My No. 23

Party Planning Commitee

Alessia's alarm rang loud the next morning cause both of us to jump with fright. We were due back at training today and fair to say it was the last thing either of us wanted when we were cozied up in bed together. She held me captive in the bed for half an hour before I really had to head home to get my stuff together for training. I made her a coffee before I left and brought it to her in bed. Her hair fell perfect even though she was just up. She placed a hand on my face and pulled me in for a peck. I lingered in front of her for a moment. Smiling.

"I'll see you at training then yeah" Alessia says gently stroking my cheek.
"Yeah" I move my face and kiss her hand then drag myself away.

I get home and begin flinging anything and everything into my bag. I've not even brushed my teeth and Kyra's chapped my door.

Mol: Be 5 minutes x
Kyra: Fs I could've kept watching the office x
Mol: you've got a phone x
Kyra: just hurry up x

I rush around getting my stuff together. On my way into the car I smack my head off the door frame.
"Fuck" I say falling into the passenger seat. I was met with Kyra belly laughing.
"Well at least you made the wait worth it". She said eyes closed laughing.

We went straight to the training facilities. When shutting the door an arm wrapped around my shoulder.
"Bell!" I heard Beth's voice right beside me. I take a deep breath and feel my body relax.
"Meado!" I call back.
"How was your Christmas? Did you go home to see the fam?" She asks.
"Yeah took this one with me" I gestured to Kyra, who was hugging Viv. We all started to walk I. Together the four of us walked in together.

"Yeah and they thought we were a thing!" I exclaimed, telling Beth and Viv how my parents thought Kyra was my girlfriend.
"Nah that's hilarious. You two are like twins" Viv laughed.
"Yeah it's borderline disgusting" Kyra said back mimicking being sick.
I push her off to the side.

We have a meeting first thing. Nothing out of the ordinary. Jonas just saying he hoped we had a good Christmas, if we were ready to get back to training and details on the upcoming game. He begins to talk some tactics. My eyes wander around the room and fall in Alessia. As if we were telepathic her eyes then meet mine. She flushes pink grins and looks away. The corner of my lips curl and I bring my focus back on Jonas.

Walking out onto the pitch for training I held back hoping to walk with Alessia but Katie wrapped her arm around me.

"Good Christmas Bell?" She asked. She was smiling. Completely different to the Katie I saw last.
"Yeah. Great!" I tell her. And I get into the same jokes about Kyra.
She laughs then pulls me a side from the group.
"Yeah I just wanted to apologise. I was wanting to text you but thought better to wait till I seen you" Katie said looking sheepish.
"It's okay" I replied not knowing really what to say, Katie never apologised.
"I know I was just in ma feels, being daft. But it wasn't fair on you or Less" she continues.
"Don't stress it. I just hope we can leave it in the past now and get back to normal" I say quickly trying to end to apology at the mention of Alessia's name.
She smile and drags me back to the main group where she steals all the attention with jokes about her Christmas break.

We were stood stretching inside circle. Everyone said how their Christmas was. I couldn't help but feel like Katie still had a look of disgust on her face when Alessia began to tell everyone about her family holiday, but she didn't say anything. I nudged her and her head snapped towards me with a big white smile.

It's a long day of training with loads of running. Way too much running. When the last drill comes to an end I allow myself to flop flat on the floor on my back. I can hear the girls chatter a wee bit away from me. They all seem exhausted. After a few minutes the voices start becoming more distant.

"Oi Bell" Katie shouts. "Arnt ya coming?" She shouts walking toward the changing room with Viv.
I throw my hand up and gesture to leave me. I take a deep breath and run my hands over the grass.
Next thing I know I feel a body fall beside me.
"Hey there stranger". It's Alessia's voice.
I struggle to open my eyes but I manage and squint to see a rosey cheeked Alessia resting shoulder to shoulder with me.
"Long time no see" I say squinting at her. "Who would've thought taking a few weeks off would absolutely kill a person off".
She laughs. "Yeah maybe next time you'll have to come away with me so we can go runs together... stay fit."
My mouth turns up cheekily. "Yeah go runs, or maybe we can find other ways to stay fit" I steal my stare away from her eyes looking down as I trace my fingers gently up from the side of her knee to the seam of her shorts.
Her rosey cheeks flow through her whole face now. I hear her take a deep breath. Then pulls herself up.

"Trust me Mol you don't want to play this game with me, I'll win". She says smiling offering me a hand to help me to my feet.
I scoff, "have you not noticed? I'm very competitive". I say letting my hand linger in hers a moment more than needed as I get to my feet. There's a pause as we both just stare at each other daring the other to give up. We both fail at the same time as we begin giggling. As we walk to the changing room we constantly bump into each other, both trying to be as close as possible. "Game on Bell" she says winking at me as we walk through the changing room door and she heads to get ready.

The only person who looks our way as we come in is Kyra who try's but fails to hide her smirk. She comes sits on the bench in front of me, joggies and trainers on but only her undershirt on.
"Sooo... care to tell what took you so long". She says in a hushed tone taking my body spray and spritzing herself. My eyes automatically fall towards Alessia and she follows my gaze. "Hmm I thought so" she finishes.
"You know if you want it to be kept low key you might want to try being low key". She says with an all knowing look about her. I roll my eyes and nudge her just enough that she almost falls and lets out a massive shriek.

On the way home, me and Kyra stop in at Sarah's Coffee Shop. She welcomes Kyra with a kiss on the cheek and a big hug for me. There's two coffees sat ready, Kyra must've text her when we were leaving.
"You guys go sit, I'll just go say I'm taking my break" Sarah says pointing towards an empty table. We head over.

"Thanks Sarah" I say as she joins us still with her sprint round her. She scoots in tight to Kyra. After the usual "how's your day been?" "What's been happening?" "who's pissed who off?" Kyra turned and faced me. Before all her attention had been on Sarah.
"Mol... I have a bit of a favour to ask". She says cautiously placing her hand on top of Sarah's.
"No way! Are you guys getting married?!" I burst out before I can stop myself.
They pair of them give each other a look and then start howling with laughter.
"Oh my god no" Sarah says between breaths.
"Jeez Mol, lesbians might move quick but not as super speed". Kyra said with a big smile. I composed myself and sat back up straight.
"Oh right yeah" I say quietly realising I must've screamed that for the whole shop to hear.
"No, I was wondering... well planning on introducing Sarah to all the girls... officially". She said again stealing glances off Sarah who kept her eyes glued on Kyra with a small smile.
"So I thought maybe a party. But I don't think our apartments are quite big enough. So this is the favour". She continues. "Would you be okay if we arranged a party to both our apartments since they're right across from one another it gives people space to roam".

I sit there quietly. Both their eyes now on me. I look back and forth between them.
"Wait... is that it?" I ask. "That's the big favour you've got to ask? Yeah of course we can do that. Kyra looks relieved as though this was a massive stress she had been burdened with.

Straight away Kyra took out her phone and began to show me the plans she had already started making. Dates, food, drink, playlists. And we sat for the next hour whittling the lists down (a bit).