The following week Beth stayed more and more at Viv's place and she could see that it really helped Viv A lot, which made Beth very happy. It became a sort of standard routine for them. Go to training, go to the shops, come home, cook dinner, watch a movie and go to bed. Beth had rarely seen her own house, only to pick up some fresh clothes. She didn't mind this in the slightest, she preferred being around people and Viv was perfect company. Beth didn't always see it that way though. She never in a million years would have believed that she and Viv would become this close. She always thought that Viv was very closed off and just plainly refused to chat with people. How very wrong Beth was. It wasn't that she didn't want to chat, it was just that she was a very shy person, which came as a surprise to Beth. Viv was a very easy person to talk to and be around, once she'd warmed up a bit.
"So, what do you want to do today?" Viv shrugged her shoulders. They had a day off today as they'd just had their big FA Cup finale against Chelsea. "Let me phrase that differently. What do you usually do on your days off?" Viv shrugged again "Nothing much really. Just some housecleaning and paperwork normally." Beth tutted and shook her head "Well we can't have that today now, can we. I suggest we change into some proper clothes and hit the town." Beth knew it was a long shot because Viv rarely went out but it was still worth a try. To her surprise however, Viv nodded and stood up. "Yeah, that does sound better than cleaning all day." Beth's mouth fell open. "Oh grab your cameras everybody." Viv gave Beth a confused look. Beth grinned and went on "Viv Miedema is willingly going out to town." Viv rolled her eyes at Beth, grabbed a pillow from the couch and threw it at her. "Oy" Beth giggled. "It's true, you never go out." Viv shook her head but Beth could see that she was smiling. Viv made her way to the bedroom to get changed.
"Finally, you're done. That took ages" Beth sighed as Viv made her way back into the living room. "Want another pillow thrown at ya." Beth shuddered in the pretence of being scared. "Oh no I wouldn't want that" she said with a fake shaky voice. "Well... too bad" With a broad grin on her face, Viv threw another pillow at Beth. "Oh I'll get you back for that one" Beth grabbed a pillow herself and tried to hit Viv, but she was too quick. Viv darted around the room like a newborn doe. "What's the matter, Mead? Too quick for you?" At that precise moment however, Viv tripped and fell over. Beth shook with laughter and Viv couldn't help but laugh along at her own stupidity. They laughed for a solid five minutes before Beth could pull herself together and say "Come on it's time to go." She stretched out a hand and pulled Viv off of the ground. Beth felt an electric surge going through her whole body when her hand met Viv's. Her face felt suddenly very hot and she was also very aware of the redness that was flushing her cheeks. They looked into each other's eyes neither one aware that neither wanted to pull their hand away first. They stood like this for a good minute when...
Ding dong. They both gave a jolt as they turned to face the door. Viv, realising she was still holding Beth's hand quickly pulled it back and made her way to the door. When she opened it she saw a few familiar faces. Jen Beattie, Steph Catley, Caitlin Foord and Jordan Nobbs. Viv must've had a confused look on her face cause Jen said "We're here to rescue Beth" and with that, they all barged over the threshold. "Wait, rescue? What do you mean rescue?" Viv called after them as they made their way into the living room. Caitlin quickly turned around and said "Well you've basically been keepin' her hostage" "Yeah, we barely see her anymore" Jordan piped. "Well we're actually about to..." but what they were about to do Viv couldn't say because they'd reached the living room. "There you are!" They all rushed over to Beth and hugged her like they'd not seen her for years.
"Hey guys, what are you doing here?" Beth said in mild surprise. "What are we doing here? What do you mean what are we doing here? Rescuing you of course" Beth chuckled which Viv found a bit weird, but it must be a thing in their friend group. "I see you're dressed, so what do you say? Go into town to grab a coffee and some cake?" They all looked hopeful at her, Viv too wondering what Beth was going to say. "Oh guys I'd love to, but I've already promised Viv I'd go into town with her." Jordan's face fell slightly but Viv couldn't help but smile. She knew she shouldn't be glad that Beth was putting her first instead of her friends but she just couldn't help herself. "Well by all means take her along," Steph said. Beth looked over at Viv, unsure of what to say next. Viv gave her an encouraging nod to let her know that she was cool with hanging out with her friends. She wanted to spend the day only with Beth but knew that, that wasn't fair to her or her friends. Beth smiled, mouthed a silent thank you to Viv and said "Well if you don't mind then yeah sure we'll tag along" Caitlin clapped her hands together. "So that's settled then. Let's go now they might still have that carrot cake." They all made their way back to the front door. Viv and Beth quickly put on their coats and went out. Although it was midwinter it was very sunny outside so Viv immediately made to grab for her sunglasses. "Looking for these?" Beth asked grinning. "Oh yeah, thanks. Wait why do you have these?" "I saw them lying on the counter just before we left so I thought I'd take them just in case." Viv smiled. Beth was always so thoughtful. She wasn't quite used to someone thinking of her first before thinking of themselves. With Lisa, it was usually the other way 'round. Viv shook her head. Now was not the time to think about Lisa. She was out on a beautiful day with good company. It was not a time to make herself sad and with that, she drove Lisa out of her mind
"What will it be for you ladies?" They'd just sat down at a coffee place. Viv took it that the rest came here more often because they had their order ready to go. Viv quickly looked around and saw that they had Victoria's sponge cake. So she ordered one with a black coffee. "Even your orders are plain" Jen chuckled. Viv looked up and for some reason felt really upset. Beth who was always so quick to spot the slightest changes in Viv's mood looked at her with a soft smile on her face. It calmed Viv down a bit. To prevent an awkward silence Beth quickly changed the subject to the upcoming holidays. "So no plans then I take it?" Steph asked as they got their food and drinks. Beth shook her head. "No not really, probably gonna spend some time with the fam over Christmas but other than that not really."
Viv was sipping her coffee when Jordan suddenly asked "So I take it you and Lisa will go to Scotland for Christmas this year." Viv nearly choked on her coffee whilst Beth gave her a furtive look. Viv did not expect the subject of Lisa to be sprung on her like that. Viv had stood up without even realising that she had done so. "I uhh I have..." Viv stammered. "Are yous okay mate?" Jen asked a little worried. Viv had turned ashen-faced and the only thing she wanted to do right now was leave. "Viv?" Beth tried, but nothing seemed to reach Viv and without another word she turned around and left the shop, leaving the others completely baffled. "Did I say something to upset her?" Jordan asked looking at the door that Viv just went through. Beth looked from Jordan to the door and back again. "Well it's uh... complicated" Beth finished uncertainly. She knew that Viv hadn't shared the news of her breakup with the team yet and she felt like it wasn't her place to do so. "Look I'll come back but right now I need to make sure that she's okay and that she's not about to do something stupid."
"It's cool mate we understand" They all nodded in agreement. "yeah go," Steph added. Beth thanked them and rushed out of the shop to find Viv.
It wasn't too hard to find Viv. She was sitting on a bench a few feet from the shop. She had her eyes closed and was breathing heavily. Beth sat down next to her and softly placed her hand on Viv's back. She opened her eyes and Beth saw that they were very red and her cheeks were tearstained. "just keep breathing, that's the most important thing." Beth said softly. "Just take it one step at a time. Only think about the next ten seconds. Do you think you'll be able to get through the next ten seconds with me?" It took a bit for Viv to nod but eventually, she did. "okay good. I'll count. one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten. Very good you got through them. Do you think you're ready for the next ten seconds?" Beth noticed that Viv's breathing became a little bit steadier and she nodded a little quicker this time. "okay good. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten. You're doing very well Viv just keep thinking about those next ten seconds. one, two, three..." Beth noticed that Viv had started to count with her. "very good just keep going. four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten" They repeated this another five times. Viv started to completely calm down at this point so Beth felt like it was the right time to stop counting and start talking. "Did it help?" Viv nodded vigorously. "Good to hear. Look I don't want to make you feel upset again but I do feel like it is time for you to start telling people that you and Lisa have broken up." Viv sighed "Yeah I know but every time I try to I just freeze and nothing comes out" Beth knew exactly how Viv felt. It had been the exact same for her not too long ago. "Look I know that it's hard but believe me it's much better to get it over with now than later. It might feel good now to just shove those feelings way down but in the end, it will cause you even more pain." Viv let the words sink in and mulled them over in her head. She knew deep down that Beth was right but that didn't make it any easier. Eventually, she nodded and stood up. "you're right. I should tell the team. I'll ask Jonas if I can have 5 minutes of tomorrow's team meeting." Beth smiled and stood up as well. "good to hear, so do you want to go back inside? our coffees might not be completely cold yet." They both chuckled and started to walk back towards the coffee shop. "wait, before we go in I wanted to ask you, how did you know what to do?" Beth gave a soft smile. "It always worked for me, so I figured I'd try it. You see my mum always did this with me whenever I had to go away for an England camp. I used to hate going to them 'cause I got really homesick and didn't want to leave my comfort zone."
"Really? I never knew"
"Yeah, it was a real struggle but got there in the end. Mainly because of my mum, she really knew how to calm me down. whenever I'd have one of my fits she sat me down on my bed and said 'Beth, look at me we're just going to breath and take it one step at a time.' and she'd count with me. It always worked like a charm and whenever I had it during camp I'd call my mum and she would do the exact same thing but then over the phone."
They reached the door but Viv did not open it immediately. She was completely baffled by how little she actually knew Beth, which for some reason made her feel sort of sad.
"so... are we going in, or?" Viv snapped out of her thoughts. "huh what? Go in. Yeah, we should go back in." Beth smiled and held the door open for Viv. They both got inside and found the rest of the girls chatting animatedly about a night out they'd had a couple of days ago.
"there you are, your coffee is getting cold." They sat down and started to drink their coffee at last. "so... you okay mate?" Viv looked up from her cup and saw that everyone including Beth was looking at her. Viv thought for a moment and decided that if she wanted to start telling people about her break-up with Lisa, now was the time. She took a deep breath and started telling them everything.