Childhood Flames (Ashlyn/You)

9

Mine and Alex's return to Orlando was quite warm, the fans greeted us at the airport and the club held a small welcome back party for us, where we got to hang out with Marta, and I got to surprise everyone with my hidden talent of speaking Portuguese, I had spare time in France and was forced to find a heathy way to fill my down time, so I learned Portuguese. Wasn't that hard, really. But I had a blast at the team gathering before Servando drove Alex and I home, Ali and Ashlyn were there, but I steered clear of them. I just stopped hurting when I met Emily. Alex is right, I deserve to be happy and not just hung up on my best friend. Serv dropped me off at my place and handed me my house keys, so I went in and smiled at the, now long since finished, renovation and remodel job, before heading up to my room, everything was just how I liked it, it was obvious Ashlyn helped keep up the place while I was gone, she's the only one who knows me that well. I sigh as I look at the tattoo of my best friend's shark drawing on my arm, I got it my senior year of high school on a dare. I don't regret it though, it reminds me of when Ash and I were just that, Ashlyn Harris and Y/N Y/L/N, her and I against the world forever. No heart break, no fake relationships, no being led on. I sigh and shake my head at myself before getting ready for bed and crawling in under my covers so I could rest after that long, exhausting flight. A restless toddler, a fussy baby, and just the flight itself are what really got me. The following morning, I get out of bed and get ready to head to the stadium for practice, but look over as I head to my car when I hear Ali call my name.

"You wanna ride with us?" She asks and I look between Krashlyn and my car a few times before smiling.

"Not this time, Ali. Maybe next time though. I'm ready to get behind the wheel on the roads I know how to drive on. Give me a month to hate American drivers again." I say and Ali nods. "Thank you for the offer, anyway." I say before getting in my car and driving off to practice, where I get dressed in my kit before getting breakfast and going over to sit with Alex as she eats, and eat with Alex for about fifteen minutes, smiling as Marta, Camila, and Monica come over as Ali and Ashlyn come out with their food, so they join all of us and we just enjoy the morning before we have to get serious for the next four hours. After Tom tells us to get going, we all head into the weight room and start doing what the new fitness coach is telling us to do. Once we've done all he wants us to do, he releases us to Tom for the remaining three hours of practice. I'm drenched in sweat, as is Alex because, well, Florida and we just got back from France. Yeah. When we get out to Tom, he separates us into three teams of seven, Ali's team is assigned the pink bibs, my team is assigned the blue bibs, and Alex's team is assigned the green ones, Aubrey is given a blue bib and Caroline is given a pink bib, 7v7 with flying changes, shouldn't be too bad. Boy, was I wrong. Blue hardly came off, it was so damn annoying. I was exhausted and the pink team was yelling at me to hit it while they were resting on the sideline. It's been about an hour and a half of this, and Tom says next point wins, so I take the pink team's advice and hit it, Ashlyn gets her hand on it, but the touch wasn't hard enough, it goes in and blue team is victorious. We're given a water break, so I go to the sideline and stay there, my arms over my head as I try to catch my breath. When I've caught my breath, Ashlyn walks up and hands me a bottle with purple electric tape around it, I automatically know what it is. Pickle juice.

"I know you're starting to cramp up." She says and I nod, taking the pickle juice and drinking some, handing the bottle back to her as she hands me a bottle of water, and I drink that, thanking her after I finish with the water. "Don't thank me. You're my best friend, it's about time I start acting like it again." She says and I smile at her.

For the last half hour of practice, Tom has us doing more fitness. Coaching staff surrounds the area we're using as he explains what he wants us to do. Ten yard sprint with a thirty yard jog to recover, same thing to get back to where we started, twenty yard sprint, twenty recovery, sprint thirty jog ten, sprint forty, jog forty, repeat, keepers were included. We had to do it nine times and I knew I was going to die, or my breakfast would make a return trip. The latter was most likely to happen, though, so I made sure to stick to the end closer to the trash cans. If Ashlyn weren't in the training room doing rehab, she'd have already brought me the trash can so I wouldn't make a mess of the field, but she's not, so I'm gonna have to hustle if I'm right. And I was, on the seventh round, I got a runny nose, so Merritt's assistant gave me some tissue to clean up, and he took the tissue from me when I was done, wrapped it up in a glove, and went to throw it away as I finished up that round, the girls were concerned, it was obvious, but I reassured everyone that I was fine, and made it through the rest of fitness and to the trash can before my breakfast made a reappearance. Once that was over, I headed back over to the team and put my arms over my head again, making sure to breathe through my nose as I caught my breath, listening to Tom tell us what his plans are for tomorrow's practice. We'd work on defending and Khano would have the keeps all four hours. When he released us, we headed to the locker room and changed back into our street clothes, and I gave Ali a ride home, since Ashlyn had the keys to the Jeep, and she was going to be here for another five hours at the least, so when I parked in front of my place, Ali put her hand on my arm and I looked over at her.