Numbers - A Ted Lasso OC Story

10 - Just me, and you

Nessa fumbled with the key to her dorm, trying to be as quiet as possible so she didn't wake anybody. University students weren't known for going to bed at a reasonable hour but 3am could be a bit excessive for them. She gently pushed open the door, expecting it to be dark and Zoë to be asleep tucked in her bed.

She instead found the a room lit by both lamps and a couple candles. Dimly but noticeably lighting the beds pointing towards her against either wall, small white desks pressed against the foot end of each.

"Well you are back late," Zoë says quietly from the desk on her side of the room as the door closes with a gentle click.

"I told you, I had a weird work thing. Had to break a hundred year long curse you know?" Nessa laughs under her breath, "What are you doing up so late?" Zoë was one of few post secondary students who had a mostly reasonable sleep schedule.

"Went out for dinner with Viktor and lost track of time," she laughs with a smile as she mentions her boyfriends name, "So now I have to catch up on the work I originally planned to do."

Zoë was a psychology major, she was always writing some kind of paper. Nessa analyzed numbers, and Zoë analyzed people. Neither of them were good at the other.

"But wait," Zoe adds. "You actually mean 'breaking a curse?' Yeah?" She laughs to herself, with little finger quotes around 'breaking a curse' "Sometimes I forget that you don't do sarcasm."

"Oh yes I do actually mean breaking curses. It was weird, but nice. I got to actually bond with the team. I've technically been around them for the past two years but I never really met or interacted with them, and now I'm working a lot closer to them. You would think pro footballers would be more stuck up but they are all so nice. With one exception." While Nessa is known to ramble, Zoë is one of the few people outside of her family where it wasnt nervous rambling, more like, comfortable rambling.

"I assume you mean Jaime Tartt? Number 9?" Zoë hits the save button in the corner of her document on her laptop. "I've heard stories."

"Yes!" Vanessa plops down onto her bed, hanging up her sweater on the hook beside it. "But just now he was strange. Vulnerable and shit, maybe he's changing, maybe he will be nice to his teammates, and coaches, and me... maybe he will pass the ball, statistically he'd be a lot better player if he did."

"Haha, maybe. He is a pretty good player already though, but I know what you mean." Zoë closes up her laptop, tucking it into her maroon school bag. She hops up onto Nessa's bed beside her, the tired bags in both their eyes apparent, even in the dark.

"How was dinner?" Nessa asked, leaning back to lay down horizontally on her bed, her legs below her knees hanging off the edge, feet hovering just above the carpeted floor.

"It was really good," you could hear the smile in Zoë's voice, "I know we have only been official for 3 weeks but I really think this could be something great. He's just so kind and funny, it just feels right you know?" Zoë leans back, copying Nessa and lying down beside her.

And then they just lied there, silently enjoying each other's presence. Maybe it was because it was 3am, maybe it was their joint exhaustion, or maybe it was the only lighting of the room being two cheap lamps, but they just felt... serine.

Vanessa was so happy for her friend, probably her best friend, she had never been this close to anyone. But one small part of her couldn't help but not feel happy, and that same part disliked Viktor. Sure he was great, but was he really good enough for Zoë? Maybe that's not what that feeling was trying to say, but who knows, emotions are complicated, and Nessa wasn't going to try to untangle those.

"Hey, Vanessa." Zoë breaks the silence first, she turns her head to meet her eyes, "Thank you for being such a good friend."

"What do you mean? Where's this coming from?"Nessa turns over, adjusting her weight onto her elbow, propping herself up on her side. "You look worn out you should sleep." She finished her hypocritical words with a yawn.

"No, no seriously," Zoë turns around tucking up her knees up to her chest, picking her socked feet up off the floor. "You might not believe this, but I've never had very many friends."

"Really?" Zoë was right, that shocked Nessa. Zoë knew almost everyone on their floor, and knew so many other people she didn't walk through campus without waves and short conversations.

"Yeah," Zoë lets out a laugh, not a real laugh, but one where you blow the air out of your nose and your chest compresses, "I tried to make friends throughout school, but I think I pushed too much when I was younger, people just didn't stay long, so high school I gave up a bit, focused on school."

Normally a silence after someone said something like that would be awkward, but this one wasn't. The still of the night, the warmth of the electric heater plugged in by the door of the bed, and them, lying so close, yet so far, from each other.

"Well," Nessa's turn to break the silence, "I'll have to thank you to then, it's a bit more believable to say I didn't have many friends but the notion still stands. I was just awkward and nervous and didn't know how to approach anyone, doesn't help that I've always been a massive nerd. I'm glad to have you, a real friend."

As much as she hated to admit it, aside from with her siblings, she grew up kind of lonely. She knew some people and she often hung out with the people the school forced her to tutor, but no real friends, not since elementary school.

"Good." Zoë yawned. "We have each other. Just me, you, and our school work."

"I'll always be there for you, no matter what."

"I'm glad we got randomly assigned to be roommates"

If Zoë said anything else Nessa didn't know. The long night had caught up to her, and one last yawn lulled her to roll back into her back, and fall asleep.

***

OMG YAY!

Sorry this took so long, I was sick for two days and then I hit some minor writers block and I've also been working on an essay for school so like I took a mini break unintentionally, BUT IM BACK!

Any way I hope you liked this chapter yay have a good night!