Number 15 - Katie McCabe

8

My heart rushes as I park outside of Leah's house, my eyes on her door, waiting in anticipation for her to walk out. I send her a text letting her know that I'm outside and in the next couple of minutes I see the door open. My breath hitches when I do, she looks stunning. Her hair is dead straight and she's wearing a black mini skirt with a grey off the shoulder top to match, exposing her defined collarbones. "Hi." Leah says as she gets in the passenger seat and I'm immediately taken back to yesterday, flashes of what happened flowing back into my mind.

"Hey," I smile, holding eye contact with her as I switch the gear to drive, watching her as she puts her seatbelt on. "You look gorgeous." I add, while placing my hand back on the wheel.

"So do you." She replies, her lustful stare lingering on me before she turns to look out of the window. I'm glad that it's dark as she'd be able to see me blushing otherwise. There's a silence between us for the next few minutes, you could cut the tension with a knife, so I ease it by moving my hand to her bare thigh, still keeping my right hand on the wheel. Her skin is warm and soft against my fingers. I keep my eyes on the road, but I swear I can see her smile out of the corner of my eye. She takes my hand and interlocks our fingers while I continue to drive, playing with the tips of them as she uses her other hand to connect to the aux in the car, playing music to soften the mood.

"How was your day?" I glance over at her quickly before returning my eyes to the road, now tracing the outlines of her palms, making her shiver at the light touch of my fingertips on her skin.

"It was okay, I didn't really do much, just relaxing. What about you?" Leah replies.

"Me too, if I'm being honest, I can't remember anything I did today," I laugh as I slow down, looking for a park close to Beth and Viv's house. Leah smiles in response and I shift the gear to park, taking the key out of the ignition. When Leah goes to open the car door, I grab her wrist abruptly before she can. "Wait," I turn her to face me and place one of my hands to her cheek, briefly pressing my lips to hers before pulling away, knowing that I won't be able to once we're inside without everyone seeing. She grins at my confidence, closing the gap between us once again, making me smile into the kiss. It starts to turn more passionate, but I stop before we go to far. "Let's go inside," I say, our faces still inches from one another, I rub smooth circles against her cheek.

"Do we have to?" Leah asks while biting her lip slightly, placing her hand over mine on her face before I return to reality. As much as I'd like to stay here, we both said we would come and I told Beth that we were coming together. If we didn't make an appearance, I know that would cause a lot of suspicion.

"Come on, we don't have to stay the whole time." I reply as we both get out of the car and start to walk up to Beth and Vivs. While we walk, I wrap my arm around her waist, pulling her closer to me for just a moment before moving away from each other once we reach the door. Music radiates from inside as I ring the doorbell, quickly the door opens to reveal an already tipsy Beth, causing Leah and me to both burst out laughing.

"Come in!!!!!! What took you so long?" She stumbles, motioning for us to come in where the whole team is already inside as well as a few others. I can recognise some people who aren't in the team from the Lionesses. Leah and I part ways as we go inside, her pinky brushes my hand before she goes to catch up with some people, making me blush slightly while I go to get a drink from the kitchen. I end up mixing some vodka and coke I found in the fridge in a cup before spotting Katie sitting alone on the couch with a drink in hand. Some part of me feels bad for her for being by herself, considering there are so many people here. It takes me a lot to sit next to her, but I know that if we're going to be friends, I have to make an effort.

"All by yourself, McCabe?" I ask as I sit down onto the plush leather couch, taking a sip of my drink as she turns to look at me. Immediately I'm hit with the strong taste of vodka, realising that I got the coke to vodka ratio so off. I make a face that expresses that and Katie laughs when she sees while leaning back onto the couch.