Don't Fight It.

Chapter Thirty-Nine

Chapter 39:

The team heard the yelling. They all tried to ignore it but they had no choice but to listen.

When Ali came out with puffy eyes, they knew they heard correctly. Ashlyn has yet to appear and Ali sat in the very front with her music turned all the way up, silently crying to herself.

"Go check on Ashlyn." Alex whispered into Tobin's ear and Tobin just nodded while getting up.

She slowly pulled opened the last door and saw Ashlyn sitting in a seat, playing with something in her hand.

"Ashlyn..." Tobin said cautiously.

"Hey." She replied without turning around.

Tobin sat down across the aisle from here. "May I ask what happened?"

"I fucked up." She said with a small laugh. "I pressured her and she shut me out. Two and a half years and you would think that I would know better by now. I wanted us to come out. I wanted to know why she wouldn't come out. I got my reason but by the time I did, she was already pissed at me."

Ashlyn held up the ring for Tobin to see.

"You know we were technically engaged?"

"Ashlyn..."

"I gave her this ring on a necklace so she would always remember my promise to her. I told her after that after the World Cup, I would propose in the correct way and we would get married."

"You guys will make up, this fight won't stop that from happening."

"Yeah I thought that too the entire fight but once she took off the necklace and gave it to me. I knew I lost her. She told me she won't marry me until I understand. She wants me to understand why she won't come out, why after fucking two and a half years, we still can't be a public couple." Ashlyn said through her teeth, grinning the ring harshly.

Tobin met Ashlyn's sad eyes. "So try to understand. Try to see her side of things, don't let this end your guys' relationship."

"Can I just be alone right now, Tobin?" She sighed out.

"Yeah of course. Just please try to understand." Tobin said before walking back to Alex.

"How is-"

"They were engaged." Tobin said before Alex could finish.

"What?"

"Ali has been wearing a necklace with an engagement ring attached to it for the last few days cause Ashlyn basically proposed."

"Oh my god." Alex gasped covering her mouth. "Did you find out why they fought? I know we heard parts of it but did you get the main reason."

"She wanted to come out. Ashlyn wanted them to come out as a couple but Ali still didn't want to. They fought. Ali took of the necklace and gave it to Ashlyn before walking out."

"So Ali broke up with her?"

"Not technically. Ali apparently said she can't marry Ash until she understands why she doesn't want to come out."

"Should we be worried about them?"

Tobin looked up and intertwined their fingers in her lap. "Let's hope not."

The plane landed a little later than expected, around 3:00, and everyone got off. Ali nor Ashlyn were talking to anyone and both kept their distance.

"Lex, I know you're worried about them but we still have our press conference. What are we going to say?" Tobin asked as they laid on their bed.

"Sorry." Alex said snapping out of her daze and laying her head in Tobin's lap. "We could just be like 'We called this press conference to put rumors about our relationship to rest. We would like to officially say that we are in a relationship and have been since late March. The entire coaching staff and players were told right when it happened and we promise to keep everything off the field.' Sound good?"