You can't Outrun the Truth

Miss Americana

It was a Saturday at five in the morning, USA time, and I was on a plane. The last thing I had wanted to do this morning was spend thirteen hours on a plane, but I could see the national team girls later so it was worth it. A little. When I finally got off the plane it was eight-thirty and I had to find Alex now. Lucky girl got to pick me up early from the airport. I wandered through the crowd looking for her and once I saw her I smiled and sped up. I jumped on her and she hugged me.

"Long time no see Adair! How were your holidays?" She asks.

"Oh you know, busy. How were yours?" I respond deflecting.

"Good, we went to my parent's place in California."

"Fun! Are you excited to play again? You lot have just been sitting here relaxing!" I joke. The NWSL doesn't start until later in the year whilst we are mid-season right now.

"Funny. We've still done some training!" She protests. "Uh-huh," I agree as we walk to the car she brought. We were flying to France in three days and I guess they had wanted to meet in America first, I don't know. Regardless, it sounded miserable and pointless for me. "What's the point of me even being here? It would have been a lot less travelling if I'd just gone straight to France?" I ask her. "I don't know, so you can spend more time training here?" 

"I've been playing!" I remind her. "I know you have, you've been playing great. But here we are!" I sighed and checked my phone. "How's Blue?" I've wanted a dog for ages but my parents were never going to consider that, and I live with three other people now. "Good, you should come to see him sometime! You would love him!" She says glancing over at me before looking back at the road. "Maybe, I'm not sure when our next break in the season is though. And Orlando is a long trip for a weekend," I respond checking my calendar. We have an international break in Europe, league matches, SheBelieves Cup, more league matches, the World Cup, and then the league starts again. 

"Well, whenever you're in America. You can always stop by, at any of the team's places really."

"Yeah, I'm not in America often though."

"Would you come back to play in the NWSL?" Alex asks. 

"Not now, maybe in the future though."

"You should! You would probably be with at least one person from the national team-"

"I've played here before Lex, you don't need to convince me," I remind her. Playing against someone on the national team was a given if you were in the NWSL, much like playing with someone on it. With the exception of the Dash.

"I know you have, just reminding you how good it is," She protests.

"Uh-huh. You've done nothing but drop 'subtle' hints that I should spend more time in America. Why?"

"No, I have not!" She says parking in the hotel lot. "I'm just making conversation with my favorite nineteen-year-old!"

"I don't believe you. But we're here and I'm hungry." I take my suitcase out of the car and wheel it into the hotel with Alex. She shows me where my room is and I unlock the door to put my bag down. I see Rose sleeping and I quietly put down my bag before walking over to her bed. I lean my face down so its level with hers and say 'wake up'. Her eyes slowly open before she jumps and screams.

"Dammit London! Why?" She asks throwing a pillow at me, which I catch.

"Hey."

"You suck."

"I have news."

"Yes..."

"I'm pregnant."

"Sorry what?" She asks freezing.

"I'm not, but I do have news," I assure her. "You're trying to kill me. My gravestone will say 'Killed by a heartattack from one to many 'jokes' from her best friend'." Rose says. "Aww, I'm your best friend?" 

"Yes."

"So sweet Rosie! And I actually can't remember if I told you this news or not. I think I told Tori, did she tell you?" I ask spinning around to look at her.

"Tell me what London?" Rose asks pulling on a sweatshirt.

"I'll tell you later, I need food first."

"You're actually killing me, have I mentioned that?"

"I don't think so no," I laugh.

At breakfast I talk with Tobin about my season with Arsenal and the games we have coming up.

"We did have a fairly strong start," I point out. "Chelsea was a one goal game, you still started strong after the break," Tobin argues. "Yes but we didn't score until the 80th minute. We should have had more chances. We come back with one league game then a FA WSL Cup Semi final and a FA Womens Cup fourth round."

"You'll do good London, don't sweat it. The hard thing will be the turn around between the two games since they're four days apart. Don't want to get any injuries then."

"That too. Anyway, I'm excited to go to Spain. They have warmer weather than England and it looks beautiful."

"It's a good place for sight-seeing. And Christen has a friend there so maybe she'll show us around some," Tobin says. "Right Chris?"

"What?" Christen asks looking at her. "You'll get Jenni to show us around Spain, London needs to see some of it," Tobin explains. "Maybe."

Now it was just the Spirit girls and I in Andi's room. She was sharing with Lindsey who was out with Sonnett so hopefully she wouldn't come back soon.

"So, I thought Tori would have told you already because information about my life spreads like a wildfire amoungst you all," I say looking breifly at Rose. "But, I spent Christmas in the Carribean with Jackie and Merel because I called the police on my parents in the Netherlands and they were arrested and I couldn't stay there."

I watch them process the information and let it sink in. "That's great news London!" Mal says jumping on me.

"Ow! Don't jump on me!" Unfortunately that encouraged Andi and Rose to pile on and 'hug' me. Which is what Lindsey and Emily saw when they opened the door, so of course they joined the hug.

"Why are we hugging London?" Emily asks.