ᴀʟʟ ᴛʜᴇꜱᴇ ɴɪɢʜᴛꜱ

𝙵𝙾𝚄𝚁𝚃𝙴𝙴𝙽

The temperature in June was already quite stifling, they had said it was one of the hottest June's ever recorded. Mason still insisted on having his trusty undershirt ready for him to wear though, he was sure it bought him luck.

He had remembered how Daisy laughed at him the first time he told her that.

"Mase, a shirt doesn't bring you luck" she had said to him, scratching lightly on the back of his head as he lay across her lap "your talent and your ability on the pitch is what gets you results, believe in yourself more, not a stupid top"

He had listened to her words and a part of him did believe that, but he really was quite superstitious and didn't really want to risk it, just in case. However, for his training session today he went with just the t-shirt on, it was an unusually hot day.

Sophia had pulled her yoga pants up her legs, already feeling the sticky sweat at the back of her knees as she smoothed them out. She put her three lions top on and grabbed her laptop, she was ready for their first training session back.

She had missed the big welcome back yesterday, she had booked the day off after a crazy weekend with the girls, a delayed birthday bottomless brunch for her and she spent most of the day sleeping off the inevitable hang over.

A part of her was glad she missed them all coming back, however much she did enjoy seeing their faces again. It was because of her and Mason, she didn't quite know where they stood, not after their flirty messages the other week, she didn't know what that meant.

She knew she had to be professional at work and she was sure he would know that too. However, their knowledge and their actions were two different things and that was the problem. Sophia seemed to not be able to help herself around him, they would always spend time hanging out, talking and just being together when they were at camp, and she knew she needed to reign it in. However now it was spilling out to outside of camp and she didn't know if she wanted it to stop.

She headed into the reception, the early morning sunshine pouring in as she went to walk to the exit.

"Sophia?" a voice called from behind her as she turned "This was left for you" she said as she tapped at the smoothie sat upon the bar waiting for her, 'Soph' written on it once again.

"Thank you" she said as she smiled as she picked up the cup as she almost skipped outside into the heat.

She made her way closer to the pitches as Liam came out the doors to her left.

"Morning" he said, his northern accent rich at this time of the morning as he jogged to join her.

"Good morning" she replied back as she took a sip of her drink.

"Gonna be a good camp, I can feel it in my bones" he said as she burst out laughing.

"An easy camp you mean" Sophia laughed "once again these lads will have switched off from club football and will be using this as time to play about with their friends before going on their boozy holidays" she scoffed as they edged closer to the group.

"That is true" laughed Liam "but we can put them through their paces, really make them work" he had a cheeky smile on his face, thinking of the drills that they had set for them in the past. Even though Liam could be a smug git, he was great fun when it came to coaching.

"Besides" he said as they reached the boys as they ran around the pitch "haven't you ever wanted to make them really sweat?"

Sophia thought before she answered, her eyes searching for him as his eyes searched towards her, she held up her cup ever so slightly as he nodded at her, a thanks between them "Yeah" she replied, she had wanted to make them really sweat, but if anything, she had only really wanted to make one of them truly sweat.

*

Mason could feel the sweat pooling down at the base of his back as he started to walk back into the changing rooms. He was in desperate need of a shower and also some food. He had rushed breakfast this morning, the boys had joked that he would choke if he stuffed his omelette in any faster. But he knew he had to be quick as he kept an eye on his phone.

He was done by 8:42am, picking up his plate and placing it on the trays to be cleaned before rushing out of the hall and across to the reception. He waited there for her to appear, he was gutted that he hadn't seen Sophia yesterday, having been searching for her as soon as he arrived. It wasn't until he saw Josh and Liam that he found out she wasn't there, that she had booked the day off and a part of the excitement that he had for coming back to camp disappeared.

He thought his best chance of getting her alone would be in the morning, he couldn't see why she would miss her yoga session but 8:45 rolled past, the rest of the team who attended yoga headed through to their rooms and she wasn't there. He ordered her a drink for when she did appear and rushed quickly to the changing rooms to get out on the pitch for 9am.

Seeing Sophia walk towards the pitch earlier bought back the excitement he lost yesterday; he couldn't help but smile as he saw her draw the straw from her smoothie into her mouth. And when she looked at him and their eyes locked he felt his heart flutter, fuck, he was really starting to feel much more for her.

She was walking just in front of him chatting away to Declan who had come off the pitch before him, he had been wearing one of the performance vests today, so he knew it was standard protocol for her to have a quick chat with them each.

"Mase" Dec turned around and shouted "settle this one for me" he said as Sophia looked at Mason and smiled, stilling her steps so he could catch up with them.

"Go on" he said with a smile as he stepped between the two of them.

"Sophia said that I need to work on my speed more" he said shocked as he held his hand up to his chest "she said I was slow"

"That wasn't what I said Rice" she said with a laugh as Dec laughed too "what I said was he isn't one of the fastest here anymore, so he needs to work on that, it's all based on stats and facts"

"Yeah but I said I could beat most of the lads here in a race including you" he said pointing at Mason "and Sophia said your stats say you are faster than me, that's gotta be wrong"

Mason laughed as he looked at Sophia who was smiling at him "Stats don't lie" he said as he turned to Dec.

"Like I said Dec you will just need to put in more work if you want to be one of the fastest again" she smiled "like Mason has been doing, you need to be fitter, you need to work on it" she laughed as Dec faked being hurt.

"Watch me run now and tell me I'm not fast" he said as he shot off across the grass in front of them, speeding into the distance, leaving Sophia and Mason trailing behind, the last ones on the pitch.

"So Soph I have a question for you?" he said as he looked down towards her as they walked slowly back.

"Go on" she smirked.

"Do I need to be fitter?" he grinned from ear to ear as Sophia chuckled slightly.

"With the stats I would say you were one of our top performers" she said still smiling at him, feeling it hurt her cheeks.

"Okay and what about without the stats" he said as he looked ahead, seeing they were all alone now outside as the last of the team had headed in "personal opinion, how fit am I?" he said thinking he would test the boundaries, see if she was feeling exactly what he was feeling.

Sophie looked towards him; saw the way he licked his bottom lip before she turned away. She knew she shouldn't say anything, she shouldn't tell him what she had kept hidden, she shouldn't tell him the truth.

"The fittest" she replied back, admitting it all in such a childlike way as she kept looking ahead "race you in" she replied as she jogged off slightly, breaking whatever weird sexual tension they had.

Mason watched as she ran ahead, he had wanted to pull her back and tell her how he felt. That she was one of the most beautiful girls he had ever seen, how no-one could compare to the way she made him feel, that he thought she was also the fittest.

But instead, he watched her run, the way her ass swayed with every stride, and he thought to himself that if he didn't do something about this by the time June camp ended then it would be a wasted chance.