Lost Love

Chapter 16

After the light session we all went up to our rooms. Preparation before a game is an important thing for me. Listening to music gets me in the mood for the game. It sort of helps calm me down. I was packing my bag, my noise cancelling head phones on. I couldn't hear anything, which made Leah take her opportunity. She sneaked up behind me, making me jump.

"LEAH! Never do that again. You could've killed me."

I head giggling behind me. I turned round to see Leah standing, a big bunch of flowers. She gave me a light kiss on my forehead.

"These are for your first senior debut. It's an important date. I want to make sure you feel seen on it."

They were my favourite flowers. Lily's. I think they're one of the most beautiful flowers out there. The fact Leah remembered this, from one small conversation made me so happy. Extremely happy.

"Thank you Lee. These are beautiful. Your beautiful. You didn't have to do that."

"I wanted to. Your my special person, this is your special day. You deserve to feel like this."

Leah pulled me in for a tight hug. It felt like home. Leah felt like home, she just felt safe. From behind us, we heard sick noises. We turned around to see Beth, pretending to be sick.

"You guys are disgusting. Get a room."

Leah smiled at her,

"You jealous Meado? I'm getting that hint."

Beth walked out. We knew she was slightly jealous. I think she just wants to be loved. I understand that though. Well used to. Before Leah.

Leah left me alone to finish packing the rest of my stuff. I had ten minutes until the bus arrived to take us to the stadium. Because it's a home match, there should be quite a few supporters there for us. Me and Beth walked down to the bus. There was an awkward moment where we had to walk past Viv. Neither of them wanted to talk, they didn't want any distractions. We got onto the bus, I sat in my normal seat. I expected Leah to go sit with Millie, but she came straight to me.

"Five star treatment today huh? I wish I had more than one first cap."

"Don't get used to it, it won't always be like this."

I smiled at Leah, grabbing her hand.

"I really appreciate it. A lot."

Leah gave me a kiss before putting on her earphones. We both got into the zone for the match ahead. I wasn't starting but I wasn't expecting to on my debut. All I was hoping for was a couple of minutes. I think I've proved myself enough for that. We knew it would be a tough match, The Netherlands are an amazing team. But ours was better.

We got into the changing room. Leah was blasting music, hyping us up for the match. She did a good job with the music in fairness. She could read the room almost perfectly. It was actually really impressive. I was sat next to Ella and Nikita. They were both very loud, which is what I needed before a match.

The warm up was surreal. The crowd was building, gradually getting bigger. This was by far the biggest crowd I've played in-front. I was in awe the whole warm up.

"This is it girls. We go and prove ourselves tonight. We show the crowd and the world what the outcome of our hard work looks like. I'm proud of every single one of you. We go put on a show for the supporters." Sarina said, building the hype even more.

We walked out for kick off confidently. We've been through a lot of camps leading up to this game. We just need to show what we've done.

The match started off well. We had a few early shots. This rattled their goalkeeper. It was our ideal start. They came back at us with a few shots, but Millie and Leah handled them so Mary didn't have to. Keira played a ball into Russo, which resulted in a score. 1-0. They counteracted this with a corner, scoring a header. Technically it should've been called up for contact but the ref didn't see it. 1-1. It stayed 1-1 through half time, going into the second half. I was brought on at 55'. There was a couple shots from both teams but nothing that resulted in a score change. The clock read 89' and I decided to take my moment. Leah passed me through the ball, all defenders backing off me. They were expecting me to pass. I fired the ball, it went over the keepers head and skimmed onto the back of the net. The crowd erupted. Leah jumped on me, while I held her up. Straight after we reset, the ref blew the whistle. Time was up. We did it. The crowd were screaming. What a moment. We respectfully shook everyone's hands, talked to fans and then headed into the changing rooms.

Leah pulled me aside just before we headed into the tunnel. The stadium was nearly empty now, a long time had passed since we met the fans.

"You okay Leah?"

Leah looked nervous, but she was hard to read sometimes.

"Umm. I've got something to say- no I mean ask."

I just smiled at Leah, giving her the que to continue.

"Look I told you I wanted to save this for a special date. One that meant something to us. I couldn't be more proud of what you've done tonight, so this seems like the right time. Holly, I know your my soulmate. I couldn't do life without you. I don't want to do life without you. So. Would you be my girlfriend?"

"Yes of course I would Leah."

We pulled eachother in close, savouring the moment. This is what we've both been waiting for. This is what we both need. Each other. Just each other.