In the middle (Jesse Lingard/ Marcus Rashford fanfic)

Chapter 5

16th June 2018
Amanda's POV-
"Marky boy it's time to get up son" I heard a voice say, it was followed by the person saying "oh shit"
Where was I? I was so confused, I was laying on someone's chest and I could feel their arm around me. I finally decided to open my eyes, i then realised who's chest I was laying on. It was Marcus, I looked towards the end of the bed to see Gareth Southgate standing there obviously confused with his hands crossed over his chest. I got off Marcus chested sat up and started to nudge him so he could wake up.
"What?" He said sitting up also confused
"Oh shit what time is it?" He asked as soon as he saw Gareth
"8:30, it's time to get up and who is your friend over here?" He asked with a smirk as he looked over to me
"Gareth this is Amanda, Amanda this is Gareth" Marcus said he was clearly embarrassed and so was I.
"Hi, nice to meet you" he said putting his hand out for me to shake
"Hey, nice to meet you" I said as I shook his hand
"I should get going, I have a really busy schedule today" I said giving Marcus a hug and a kiss on the cheek I gave Gareth a smile as I grabbed my purse from the couch and shoes from next to the door and practically ran out of the room. How freaking awkward was that? Now Gareth Southgate think i slept with one of his players. I just wanted to fall off the face of the earth. I went over to the elevator to go back up to my room, when I got back to my room i thought no one was here but I heard Stina yelling my name. I knew how this would look to Stina and Pontus, I was wearing the black yoga shorts that I had under my dress and one of Marcus jerseys. Shit I had forgotten my dress in Marcus's room. I took a deep breath before walking into my bed room, I see Pontus asleep and Stina on her phone.
"Hello" I said as I walked in
"Oh my god, Pontus wake up, wake the fuck up" Stina said as she shook Pontus awake
"Okay you can calm your tits, nothing happened" I said as I sat down on the bed.
"Why are you in his shirt?" Pontus asked sitting up.
"I'm gonna summarise what happened last night, we went out ate had fun, went back to his hotel, we watched the Spain Portugal match, we played FIFA for an hour or 2, he said he had never seen the Harry Potter movies, he gave me a shirt to change into, I must of fell asleep, I remember him putting me in his bed and saying he was gonna sleep on the couch but I said the bed fit us both and we both went to sleep and we're woken up by Gareth Southgate and that's what you missed on glee" I said as I summarised the last couple of hours
"So like not even a kiss?" Pontus asked
"No cuz I fell asleep before anything could happen" I said
"Can we go eat I'm starving?" Pontus asked
"Can we go out to eat?" I asked
"Why??" Stina whined
"I don't want to stay in this hotel any longer" I said annoyed
The real reason is I didn't want to see any of the guys , by this point they all probably knew and we're making the wildest assumptions.
Stina and Pontus went back to their hotel to get ready while I took a quick shower. I put my hair up in a pony tail, I put on light blue jeans and a white short sleeved t-shirt. I put on my shoes and grabbed my stuff and walked out of the hotel.
As I went down to the lobby and the elevator doors opened I saw the English NT. this is gonna be fun I thought to myself.
After stepping off the elevator and the first person I saw was Marcus he smiled at me, he then walked over to me leaving his friends.
"Hey" He said as he gave me a hug
"Hey" I said as I hugged him back
"So about this morning" he trailed off
"Talk about awkward" I joked
"Yea, I guess I forgot to set my alarm" he said
"Yea we were up till pretty late, I still can't believe you've never watched Harry Potter"
"It's not my type of movies" he said defending himself
"I'm gonna have to make you watch all the movies one day" I said to him
"I guess it's a date" he said winking at me
"I should get going, I'm meeting friends" I said giving him a hug
"I'll see you around" he said.
After talking to Marcus and saying bye I walked towards the exit. As I was about to leave someone called out my name, I turned around to see Jesse.
"Hey" I said to him
"Hi, how are you?" He asked with the cutest smile ever
"I'm fine thanks, how about you?" I asked. I was confused maybe he didn't know I had slept over at Marcus?
"I'm good, so I was just wondering if you wanted to hang out sometime" he said with a shy smile
"Yea that would be nice" I said giving him a smile
"So when are you free?" He asked. I was unsure about the days I'd actually be free to hang out.
"How about you give me your number and I'll tell you dates and times I'm free, I've got a lot coming up and my schedule is all over the place" I said to him
"Yea of course, where's your phone?" He asked
After him writing down his number in my phone I told him that I had to go. I walked over to Stina and Pontus hotel, they were already in the lobby. I had told them the encounter I just had with Jesse.
"What am I suppose to do? They're both great guys. We go back home in literally 29 days and it's not even guaranteed that they'll be here for 29 days what if they go out in the group stages they're gone by next week" I said frustrated
"Hey hey, calm your horses, no one is asking you to marry these guys as you said you're only getting to know them at best you'll leave russia having made a couple of new friends" Pontus said to me
"But what if I end up really liking one of them and then get together with him but end up realising I really like the other one"
"Take a breath Amanda, don't go all Arie Luyendyk jr on our asses" stina said making me and Pontus laughing
(A/N bachelor reference^)
"Fine I won't over think all of this, I'm just making friends" I said
"Exactly you're only making friends" Stina said
"Now let's go get food" Pontus said
- few hours later- 17:12
I had just finished my article on the Iceland v Argentina match. It was a shocking match that I'm sure shook the whole world. A match that ended in a draw, the small nation of Iceland standing tall. Iceland's goalkeeper, Halldórsson, should be proud of himself saving a penalty from the one and only Messi. It was truly a shocking game for everyone watching.
I was packing my backpack with the stuff I needed, Monday was going to be a stressful day. We were flying out, so we could watch the sweden match then right after we were flying to watch the England match. It was the first match I was reporting on and the nerves were already kicking in.
We were meeting up Maja and Sanna, it was a while since I saw my girlies and I was exited.
I put on black yoga pants, a cropped hoodie and my black Adidas flux shoes. I wanted to be comfortable on the flight, so I finished my look with putting my hair up in a bun.
I was going to wait for Stina and Pontus in the hotel lobby.
When I got to the lobby I saw a few of the guys from the NT in the lobby.
"Ah Amanda my buddy, come over here" I heard Kyle say. I walked over and he was standing with, Jesse, Dele, Eric Dier, Ashley young, Danny Welbeck and John stones.
"Amanda this is Eric and John and you've met the rest of the guys right" Kyle said
"Hi nice to meet you guys" I said while shaking Eric and johns hands.
"So Amanda where you heading out to?" Kyle asked
"I'm flying out to see the sweden match on Monday" I said
"Meet anyone special?" Danny asked with a smirk
"Yes actually Maja Nilsson and Sanna Dahlström" I said
"Isn't that Lindelöfs wife?" Jesse asked looking at Ashley
"Yes it is" I said butting into their conversation
"How do you know her?" Jesse asked
"I met her trough a mutual friend and we just clicked and have been friends ever since" I said
"Well if you happen to run Victor, say hi from us" Ashley said
"I sure will" I said
"How long will you be away for?" Jesse asked me
"I'm not quite sure 2 night" I said
"Quick visit with your sugar daddy" Kyle said nudging me with his elbow
"I'd like to make it clear that I do not have a sugar daddy" I said looking at Kyle
"Who you trying to convince, us? Or yourself?" Ashley said with a smirk
"What does your sugar daddy think about you sleeping with Marcus?" Dele asked. I was so annoyed by this point, I hated this whole situation I was currently in.
"Nothing happened between me and Marcus" I said really annoyed
I looked down, I really just wanted to leave.
"So your trying to tell me you spent the night in his room and absolutely nothing happened?" Danny asked
I saw Stina walking into the hotel lobby and I was relived
"That's exactly what Im saying, and I have to go since my sugar daddy is here" I said as I pointed over to Stina
"That's not the kind of sugar daddy I was expecting" I heard John say.
I was super annoyed and I started to walk passed them when I heard Kyle say, "kinky". All the guys started laughing but I didn't say anything or even look back.
I just walked towards Stina.
"What's wrong" Stina asked clearly seeing I was annoyed.
"They're just annoying pricks" I said as we kept on walking towards the door. Stina kept on looking back at them but I told her to stop it.
We went out to the taxi and i explained the whole story to Pontus and Stina. I wasn't one to get annoyed easily but today they had just gotten under my skin.
-Few hours later-
We were all in Sannas hotel room, the kids were sleeping in her room while we were in the 'living room' area having a drink and talking.
"So let me get this straight" Sanna said "there's 2 nice, good looking, successful and all around great guys that are both into you, what's the problem?" She asked
"Exactly what is the problem??" Maja asked also confused
"Because I don't want to like end up really liking them or anything like that then abruptly have to leave them" I said
"That's understandable, but don't you want to like at least give them a chance?" Maja asked
"I would but it's just I don't know" I said
"Okay If you had to chose one of them right now, who would it be?" Sanna asked
"I have no idea they're both so different from each other, Marcus is such a sweetheart, we have common interests, we're quite alike, he's also like a real gentleman I slept in his room and he didn't try anything, he seems a bit shy, with Jesse he's a great guy, he's nice, he's funny, he seems like a bit of a player, but he seems to like find a way to make me laugh, like after 30 minutes of talking he tried to kiss me, like there's nothing wrong with that but, he seems to like to move fast, I'm not sure they're both so different but both of them are great guys" I told them
"Honestly both of them are great" Maja said
"I sense a but coming" Pontus said
"But...I've heard some not so great stuff about Jesse" Maja continued
"I don't think I wanna know, I've made up my mind" I said
"Okay who is it?" Stina asked
"No one, I'm not choosing, they're both great guys, I'm only gonna be friends with both of them, there's no harm in getting to know both of them" I said
"Who are you trying to convince?" Maja asked
"Can we drop this?" I asked
"Before we drop this whole topic, you said there's no harm in getting to know both of them" Stina said. I just nodded waiting for her to continue "then why don't you text Jesse to tell him when your free" she said
"Calling would be better" Sanna suggested
"Should I?" I asked the rest and they all nodded.
"I'll go out to the balcony" I said standing up to go to the balcony.
I sat down on one of the chairs I took a couple of deep breaths before calling him.
(J=Jesse, A=Amanda)
J: hello?
A: hey Jesse it's Amanda
J: hey Amanda, how are you?
A: I'm good, thanks, how about you?
J: I'm all good, I wanted to apologise actually
A: apologise for what?
J: earlier today in the lobby, the guys were being out of line
A: Yea I'm not usually one to get angry over stuff like that but I don't know they sort of got under my skin today
J: yea I understand
A: I'm kinda over it now, they can joke as much as they want about my supposed sugar daddy and what happened in Marcus room which is nothing by the way, I know the truth and I don't need to prove anything to anyone
J: well either way they were well out of order
A: Yea, but the reason to why I called you is I told you I'd call you when I knew I'd be free, So I've checked my schedule and I'm not working in the 19th
J: the 19th works for me too
A: so it's a date?
J: yes it is.....
it was silent for a couple of minuets
J: so what you up too
It felt like he didn't want to hang up and that made me kinda happy
A: i was just hanging out with friends, what about you?
J: you know laying in bed just resting up big game on Monday
A: Yea against Tunisia right?
J: Yea, you a big football fan?
A: Yea football was my whole childhood basically
J: so you played?
A: Yea but I stopped when I was about 17
J: oh really, why did you stop?
A: a lot of different reasons school was getting too much for me and I couldn't keep up with the trainings and all that, so I had to choose between school and football
J: so you chose school?
A: Yea I never really wanted to be a footballer when I grew up so when it came down to choosing it was kinda an easy choice for me
J: so what did you want to become when you got older?
A: first I wanted to be a doctor, then I realised I didn't like maths or science, so I then discovered my passion for writing, so I wanted to do something that had to do with writing
J: so did your dream come true?
A: Yes it did, I'm a sports journalist
J: what? You've never told me that
A: you never really asked
J: that is true, so will you be writing on any of our matches?
A: Yea a couple I believe
J: hope you only write good stuff about me and the boys
A: if you guys don't play well I'm gonna have to be honest
J: we're gonna play so good you won't have anything negative to say about us
A: ooh slow down don't get too cocky now, you might just jinx it
J: oh that's true don't want to jinx it
A: you think you'll score any goals?
J: hopefully I will but I don't want to be too cocky
A: i think you'll only get one or two in
J: only?
A: what happened to not wanting to be cocky?
J: it just comes naturally to me
A: a bit unattractive if you ask me
J: It's good to have a bit of confidence
A: there's a fine line between confidence and cockiness
J: you think so?
A: Yea, its attractive when someone is confident but it gets unattractive when they're cocky
J: so which am I confident or cocky?
A: your defiantly cocky but you're attractive either way
J: oh thank you, well I think you're beautiful
I could tell I had caught him off guard.
A: thank you,
A: okay so now that I've told you what I wanted to become when I was younger, was your dream always becoming a footballer?
I was obviously trying to change the subject
J: Yea it's always been my dream since I was a child
A: have you ever like thought of what you'd want to do if you weren't a footballer?
J: I'm not sure I never really thought about it, maybe like a teacher
A: a teacher??
J: Yea what's wrong with that?
A: nothing it's just I could never picture you as a teacher
J: maybe like a PE teacher
A: okay I could kinda see that, so what about after football, ever want to coach?
J: I don't know, maybe it seems so stressful but at the same time kinda fun, would you ever become a coach?
A: it seems like a lot of fun but also like a lot of work and I highly doubt any one would make a sport journalist a coach
J: your also a former footballer
A: i also chose writing over football
J: Yea true, what position did you play in?
A: guess
J: I don't know you look like you played as a striker
A: nope not even close
J: defender?
A: keep on guessing
J: midfielder?
A: nope
J: ah come on your not telling me you were a goalkeeper
A: yes I was, why do you sound so shocked
J: your so tiny, how could you be a goalie
A: there are plenty of short goalkeepers look at Iker casillas he wasn't that tall and he was an amazing keeper
J: fine I'll give you that, so where you any good?
A: yes I was a good  goalkeeper
J: I'll have to put you to the test some time
A: I'll show you how good I am in goal

For the next hour or so we were on the phone talking about everything and nothing at the same time. He kept on making me laugh, I got to see a different side of Jesse the softer and kinder side of him. Just thinking about him brought a smile to my face. Why am I having these feelings this is exactly what I didn't want to happen.
——-
So here's the 5th chapter hope you all enjoy it. It's only been for days and I'm already on 1k reads and its so crazy. Thank you all and I hope you enjoyed this chapter🧡💛🧡
(Also haven't read trough it sorry for any spelling mistakes)