Close - Ella Toone

Chapter 12

18:00

Madison's POV

Tomorrow was game day. My 1st ever international game with the senior Lionesses. After practice I didn't have anything to distract me, meaning I've felt nauseous all evening from being scared. Then Keira suggested we should have a movie night in her room, to try and relax my nerves a bit. She invited everyone, but not everyone wanted to join as they had their own pre-game rituals for the night before a game.

When I arrived at the room, there wasn't much space as I was one of the last ones to arrive. Keira and Fran's room seemed to just about have enough room for all those who wanted to watch the movie. Per Keira's request, everyone brought their own blankets and pillows to use and she made everyone some popcorn.

"Madzilla I save you a seat by me!" Ella called.

"Madzilla?" I questioned quietly to myself as I walked over to her.

I climbed into the spot that Ella had saved for me, between Ella and Georgia. Lying on the other side of Ella was Alessia, and as I sat down she waved at me and said hey.

"Hey Less," I said, giving her the 'plz help me!' look.

She just tapped my leg before continuing to argue with Keira on what to watch.

Lucy decided to join in and requested a movie I also wanted to watch but it was quickly squashed and was told to sit back down by Keira.

Keira won in the end as it was her room and we ended up watching some sappy cheesy film.

"Really? It's clearly obvious that the guy is going to date the girl and it's gonna be happy ever after. Why this movie, Keira?" I complained.

"Whatever complaint you have deal with it or just say it in Dutch so I can't understand." She argued back.

"I agree with you Madison," Rachel said.

"I agree with Keira, but only because when you complain in Dutch it's kinda hot," Lucy said making everyone laugh.

"Can you please stop hitting on her," Keira said.

"I'm not hitting on her. I could never do that to Ella," She said while laughing.

"Ummmm," Georgia said not knowing how to reply to her.

"To Ella? Really?" I said.

"Yep," Lucy said.

"What do you mean?" Fran asked, rolling over to face us.

"Nothing," Lucy quickly replied.

"Can you guys please shut up? I'm trying to watch the movie!" Keira yelled.

"But this show is boring," Georgia said.

Keira just flipped her off and continued to watch the film. In reply, Ella, Georgia and I replied with the same gesture.

I ended up falling asleep 10 minutes into the 2nd movie which also was boring but was decided by Alessia this time.

When I woke up, Ella who I originally fell asleep on had been replaced by a few pillows which confused me and Georgia was cuddling me while being awake. Alessia was asleep at the bottom of the bed while Lucy was laughing really loud about something with Rachel and Fran was still asleep on the other bed. Keira for some reason was still watching the film.

"Where's Toone?" I whispered to Georgia.

"I'm not sure," Georgia whispered back.

"Why did she leave? Was she okay?" I started asking quickly confused as to why she had left and wasn't cuddling with me.

"Just shhhh," Georgia said already knowing where this was going.

I quickly scanned the room to make sure I just didn't miss her before ending up falling back asleep.

"Madison. Madi. Get up. We need to leave." I heard Georgia saying while trying to shake me awake.

"Why? What time is it?"

"Later than it should be. We need to go back to our own rooms. Come on," She said yanking me up. "Can you wake Less up while I wake these?" She asked pointing to the other 2 people asleep.

When I got back to mine and Ella's room, I realized that Ella wasn't here either. I called her and she didn't answer so I decided to text her so that hopefully she would reply.

I texted a few of the other girls to see if she was with them or if she was with them but she wasn't and a few of them were a little annoyed I woke them up from texting them.

"Come on, I'll help you find her," Lucy said.

"I'm a little worried about her. It's 1 am and we have a game tomorrow, well technically today."

"K, I'll check the pool. You check the lobby."

"The whole time we were looking we stayed on the phone so that the other would know straight away if we found her.

"Have you found her yet?" She asked.

"Nope," I replied popping the P.

"She's not by the pool," She said. "What do we do now?"

"I may have an idea where she may be"

I quickly got on the elevator to the top floor and under the chain that was barricading the door for the roof.

"Please be up here, Ella," I sighed to myself.

It was really cold out tonight.

"Ella? Ella. What's wrong?" I asked as I spotted her.

"I just wanted some air."

"For 2 hours?"

"Yeah, I guess,"

"What's actually wrong?"

"Nothing don't worry about it. I don't wanna talk to you about it."

"I see you're taking a page from my book." I laughed.

"I'm not joking,"

"Okay. And I'm gonna respect that like you did to me." I said. "Now why don't you come back down to the room and get some sleep? We have a game later."

"Okay. What time is it?"

"Quarter past 1."

"Oops," She said, quickly grabbing my hand and walking down to our room.