Striker (Christen Press x fem reader)

Chapter 19 | Fooling Around

As soon as the two left, you couldn't help but let your mind wander to a certain brunette. This feeling inside was foreign, and you'd be lying to yourself if it didn't scare you. Yes, this new relationship you had with Christen was complicated, but you were not one to shy away from adventure.

Having a friend with benefits had its perks. From past experiences, those kinds of relationships always started out great. The two of you would sneak around, feeling that high and knowing you both could still be friends. Fortunately, you didn't have too many experiences where one of you caught feelings for the other and made things really messy in a short amount of time.

You suddenly felt scared for that to happen with Christen, because you joined the team already having a slight crush on her. But as time went on, the only emotion you felt towards her was confusion.

You still felt something close to her, but it wasn't the same as before. Typically, if you were feeling like this, you'd grab your running shoes and go for a late-night run, but with your injury, it made you go mentally insane.

Running was something you would always do to escape your stress. Literally. You would always imagine running away from them to be in your own happy place, and lately you haven't been there. You just hoped your recovery would go by fast.

_______   

And you were right. Almost. The time you were on your crutches, the time went surprisingly fast, but there were times where it was slow. Since your last doctor's appointment, it had been two weeks and you were getting a hang of your new routine. Early wake up, meditate, breakfast, physical therapy, rest/ice, lunch, more physical therapy, rest/ice, dinner, sleep, and repeat.

You would go down to practices as much as you could to watch the team and spend time with them. Since you were benched, it was harder to spend time with them, but you knew they all understood your new regiment, and some said they've been in your shoes.

In terms with Christen, you and her had been spending time together. Sometimes she would eat with you during meals, and at the beginning Abby and Midge were skeptical about it and kept cold stares at her, but she's slowly been warming up to them.

After your physical therapy, she would meet up and help you ice your ankle or wrap it up as you two talked how your day was going. And after dinner, you guys would sometimes meet in your room and watch movies and eat snacks. It was nice to have someone you could hang with and know there was something special about it.

Both of you were definitely beating around the bush of your relationship, but for now, you guys didn't want to ruin anything and wanted this pure innocence and happiness. Call it irresponsible or immature, you both were shy people and were scared to actually be proactive about it. For now at least.

Right now, the two of you were in your hotel room watching Mr. Peabody and Sherman while eating a bowl of popcorn.

"I don't understand why the dog invited that family to dinner when his son clearly doesn't like that girl and the father has no interest in being there," Christen chirped.

"Because he's trying to mend the families' relationship. And to prove being a dog parent isn't a bad thing," you defended with a soft smile.

"The fact you convinced me to watch this I'll never know," she teased.

"Hey! It's a good movie and one of my favorites for your information. Besides, you clearly don't have good taste in movies if you didn't know this one existed."

"Excuse you, but I have great taste in movies. Mrs. Doubtfire, The Parent Trap, all the Marvel movies, the Twilight movies, Crazy Rich Asians? I could go on forever," Christen sat up to look at you. The two of you have totally disregarded the movie playing in the background as your conversation was becoming more of a debate.