University of Essex | Practice pitch
"Tommo!"
Louis drops his bag onto the bench and grins at his friends as they barrel toward him, dodging Liam and Zayn's attempts to pelt him with ice chips while Niall crows happily behind them.
"Oi! Is this any way to treat your captain? I'm insulted." Louis wipes at his practice jersey, flinging off the quickly melting ice.
Zayn laughs and Liam pulls him into a half-hug, "Oh, captain! My captain! S'good to have you back, mate."
"Feels good to be back," he laughs into Liam's hair, returning the squeeze.
"And it was about damn time too," Zayn spits. He turns serious for a moment, eyes scanning the Essex practice field, "S'turned into a bloody circus 'round here. We've not been drilling a week and Brewer's already busted his ankle up and Sully's chipping looks like shit!"
He shouts the last part as the aforementioned male jogs along the side of the field within earshot.
"I heard that, you dick!" But Zayn isn't paying him any attention.
Louis laughs but then sobers, scrubbing a hand through his hair, "Brewer's ankle serious?"
Liam shrugs, "Don’t know for sure. He's been off it a few days but medic said we shouldn't risk it."
Louis sighs heavily, anxiety building in his gut. Losing their best forward right now really isn't an option.
"How's the knee?"
Louis’ eyes flicker to Niall. The Irish goalkeeper is taking long swigs of water from the cooler, eyes and cheeks bright.
Louis gives the knee in question an experimental shake as if to test its stability, even though he knows by now it really is fine. His mind is still trying to catch up though, still a bit stuck in the immediate days after his accident earlier in the summer.
Louis always thought if he was ever unfortunate enough to get injured it would be on the pitch, not from being t-boned by some arsehole running a red light. Thankfully, his car had taken most of the damage (although his fractured knee would beg to differ). They’d done the surgery as soon as possible and his doctor had given him a clean bill of health a week ago. Today was his first day back to practice at Essex.
"Good as new, Nialler. Surgery went well."
"So you're back from summer holiday for good then?" Zayn ribs.
Louis rolls his eyes. "I wouldn't call being trapped in a bed for six weeks much of a holiday, but yes."
"I'm sure it wasn't all bad, Tommo," Zayn laughs and gives his shoulder a good tap, "I'm sure Calder was there to bring you breakfast in bed.”
Louis coughs, "Yeah, uh...Not exactly."
Louis inwardly groans at the confused looks now flittering between his friends. This wasn’t a discussion he wanted to have today. Or, um, ever.
"We, uh, we sort of...I sort of finished with her."
"Wha’?" Niall squawks.
"You dumped her?” Zayn interrupts. Louis nods faintly after a beat of silence. He gives a cursory glance to the field beyond them where his other teammates are milling about, waiting for practice to start and he can feel his skin buzzing with his own excitement. He really doesn’t want to have this conversation right now.
“And when did this happen?"
Louis breaks eye contact from his clearly shocked friends as he pretends to mull the question over. Was breaking up with his girlfriend that big of a shock? Sure, they’d been dating for more than a year but surely his friends couldn't have expected him to stay with her forever? He honestly didn't know what the big deal was.
