ɢᴏᴏᴅ ᴛɪᴍᴇꜱ ɴᴇᴠᴇʀ ꜱᴇᴇᴍᴇᴅ ꜱᴏ ɢᴏᴏᴅ

PART EIGHT - CHAPTER THREE; BEN CHILWELL

PART EIGHT – CHAPTER THREE;

BEN CHILWELL

9th July – 12th July

The monumental win to take them into the final is starting to weigh heavy on some of the boys as they head ever closer towards the final on the 11th July. However even with all the preparations and additional training it still isn't enough for the team. England lose to Italy on Penalties after the toughest match of the tournament.

Declan Rice, Mason Mount and John Stones all start for the final time for England while Ben Chilwell isn't even picked for the squad. Declan and Mason have to watch the defeat on the bench after both being subbed off late in the match.

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Harri feels an unimaginable amount of emptiness as she watches the Italian team celebrate.

She feels angry that Ben never even got to play or show his worth at all, she feels upset that her friends are all going through this, and she feels more than anything numb over the fact of this all being over.

Her arm stays strong around Daisy's back, trying to console her as she sobs. She looks to her left to see Ruby and Woody stood arm in arm, slight tears forming in Ruby's eyes before she looks to the right to see Tom stood clapping as the players walk around and Sadie and Laura stood next to him both just clapping away, but with nowhere near the same emotion as everyone else shows.

She looks back onto the pitch to see Ben heading towards them, she just wants to run down and hug him and tell him it will all be alright, but she can do that later, right now she is needed up here with Daisy.

*

Ben was in the middle of his family, each offering different words of encouragement when Harri and the others arrived.

His eyes had kept glancing over to the entrance every couple of moments, hoping to see her turn up, needing to see her soon.

He wasn't really listening to what Alex, his sister, was saying to him when his eyes caught sight of her, her eyes scanning the room for him with Ruby to her left.

"Sorry excuse me" he mumbles towards Alex as she looks at him puzzled until her eyes see Harriet walking in, her brothers 'best friend' or so he likes to call her.

Ben walks through the busy room, his complete focus is fixed on her as he watches her head turn to the left slightly and catch his eyes.

A smile fills her face, not one of pity or sympathy but one of adoration as she sees him walking towards her.

God, he's missed her.

She breaks away from the group as Ruby looks at her leaving before she sees Ben walking towards her as Harri continues her trail to him.

A smile falls on Ben's lips, one that she wasn't sure she would see tonight as he reaches her.

"Hey gorgeous" he said as his arms wrap around her back, as he brings her into his chest, her arms wrapping around the back of his neck as her head ducks into the crease of his neck as his does the same.

He squeezes her tightly, lifting her off her feet slightly as she speaks against his neck "hello my love".

The words send a tingle down Ben's spine as he feels her place a light kiss against his neck too, a feeling that he has really missed, the intimacy between the two of them that has been lacking over the phone for the last roughly 7 weeks.