needy | dele alli

three.

dele is currently at enfield, they are warming up for their match against arsenal this weekend. all the players are determined to win, they know how inconsistent arsenal have been so they're using this to their advantage.

'so delboy, a little birdie has told me you've been talking to this girl called zara.' says eric as they stop for a water break.

'how do you know?'

'harry's got a big mouth.' he says looking over at kane who's practicing.

'can't keep his mouth shut for five minutes can he? we've been texting here and there but that's pretty much it. there hasn't been anything special going on.' says dele with shrug.

'is she hot?'

'yeah i guess she is.'

'then what are you doing man? ask her out!'

'i don't know her well enough to ask her out! i barely know her, for all i know we could have nothing in common.'

'you find that out during a date. you know go to a restaurant talk about yourselves then you decide.'

'calm down eric, i know i said i was looking but i'm not that desperate.'

'you kinda are.' says another voice.

'christian, have you been eavesdropping?'

'maybe.' he says with a wink before the three of them head back to the pitch.

• •

zara is currently driving home from work. she's part of the pastoral care at a secondary school about twenty minutes away from her apartment. decide it being quite a tiring and stressful job, she does enjoy it. the kids seem to love her too, as she's so young she has a better connection with them.

while she's driving her phone starts to ring so she presses the button on her steering wheel and answers it.

'hello?' she says.

'zara! hey!' says the familiar voice.

'oh dele, this is a surprise.'

'is this a bad time? do you want me to ring back later?'

'no it's fine! it's just i'm driving that's all. but it's on bluetooth.'

'oh right, i just just calling you wondering if you wanted to get a drink later? there's this new place that's just opened and i thought we could give it a try?'

zara smiles slightly at the thought of seeing dele again, they've only been talking briefly these past few weeks but she really enjoys talking to him.

'sure i'd love to. what time?'

'around sevenish? then maybe if we wanted to, we could get a bite to eat?'

'that sounds good.'

'great! i mean great.' says dele over enthusiastically, 'i'll come and pick you up.'

'sounds great, i'll text you my address when i get home. see you later dele.'

'you too zara.' he says before she hangs up.

she grins like a five year old as she pulls into the carpark. she grabs her bag and heads up to her flat.

once she's inside, she goes straight for the shower. even though there's two and a half hours before dele comes and picks her up, she wants time to be able to mentally prepare herself and look good. but good as in a casual friendly type way not as in "i'm interested in you" type way.

when she gets out of the shower, she quickly texts dele the address and starts to pick out an outfit to wear.

• •

zara is waiting nervously for dele to come pick her up. she decided on some black skinny jeans, a red shirt tucked in a leather jacket on top with make up on. she didn't want dele to get the wrong idea.

'he's going to be here any minute.' she says to herself when suddenly the doorbell rings. she opens the door and dele's standing there, dressed in all black except his denim jacket with some reddish sunglasses covering his eyes.

'why are you wearing sunglasses in december?' she says, raising an eyebrow. dele looks at zara up and down and smirks slightly but she doesn't notice.

'well hello to you.' he says laughing slightly.

it just went with my outfit.' he says taking them off and putting them in his jacket's pocket.

'footballers.' she says laughing and rolling her eyes.

'you ready to go?'

'hold on, let me just grab my bag.'

'you won't be needing that.'

'and why's that?'

'because i'm paying.'

'yeah right, as if i'm letting you do that.' she scoffs before grabbing her handbag and locks the front door.

'you're a stubborn one aren't you?' says dele with a small smile.

'you really think i'm going to let some rich footballer think he can just buy me stuff because he gets paid a lot of money for kicking a ball around? i think not!' says zara as they walk down the hallway.

'ouch that hurts, coming from someone who's named after a shop.' he says with a smirk.

'good thing you're cute because i want to slap you in the face so hard right now.'