𝐌𝐘 𝐂𝐀𝐍𝐃𝐘 𝐑𝐀𝐈𝐍 | 𝖩𝗈𝖻𝖾 𝖡𝖾𝗅𝗅𝗂𝗇𝗀𝗁𝖺𝗆

¹⁴. 𝖿𝖺𝖼𝖾 𝟤 𝖿𝖺𝖼𝖾

━━━━━━━━━━━━━   𝖩𝖮𝖡𝖤 𝖡𝖤𝖫𝖫𝖨𝖭𝖦𝖧𝖠𝖬

I'VE NEVER BEEN so nervous in my life, besides when I was signing with Sunderland. But now, I had to ask my dad a question I wasn't sure how he'd react to, and it had nothing to do with football. This was about Alex—about bringing her and her friends to my house for the game next week.

I'd already arranged for someone to pick them up, but the real hurdle was talking to my dad. He didn't know any of them. Alex and her friends were basically strangers to him, and I couldn't just spring it on him without an explanation.

I sat in the living room, my palms sweaty as I stared at the floor. I had to say something, but I was trying to figure out how to phrase it. I didn't want him to think I was being reckless or overly casual about it. I mean, Alex was a big deal to me, and I needed him to understand that.

When he walked in, I took a deep breath and stood up. "Dad," I started, trying to sound more confident than I felt. "Can we talk for a second?"

He looked up, slightly surprised but nodding. "Sure, what's up?"

I rubbed the back of my neck, feeling a bit awkward. "So, there's this girl I've been talking to, Alex. And, uh, she's coming to my game next week with a couple of her friends."

He raised an eyebrow, the silence stretching for a moment. "Okay," he said slowly. "And you want her to stay here?"

I nodded, swallowing the lump in my throat. "Yeah, and her friends too. I know you don't know them, but they're all good people. I just thought it'd be easier if they stayed here instead of getting a hotel or whatever."

He stared at me, still processing. "Jobe... you're sure about this?"

I felt my heart racing. "Yeah, I really am. I just wanted to ask you first, you know? I didn't want to do anything without your permission."

He gave me a look, but it wasn't disapproving. "Alright. But you need to make sure everything's arranged. I don't want any surprises, got it?"

I let out a breath I didn't even realize I was holding. "Got it, Dad. Thanks."

He nodded and walked out of the room, leaving me to let out a long exhale. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, but now that the first hurdle was out of the way, I had a feeling everything was going to move a lot faster than I expected.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━   𝖠𝖫𝖤𝖷 𝖵𝖠𝖫𝖤

ETHAN JUST WOULDN'T shut the fuck up. He genuinely couldn't process the fact that he was in Sunderland. He kept going on about the weather, the accents, and how different everything felt. Layla, on the other hand, was too busy on her phone, scrolling mindlessly. We were standing outside the airport, the crowd buzzing around us as we waited for the driver Jobe had sent. He'd told me he was tied up with practice and couldn't pick us up himself, which I completely understood. Still, the nerves were eating at me.