The Portland Thorns were playing against the Utah Royals today. It was going to be a good game, both teams were on edge.
Lindsey was excited for the game. Her friends and fellow United States Women's National Team members Christen Press, Kelley O'Hara and Becky Sauerbrunn were on the Royals.
Her other USWNT members Tobin Heath, Emily Sonnett and Adrianna Franch played on the Portland Thorns with her.
Lindsey is really good friends with Tobin, they played on Paris Saint-Germain together after Lindsey got out of high school. Even though Tobin is 6 years older than her, the girls are still close, probably one of each other's best friends.
"Linds, are you ready to go?" she hears Tobin shout.
"Yeah, one sec!" Lindsey grabs her phone and bag from her room, meeting Tobin in the kitchen. The two girls live together, it's just easier when you live with someone on your team who also happens to be one of your best friends.
"Will you let Sonnett know we're on our way?" the older girls asks.
Lindsey nods and does what she asks.
To Sonny
On our way, be ready or else Tobin will be annoyed
From Sonny
The old lady can take a chill pill, I'll be ready.
Lindsey rolls her eyes and chuckles at her friend.
No one knows this, not even Tobin, but Linds has a little crush on the girl. She has for about a year now. They've been through so much together and her feelings grew as time went on. She could never tell Emily because she didn't want to lose their friendship.
"Ready?" Tobin asks. Lindsey nods and lock their apartment, heading to Tobin's car.
"So, are you excited to play against Christen?" Lindsey asks, smirking.
"Oh shut up. We've played against each other before, it's not a big deal." Linds can see her friend start to blush.
"You are SO blushing right now!"
Tobin shakes her head. "We have a bet about who will win the game. The loser has to buy the other one dinner."
"Isn't that just like a regular date for you guys?" Lindsey asks confused.
Tobin shrugs, "I wanted to make it more sexual but Chris wouldn't let me."
"Ew ew! TMI! I didn't need to know that!" Tobin just laughs and the other girl covers her ears with her hands.
"We're all adults Linds, it isn't that big of a deal," Tobin says, rolling her eyes.
"I still didn't need to know," Lindsey mutters under her breath.
They pull up to Emily's apartment and Lindsey texts her other best friend, letting her know that they are here.
When Emily walks out with Hayley Raso, another one of their teammates, the two girls sitting in the car are surprised. "I thought....wait, what?" Lindsey tries to formulate a sentence but words can't seem to come out.
Emily opens the car door and gets in, Hayley scooting in after her. "Hey guys," the blonde says.
Tobin and Lindsey look back at them, confused.
Emily puts on her seatbelt before looking up and seeing her two friends giving her strange looks.
"Aren't we going to be late for practice?" she asks, not knowing why her friends are giving her such strange looks.
"O-oh yeah." Tobin puts the car in drive and they head to the stadium. Lindsey turns around in her seat and looks out the window.
She can hear the two girls whispering to each other in the back, Hayley says something she can't hear and Emily giggles.
Lindsey has this feeling inside of her chest and she can't figure out what it is. She doesn't like seeing Emily giggle and be close to someone else. Is it jealously?
No, it can't be. She doesn't like Emily like that. Right?....
When they get to the stadium, everyone gets out of the car. Hayley sees Ellie Carpenter and Caitlin Foord and runs over to them, leaving the three girls.
"What the hell was that?" Tobin is the first one to ask.
"What do you mean?" Sonnett asks, genuinely confused.
"Why did we pick her up this morning too?"
"Oh, yeah, um, she spent the night." Sonnett says, sheepishly.
"She what?" Lindsey asks.
Sonnett shrugs, looking at the ground. "It's not a big deal. It's happened before, this is just the first time that we also had practice the next day."
Lindsey doesn't like the thought of Raso having spent multiple nights at Emily's. She also doesn't like that her best friend didn't tell her.
"Why didn't you tell us?" Lindsey asks, defensively.
"I didn't know I needed to?"
"Damn Sonnett, getting some without us even knowing." Tobin chuckles and pushes her, giving her a hard time.
Sonnett just shrugs and blushes. "Whatever," she says, trying to not make a big deal about it.
Tobin looks to her best friend standing next to her. Lindsey has a glare on her face and is looking anywhere but Emily, clearly upset about something. Tobin reminds herself to ask Linds later why she is so upset.
The three of them walk into the stadium together. Tobin is asking Sonnett about Hayley but Lindsey just tunes them out, not wanting to hear about it.
When they get into the locker room, Tobin heads towards her locker and Lindsey and Sonnett head towards theirs.
Lindsey is quiet as they get ready for practice.
"You okay Linds?" Sonnett asks, worriedly.
Lindsey doesn't say anything for a minute. "How could you not tell me about you and Hayley? I thought we were best friends Sonny."
Emily looks at her friend before saying, "I'm sorry Linds but I didn't think that this was important. It's not like we're serious or anything, it's just physical. Plus I don't know how long it's going to last so I didn't think it was important telling you."
Lindsey doesn't say anything. Thinking about Emily and Hayley being physical makes her stomach hurt.
"I promise to tell you about all my future partners or anyone I'm seeing from now on okay?"
Lindsey can tell Sonnett feels bad for not telling her after Lindsey expressed her hurt. Linds just nods in return.
"Are we good now?" Emily asks hopefully.
"Yeah, we're good Sonny." Lindsey stands up and wraps her friend in a hug.
"Okay, good because I don't like it when you're upset with me." Sonnett says, returning the hug.
"You know I can never be upset with you for too long," she says, pushing her friend playfully.
"Yeah, yeah, I know." Emily says with a smile.
"Hey, are you guys done over there? It's time to go." Tobin yells from across the room.
The two girls roll their eyes and head over to where everyone else is lined up, ready to walk on the pitch.
As Lindsey gets in line by number order, her mind wanders back to why she was so upset to hear about Emily sleeping with something. Her face immediately scrunches with disgust thinking about it. 'It's only because she's your best friend, nothing more.' she tries to tell herself.
When they start to walk out, she pushes the thoughts from her mind and focuses on the game ahead of them.
The game starts off like normal, intense, both teams playing their best, trying to score.
In the 35th minute, Becky Sauerbrunn scores with the assist from Christen Press. The crowd goes wild. This only pushes the Thorns to try harder.
Sonnett and Press are going 1v1 against each other and Sonnett grabs Press, taking her down. She knows she messed up because she sets her down lightly and pats her back.
Her eyes immediately find Tobin who is glaring at her. She mouths "Sorry!" to her. Tobin just shakes her head.
During half time in the locker room, Linds and Emily are talking. Emily has her back towards the door so she can't see Tobin coming, but when Lindsey's eyes go wide she turns around.
"Shit, shit," she mutters and hides behind her tall friend. "Lindsey protect me!"
"Hell no, you did this to yourself!"
Tobin stops in front of Lindsey. "Sonnett, what the hell was that? You took down my girlfriend! That was totally unnecessary!"
"I know, I know! I'm sorry T." She peaks her head around Lindsey, resting her chin on her friends shoulder. Lindsey's heart starts beating really fast, she hopes neither of her friends can hear it.
Tobin just shakes her head at Sonnett. Eventually she smiles. "You know I'm not going to hear the end of this, right?"
"I'll apologize later, I swear." Tobin gives her a look like 'You better'.
After half time is over, they get back on the field and the game continues. In the 76th minute, Emily takes down Amy Rodriguez, or ARod, as many people know her.
She was not expecting Amy's reaction to be what it was. Amy gets up and runs over to Sonnett. She gets in her face, and pushes her around. Vero comes running over and gets in between the two players.
Suddenly Lindsey is there, yelling at Amy. Tobin runs over and pushes Vero out of the way, telling her to move Amy and to calm down. Lots of people are now involved.
Emily is standing there with a scared look on her face. She was not expecting this reaction from Amy or anyone else.
The ref gives her a red card and she is forced to leave the game.
After Emily leaves the field and everyone is almost calm, Lindsey runs over to Amy and pushes her down on the ground. Emily didn't see it but when everyone starts yelling she turns around.
Amy is walking towards Lindsey, yelling at her. Lindsey is motioning towards her, "Get up!"
Suddenly Lindsey is given a yellow card. Emily is confused by the altercation.
On the field, Tobin looks from Lindsey to Emily, and then back to Lindsey. That is when it all clicks.
Sadly Portland looses the game and everyone is a little disappointed. As they head into the locker room, Tobin pulls Lindsey aside.
"What the hell was that Linds?" Tobin whispers angrily.
"I don't know T! I was just pissed..."
Tobin raises her eyebrows questioningly. "First you get upset when she talks about Hayley and then you push Amy after she gets in Emily's face? Is something going on?"
"I don't fucking know okay T? I just, I didn't like the thought of her and Raso and then when I say Amy push her I got defensive...." she trails off at the end.
"You like her Linds, don't you?" Tobin asks quietly.
Lindsey looks at the ground and shrugs.
Tobin's gaze immediately softens. "You do."
Lindsey nods her head before saying, "But I can't like her okay? She's been my best friend for years and this would just fuck things up. Plus it looks like she's happy with Raso so I can't mess that up either."
Tobin has no words for her friend. She knows that Lindsey doesn't want to jeopardize their friendship but she also knows that the longer she hides her feelings, the more they are going to grow.
She wraps her arm around the blondes shoulder, "We'll figure something out okay?"
Together they walk back into the locker room. Lindsey thinking about the way Sonnett makes her feel, and Tobin thinking about the shit show they are about to get into.
Author's Note
Hi y'all! I know that the Utah vs Portland game was in Utah but we're just going to pretend that it was in Portland okay? Thanks!
Let me know what you think so far!