughed jokingly, shaking his head as he watched the blonde mini jog to the door. However, just as it opened, April De Luca walked in with wine glasses in hand, looking at Kiana knowingly as she flushed red.
"You forgot something," April told her, "again."
"It's cause she's blonde," Romeo called from the bed, making Kiana shoot him a glare as she threw a dirty sock at him.
"Oi!"
Berkley laughed as she zipped up her suitcase, setting it aside as her roommates and her brother gathered in her room. She hugged her knees up to her chest, watching as April and Kiana sat down across from her, Romeo moving to grab a glass before any of the other girls could.
"Girls night!" He said jokingly, pouring himself a glass of wine as he sat next to April. Though, every girl looked at one another knowing full well that Romeo Beckham has joined them enough on Friday nights to know he probably wasn't kidding and was actually being completely serious.
"Romeo," April asked, sighing as he sat comfortably in their presence, "do you ever go home?"
The boy glared at her from the side, taking a sip from his glass of wine to refrain from answering.
"I should start telling my dad to take him back," Berkley sighed, "this apartment is getting overcrowded."
"Yeah because your little boyfriend is always over now," Romeo teased, rolling his eyes playfully as if he didn't completely adore the boy like a brother.
"Oh yeah..." Kiana wiggled her eyebrows as she scooted closer to Berkley, "we have yet to meet him."
"Because you've been in America the past two weeks and you've been in Italy," she said, looking at her two roommates. Berkley shrugged as she sipped her wine before throwing her hands up in defence, "and were not dating so, at this moment, I personally feel no rush to introduce him to anybody."
"You'll meet him at some point," Romeo told them, "he's literally always here. Like. Always."
"Don't act like you hate it," Berkley scoffed, kicking Romeo lightly with her leg as it was the furthest distance she could reach, "you love him."
Romeo sighed, rolling his eyes as she spoke. "If only he wasn't a fucking Chelsea player..." he grumbled.
"I might have met him once when I went to one of Jorginho's games," April chimed, "but I don't remember. It was a long time ago and I was too busy talking to this cute Croatian guy."
"Mateo?" Berkley asked, tilting her head in intrigue.
"No that wasn't it..."
Berkley furrowed her brows as she tried to think about if there even were any other Croatians on the team. However, her thoughts were soon interrupted by the sound of a knock at the door and Kiana and Romeo both jumping to their feet.
"Gem!" Kiana guessed in excitement as Romeo spoke simultaneously to her.
"Pizza!" He exclaimed.
The two raced out the room to the door as Berkley and April laughed. It took a moment as the two heard Kiana push Romeo to the side before he could open the door so she could open it herself. Silence spread around the apartment, before a sudden squeal came echoing through the flat. However, Berkley knew that squeal, and it definitely didn't come from a 5'4 blonde American girl.
Suddenly, the girl stood to her feet before rushing out the room because surely, her brother couldn't have been that excited about a cheese pizza. April followed her as she jogged out to see what the commotion was about, nearly running into Berkley's back as she was now standing stationary in the middle of the living room.
"I found a stray outside," Gemma Owen spoke, pointing over to where Romeo bro-hugged a boy excitedly before pulling away. "I wasn't sure if I should let him in or not."
Berkley's eyes darted over to the familiar face that now stood in front of her. Her lips subconsciously pulled into a smile as her eyes lit up at his presence. At that, she fell into his grasp as he wrapped an arm around her comfortably before she snaked an arm around his waist. "What are you doing here?"
"Just finished training," Mason shrugged, moving to hug her from behind so he could face the rest of the group as he spoke with her in his grasp, "just thought I'd drop by... I didn't know your roommates were back though." His eyes scanned the three girls now standing in a huddle who smiled at the couple as Berkley allowed herself to lean against his chest while his arms stayed wrapped around her upper body. He waved at them, "hi I'm Mason."
"We know," Gemma chimed, "I'm Gemma."
"You're Micheal Owen's daughter, aren't you?" He pointed at her, seeing her press her lips into a line and nod. "Great player."
Berkley couldn't help but chuckle at the de ja vu she felt as Gemma looked over at her, obviously biting her cheek in order to restrain her laughter from what he said.
Mason then moved his eyes to the other two girls who he assumed to be the roommates. One of them, however, he recognised vaguely. "You..." he said, pointing at April.
"Me?" She questioned.
"Are you... do you know somebody who plays for Chelsea or something?"
"Jorginho is her cousin," Romeo told him before Mason let a look of realisation fall on his face.
"Ohhh! You were at one of our games last season, right? I remember now! It's nice to meet you. April is it?"
The girl cracked a smile, nodding vigorously at the fact that he had remembered her name from such a long time ago. It didn't often happen to her as her friends all had such famous names compared to her and as did her cousin, so she slightly got used to not being remembered until this moment.
Berkley smiled too, knowing exactly what went on her friends head as she glanced up at Mason gratefully. He, however, missed her gaze as he occupied himself with politely greeting Kiana, recognising her accent immediately.
"Oh you're American? Do you know Christian then? He's one of my teammates, he's American too."
Kiana snorted a laugh, shaking her head as she tried to be nice at his obliviousness, "well... maybe, I don't know... America is quite big though so"
Mason shrugged it off with ease, laughing to himself, "I know I know but the odds would've been funny, right?" The rest of the group laughed but he glanced down at Berkley as she still stared up at him from his arms.
She smiled at him playfully, "sure honeybuns, whatever makes you happy."
Mason looked up to see everyone dismiss them, falling into their own conversations before looking back down at her with adoration.
"You do," he whispered quiet enough so nobody else could hear but she could, "you make me happy."
By then, the doorbell had rung again and the group moved on to open it and see the pizza being delivered. However, the two stayed where they were as Berkley scrunched up her nose and pushed him away in a playful manner.
"That's so cheesy." She chuckled, escaping his grasp. The smile on his face remained as he stayed holding onto her hands so she couldn't wander far from him after her shove. He pulled her back in, hugging her around the waist from the back before picking her up so she couldn't get away.
"Gotcha!" He laughed, watching her legs kicking around in the air momentarily as she tried to escape his hold.
Berkley giggled before turning to face him upon her feet touching the ground. Her hands pressed up against his chest, trying to separate the distance between them as he kept her buried against his body. However, it was obvious she did enjoy the hold he had on her, and he did like the way she perfectly fit in his arms.
The couple, however, was unbeknownst to the stare of Berkley's twin brother as the rest of her friends attended to the pizza. He looked solely at his sister's smile, one that he had never seen so wide, before he looked at Mason, seeing the way he looked down at her and simply stared like his eyes would've lost its colour if it looked anywhere else.
He watched as they just bounced off one another as if they had known each other their whole lives, completing one another like puzzle pieces. It was the same image he saw in his parents when he was a child — and he too saw how his sister acted when she simply was around him. He had never seen her this happy, not even when she met Dennis Bergkamp.
She could say all she wanted about him, downplaying whatever they had into something less that it obviously was. But Romeo knew at that moment that Berkley liked him a lot more than he thought she did, and he couldn't help but smile feeling as though there was a chance that maybe, just maybe, Berkley Beckham could finally find some happiness in something that wasn't as material as a simple notebook and a broken dream.
brynn speaks
i feel like i wanna explore more into berkley and romeo's siblingship and like berkley's life but i don't wanna make this too serious and get u to loose interest ughh. things are hard 😔