In the middle (Jesse Lingard/ Marcus Rashford fanfic)

Chapter 2

13 June 2018
Amanda's POV-
I woke up with a sharp pain in my back, soon realising i had fell asleep on Stina's couch. We had spent the night watching scary movies, which had me freaked out. I picked up my phone from the table to see the time was 8:21 AM.
I went over to stina to tell her I was going back to my hotel, all I got from her was a rushed okay and see you later. I slipped on my sandals and grabbed my dress. The sun was shining and i was dying of heat, I couldn't wait to get breakfast at the hotel. I walked across the street and into the hotel. The first thing I saw was the English team gathering and here i was standing in elephant printed pyjamas.
I could feel how my face started getting hot and my cheeks flushing red.
How awkward is this? I thought to myself, I'm gonna have to try to sneak past them.

"Have to say, love your pyjamas" I hear a voice say from behind me. I quickly turned around to be met with someone's chest. Since I'm so short I always seem to be chest level with everyone. I looked up only to see Marcus Rashford, the fangirl within me was going crazy but I stayed calm.
"This is not my finest hour" I said with an awkward laugh
"Coming home after a wild night out?" He asked me
"If you consider a movie night with my best friends a wild night out then yes we went partied all night long" I joked
"I'm Marcus by the way" he said stretching out his hand for me to shake. "I'm Amanda" I said shaking his hand.
"Marcus who's your girl over here" someone said from behind me, when seeing his face I saw it was dele.
"This is Amanda, she was just telling me about the crazy night she had" Marcus joked to dele
"Hi Amanda I'm dele"
"Hi" I said with a smile
"So keep on going I'd also love to hear about your wild night" Dele said
I was put on the spot and I didn't what to say, I felt so awkward. Then my saviour Pontus walked into the hotel.
"Pontus,hey" I said as he came over to us.
"Hey you forgot you keycard" he said
"Thank you, i didn't even notice" I told him
"Pontus this is Marcus and Dele, Marcus and dele this is Pontus" I said
They all shook hands and said they're hellos, I felt so awkward standing in front of 2 extremely hot guys in my pyjamas in a hotel lobby.
"Well I should get going, Pontus follow me up?" I asked giving him a stern look
As me and Pontus turned around to walk to the elevator we heard Marcus and dele say bye to us.
"That was so freaking awkward" I said while we locked arms. I put my head on his upper arm and just face planted.
"That wasn't that awkward" he said trying to reassure me
"It was awkward up until you came" I said to him
"Stop being so hard on yourself" he told me
We got onto the elevator and I could see Marcus looking at me and Pontus. Soon the doors closed and we were on our way to the 14th floor
"Imagine I'm gonna have to interview world class football players, what if I'm not cut out for this" I asked with tears in my eyes
"No you cant doubt yourself Amanda, look at me you're gonna have me behind the camera at all times and you know Stina is going to be right beside you, you're gonna do great you're just nervous" he said reassuring me once again.
Once we got to my room and we sat down on the couch. I was taking in everything, I was just so grateful to get the opportunity to interview these amazing footballers, I shouldn't of psych myself, it's gonna be okay I tried to convince myself.
"How does it feel knowing that Marcus Rashford has the hots for you?" Pontus said out of nowhere
I started laughing my ass off I found it so funny "where did that come from" I asked still laughing
"No I saw how he was looking at you, he was giving you those lovey dovey eyes"
"You need to go to specsavers" I said to him, I have no idea what he was seeing but he was obviously seeing wrong.
"I'm gonna go change then we can go get breakfast" I said to him trying to change the subject.
I got up and went to the bathroom I took a quick shower, brushed my teeth and did the rest of my business. I changed into yoga pants, a red tank top paired with white trainers. I just put my hair in bun and I was ready to go.

"Come on Pontus, lets go" I said and he got up and followed me out of the room. We went down to the lobby and started discussing if we should eat breakfast in my hotel or stina and Pontus's hotel.
"Let's eat in your hotel cuz we can wake Stina so she can follow us" I said not wanting to see Marcus or any of the other players.
"Okay can we at least get like a muffin or two, you know Stina is gonna take like 15 years to get ready" he said complaining.
"Fine" I said finally giving in.
We walked into the dinning hall where all the players were sitting and eating. I saw Marcus who smiled at me and I smiled back. Me and Pontus went over to where the muffins were.
"Can you hurry up" I asked
"Hey lift girl" I heard someone say from behind me, I recognised the voice as none other then Jesse lingard.
I turned around to face him and asked with a puzzled look on my face "lift girl?"
"Yea I never got to know your name" he said with a smile
"Oh right, my name is Amanda" I said
"Now I no longer had to refer to you as lift girl" he said winking at me
"I feel honoured" I joked
"I'm so sorry I forgot to introduce you guys, Pontus this is jesse and Jesse this is Pontus" i said introducing them
They both said their hi's, I soon felt awkward.
"Well I hate to have to cut it short, but me and Pontus have to get going" I said grabbing Pontus's arm
"Bye" I said to Jesse dragging Pontus with me out of the dining hall.
"You have both Marcus and Jesse after you, can't wait for Stina to hear about this"
"They're not after me" I said to him rolling my eyes as we walked out the hotel
After waking Stina up it took her about 1 hour to get ready.
"Finally you're ready I'm starving" I practically yelled when Stina was putting on her shoes. We went down to the hotel dinning hall, it was buffé style and I was exited. After we each got our breakfast and sat down it was time for Pontus to tell Stina all about what had happened
"Guess what I saw when I got to Amanda's hotel?" He said with a smirk. I just rolled my eyes not bothered to listen to their gossip
"What??" Stina asked eagerly waiting to hear more about it
"I saw this one flirting with not only Marcus Rashford but also Dele" he said with the biggest smirk on his face
"Excuse me I wasn't flirting with anyone, I was simply having a conversation with Marcus when Dele joined nothing more than that" I said looking a Pontus in shock
"Yea right" he said laughing
"Then when we went into the dinning hall, guess who came up to her?" He said
"Marcus?" Stina asked
"Nope Jesse, he was asking for her name and all that" he said
"You guys are so ridiculous, you do this every time you see me with a guy, this time around it's harmless chit chat, we all know nothing is gonna come out of this relationship so can we move on and get over it?" I asked
"Fine I'll drop it" Pontus said
Later that day 7:20 PM
Me, Stina and Pontus had spent most of the day preparing for tomorrow, the first match of the World Cup, I was overly exited to say the least but also nervous.
I was now in the hotels indoor pool that was on the 15th floor, even tho it was closed I wanted to swim. I did a couple of laps around then pool, if felt nice and refreshing. When I got tired and I got out, I sat on the edge of the pool with my feet still in the pool. I took my towel and started to drying my hair. I sat on the edge for a while just thinking, I looked out of the big glass windows. The city looked beautiful at night, I wish I could just sit here for hours.
I heard footsteps and the door leading to the indoor pool open, I thought it would be one of the workers telling me to leave.
It was then I heard the person say "lift girl" I directly knew who it was and I smile came to my face.
"I thought i was no longer lift girl" I said with a smile "or don't you remember my name?" I challenged him as he sat down beside me
"Of course I remember your name amber" he said with a cheeky smile, I just looked at him with raised brows.
"I'm only joking Ashley" he said laughing, I pretended to look shocked and hurt.
"I'm actually joking, I could never forget you name Amanda" he said emphasising on my name.
"I'm feel honoured" I joked
"So what you doing here when it's closed" he asked me
"just wanted to clear my head and take a swim, what about you?"
"Yea me too just needed to clear my head" he said looking out the window
"Nervous about your World Cup debut?" I asked nudging his arm
"So im guess you know who I am" he said looking at me, I just nodded and gave him a small smile. Part of my job I thought to myself, but didn't say anything.
"So are you nervous?" I asked
"Yea a bit nervous, you know this is a big deal not only for me but also for the whole team and pretty much the whole of England, it's a lot weight on our shoulders, we don't want to let our fans and supporters back home down" he said to me
I was shocked he was opening up to me, I wasn't expecting him too, I expected a short yes or something like that.
"Yea I could see why you'd have all this pressure on you, but I'm sure you'll make your team proud and your country" I said trying to reassure him
"What if I let them down?" He said looking at me I could see it his face he was really nervous.
"Im sure you won't" I said
"Sorry for laying all this on you, I know it quite a lot" he said trying to laugh it off.
"So what you doing here in Russia?" He asked trying to change the situation
"I'm here for work, it's my first big thing I'm doing since I started working and I've just been trying to prepare myself" I said to him
"I'm sure you'll do fine" he said bumping shoulders with me. I just smiled at him and looked away.
"So Amanda tell me about yourself, I don't know much about you except your name and you're in Russia for work" he said
"Well I'm 23 years old, I'm from Sweden, I've lived there my whole life, I have one older brother and 2 younger sisters, erm... what else would you like to know?"
"You're Swedish? I thought you were Hispanic or something? I'd wanna know what you like? What are your hobbies and so on" He said
"My dad is Brazilian so that's why I don't look like you typical Swede, okay so I'm like the biggest movie fanatic and series junkie you'll ever meet, I love watching shows and movies, but I also love swimming, working out, playing football, just being active in general. But I also love eating, anything from sugary to savoury, but I guess the working out and the amount of food I eat kinda balance each other out?, I also love hanging out with my niece and nephew, they're the cutest" I stopped talking when I noticed that I was rambling
"I'm sorry for rambling" I said looking down and furiously blushing. Why did this all of a sudden feel like a date and why was I telling a guy I barely know all this about me? I thought to myself.
I then felt his hand on my chin and he tilted my head up so I was now facing him.
"I find it cute, the rambling and all" he said smiling. He lifted his hand to to tuck a strand of hair behind my ear. His smile was so beautiful and every time he smiled I felt warm inside. It was contagious, an instant smile came to my face. Then all of a sudden he started leaning in for a kiss, I turned around and his hand dropped from my face.
I took my feet out of the water and stood up and wrapped my towel around my body. "I should get going" I told him "it's getting pretty late" I said looking at him.
"Yea you go ahead , I'm gonna swim for a bit" he said looking out the window.
This whole situation had just gotten so awkward, without saying another word I left and went down to my room.

How stupid am I? I gave up the chance of kissing Jesse Lingard, because I'm a pussy. But I did the right thing when this is all over I'm going back to sweden and he's going to England. And also he could get any girl he wants so why would he want me it so stupid. I knew I should of left as soon as he entered the room. I checked the time and it was already 8:30 pm, time does fly I guess. I decided to take a shower, I quickly dried my hair and changed into pyjamas. I contemplated on if I should tell Stina and Pontus, they'd obviously blow it out of proportion. But they are my best friends that's pretty much their jobs. I guess Ill tell them tomorrow. I spent the rest of the night on my computer watching Orange is the new black on Netflix.
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So here is the second chapter, I hope everyone reading enjoys the book. I'd love if you could give feed back and tell me what you think of the book. 
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