════ ⋆★⋆ ════
Chapter Twenty Four
" there's never going to be a good enough reason "
════ ⋆★⋆ ════
. . • ☆ . ° .• °:. *₊ ° . ☆
Tallulla stood by the coaches, thinking about what Sharon had said. That was when she noticed that Ted wasn't with them, "Hey, where's Coach Cow—" She was cut off by an angry grumble coming from the tunnel entrance. She looked behind her to see an... angry-looking Ted walking towards the pitch. He walked straight past her, moving to the water table. "Come here, you."
The girl watched with slight horror as Ted picked up the table and threw it up into the air, the water splashing everywhere. Tallulla moved forward, "Ted?" She tried to call, but was stopped by Beard grabbing her shoulder and putting a hand over her mouth. "Shhh. Ted is no longer with us, dear child."
"What?" She mumbled out, the hand still covering her mouth. Coach Beard moved the hand that was covering her mouth and made a shush face.
"Led Tasso." He let out in a whisper.
Their attention was turned back to Led kicking balls at the players, before letting out a shrill whistle and yelling, "Now listen up, you little turd birds! Practice starts at 11 o'clock. If you are not stretched five minutes early, then you are 45 minutes late! You understand me?" No one dared respond, "Do you understand me?"
Everyone let out murmurs of agreement, "Okay, good! Now start touching your toes." No one started touching their toes, "Touch your toes! Those are your feet fingers. Let's go, dummies. Touch your toes. And touch each other's toes!"
"What?" Tallulla turned to Beard, to which the man just shook his head.
"You heard me! Touch each other's toes! I don't wanna hear it. Hands on toes. Someone else's toes besides your own."
"What muscle is this working?" Colin piped up from the back.
"Don't worry about it. The only muscle I don't wanna see working right now is your mouth, Colin."
After a couple more minutes of Led Tasso doing stretches, the players moved on to doing drills. Which had been fine for a couple of minutes, but eventually Bumbercatch messed up on one of them causing Led to flare out. "Bumbercatch!"
"Sorry, Coach." The man instantly apologized.
"Okay, you're sorry, hey? I know y'all don't think it's a big deal messing up on these drills. But let me tell you this right now. The day we stop doing things the right way means we are one day closer to doing everything the wrong way. Then what happens after that, huh?" Ted went and picked up a ball during his rant.
"What, you wanna make, uh, uh, this ball your girlfriend? You gonna start taking it to places under your arm? Having people compliment how y'all look together? And then what? You start caressing it and playing with, like, the little air hole nub? Yeah? Messing around with that? Making out with it. Making it your girlfriend."
"I don't like this Led... what if he never comes back!" Tallulla looked over at Beard.
"He will come back."
"But what if he doesn't?"
She moved back to see Ted now shouting at Issac, "What if he gets stuck like this? He's so mean..."
"Guess what? Make it a thousand laps! That's your fault too." She heard him shout, she turned once again back to Beard with bulging eyes.
"A thousand laps! They can't run a thousand laps Beard!"
"Shhh, he'll hear you."
"I hope y'all drank a lot of water today 'cause y'all are gonna be so dehydrated that you're gonna look like one of them trees from a... from a Tim Burton movie. I'm talking any Tim Burton movie! Even Dumbo! Even freaking Dumbo." Led huffed.
After a while of the players doing laps, they went back to doing drills. However, no one was really in the proper headspace to be actually being productive. The team was in the middle of a play when Richard got a hold of the ball needing to pass the ball to Jamie. The player did but with a heavy amount of reluctance.
"Richard! I haven't seen a pass that soft since my high school drama teacher asked me to mow his lawn. Is anybody on this pitch interested in not sucking at soccer?"
"Why did he call it soccer?" Tallulla sounded horrified, "That's not right; I think this Led guy is making Ted ill."
Jamie then spoke up, making Tallulla be quiet to listen to what he had to say, "All right, Coach. We get it. Just stop yelling at everyone." Jamie stammered slightly, "I don't know whatever this Jekyll and Hyde thing you got going on, but just leave it out, yeah."
Ted laughed sarcastically, "Oh, okay. Okay. You know what, Tartt? Practice is canceled. Hit the showers. All of you. Let's go. Run. Jamie just blew y'all's chance to get better." The players quickly ran inside, Tallulla waiting and joining Jamie on the way in.
"I didn't like that version of Ted Lasso." Tallulla said slightly dazed by the man.
"Yeah, He was actin' like a prick." Jamie agreed, "Sam's still not talking to me."
"Well, that makes sense; it's gonna take a while."
"I know, I'm just super frustrated because I don't know how to let the team know I'm cool now, and it's just really messing with me head." Jamie told her as they paused outside the locker room.
"Well, I know you tried to apologize, and that did more damage than it fixed, didn't it? You could... Talk to Dr. Sharon?" Tallulla suggested.
"Why would I want to do that when I have you?"
Butterflies erupted in her stomach; she took a big breath trying to shove them down further as she rolled her eyes at Jamie. "Because sometimes, like right now, you have problems that I can't really help with. Sometimes I go to Dr. Sharon when I need help; in fact, I went there earlier today." That conversation was now at the forefront of the girl's mind.
"What did you guys talk about that you couldn't have had with me?" His tone suddenly on the edge of hurt.
"Sometimes I can't talk about my problems with you, Jamie."
"Were you talking about me?" He questioned.
"No." She lied instantly.
There was a short moment of silence as Jamie stared at her in an unbelieving manner before he continued speaking, "Do you need a ride home tonight?"
"Uhh no, maybe tomorrow, I have something I need to do tonight." She spoke.
Jamie furrowed his eyebrows in confusion as he looked at her, "What are you doing tonight?"
"I'll— Uh, I'll tell you later, yeah?" She stammered out, thinking of what she was about to do once she got home.
"Oh, okay. Yeah, I'll see ya, bye Ulla." The boy watched as the girl walked into the locker room; he could not help but stare at her. The girl he had realized he loved months ago but couldn't help but think to himself if she could possibly love him back?
A FEW HOURS LATER
Tallulla stood outside her apartment door, staring at it blankly. How was she going to do this? How was she out of the blue going to dump this man for seemingly no reason? 'Hey Davis, lately I've been thinking about how much I don't love you, so I talked to a therapist today, and she made me realize that I should dump you.' Yep, that's totally a good idea.
Tallulla held the keys in her hand limply as she fumbled to open the door. Once she finally got it open, she noticed that Davis wasn't in the kitchen like he normally was; she walked into her bedroom to find him sitting in the emerald green armchair from her childhood home, reading a book.
She cleared her throat, alerting the man of her presence. "Oh, hey leanabh, I didn't hear you come in." Tallulla didn't say anything, instead moving to the edge of the bed, closest to the armchair and sitting down. "Is everything okay?"
"Davis..." She had no idea what she was going to say. "I think we need to end things."
"What, why?"
She twisted the ring around her finger, "There's never going to be a good enough reason."
Davis let his book fall to the ground, "What does that mean?"
"It means that you were the best person you could have possibly have been to me, and this is completely my fault."
"I moved to England for you."
This was exactly how she did not want this conversation to go. "I didn't ask you to do that." She stated, her face going blank.
"You should have said that you didn't love me before then; that's not fair. It's not fair, and it's cruel."
"I know." Was all she said.
"Tallulla please. I love you." His tone completely changed to one being desperate.
"Davis, I don't." Her words stung. "I want you to be with someone who loves you so much, who appreciates you and reciprocates that love tenfold."
"You are that person." His voice shook, being on the brink of tears. Her face crumbled with remorse and regret for the whole relationship. "No. I'm not."
His mood instantly changed to one of anger, "Really? Really you're not! God Tallulla, you're a sick person you know that! I moved to a different island to be with you, only for you to dump me?"
"I'm sorry."
He shook his head getting over his burst of anger, "I'm sorry, you're not a sick person. I'm just..." The dirty blonde ran a hand over his face, "God... I really loved you."
"I know... But that's why this can't work. You deserve someone better. Someone who loved you back, and as much as I want to Davis, I can't love you back. Not as much as I should anyway."
There was a moment of silence before Davis looked up from the floor and asked a question on his mind. "What made you realize that you don't love me?"
Tallulla sighed, thinking back to the meeting with Sharon earlier that day. The moment she realized so many months ago that she loved Jamie Tartt. Major Tom blasting in her ears. Sitting and watching the sunrise from the park bench that morning. The ocean with its crashing waves. The City of Stars.
"Because I'm in love with someone else."
He looked up at the girl; he could see in her eyes that she was somewhere else. Somewhere that brought a glimmer into her eyes that he had never seen before. She really was in love with someone else, and it wasn't him.
"Okay." He nodded, "I'll be out in ten minutes." Davis started to move around the room, picking up his things.
"Where are you going to go?" Tallulla's cheeks were red with tears as she turned to look at him.
"I don't know honestly. Probably to a hotel, then... back home." He shoved all his clothes into a suitcase.
"I'm so sorry I fucked up your life, Davis." The girl sobbed.
"Hey," The blonde-haired boy moved over to crouch where Tallulla was sitting. He looked deep into her face, knowing it was probably going to be the last time he truly looked at the girl. The boy memorized every freckle, every color in her eyes, every slight crinkle by her eyes. This was the last time he would get to see her.
"You didn't fuck up anything. I'm sorry that I wasn't enough for you, but I'm happy that you found someone who is. You deserve the world Tallulla; I just have to come to terms with the fact that I'm not going to be the one that gives it to you." He lightly kissed her forehead when he finished speaking.
Tallulla watched as he walked out of the bedroom; she heard him place something on the counter and then close the front door of the apartment. The girl stayed on the edge of the bed, looking from her spot to the window that was letting in cool moonlight now. She felt an aching in her chest as the weight of what just happened hit her.
She just broke up with the person that wanted to give her the world for someone who might not even think of her as an option back. Tallulla sank back into bed and grabbed a pillow. She gently sobbed into the pillow. The girl's eyes were now heavy and the tears that were escaping her eyes stung down her cheek.
A FEW HOURS LATER
Ted looked at the pristine white door in front of him. The door, in question, had a small metal plate with the number nine on it, as well as a small circle where one would look out to see who was knocking. He had gotten the address from Rebecca, who had become worried when Tallulla hadn't shown up to work for the past two days, missing a game.
From what Ted knew about the girl in the year and a half of knowing her, she had never missed a game. So, when the girl hadn't appeared in the locker room, nor had she even sent a text to Rebecca that she wasn't coming in, the older woman had sent Ted to find the girl.
Sam had been concerned as well about Tallulla's disappearance offering to go instead of Ted to which the older man refused, thinking it would be better for him to find her in whatever situation she was in. Though what surprised Ted the most was when Jamie Tartt had approached him before he had come over to the apartment.
"Hey sorry, Coaches," The boy had interrupted a conversation between him and Beard discussing plays for the match, "Do you know where Ulla might be?"
"Uhh," Ted looked over to Beard, who was giving him knowing eyes. It was obvious to the coaches that there was some sort of relationship going on between the two. The question was what kind of relationship? "No, Jamie. I don't think anyone has seen her all day. Our guess is as good as yours."
"Oh," Jamie stood in the doorway looking slightly disappointed, "Is she okay?"
"She's fine," Beard told him, lying and giving him narrowed, suspicious eyes. He was still in slight distrust of the boy, especially when it came to the young girl.
"Alright, can you just, when you see her, can you ask her to text me back, or call me? She was, uhh, she was acting weird the last time I saw her, so... Can you just tell her?" He finished rubbing the back of his neck in slight embarrassment.
"Sure, Jamie," Ted nodded.
Ted knocked on her door now, standing and humming to himself as he waited for her to open the door. The door opened a fraction, and he laid eyes on the girl in front of him. Her eyes were swollen slightly, her hair a mess, and a sweatshirt hung loosely on her shoulders. "Hey Bambi." His tone was laced with concern for the young girl.
"Ted?" Her cheeks burned with embarrassment, knowing that she probably looked like a wreck, "What are you doing here?"
"Well, uhh, you didn't call into work or anything, and Rebecca and I got worried, so she sent me to check on you." Ted explained to her, "Gosh, that made us kinda sound like your overly protective parents." He chuckled.
"You kinda are..." She mumbled before turning around, leaving the door open for him to come in. The girl was lucky she kept her place so tidy, or else she would have felt even more embarrassed about Ted being there.
She took a place on the couch, patting the spot for Ted to sit next to her, which he did. "I'm sorry for not going to work." She thought for a moment, "Well, I'm sorry for not telling anyone I wasn't going to be at work. I'm not that sorry that I didn't go. I needed a bit of time."
"That's okay, kid." He told her, "Why did you need a break, though, if you don't mind me asking?"
"I never told you this, but I was dating someone." She started.
"Yeah?"
"Yeah." Tallulla nodded, "His name was Davis; we first met when I was on that break before the start of the season. He was nice, and kind, and sweet..." She trailed off, her eyes filling with tears again. The girl hurriedly wiped her eyes, shaking her head slightly. "This is so stupid."
"Oh, come on now Bambi, nothing that makes you this upset can be stupid." Ted interjected.
She twisted the ring around her finger, not looking Ted in the eyes due to the feeling of humiliation. "I broke up with him, even though he was all those incredible things. I broke up with him."
There was a pause, Ted didn't know what to say. He was at a loss of words for the situation, but there was something in his heart for the girl that knew why she had broken up with the man. "You know everyone was real worried that you were there for the game today." She nodded, listening to his American accent.
"But no one was as worried as Jamie Tartt."
Tallulla looked up from her hand, her eyes full of surprise. "Really?"
The older man chuckled at her response, "Yes, really Bambi. Jamie came into the office looking for you. Said that if we saw you to ask you to text him when you got the chance. Real worried."
There was another pause of silence before Tallulla nervously cleared her throat, "Ted?"
Ted smiled warmly back at the girl, "Yeah, Bambi?"
"I'm in love with Jamie Tartt."
. . • ☆ . ° .• °:. *₊ ° . ☆
Blu speaks!
Chapter Twenty Seven is my best yet.