𝚜𝚘𝚖𝚎𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚕𝚒𝚔𝚎 𝚕𝚘𝚟𝚎... // 𝙵𝚎𝚛𝚛𝚊𝚗 𝚃𝚘𝚛𝚛𝚎𝚜

3

~ Author's Note ~

Just want to thank pedrified for making two awesome moodboards and editing two awesome pictures that were in the introduction, the last chapter, and who, if you're interested, has a book in which you can request GIFS, moodboards, etc. Thanks so much!

MANCHESTER

Jadrien's Perspective

I have always kind of been prone to having crushes on guys. But guys that I really shouldn't have a crush on, for various reasons. When me and Eric were teenagers, and he was playing for Barcelona alongside Ansu, I had a huge crush on Ansu. Now, the reason why this crush was weird is because at that time, me and Eric were sixteen-years-old, while Ansu was only fourteen. I was a sixteen-year-old model who had a crush on a scrappy fourteen-year-old friend of my brother who played football. Doesn't quite match up, right?

Then Eric went to Manchester. And, of course, I just had to find the one to fall in love with there, too. Naturally. Because, also of course, I couldn't just let Eric run off to England without me. We moved there together. He played football, and I modeled, and I fell in love with freaking Phil Foden. Well, at least this one wasn't strange on the subject of age, but now it was strange on the subject that Phil had a girlfriend, and was completely not interested in me. I mean, he was nice enough to the seventeen-year-old dreamy me, but he had his own relationship with Rebecca, and that is good and fine.

Thank God I didn't have a chance to get with Phil Foden. Thank God.

Of course, my silly teenage heart broke when I heard he was going to have a kid, and I remember one specific night, after a game. Me and Eric were sitting outside on our porch, and I remember talking to him.

"You heard Phil's having a kid, right?" he had asked me.

"Of course," I said simply.

"How do you feel about that?" I remember vividly the way the setting sun reflected on my brother's face. I remember the way he took a sip of his drink. I remember the way he gave me a brief, sideways, glance.

"Bad, but good," I said. "I like him, as you know, a lot, but it's good to see him happy with his girlfriend and his kid."

He nodded at that, and ignored the tears filling in my eyes, which he always did, always does, and always will do, which I love that he does.

I have this bad habit of becoming addicted to boys.

I remember I cried quietly there with Eric next to me for a few minutes, before he finally said softly, shaking his head, "Jade, you're just going to have to let him go."

I remember shaking my head, and saying through tears, "I can't, Eric."

And he looked up, and our different colored eyes met, and he said to me, "I know you think you can't. But you have to, you're going to. I know it. You're gonna move on from Phil."

"Yeah? Well it sure doesn't feel like that!" I say too loudly to my brother. I stood up, and turned, and went inside, leaving him out there. Last thing I heard before entering our home was a deep sigh from my younger brother.

I was mad at him, but for a bad reason. He told me what I didn't want to hear, but I needed to accept. He's always had a talent for doing that. And I'm sure that talent won't be going away any time soon.

Then, in 2020, another guy came to Manchester City, and something about him caught my eye. Now, I'm not saying my love for Phil went away, because, unfortunately, it didn't. Not then. I still was obsessed with him, trust me. But another player caught my eye, and although Phil was still the one I watched the most, and then my brother, Eric, this guy was the one I watched third the most.