Faulty Trust || Katie McCabe

37

I let out a huff while scrunching my eyes in discomfort before shifting my face further into the crook of Katie's neck. My muscles ached from training the day before, or maybe that was the result of activities the previous evening. Either way, I had no rush to remove myself from the warmth radiating off Ireland's captain beneath me. Although the sun shining directly into my eye was making it increasingly harder to fall back into a peaceful slumber.

Katie, bless her, had still yet to invest in blackout curtains arguing the light filtering in through the blinds was a natural alarm clock. This actually backfired in late January when a heavy rainstorm had left the sky still a dark and dull gray meaning no light was really seeping in.

She was late for training that morning. I laughed at her.

It was becoming increasingly rarer that we would spend a night apart, and as cliche as it might sound... I couldn't sleep without her. At least not well. Most of the time we'd settle for her apartment because I was determined to make cooper love me more which was probably impossible, but I would still try. In hindsight I just really liked Katie's apartment. And Katie.

We'd also fallen into something resembling a routine. Sometimes I'd make us breakfast before training, and Katie would then make us dinner; sometimes roles were reversed, and sometimes we'd just get takeout or what not. But it went further than just food I suppose, and in a way our lives had began intertwining with each others. We did everything together always turning a one person job into two. We were also glued at the hip every single minute of the day, and when we weren't I felt a pang deep within my chest.

It had started maybe a week or so ago, just after Valentine's. Whenever I was around her, a warm feeling would spread across my chest; it would make me feel whole, complete even. The second she wasn't near me that feeling would disappear, and it almost felt like my heart was being squeezed. Like I couldn't breathe without her around.

I would be lying to myself if I said it didn't scare the shit out of me. Obviously I knew how deep my love for Katie was, but that didn't make it any less terrifying. The worst of it came when we were apart. Thoughts rattled through my brain, poisoning what I knew was true, twisting what I knew was real between Katie and I. Sometime's I'd jump to conclusions about unrealistic scenarios in my head. Assuming the worst was easier, but it cut deeper.

All of it fell away when Katie would show up at my door completely unaware of the sleepless night I had. It would stay that way though, my thoughts were something I needed to learn to control, to pick apart and prove my brain wrong. Deep down I knew what my brain was feeding me was false, but I hadn't the heart to convince myself so.

Letting out a softer sigh this time, my breath fanning against Katie's collarbone, I blinked the grogginess away. As I came to, I found a pair of deep blue eyes gazing at me curiously causing my heart to jump into my throat.

"Morning sleepyhead." Katie's voice was tender, accent thick with sleep.

I hummed in response, my fingers twitching across the bare skin of her ribs while I untangled my legs from hers to stretch them; Katie's arms loosened around me slightly as I did so. The quietness of the morning created a bubble around us. One that kept us from the rest of the world, and allowed us to just live in each other's company.

We had an important match today, Tottenham to be exact, but neither of us seemed keen on getting up and preparing for it. In all honesty I had almost forgotten about it until I'd received a message late last night from Leah explicitly stating to be prepared for absolute chaos. Also telling me I should get good sleep the night before, as if she had not sent that text past midnight herself; Katie snorted in laugher when I showed her before we drifted asleep.