Jordan's POV:
I nervously ring the doorbell after taking a deep breath. A few seconds later, which rather felt like minutes, I'm welcomed in to the home of the Williamson family.
"Oh hi Jordan! I didn't expect you to be so early!" Leah's mum Amanda says when she opens the door.
"Sorry if I'm too early, I just wanted to make sure to be on time.."
"Don't worry, it's totally fine. Why don't you come in in the meantime? I'm sure someone will be happy to see you! Just take the stairs up and turn to the right and you will find her in her room, I'll tell when dinner is ready.."
"Thanks Amanda, looking forward to dinner already!" I say, smiling at the thought of food (yes I love food so what about it😁), before taking off upstairs.
At the end of the staircase I stand still for a second. Did she say left or right? Come on man, I know I forget things easily but this is brutally awful. After some moments of confusion I finally decide right, literally spoken even. It turns out to be a good decision as I can read "Leah" on a door a little further away. Reaching the end of the corridor, I gently knock on Leah's door. My nerves gets to me just as when I rang the doorbell, but this time it's even worse. I know 1000% Leah is the one opening, there's no chance of anyone else. The door finally opens and there she is. My Arsenal teammate and best friend.
"Oh Jordan, I didn't know you would be here already? Mum has barely started making dinner yet.." A surprised Leah lets out.
"I know, but I can't show up late my first time coming over. That wouldn't be a good first impression. So I thought it might be better to be a bit early.. Now am I allowed in or not mrs?" I say jokingly, while looking at her standing still like a frozen ice block in the doorway.
She immediately started showing me around in her fairly big room. Nearly everything felt new to me, these things I get to see in here is also part of her, the Leah I know. Some of the things she has I had no idea she was interested in. It amazes me how somehow the first impression of a person isn't always getting to know everything about them. I mean, there's so much more to it than what you sometimes expect. Both good and bad things of course. But this discovery was more than positive for me, you can tell it clearly passed the vibe check. Then I see something that absolutely melts my heart. "Leah, is that photo of the two of us?" I ask with a soft voice. "Well, uhm.. yes it is." She barely got out while blushing, clearly a bit embarrassed that I noticed it. "Don't be shy about it, I think it's cute!" I say, looking at the photo that pictures me and Leah together with a trophy. It was the first major title we won together, approximately half a year ago. Thinking back it was kind of a crazy journey. Leah made the senior squad less than a year ago, we became friends quickly and now here we are, already winning trophies together for the club we both adore so much. Incredible if you ask me, and the best part is we're only getting started..
"How about playing some type of card game while we wait?" Leah asks, forcing my brain to stop replaying old memories on repeat.
"Yes please, love me a random game of cards!" I respond.
"Alright then, GAME ON!" Leah shouts, eager to start.
Five rounds in on a game called 'thirty-one', Leah puts her cards down on the bed and says "Thiiirtyyy-oneeee, got ya mate!"
"That's not fair, you must've shuffled the cards in your own favor.. No one can win after playing barely five rounds! This time I will shuffle the cards. Okay?" I say a bit frustrated. I'm not mad at her, I just hate losing.
"Okay, go on then Jord." She responds playfully. That makes me even more determined to win this time. She won't be that quick to sort her hand of cards out, I'm getting my revenge now. I start handing out the playing cards, three cards for each of us on the hand, and put the rest of the bunch in between us. So far so good after the first round. In the second round I pick a card from the top of the bunch and nearly jump off of the bed. I got a good card and can now swap it with a rubbish card I have in hand. I put down a clubs four card on the stack beside the bunch of new unknown cards. I'm so close to winning, all I need now is an Ace of hearts to complete my collection of two face cards in the same suit. It's Leah's turn and I'm quite relaxed, I feel like I for the first time have control over the game. No pressure on me, all pressure on her and in my opinion rightly so.
