"So they know now?"
"Yep"
"How much do they know exactly? Like should I be planning on a surprise visit? Or maybe my murder?"
I laugh and shake my head, "They know I'm dating someone don't worry your safe for now". "Great so I have a few days to live?" Jess sighs down the phone. "Don't worry I'll protect you. I wouldn't let anything happen to you" I coo. "My hero" she chuckles down the phone. I roll my eyes, "You'll be fine. I think your forgetting that I'm going to get the exact same treatment from your team as well".
"Expect your team might actually kill me. If it were to go down I would have my money on you to win in a fight against my teammates. I'm pretty sure you can bench half of them"
I laugh but start to simmer down as I see Alex and Kelley walking towards me, "I got to go now but I'll talk to you later okay?" "Yeah okay. Talk later bye. I love you" Jess answers. I smile widely as I stop in front of the two, "Love you too. Bye". I smile at the two, "Hey guys".
"The bus is here" Kelley tells me and I nod, "Cool let's go". Alex points at me, "We still aren't finished having that conversation about the ring". I roll my eyes, "Later. Now cmon we have a plane to catch". "Your going to have to tell us eventually" Alex smirks as we walk down to the lobby. "Again later" I sigh. "I still can't believe you didn't tell us you have a girlfriend" Kelley says. I narrow my eyes, "Is it that hard to believe?"
They both laugh while Alex wraps an arm around me, "No it's not. We just thought you would have told us". I sigh and run my hand through my hair, "It's not like that okay. You just have to trust me on this one. I'll explain it all later but right now we have a World Cup to celebrate".
They both look at each other and nod, "Okay now cmon I have drinks calling my name". I roll my eyes, "I'm surprised you even remember us winning with the amount of alcohol you've consumed". Kelley grins widely, "I have to live up to my frat daddy name". Alex rolls her eyes, "Let go before they decide to leave us behind". And with that we head down to the bus ready to get on the plane to New York for the parade.
..............
"Whoo" Emily cheers as she downs another drink. We were currently on a float in the middle of the ticker tape parade. I laugh and wave as fans cheer as we pass them by. Some of them waving signs at us while others held up their phones recording us.
Some of the team were still drink but it seems like others didn't even stop. I laugh as I nudge Kelley pointing out someone in the crowd, "Kel look!" She turns around looking at where I'm pointing and bursts out laughing, "Oh my god!" She sprints down the stairs and I giggle while following her. She immediately goes to the woman and hugs her excitedly while I wave at fans getting into a few quick pictures with them.
I watch as the float slowly driving away from us and tap Kelley, "Kels cmon!" She nods and takes the beer out of the woman's hands as we jog back to the float and jump on. Sonnett and the other youngsters laugh as we come back up the stairs in giggles. Sonnett who's recording turns the phone on Kelley, "What did you get Kelley?" Kelley grins as she holds the cans up, "I got beer!"
We continue on with the parade when our media manager comes up to me, "Hey Ellie would you mind doing something for me?" I shrug, "Sure what is it?" She tells me what she wants me to do and I grin and nod. I jog down the steps only to be stopped by Alex, "Where are you going?" I turn and wink at her, "I'm going to hype up the crowd". She cocks her head at me while I jump off the float and run ahead of it.
The cheers pick up as they spot me running towards them. I run along the barriers high fiving people as I went. I take a few phones and take pictures with the crowd before moving to the middle of the street. I can see my teammates on the float behind me watching me curiously. I grin as I do a small run up before doing a back flip causing the crowd to pick up. I hype the crowd up a bit more as I do a Sam Kerr and run pushing off my hands from a cartwheel into a flip landing it. I turn and see my teammates now cheering along with the crowd. I continue to do tricks and flips until I eventually move back to the float.
"Dude! That was so sick!" Lindsey shouts messing up my hair. Pinoe wraps an arm around me, "That's one way to hype up a crowd!" We continue on the parade and at one point a fan shouts at Sonnett to do a dance. So she drag me and Rose to the edge as we do a quick dance routine.
"Elliot! Do a back flip!" Another shouts. I look around trying to think of the safest way to do this. Instead I grab the hand rails and swing my legs up and over my head landing in a crouch position. Probably the safest way to back flip while on a moving float with a bunch of drunks. Another round of cheers come from the crowd.
The medal ceremony was amazing. My favourite was when Allie went up on Kelley's turn only to realise her mistake. Everyone was on a high having a great time. Until we all eventually had to sober up a bit for interviews. Of course the main focus at the start was in the captains and a bit about the lawsuit and everything.
Well that was truth until they turned their focus to me
"So Elliot you had a fantastic tournament" they start and everyone in the studio cheered making me blush and nod, "Uh yeah I guess so". They shake their heads at me, "So modest but seriously though you had an amazing World Cup. Racking up a lot of assists and goals throughout the campaign. You played every minute while also having a shoulder injury, how did that affect your mindset and play going into the World Cup?"
I lick my lips and nod, "Uh yeah I injured my shoulder maybe a month or two before going into France and I think I was so hyped up about me playing in my first World Cup that I tried to play it off but that wasn't exactly a good idea. But I think it was always in the back of my mind that I was constantly thinking "Oh what if my shoulder gives out? "What if it affects my play?" "Would I have to sit out?" So I don't think it was the best way entering my first World Cup but I knew I had a great team with me and an amazing support staff there if anything happens. I just believed that all the work would pay off in the end and it did".
"We didn't even know about it until I went in for a tackle at training one day and shouldered Ellie" Kelley admits. The interviewer's eyes widen, "Really? The team didn't know about it?" I can feel the blush worsen as I scratch the back of my neck sheepishly, "Uh yeah?" Alex rolls her eyes and throws an arm around me, "She gave us quiet the scare. Like this was a few days before our first match and we were finding out that she was carrying an injury. Thankfully Dawn checked it out and said it would be okay for the match with some rest". I shrug, "I think it was mostly just bruised and maybe a little stiff".
They nod, "Well that kinda leads into my next question. How did you injury it?" I bite my lip very aware that my teammates were all waiting as well seeing as I never told them either, "I just fell on it hard". The interviewer grins suddenly making me squirm in my chair, "Well we think we actually have some footage of what really happened to your shoulder". "Oh no" I mutter as everyone turns to the monitors to watch. It's a recording of the day at the farmers market. It's a street camera pointing down at the street where it happened. You could see people running before the car even came into the shot. The little girl was frozen on the street and right as the car came zooming into the frame you could make out a blur figure running across and picking up the girl diving out of the way before the car races by and crashes into a pole.
"Now" the interviewer continues, "I know it's hard to make out who the person was but we also discovered these pictures from the accident". Pictures start to pop up of me holding the little girls in my arms and some with me holding the guy up against the car. Finally it's a picture of me and my teammates from after the accident when Jessie told me to take off my jumper. You could see me looking over my shoulder while Jessie was looking at my very badly bruised shoulder.
Becky facepalms, "Elliot please tell me you didn't almost get hit by a car". I shrug, "I don't really need to. You just saw me do it on camera". I get a slap to the back of the head while everyone laughs. "I can't believe you saved that little girl" Mal gasps. I shrug, "The driver was drunk and I didn't want the girl to get hit. It was more instinct then anything else. But when I dived out of the way my shoulder hit the curb hard and messed up my shoulder". I get another smack from Christen behind me, "Don't play this off! You were almost hit by a car".
"The key word, almost"
We're brought back by the interviewer who I think we honestly forgot about as they all scolded me, "Well it seems that it didn't stop you as you were still able to score goals like these". They play a small clip of my highlights showing my assists and goals finishing on my goal from the final. "I got to say that last goal was incredible" he compliments. I smile, "Thank you". "Why did you decide to shoot like that?" He asks.
I run a hand through my hair, "Well when I stopped to steady myself to shoot that meant the defender chasing me had time to get on the line to block it. And I knew that Van Veenendaal was ready to stop the shot so I knew it want to score I would have to shoot in the other direction so I took a risk".
"Well it definitely paid off" he laughs. He continue on with the interview with more questions, "So any interesting behind the scenes stories from the World Cup?" They are a few chuckles from the girls as they all think of different stories. It seems that Alex takes the lead though, "I think we have so many stories from our time at the World Cup. I mean we practically lived together for a month and when we weren't training or doing team stuff there would be pranks and just messing around but I think one of the best was Ellie's half time speech's".
All the girls nods while I hide my face in my hands again, "Nooooo". Rose laughs beside me clapping her hands, "Yessss". Tobin pats my shoulders from behind and I roll my eyes but I still have a smile. Pinoe starts to explain, "So during the England and Netherlands games when we were in the dressing room at half time. Elliot gave us these big dramatic speeches getting us ready to go back in the field. Pumped us up for the second half". Sonnett snorts, "Yeah Ellie is like the teams like hypeman. She's always boosting us up and getting us ready for games". I smile as Sonnett dabs me up and I wink at me making her laugh.
"Okay so we're almost out of time so I'll open this to everyone. So now that everyone is finished with the World Cup, what's next for everyone. Any upcoming projects?" Honestly I think it's a pretty stupid question. Like obviously we're preparing for the Olympics next year so unless your one of the big faves of the team or like Christen and the others who are starting their own company, there only really one answer to that.
"I think we're going to enjoy a small break before getting back and preparing for next year's Olympics" I answer. Everyone nods satisfied with the answer. The interviewer nods before turning back to the audience.
"Well that's all we have time for. Ladies and gentlemen, the 2019 women's World Cup Champions, The US women's National Team!"
..............
I groan at the excessive knocking at my door and peel myself from my bed. When I open the door I'm met with the entire team standing outside my door. I glare at both Emily and Kelley at the front who I knew were the ones knocking at me door. "Hi Koala" Kelley smiles and pushes her way past me into my room, leading the charge for everyone else to follow.
"Hey guys! Of course you can come in! Not like I was trying to sleeping or anything. Please feel free!" I say dramatically swinging my arms around as everyone walks past me. Tobin being Tobin pats my head as she walks past, "Thanks Tiny". I roll my eyes and close the door before going back to my bed in between Christen and Alex, "So why did you all come to my room?" Lindsey shrugs, "Team bonding". Emily nods rapidly, "Yeah! And tonight's topic is getting to know Ellie's girlfriend!"
I groan as I sink down into the bed pulling the blanket over my head. But it's swiftly pulled off and I'm sat up by Alex, "Hey none of that! You said you would talk later. Well this is later and this is the most sober the girls are going to be for like a week". I sigh and lean into Christen putting my head in her shoulder, "What do you guys want to know?"
A few look at me surprised probably expecting me to be a bit more resistant but honestly I was a little too tired to care. "Why didn't you tell us? I mean even Christen and Tobin didn't know and you tell them everything" Kelley says. I sigh and pinch the bridge of my nose, "Okay look before any of you get the wrong idea. It had nothing to do with you guys. You guys know I trust you all, your family to me. But we both knew how crazy the fans can get sometimes so when we first started dating we both decided to keep it a secret and just develope our relationship because the media has a habit of destroying things before they can even begin. And obviously we wasn't about to tell people about us until we both knew it was serious. The longer it went on the happier we were. She's a very private person and I realised that so many people already know a lot about my life. I decided I wanted to keep this part of my life private and too myself. So we kept it under wraps. And we were going to tell you after the World Cup but then you saw the ring".
Alex nods, "And it's definitely not an engagement ring right? Cause I think we'll be very mad that you didn't tell us about her if you are". I laugh and shake my head, "No! Not at all! It's a promise ring. I gave it to her before the World Cup seeing as we wouldn't get to see each other for a while". Christen picks up my hand and looks at it, "You have nice taste". I smile as Mal looks over, "How did we not notice earlier?" I pull the chain out from under my shirt, "I usually wear it on my chain underneath my shirt cause I don't normally wear rings but some days I wear it".
"Who is she? Can we see a picture?" Rose asks. I bite my lip, "Not yet but I promise you guys will meet after Canada match on the victory tour". "Why won't you tell us her name?" Ashlyn asks. I roll my eyes, "Cause I don't want you guys trying to intimidate her before then. Seriously I don't want any of ye messing with her". Many of them sigh, "Fine fine. We'll wait". I nod, "Thank you".
Tobin smiles from her spot beside Christen, "Well tell us about her". A smile instantly spreads across my face thinking about Jessie. "Awe look at her! She's a love sick!" Kelley coos along with the rest if the team making me blush and chuck a pillow at her, "Shut up Squirrel! Like you aren't whipped for your girlfriend". Now it's Kelley's turn to blush and the team laughs.
When everything settles I smile, "She's incredible. I don't think I could put into words how I feel about her. She's been with me through so much and makes me so so happy. She's makes me laugh and smile. She's there after a bad nightmare or when I'm having a bad day in general and always makes everything better. When I'm sad or insecure about something, she always knows what to say to make things rights again. She's everything to me".
I look around to see everyone smiling at me. I smile when I feel Christen start to run her fingers through my hair and I look up at her to she her smiling down at me, "How do you feel about her?" I smile and I don't even have to think about my answer.
"She's my everything. I love her. It's always going to be her"
Hey guys!!! So I updated. I know I skipped last time but I just needed a break. Also I'm set to go back to school soon and it's my last year before I (hopefully) go to college. And because of covid it's fucked everything up to be honest. I mean I'm behind in some of my courses now and I have to make it all up for this year. So I will have to lock down homework and study so I'm sorry if updates won't always be on time. But I promise I will do everything I can to make sure and try to update something. Anyways I hope you enjoyed. Until next time, bye!!!