It's Our Secret

Chapter 45 - Smart Choices

When Hayley and I both returned to England, she had to go back to Manchester whereas I had to stay in London. We hadn't talked about what any of the trip had meant, but we both knew that we found comfort in each other, and that, for the time being, was all that mattered.

"I'll miss you," Hayley said, putting her arms around me as I was about to head home while she was going to the train station to get on a train to Manchester.

"I'll see you soon," I replied, smiling.

"When do we play against each other?" Hayley asked me.

"Not sure, but England and Australia face off in November," I added.

"Well," Hayley said, "guess that's something to look forward to." She smiled, and placed a small kiss on my lips, before grabbing her bags and getting into a taxi.

I soon went home, and settled back into my apartment. I remembered the few months that Leah lived with me. She had just moved out of her apartment with Jordan, and needed somewhere to stay. We were happy. We were truly happy. I didn't know what to do. I didn't know how to feel. Everything, for the shortest second of time, had fallen into place. Everything was right, until it wasn't.

The next day, I had to go to training. The season started in a few days and it was time to get back into the swing of things. As I was about to leave the house, I got a message from Sam.

Sam: do you mind picking me up? Kristie stole my car.

I laughed at this message and replied.

Ettie: of course, be there in 20 minutes.

When I arrived at Sam's apartment, she was already waiting and popped into the front seat.

"Hey," I said to her, smiling.

"Hi, you look tan!" she replied.

"Yes well, Hayley was adamant that I wasn't going to turn into a sunburnt Brit."

"Very smart girl," Sam added.

"Why did Kristie steal your car?" I asked her, as we were driving along to training.

"Oh, she needed it to get to training," she replied. I was confused. What training?

"What training?' I asked Sam.

"Have you not heard? Kris plays for Arsenal now." I nearly slammed my foot on the break by accident, and took my eyes away from the road.

"What? Really? When did that happen?"

"Like during the Euros, she transferred. You're really out of the loop. I literally mentioned to you that she might be getting a contract!"

"Yes, but I thought that meant a loan to the Spurs or something, not Arsenal." Sam laughed at this, very bemused by my inability to read the news.

"Yes, well, she got a contract with Arsenal, and the rivalry in our apartment is even larger than before. Now I have both Inds and Kris playing for Arsenal so we really are going to have to beat them!"

"Of course, we can't have those two girls winning too much."

We were nearly at the training ground, when Sam got a phone call.

"Hey," Sam said into the phone.

"Hi," another Australian voice said, "how do we use the handbrake in this car? Both Kris and I cannot figure it out." I could infer, from the voice and the people mentioned, that it must be Indi on the phone.

"Sam, why's your car so stupid," Kristie muffled in the background

"Hey Inds," I said.

"Is that Ett? Hey Ett!"