Mini McCabe

Chapter 4

There were a few days between call ups and leaving for the games. Lauryn had remained at Kyra's place the entire time only coming back for more clothes and to tell Caitlin to let Katie know that she was planning on moving to Kyra's once they were back from camp. She absolutely no intention of talking to her sister and therefore declaring Caitlin the middle man.
During the international break Lauryn and Katie both had one home and one away game except they were opposites of one another. Lauryn would be headed home first for her game and Katie would be going to Hungary to play. Lauryn was happy that there would not be any overlap time at home with Katie.

Lauryn POV
"Hi mum!" I said giving my mom a huge hug. I really missed her. Living away from home for the first time was harder than I thought.
"Hi baby! How are things?"
"Yeah not bad." I knew my mood changed instantly and it was clear my mom picked up on it.
"Anything wrong? Are you enjoying Arsenal?"
"No no I really like Arsenal!" Trying to change subjects real quick I started to tell her about my schedule. "I am going to hang out with Abby tonight. Long distance has been hard. And then we have to be at training in two days but tomorrow I was planning on hanging out with you and whoever in the family is around."
"That sounds great Lauryn. We've missed you I wish you and your sister would have had similar schedules so you could both be here."
"Mhhm" I saw my mom give me the side eye which I quickly turned my head to avoid. "Can you drop me off at Abby's please?"
My mom just shook her head. It was clear she knew something was off, but didn't push.
"Thanks for the ride mom. I'll see you tomorrow!"
"Bye Laur be good"

I quickly ran up to the door and took my present out for Abby.
"Hi baby!" I yelled as she opened the door. But from the moment she opened the door I could tell something was off. She wouldn't look at me and her eyes were a little red.
"Abby what's wrong?"
"Hey Lauryn. Come in we need to talk."
"Is everything okay?" I said nervously taking a seat on her couch.
"Lauryn I can't do long distance. I've been waiting to end things with you in person. I know Arsenal is your dream so I'm not going to make you choose. We tried it for about a month now and I just don't want to keep putting this effort in."
"Abby wait we can work through this. It hasn't been that long. I can come back more often!"
"No Lauryn. You cant. You have trainings and games. I'm not going to sit here and hold you back."
"So you've just been stringing me along this whole time. Why didn't you just end it before I moved?"
"I wanted to see if I could work through it. And I cant. I'm sorry."
I felt like an absolute idiot. I mean I was still holding her present for fuck sake. I stared at her a few more moments before just dropping her present bag on the floor and heading out of her place. I didn't know where I was going. I ended up walking for a few miles until I was in the middle of park on a bench crying my eyes out.
This week had been shit.
Didn't make the WNT because of my sister.
Katie tells me I'm basically not good enough and I've only made it for publicity reasons.
My girlfriend breaks up with me.
Damn I'm 3/3 right now. I can't stop thinking about how I should just pack up my bags and quit everything. Quit soccer completely. Move home with my friends and family. I'd be happier. I could probably win Abby back. As the thoughts flew through my brain I just wanted to scream. I brought my knees up to my chest and cried harder than I ever have before. But then something clicked in my head.
I'm not going to give up everything I worked for over this. Katie didn't get me here. I did this myself. I got myself a contract with Arsenal.
It was then I decided I'd go harder than I ever have before in these two upcoming games. Yeah it was for the U21 team but I'm going to show everyone why I deserve to be moved up.
With this new sense of confidence I finally got myself up and dried my tears. I eventually made it home to a confused look on my moms face. She saw I was crying and pieced two and two together. As soon as she opened her arms I walked over a cried into her arms.
"I'm so sorry baby. First breakups are very tough. But if you want to talk about it I'm here okay."
"Thanks mom but I think I just wanna go to bed."

I woke up the next day pretty miserable but I wasn't crying anymore at least. Plus having a lot of my family members over was a really good distraction. It was also good that the only other person that knew I was dating someone was my other sister Ella so at least I didn't have to explain it to everyone what happened. Ella and I have always been really close so I told her everything. Everything about Abby. Everything about arsenal and Katie.
"You are going to go out there and show everyone why you deserve to be there. You hear me?"
"Yeah I gotcha El." She hugged me for a while and it was really all I needed. God did it feel good to get all of it off my chest.

Our first game was at home and I had a really good couple of training days. I felt more confident then ever. So when I got the first touch of the game and decided to dribble through 4 people before taking a shot for 20 yards out and watching it sail under the crossbar I knew I was going to have a good game. I've never scored a goal in under a minute after the game started before so I celebrated a little harder than usual. My confidence was tripled after that and I ended up with 4 goals and 2 assists. By far the best game of my life. It may not have been them best way to get a confidence boost but I finally felt like I was playing for me and not in my sister shadow.
I spent a few more hours with my parents before going to the airport to fly out for our away game.

"I'm so proud of you baby. You played amazing"
"Thanks mom. I had a lot of fun out there."
"You looked like you were! Now I want you to remember something. I don't know what's going on with you and Katie right now but I know somethings up. Just remember at the end of the day you two are sisters and years after football over you still be. Just sisters. Not teammates. Sisters.
But at the same time I know you have a big name to live up to there. You're young Lauryn. Don't let the pressure get to you. Make your own name okay. But just remember we are all supporting you every step of the way. Especially Katie."

I didn't think I had the ability to respond to that without crying so instead I just gave her a right hug before heading into the airport to meet up with my team.
I knew she was right but what Katie said really hurt me and I am going to need her to prove she's sorry before I even think about forgiving her.