In the middle (Jesse Lingard/ Marcus Rashford fanfic)

Chapter 4

Amanda's outfit for when she's going out with Marcus^
15 June 2018
Amanda's POV-
I woke up by my alarm i had set, I groaned and just rolled over and shoved my face into my pillows. I had been up tills really late finishing my article, I got done around 3 AM.
I checked the time on my phone it was 7:40 AM, I felt like a zombie. I had a match to write an article on that started in a couple of hours. I just wanted to lay in bed all day and not move. I was glad that I didn't have to actually interview any players until the 18th. The match I was writing about is between Uruguay vs Egypt. I was hoping to get to write an article on the Portugal v Spain match. I'm glad I could watch this match from the comfort of my room tho.
I decided to get dressed and to go down stairs to get some breakfast. I put on my denim skirt and a yellow tank top. I didn't put any makeup on and I just put my hair in a bun.
I decided to text Stina and Pontus who were probably still asleep.
*Group chat*
A: are any of you awake?
A: if not when you guys wake up come to my room, before the match and if one of you could buy snacks that be great, see ya later suckers
-
I went down to the dining hall to get some breakfast, I was planning on going back to my room and eating my breakfast. I saw the English National Team eating breakfast they were being served something special probably some healthy protein stuff. I got my toast and fruit salad. As I got my food and was heading out, Marcus came up to me.
"Hey, where you going?" He asked me with a smile on his face.
"Hey, I was just about to eat breakfast back in my room" I told him
"No no no, you're not eating alone, come sit with me and the guys" he said while taking my plate.
I really didn't want to sit with them I felt so awkward, I just followed him over to the table he was sitting at. He placed my food on the table and pulled out the seat for me.
He was sitting with Danny Welbeck, Jesse, Harry Kane, Kyle Walker, and Ashley Young. I sat down and pulled my phone from my back pocket and onto the table. Marcus sat down next to me and on my right was  Ashley Young.
"Guys this is Amanda, my friend" he said awkwardly
I shook all their hands and they introduced themselves.
"Nice to meet you all" I said to them
"So Amanda Marcus here tells us you guys are friends, are you sure you aren't more then friends" Ashely asked me
"No were just friends" I said and I could feel my cheeks getting warm and turning red.
I quickly glanced over to Jesse and he just gave me a smile.
"So Amanda what are you doing here in Russia?" Harry asked
"I'm here for work" I told him
"For how long?" Danny asked
"For a couple of weeks"
"Will have time to watch any matches while here?" Harry asked. I didn't want to tell them I was a sports journalist, I wasn't quite sure why but I didn't want to tell them so I didn't.
"Yes I was actually at the opening match yesterday" I said
"Oh really, what did you think of it?" Jesse asked
"If I'm being honest here it was quite boring, you could clearly tell who was going to win the match after like the first 5 minuets, Russia was clearly the more dominant team" I said
"Who are you backing during the tournament?" Marcus asked
"I'm Swedish, so I want Sweden to win, but Iceland is my underdog team I think they can go far"
"Ay what about us??" Ashley joked as he pretended to look hurt
"If Sweden and Iceland get out I guess I could back you guys" I said smiling at Ashley
"What about brazil? Your half Brazilian right?" Jesse said
"Yes I am, I guess I could back you guys after Sweden, Brazil and Iceland, but my money is on Sweden, we're dreaming of the summer of 94" I said
"What happened 94, Sweden haven't won a World Cup before, have they?" Marcus asked
"No we haven't won a World Cup before, but we won the bronze" I said
"You guys are dreaming of a bronze medal?" Ashley asked me while laughing
"We know we're not gonna win the World Cup, but with the current squad we have a bronze medal is possible, obviously we'd want to win but he have to be a bit realistic here, also everything happening in Sweden is pointing to the summer 94, it's the hottest summer in Sweden's history, the year of 94 was the hottest summer in Sweden's history and if we go trough the group stage with a penalty, we're most likely taking the bronze home, we're optimistic but also realistic" I informed them on my theory with a proud smile
"That's quite an interesting theory you've got there" Harry said laughing
My phone starting ringing which startled us all of us, I checked the caller ID and it read "💸Sugardaddy💸", Kyle who was sitting beside me must of seen the caller ID because he started laughing his ass off. Everyone seemed so confused and thats when I quickly grabbed my phone and said "I'm sorry I have to take this phone call" and got up.
"Understand seems very urgent" Kyle joked and I just glared at him
"Hey" I said after answering
"Hey, just woke up where are you?" I heard Stina's groggy morning voice on the other end of the phone
"I'm eating breakfast, I woke up quite early, otherwise I would of slept in all day" i said to her
"Okay, gonna wake Pontus up, eat breakfast then come over to you with snacks, sound good?" Stina said
"Yea also I've got a story and a half for you" I said to her
" ooh can't wait for this, see you in a bit" she said
"Bye"
I went back to the table, all eyes on me when I returned Kyle must of told them.
"I have to go, I've some work to catch up on" I said while standing behind my previous seat
"I'll see you later" I said while looking at Marcus and putting my hand on his shoulder
"Yea I'll see you tonight" he said while looking up at me and smiling.
I said bye to the rest of the guys and walked out of the dining hall.
I went back to my room and slumped down on my couch.
I didn't want Marcus or Jesse to think I had a sugar daddy, I guess I could explain to Marcus tonight, it would be a really weird story to explain but I guess we both get a laugh out of it.
few hours latter- 4:21 PM
"You have to get ready" Stina said taking my laptop from me
"I'm almost done with my article, i need send it in before the Portugal match tonight" i said
"Fine but at least sit down at your vanity so i can straighten your hair" she yelled at me
"Fine" I said walking over to my vanity. I sat down and placed my laptop on the vanity. Stina was straightening my hair while I was finishing up on my article.
"So what are you gonna wear?" Pontus asked me as he laid down on my bed.
"My white dress with red polkadots, can you please get it out for me?" I asked Pontus
"Yea where is your suitcase?" He asked
"I have all my clothes in the closet"
"I don't get why you actually unpack and all that, you're just gonna have to repack it and all" Stina said
"I like to keep stuff organised"
"Omg I also forgot to tell you guys, I ate breakfast with Marcus, Jesse and some of the other guys from the team it was nice and we were talking chilling" I said
"Okay then what happened"
"Well Stina you called me and you know your name is saved under Sugar daddy and Kyle Walker saw and when I went of to talk to you he told the rest of the guys"
Both Stina and Pontus started dying of laughter
"Omg that's so awkward, did you at least explain?" Pontus asked
"Yea I was just like don't get me wrong my sugar daddy is my best friend, of course I didn't explain I just basically ran out of there i said looking at Pontus. As I continued finishing my article and getting ready, Stina and Pontus kept on mocking me. I did a light Natural makeup look, I then put my dress on and tied the knot in the front which made my boobs look great not gonna lie. To finish off my look I put on some red high heels which I'm probably gonna regret I put on later on tonight. We were all sitting in my room and 5:30 PM rolled around and there was a knock on my door.
"I'll be back soon kids, order room service or something and don't mess up my room" I said to Stina and Pontus as I patted them both on the head. I grabbed my purse and walked towards the door and I heard them yell good luck after me
I took a deep breath before opening the door, there stood Marcus, handsome as ever.
"Hey" He said to me while giving me a hug.
"Hey" I said as I hugged him back.
"You look amazing" he said as he looked me up and down
"You look good too" I said smiling at him
"So should we get going?"
"Yea" I said closing the door to my room behind me.
"So what are we doing?" I asked as we walked towards the elevator
"I thought we could go to get some food, hopefully it won't be too many people out" he said
"Well Portugal and Spain are playing so I bet you the bars and all are gonna be full" I said
"Oh yea almost forgot about the match" he said.
After arriving in the lobby, Marcus said we should take the back exit since the front had a lot of paparazzi and a bunch of fans.
We made small talk as we walked to the restaurant we were gonna eat at, it wasn't that busy, it looked really fancy though.
The waiter lead us to our table and that's when I started to get really nervous.
After sitting down and ordering our food, it was silent for a bit both of us were clearly nervous.
"I was kinda shocked you showed up?" I said after a bit
"Why wouldn't I of showed up?" He asked confused
"I'm 100% sure that Kyle told you guys who called me and right after the call I had to go and work, it all seemed suspicious" I said
"Yea not gonna lie did seem a bit suspicious" he said while laughing
"So do you have a sugar daddy?" He asked
"No I don't, it's actually a funny story" I said to him
"Okay tell me" he seemed kinda eager to know
"So my "sugar daddy" is Stina my best friend, you met her, basically we went to France and I'm usually can't keep track of like my credit card and stuff like that, so when we went to France I put the money I was bringing in Stinas bank, so like at dinner it looked like  she was paying for me, if I wanted to buy something she was paying, so theres this restaurant we use to go to every night, on our last night our waiter said something along the lines of why is she always paying for you, is she your sugar daddy or something like that, it was so funny at the time and it became an inside joke" I said explaining the story of how Stina became my "sugar daddy"
Marcus just laughed at the story "I'm glad you don't actually have a Sugar daddy, me and the guys we're sort of jumping to conclusions" He said laughing awkwardly
"What? Like that I was in russia to meet my Russian sugar daddy?" I asked laughing
"Yea something along the lines of that, okay if you're not here meeting your Russian sugar daddy, then what are you doing here in Russia?"
"I'm here for work" I said
"Okay what do you work as?"
"I'm a spots journalist"
"Oh that's cool, is this your first big tournament reporting on?" He asked
"Yea I haven't really interviewed any players or anything like that, I've only written articles on the opening match and the Uruguay V Egypt" 
"Yea I saw that match, ended in a win to Uruguay right?"
"Yea, Egypt put up a good fight tho, Salah wasn't playing this match, sad to lose on your birthday" I said
"It was his birthday?" Marcus asked
"Yea, a tough loss"
"So what matches are you going to be reporting on next?" He asked
"The next 2 games are Iceland V Argentina, then Germany V Mexico"
"Are you exited?" He asked
"Yea I'm quite exited to watch them play, both matches will definitely be interesting"
"Yea"
"How do you feel about your upcoming match?" I asked
"I'm both nervous and exited, we all hoping for a win" he said
"Yea must be crazy, going from playing football in the streets to playing in the World Cup" I said
" Yea it's amazing I never thought this was gonna happen in all honesty, I never thought I'd get this far" he said
For the rest of the dinner we just continued to get to know each other, we talked about football, he told me about his childhood, we talked about movies and tv shows. It was really nice just talking to him, he's one of the most genuine people I had ever met.
After finishing up our dinner and sitting and talking to each other we decided to go get ice cream. We had been told that there was a ice cream parlour down the street from the restaurant. As we started walking towards the ice cream parlour I noticed how cold it was. The fact that I had a short sleeveless dress wasn't helping me that much.
"Are you cold?" Marcus asked me
"Yea a bit" I said. He then started to take off the black denim jacket he was wearing.
"What about you, aren't you gonna get cold?" I asked
"No I'm gonna be fine" he said putting the jacket on my shoulders. I put on the jacket and it was warm and nice, it smelled like him too, which was amazing.
After getting our ice cream we sat down at a near bench.
"So I've told you about my childhood and why I was so interested in football, tell me about yours" he said
"So I kinda grew up In a rough area in Sweden, Rosengård, it was a gang and drug infested area, my older brother and I are close in age, so we'd always play football together, Fifa and all that stuff, since I was a girl I was never approached to join gangs or anything like that, but I saw how my brother was effected by all of this, he didn't really know where to draw the line between friendship and illegal activity." I said sort of briefly touching upon my childhood
"What made you like want to leave 'the hood'?" He asked
"Well we all saw Zlatan make it, it was incredible a kid from Rosengård make it big" I said "that made us all want to get out of there and gladly we did"
"So you and Zlatan are from the same area?"
"Yea, it's kinda crazy to think that" I said
"I also came from a rough area, but I was so focused on football that I didn't really pay attention to all the stuff going on around me" he said
"Yea I use to play football too, it's an amazing outlet, you just forget everything going on around you and it's just so much fun" I said
"Yea it really is" he said "So I'm guessing by that, that you're interested in football?" He asked
"Yes I am" I said while eating my ice cream
"What team do you support?" He asked
"I'm a diehard Manchester United fan" I said
"What? Are you serious?" He asked with a smile coming to my face
"Yea I am,my family is pretty much divided between Manchester United and Liverpool, me, my dad and my brother are all untied fans, then my mom and 2 sisters are Liverpool fans" I explained to him
"Well all I can say is that, you, your dad and brother have amazing taste" he joked.
We heard some people chanting and we looked over to the near by bar.
"Must be the Spain Portugal match" I said while looking over at the bar. It was gonna be an amazing match i just knew it. Two amazing teams playing against each other.
"What's the time?" Marcus asked me
"19:34" I said as I looked down at my phone.
"Do you think if we run we'll make it back to the hotel in time for the match?" He asked with a cheeky smile
"We can sure as hell try" I said grabbing his hand and started running.
I'm not the fastest runner so Marcus wasn't even breaking a sweat he was just jogging beside me while I was more or less dying.
"Why is this so easy for you" I asked as I stopped running.
"Im just a fast runner" he said while laughing at me
"But you've never had to run in high heels" I said lifting my foot up. He just nodded while laughing.
"Fine, get up on the bench" he said giving me a hand onto the bench
"What are we doing?" I asked confused
"Piggyback ride" he said
"No no I couldn't what If Injure you or something?" I asked scared
"You won't and we're really close to the hotel" he said
"Okay but promise you'll tell me if I get to heavy or you're in pain or something" I said
"I promise" he said
I got onto his back and wrapped my legs around his waist, he put his hands under my thighs to support me. He started running and I was surprised he could run that fast while carrying me.
We took the back entrance into the hotel, I could clearly see Marcus was out of breath as he let me down.
"I'm so sorry, I told you to tell me if you were tired" I said to Marcus
"No it wasn't you or anything, I was trying to impress you and I ran really fast" he said while giving me a cheeky wink
"Are you injured? Or hurt?" I asked scared
"No just out of breath" he said as we walked over to the elevator
"Are you sure?" I asked
"Yes" He said smiling at me.
We finally got to the 11th floor I guess we were watching the match in his room.
"You head into my room it's the last door to the left, I'll be right with you" I said pointing down the corridor.
I just nodded and walked towards his room, I looked back to see Marcus walking into some hotel room.
I walked into his room, I was kinda shocked it was so clean, I don't know why I expected it to be dirty.
I took my shoes off at the door, I sat down on the couch and crossed my legs.
I looked around the room, it was the couch I was sitting on, then a tv in front the couch, behind the couch was his bed, closet on the left side then a door that probably lead to the bathroom.
I awkwardly sat on his couch and waited for Marcus to come.
I left the door open a bit so Marcus could walk right in when he was done. I was on my phone when Marcus entered the room and closed the door behind him.
"Sorry about that" he said
"It's okay" I said
He then put the match on via the PlayStation, the players were just coming out onto the pitch.
-after the match-
"That was a freaking intense match" I said shocked after the 3-3 result.
"Yea, bet that's gonna be the best match of the tournament"  Marcus said
"Do you think so?"
"Yea Ronaldo scored a hat-trick, it was intense and both teams played really good" Marcus said
"I guess will have to wait and see" I said
He just nodded and both of us became silent.
"So.." I trailed off
"I recall you saying earlier on today that you love playing Fifa" Marcus said grabbing the controllers
"Wanna play" He asked stretching out one of the controllers to me
"I'm about to beat you" I said taking the controller from him
"Don't get overly confident" he said laughing
"Let's make this interesting, I get to chose your team and you get to chose my team" I said smiling
"Okay deal, normal or World Cup mode?" He asked
"World Cup mode" I said
"Close your eyes while I chose and no peaking"  I said
I chose none other then sweden for him and he ended up choosing brazil for me.
After the game he had won 3-2 and I was demanding a rematch.
"What was that about you beating me?" He joked
"I'll win this time around, watch" I said restarting the game. He just shook his head while laughing at me.
———
Okay so this is the 4th chapter, longer then the usual ones. Hope you guys enjoyed the 4th chapter, I'll try to post the next one soon!!
👍🏻☺️