Faulty Trust || Katie McCabe

09

The loss to Liverpool didn't come nicely; in fact, it was a smack in the face. We'd lost our first home game of the season at the Emirates, and it just so happened to be my former team. It was embarrassing. I was also pissed I'd lost my first ever match with Arsenal, but there's only so much you can do, right? We can only go up from here.

What did come out of it was relentless teasing and questioning eyes from practically everyone who had eyes. All of us had seen the arrival video Arsenal posted with Leah greeting everyone when we finally got back to the locker room. Everyone saw the way Leah had been so gentle with Wally, which made everyone raise an eyebrow, even more so because it looked like they might've kissed. Though that was really just a rumour. The locker room was relentless with their teasing on Wally, and I had to put a stop to it simply because she was my best friend and only I was allowed to tease her this much. Plus, I knew it would eventually get to her head, and if something truly was going on, I didn't want her to overthink it because of us teasing her.

Lia avoided my gaze as much as she could after the match, and it was such a funny thing to me. Laura had told me Wally thinks I'd be mad at her because she's obviously not telling me something in regards to Leah, but I'm not mad in the slightest. I'd corner her later and get information out of her one way or another; she can only avoid her best friend for so long. She put up a good fight though because the entire bus ride she didn't utter a word and pretended to sleep most of the time. I knew she wasn't fully asleep though; her constant shifting in her seat was a dead give-away. Fooling me would take more than that.

"Em," Leah whispered. Causing me to look up from my sudoku book since she was across the table from me. I raised an eyebrow when she didn't respond to my look, but she held up her finger, telling me to give her a moment, which only confused me more. I took one of my airpods out, wondering if she had said anything else, but then she held a finger up to her lips.

Leah finished typing on her phone and turned it around so I could read it. I squinted, needing to sit up in my seat because I'd forgotten my glasses at home and took my contacts out for the day. When my eyes finally focused, I read the simple message Leah had written out.

"Is Lia asleep?"

With my eyebrows still furrowed, I shook my head, and she nodded, turning her phone around and typing out a new message. I waited patiently as my curiosity grew by the second; I had no clue where this was going, but it was rather amusing. Leah turned her phone around once more.

"Has she mentioned anything about us lately?"

My brows shot up now. Had something else happened? I quickly shoot my head, wanting to know what she was referring to because obviously it had some relation to what had happened in the arrivals video. Even in the darkness of the bus, I could see the way Leah's cheeks went pink, and the grin that began forming on my face was massive. She opened her mouth as if debating on telling me and turned her phone around once more. Typing slowly, which made my patience run thin solely because I thought whatever I was about to be shown was a good thing.

A few agonising minutes later, Leah finally turned her phone around again to reveal a small little paragraph depicting what had happened between her and Wally on matchday minus one. My smile grew wider the longer I read it. I was happy for them; it's been a long time coming.

"Wally came over last night like she usually does and was checking up on me since the league was starting up again and I'm still injured and so we had pasta and then chatted the whole time and then I convinced her to watch a Lord of the Rings with me and then I kind of got sleepy because I'd seen the movie so many times and I laid my head in her lap and she was running her hand through my hair which kind of lulled me to sleep until I woke up like right as the credits were rolling and I convinced her to spend the night because it was already late and I wanted her to get good rest before the first match and she wouldn't get that if she had to drive back to her place and then when we were lying in bed there was like a heavy moment between us and then she leaned in slightly and so I closed the distance and kissed her and then she let me wrap her in my arms and then we fell asleep like that."