Too Much - John Stones

Four By Four

Johns POV

"John!" Bradleigh shouted. "What the fuck are you doing!" She added. I could hear her from the sidelines. Everyone knew that Sergio took the penalties for us and if not then Raheem.

"John? Are you sure you want to do this?" Raz asked me as he handed me the ball over.

"I've got to do this" I replied back.

"Good luck then my brother" he smiled.

"Bradleigh, I still love you and this goal is for you!" I shouted back to her. She huffed and placed her hands over her eyes but left a gap to look through. I took a couple of steps back and took a deep breath myself and looked up to the goal, the goalkeeper jumping up and down and spreading his arms about. I composed myself for the last time before I jogged up slowly to the ball before I kicked it into the top right corner. At first I didn't even believe that it went in but when it hit me I turned around to see Bradleigh also in disbelief, her face and eyes wide open. I gave her a wink which I knew made her weak at the knees before getting back into my position ready for the game to restart. After a couple of passes the referee blew the whistle and the game was over.

We had won the champions league.

Bradleigh shook Klopps hand before turning around and clapping the fans for coming. I decided to jog over to her, cameras capturing everything for different newspapers, sports channels, and of course the Manchester City channel along with Bradleighs personal channel.

"Well done you" she smiled

"I think all of the credit goes to you" I smiled back. "None of us even noticed the handball"

"Well, lucky guess I suppose" she half smiled. "Anyway, shouldn't you be celebrating?" She looked over to the pitch where everyone was dancing about and hugging each other.

"Shouldn't I be asking you the same thing?" I replied with.

"Oh, I couldn't go on the pitch in these heels" she laughed and looked down to her feet in her nude pink coloured high heels.

"Everyone wants to celebrate with you, look" I pointed over to the pitch where everyone was shouting her name.

"John" she said after she took off her heels ready to go onto the pitch.

"Yeah?" I turned back around to face her.

"I still love you too" she smiled but didn't look me in the eye. "I suppose"

"Well I suppose I should kiss you now then?" I bit my lip. She giggled as I snaked my arms around her waist and she wrapped her arms around my neck. I looked her in her bright green eyes which glistened perfectly in the light. We kissed like it was our first. The feeling felt like it was our first, Like we were teenagers in a film. We both smiled into the kiss both of us knowing how long we have wanted to do this. I picked her up as she wrapped her legs around my hips, my hands supporting her bum.

"Bradleigh, Bradleigh-Bradleigh, Bradleigh-Bradleigh, Bradleigh, Bradleigh Reynolds!" The crowd started to chant in the tune of the old Yaya Toure one.

"See I told you this was all you" I smiled, planting another kiss on her lips, not wanting to stop. All the guys had now gathered bottles of champagne together so I placed her down knowing what the guys were going to do. Everyone shook their bottles and on the count of 3 everyone popped the cork and sprayed her with the alcohol, making her hair drenched.

"You guys are so lucky that my make up is waterproof" she laughed as Bernardo handed her a bottle to drink out of.

"John! Bradleigh! An interview please?" Jamie Carragher and Gary Neville shouted over to us. Obviously we agreed and walked over.

"So Bradleigh when did you find out that you would be doing this job today?" Jamie asked me.

"You know what, I think everyone knew before me!" She laughed. "I'm always late so I ran to the changing rooms and Vinny was all panicked because I wasn't answering my phone so I asked why he needed me so urgently and yeah he told me like half an hour before the game I suppose"

"And tactically you did everything right this game and at first it looked like nothing was going right, how do you think you won this game?"Gary interrupted.

"I mean I think definitely my naivety really helped me" she laughed. "At first I didn't really realised how serious this competition was but you know when you're standing in that managers box and everyone is looking at you for help and support, it's really hard yeah. But I had full belief in my boys that they could win this game and I think that's was won it." She smiled. "Pep gave me his notepad which if I'm honest with you I couldn't really read his handwriting most of the time but I'm just hoping the stress of the match didn't make him feel any worse" she laughed.

"Now on to you John" Gary laughed. "Obviously we are going to have to ask you about your personal life" he smiled.

"Mentally, How has everything that has happened been effecting your game?" Jamie asked.

"Yeah badly" I admitted. "It's hard to explain because I messed up the relationship between Brad and I so when I say how hurt and upset I was, people find that hard to believe but seeing the one you love happy with someone else because of your own mistake was hard" I took a deep breath. "Especially when everything around you reminds you of her"

"So when you saw Bradleigh for the first time this week did it improve your game, or dampen it?" 

"My game wasn't good to start with, over this month or so where we haven't been together I was drinking and going out a lot more, basically just feeling sorry for myself but when she came to training out here it was almost like when we first met and I would train harder than usual to try and impress her" I half laughed.

"So do you think mental health is a lot more important than your actual physical health in big games like this?"

"Definitely, if you're not in the right mindset then you just can't perform physically" I smiled.

"Well I'm sure we will be hearing a lot more from the both of you in the future but for the mean time, congratulations and go and celebrate" he smiled. We thanked them both and walked off to join the rest of the guys.

"I'm so proud of you, know that" she stopped, smiled and took my hand. "You know, for talking about your mental health and all that, it's really going to help other people out there is well"

"We've raised some awareness and I think we've got the conversation going"

"Exactly, and I'm so proud that you are the one that's done it. None of the boys here had ever spoken about it before, ever"

"I know, it's mad isn't it" I smiled.

"Even Vinny, like big, giant Vinny like even he is preaching about how you should talk about your feelings more" she laughed. "But you know what's mad like, this time last week, or last month even, could you imagine that we would be here? In this situation, back in love and all that"

"This time last week I couldn't even get out of bed some mornings" I admitted.

"I feel like you've achieved a lot in this time I've known you, you've figured out a lot of good stuff" she smiled and began to trace around my tattoos.

"And you've helped me figure those things out of course" I smiled back.

"And now that my head is clear, I can sort of think about the future and stuff like that more clearly, do you know what I mean?" I smiled widely.

"Can we get a dog?" Her face lit up.

"I'll get you a dog" I laughed at her excitement.

"If what?" She laughed, knowing there would be a catch.

"Like, well, I'm gonna need a four by four"

"Cool"

"And we can put them in the boot"

"So were getting more than 1 dog" she clapped.

"Well they need to have friends init, they might get lonely"

"Deal then" she gave my a fist pump.

"You've got to buy it though"

"Only because I love you"