Don't Give Up, I Won't Give Up On You

Chapter 4

The next day was a fairly quiet one. Most of the girls were recovering from hangovers, or in Jill's case injuries, but luckily they had no training or meetings, it was a free day. That gave Riley the perfect chance to get working on some more editing. She wasn't behind on anything related to the Lionesses, she made sure that was her number one priority so she could keep her job, but there was some other things she wanted to catch up on.

It was well after 1pm before Riley realised that apart from grabbing a quick breakfast in the morning she hadn't actually left her room. And she hadn't actually seen anyone all day. Which wasn't surprising when she was up at 8am for breakfast, it would have been a big shock for her to actually see someone else about at that time of day after last night. Riley laughed to herself, she imagined that some of them might only be getting up now.

But then as she thought back to the night before her smile faded. It was such a good night and so much fun getting to know the Lionesses outside of football related things. But then there was Carly. What happened? Normally Riley would blame alcohol for something like that but honestly she wasn't that buzzed, and Carly didn't seem to be either. There was nothing innocent about that dance, but maybe that's just something that people did now? She hadn't been out in so long. Or maybe it was a Carly thing. But the look on Carly's face as they left made Riley think that it was probably not as simple as that. And as for Mary, she was certainly acting strange when she said she wanted to talk. Riley needed to find them both and talk to them. But was that such a good idea? She sighed loudly, it wasn't going to be fun.

Standing up and stretching, Riley decided she needed a break. Her head was spinning. She'd been working solid for almost four hours now and yeah she had got some good work done, but she was going to be really busy once they got to France she couldn't afford to wear herself out now. She could make her mind up about finding Carly and Mary later.

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Riley headed down to the dining hall to get some lunch and saw that there was still no one around. Okay now that was strange, she figured people would be up and about by now. But apart from a few of the staff members the building was practically empty. Trying not to get worried about everyone's absence, Riley quickly ate lunch and decided that a walk would be a good way to clear her head. She knew she could focus a little more without her camera, those last few photos she wanted to take would have to wait another day.

As she left the building to head outside she saw Lucy and Keira heading outside too. They both smiled when they saw her and slowed down so she could catch up. "Aren't you a sight for sore eyes." Riley said as the three of them continued to walk. "I was getting a little worried because I hadn't seen any of you guys today."

Lucy placed a hand over her heart and sighed. "You're so sweet." She said which made all three of them laugh.

"I think everyone is just having a chill out day." Keira said. "We're meeting Leah and Beth in the town to go shopping."

"Yeah I spoke to Demi and she and Stan had gone to check in on Jill. Apparently she's fine but she hasn't seen Carly all morning." Lucy shrugged.

Riley paused and looked over at Lucy. "She hasn't?" She asked, trying to keep her voice calm as panic set in.

"No." Keira shook her head. "Which is pretty weird for CT. But Jill said she was on the phone with someone." She turned to face Lucy. "Wasn't she talking about trying to get back with her ex the other day? Maybe it was her."

Riley felt her throat go dry and her stomach sink. She didn't know why. "Oh." Was all she managed to say.

"I don't know. But Jill said if she isn't back by dinner she's sending a search party out for her." Lucy ran a hand through her hair. "Look don't worry too much, she'll be fine. She knows we're here if she needs us." She said to more to Keira but Riley was certainly listening. Lucy turned back to Riley. "You're more than welcome to come shopping with us if you want."