Her Eyes

10. Old Trafford

Alexa's POV

As I was eating breakfast with the girls the next morning I found myself fantasising about my kiss with Leah. My back pressed against the wall as she took control, her soft lips on mine..

"You okay Oakes?" asked Lucy "you looked in a world of your own"

"Yeah yeah all good, just a big day isn't it" I blagged, dying slightly inside even though no one knew what I was thinking about.

It really was a big day though. Tonight was the first match of the Euros against Austria. I really needed to snap myself out of it and focus, I'd been working towards this for the past 10 years.

We were flying from London to Manchester for the match due to our tight schedule, god I hated flying. It was something I was going to have to get used to if I was going to be a successful professional footballer, but right now it just made me feel clammy even thinking about it.

Alessia asked me to sit next to her on the plane, as I did I scanned the plane for Leah, she hadn't spoken to me all day. As the plane was taking off Leah finally turned round to look at me from further up the plane.

"Are you ok?" she mouthed

Although my heart was pounding and I was gripping the arm rests, it made me smile slightly that she had remembered that I'm not good at flying. I just nodded at her as she turned back to the front with with her earphones in.

Alessia rested her hand on my arm as we took off and the plane turned in the air, she also knew about my fear.

"Right girls, let's play a game!" she announced

I smiled at her appreciatively for creating a distraction for me. We played a game where one of us had to wear noise cancelling headphones and sing the song playing through them and the rest of us had to guess the song. It sounds easy but Tooney is awful with lyrics and absolutely tone deaf so we were in hysterics, I videod her adding it to my story.

It was a short flight so once we'd made it to Manchester we went on a match day walk with the team to get our legs moving again. The mood was good, we felt relaxed and ready and I chatted to Millie and Rachel who could always be found next to each other.

The tunes were blasting in the changing room as we got ready. I noticed I had a few texts on my phone, among them I saw messages from my Mum and Lottie.

Mum 💗 - 'So proud of you gorgeous we'll be watching you every step of the way xxx'

Lottie 👯‍♀️ - 'Go get them mate, they've got no chance 💪🏼'

I'm lucky to have these people behind me, even though we both know I probably won't play this match it felt good to have their support.

I looked at Leah as we head into the tunnel, she had her game face on and looked straight ahead.
Her lack of interaction with me did make me wonder if she thought last night was a mistake but she must just be focused. It's the first match of the competition and she is captain after all.

As we walked out into the stadium it snapped me out of any thoughts of Leah completely. The atmosphere was electric. There was smoke and fire guns and the roar of the crowd was immense. I had never seen a crowd like it for the women's game.. okay I guess the Euros have started.

From the first whistle we were in control of the game, holding possession as the back line passed to each other. We weren't creating many chances which was hard to watch on from the sideline as a striker. Out of nowhere, Fran passed it to Beth who cut round a defender and tapped it into the back of the net. "YESSS" we all screamed jumping on each other, Beth Mead you legend.

The rest of the game was pretty uneventful and wasn't our best football but as the final whistle went we all breathed a sigh of relief. It wasn't comfortable but we did what we needed to do, we won.

I could see in Leah's face as she made her way off the pitch that she felt the same way, slightly dejected but relieved.

"Hey, first one down, proud of you captain." I said as she met my eyes for the first time since the plane.

"Ah hey you, thanks" she replied giving my shoulder a squeeze but still lost in her thoughts. Kiera and Georgia walked over and stood in between us chatting about the game. I wish I knew what she was thinking.

Authors note

Hope you're all having a good weekend ✌🏻