A/N: Hey guys! Long time no see. I'm back! I hope you all had a great start of the year. Love you guys!
Mapi and I were crouched down at the center of the field, patting the grass together. There was a comfortable silence hanging between us, both just enjoying eachothers company while most of our teammates were either conversing with each other or with some of our opponents.
"So are you finally gonna tell me what's wrong?" Mapi asked without looking up.
This made me furrow my eyebrows, not really sure where this question was coming from. Mapi's gaze stayed focused on the field while I thought over my answer.
"I don't know what you're talking about." I simply answered, hoping that would be enough to get her off my back.
"Sure you don't but don't play dumb with me. You're my best friend. Don't you think I'd notice when something is wrong?" This time Mapi did look up at me and when she saw that I wasn't gonna answer her she continued.
"I know something is bothering you. You don't have to tell me if you don't want to, just know that I'm here." She gave me a soft smile and went back to focus on the grass.
I pondered over what she had said. It wouldn't hurt to open up to her slightly. Maybe just the part about Leah. That way I might get her off my back.
"Leah and I aren't really working at the moment. " I sighed out.
My small revelation took the defender with surprise, it was clearly shown in her features. Her head snapped up and with curious eyes she looked at me.
"Since she found out about me and Alexia, she is shutting me out. She acts cold and distant." I breathed out, my content smile that was once there, slowly fading.
"We used to talk weekly, now if I get to talk to her for just a few minutes, it's a win and even then not a lot is said." I frowned, clearing my throat, trying my best not to let it show how much it affected me.
Mapi mimicked my expression, her usually upbeat smile was now replaced by a sad frown. "Why didn't you say anything?"
"What is there to say? We used to be best friends, hell she is my family. We talked all day and now we don't. I just have to deal with it. It's probably me, something I have done." I bowed my head and stared at the ground.
"No! Just no! I know she's your friend and that you really care for her but no, it's not your fucking fault. You're not the one who did something. She did so don't you dare think it's you, got it?" Mapi said sternly, leaving no room for any discussion.
"Okay." I weakly agreed with the defender who gently placed her hand on my shoulders trying to give me as much comfort as she could. "I know you don't want to hear this now, but it's her loss and no matter what I got you." She looked me right in my eyes.
I knew Mapi was telling the truth and that she really meant what she said but then again I believed Leah too. Hell we even got a tattoo together to prove it. "She promised me that too though." My voice cracked while my heart broke a little further.
"I know." Mapi sighed sadly and gently squeezed my shoulder. "But we have this established routine together so you're kind of stuck with me." She said with a new found glint in her eyes and somehow she succeeded in cheering me up.
I softly chuckled at her comment and gently pushed her shoulder. "Thanks. For listening." I smiled at the blonde, one she easily returned. "Anytime." And Mapi winked at me.
Mapi's gaze returned back to the grass together with mine. The peaceful and comfortable silence returned once more. That was until Mapi picked some grass.
With a curious eye, I kept a close look at what she was gonna do with it and much to my surprise, she placed the grass in her mouth and tasted it.
"What are you doing?" I looked at the older girl in disbelief but Mapi simply shrugged her shoulders and kept chewing on the grass.
"Tasting the grass." The blonde smirked.
"Yeah, nope. That's where I draw the line." I laughed and shook my head at my best friend.
Aitana's pov:
"Onita!" I yelled out once I saw my friend enter the field with her team. A squeal left the small girl's lips once she saw who had called out after her. Ona immediately rushed over and jumped into my arms.
"I've missed you!" The brunette chuckled into my arms.
"I've missed you too." I smiled and placed the girl down. "How have you been?"
"Good, good. You?" Ona asked me with her usual bright smile. I was right about to answer her when some of my teammates joined the two of us.
"Onita!" Alexia cheered with a smile and pulled the girl in a loving hug once she was close enough, causing the younger girl to laugh.
"I'm good." I smiled at the cute interaction between my captain and my friend.
Alexia and Ona exchanged a few greetings and words when I saw Ona's eyes wander over to Ellie a few times. That's when I remembered that the Catalonian was a huge fan of the American, causing a smirk to form on my lips.
"So Ona do you want me or Alexia to introduce you to Ellie?" I smirked and wiggled my eyebrows at the girl.
Alexia perked up at the mention of her girlfriend, smirking at the new found information that her friend turns out to be a fan of her girlfriend but Ona didn't know how to react. A small blush simply spread over her cheeks.
"I'm good, thanks." Ona glared my way.
"So you're a fan?" Alexia asked intrigued, wiggling her eyebrows with a smirk.
"No." Ona weakly defended herself but a simple stare down from our captain caused her to change that statement right away."Okay, yes I am a fan."
"A fan? Chica, you're probably one of her biggest fans besides us." I laughed at her and threw her under the bus completely. "You watch all of her games and look at clips on the internet. All you do is talk about her.
Alexia found it very amusing that the young girl was such a fan and couldn't help but feel a sense of pride cruising through her vines. "Is that so?" Alexia smirked at the girl and with a mischievous smile, looked at me.
"Hey Ella!" Alexia yelled out at the girl who cluelessly looked up from the grass that she was patting with Mapi. The panic on Ona's face was very evident, causing me to snicker at the girl.
"Come here for a sec." She waved her girlfriend over and of course Ellie came rushing over.
Ellie's pov
"Yeah what's up?" I jogged over to my girlfriend with a goofy smile on my face.
Ale was standing around with Aitana and someone from the opposing team. At first I didn't recognize the girl but once I got closer I could make out who it was.
"Oh hey, you're Ona." I smiled at the girl who was standing in between my girlfriend and Aitana. "It's gonna be a hard game facing you. You've been killing it this season."
This took the girl by surprise. With a dumbfounded, shocked look on her face, did the girl look at me, rooted to her place. My gaze flickered between Ale and Aitana, not really sure what to do but both girls had a smirk on their faces.
"Did I say something wrong? Was my Spanish not good?" I worriedly asked my friends when Ona still hadn't said anything or even moved.
"Ona, voice." Aitana elbowed the younger girl. With a grunt, the girl turned around and glared at her friend but all Aitana did was sheepishly smile at her. Then Ona turned back to face me with still that shocked look on her face.
"Sorry about that. Yeah I'm Ona. It's so nice to finally meet you." The girl stuttered but introduced herself nonetheless.
"It's all good." I waved her off with a smile.
"Ooh, I see you've finally met your biggest fan. Well besides Ale of course." Patri laughed and threw her arm around my shoulder. Mapi and Leila were the last ones to join us. All three women were wearing a smirk on their faces.
The others bursted out laughing, all except for me and Ona. Me, because I was confused about who they were talking about and Ona's cheeks just turned a deep shade of red out of embarrassment.
"Who's my biggest fan?" I looked at the girl confused. This made Patri laugh even harder. "You're so oblivious sometimes." Patri chuckled at me.
"Ona is your biggest fan." Aitana said between laughter, causing the youngest member of the group to groan out in embarrassment.
"You are?" I turned to the young girl surprised.
"Why are you so surprised?" Ale chuckled at my initial shock that the young girl was a fan.
"I don't know. She's a good player, why would she be a fan of mine?" I shrugged my shoulders, causing Alexia to roll her eyes and Ona to blush at my comment.
"So smart, yet so stupid." Leila deadpanned.
I wiggled out of Patri's hold and ran up to the defender to flick her ear. Leila held her ear in her hand while the others laughed at our chaotic antics, including Ona.
"Hey, why don't you join us after the game? We're going to grab dinner and some drinks." I politely invited the girl along. My friends spoke highly of her and she genuinely seemed like a nice person, so why not invite her along.
"Uhm," Ona started, unsure of what to say but Aitana and the others soon interrupted her, liking my idea, so technically the girl had no choice.
I smirked at the brunette and gave her a small wink. "Alright. It's settled then. You can go home with us to get ready." I squeezed her shoulder and smiled, causing the girl to blush which obviously made the teasing worse.
Luckily for the young brunette, Lluís called all of us back inside, effectively making an end to the teasing. "It was nice meeting you. See you out there." I gave her shoulder one last squeeze and smirked at her while I walked past her.
"Yeah, see you." Ona said, still flustered from the meeting.
As I was walking back inside, Alexia ran up right beside me. "Cute." She smiled, while walking beside me.
"Huh?" I looked at my girlfriend, not sure what she meant by the compliment.
"It's cute when you're surprised about someone being a fan." She hummed softly, making me blush a bit.
"So how much did you enjoy flustering her?" Her soft smile turned into a smirk. I laughed and gently pushed her shoulder, shaking my head.
Against all expectations the game was easier then we all thought it would be. From the first few minutes we took control of the game and created a lot of chances, but nothing ended up in the net behind the goalie and there was one girl to blame for that, the one that I invited into my home later tonight. Ona Batlle.
We were well into the first half, somewhere in the thirtieth minute, I received a beautiful pass from Mapi. Immediately I controlled the ball and spun around, ready to charge up the field but Ona was by my side the second I did, giving me no space at all.
"Dammit." I cursed under my breath with Ona breathing down my neck. She pressed her body into my side, effectively stopping me from going any further. The only thing I could do was pass it back to Mapi.
The next time we had to battle it out, was after Marta crossed the ball down the line. Ona and I, both rushed after it, trying to get to the ball first. I was slightly faster then the brunette, controlling the ball once I was within reach but she wasn't going to make it easy.
She kept on pushing right into me. I tried to be strong and reach the back line so I could cross it in front of the goal but before I could, Ona stuck her foot out again, trying to win over the ball but that caused Ona's foot to get stuck between mine and send us tumbling down to the ground.
I hit the ground first, whereas Ona fell on me, her elbow hitting me in my stomach. A groan left my mouth and my eyes screwed shut, trying to catch my breath back.
"Mierda, lo siento." Ona was fast to scramble up.
Mapi and Alexia, like two guard dogs, were by my side in a flash. They even gently pushed Ona away a bit. Alexia crouched down next to me, worried.
"I'm fine." I waved her off before she could even ask. "Just help me up." And held out my hand.
The girl looked unsure but helped me up nonetheless. Mapi soon walked up to me and looked me up and down, checking for possible injuries, but I waved her off as well.
"Are you okay?" Ona rushed over and asked in worry. I chuckled at the girl's slight panic, assuring her I was fine.
"You're gonna have to do a lot more than that to hurt me." I joked but Alexia and even Mapi didn't find that joke to be funny at all.
"Yeah, let's not test that theory." Alexia deadpanned.
The referee came over to check if I was okay and handed me the ball. I was ordered to take the free kick and deliver the ball on a silver plate for one of my teammates to score and they did.
I crossed the ball inside the penalty area, right to Alexia. The Catalonian easily scored the first goal of the game. The first of many. Bedside Alexia, Caro and I managed to score a goal and Jenni did twice, ending the game with a five to zero victory.
Ona was left standing there, staring at the scoreboard with a sad expression. Obviously she blamed herself even though the girl played phenomenal.
After shaking hands with the referee and most of her team and sharing hugs with my friends, I excused myself to go over to the defender.
"You played phenomenal." I smiled and placed my hand on her shoulder, giving it a light squeeze.
"Yeah, but it wasn't enough." She grumbled more to herself.
"Maybe, but don't blame yourself. It's just one game." I gently smiled at her. The girl broke her gaze from the scoreboard and looked at me, a small smile broke out on her face.
"I did manage to stop you a few times though." Ona said with a cheeky smile.
I rolled my eyes at the brunette but I couldn't keep the smile from growing. "Don't get cocky." I punched her shoulder, laughing.
"You wanna swap shirts with me?" I ask, surprising Ona by my question. The girl's eyes widened and confusion flashed through her eyes.
"You wanna swap shirts with me?" The defender repeated my question in disbelief and even pointed at herself to confirm.
"Of course I do." I chuckled. "Like you said, you were able to hold me off for a long while."
Ona chuckled as well and with the biggest smile on her face, the young girl pulled the slightly sweaty fabric over her head. I followed her gesture and we swapped our shirts.
"Thanks." She hummed, admiring my jersey in her hands. Her eyes held some kind of twinkle in them.
"You're very welcome." I returned the smile and gave her shoulder a squeeze.
The peaceful moment soon got interrupted when my friends strolled over, spreading their chaos. Mapi and Leila both threw an arm around Ona's shoulder, wearing a cheeky grin on both their faces.
"So." Mapi started but Leila soon took over, "your plan was to injure our princesa?"
"Bet that turned out different than expected." Mapi smirked at Ona but she had no response.
Her cheeks only got a darker shade of red. The girl genuinely felt bad for tackling me if you could even call it that. Ona was trapped between my two best friends, clearly out of her element.
"Oh, stop it you two. It's football. It happens." I scolded my two friends for annoying the young girl.
Ona sent me a grateful smile while the other two threw up their hands in surrender. "Fine, fine, we'll behave." Leila said.
Alexia snuck closer to me but kept her distance for as long as we were outside on the pitch, careful to not start any kind of rumors. Her pinky softly brushes against mine and for a second we intertwined them, giving each other a bit of comfort, laughing with our friends
"So, tonight. You're coming Battle?" Patri asked and we all looked expectantly at Ona.
The girl wasn't left with much of a choice when Aitana and I answered for her. "She's coming." Both Aitana and I said at the same time, sharing a look at each other and we gave each other a high five.
"Seems like I'm joining you all tonight." Ona chuckled and lightly shook her head.
"Alright, see you tonight." I waved at Ona. We all made some further arrangements, telling Ona that she was welcome at our place to meet up and then we said our goodbyes.