Fearless - Ashley Sanchez

Chapter 26

We only had 2 days between the semifinal and the final, and we got one of those days off. On that day off, I went outside and practiced penalty kicks, calling up our other goalie Devon Kerr for help. 

"You're thinking too much about this." She told me when I went to take my 40th kick. 

"No I'm not. I blew it, and I need to work on my kicks so it doesn't happen again." 

I took a few more, and then finally Devon stopped me. 

"You need to stop before your leg is so sore that you can't run in tomorrow's game." 

"Fine." I said, going to get some water. 

"I don't really know why you're putting this all on you. We won!" Devon sat down next to me, taking off her goalie gloves. 

"We did. But I didn't do my part in the penalty kicks." 

"Let's look on the bright side, because you're stubborn as shit." She said. "You gave the assist in the dying moments of the game to tie it up to even help us win at all." 

"And I'm really happy that Kelley got to be the hero and fix the mistake she made earlier in the game." I said. "I was already the hero once this challenge cup. I don't need any more ego." I joked. 

"You've improved so much so far this season. Like a crazy amount. And we haven't even really started the regular season yet. You should be proud." 

"Thanks Dev. I have a lot to not be proud of this season though." I sighed. 

"Tell me."

"Well obviously that little fight with Ashley wasn't a proud moment. And just my past with Ash in general." 

"Yeah. I was wondering what happened with that. You guys came to preseason and were best friends and inseparable until one day randomly. You woudn't even go near each other." Devon said. 

"Is it really that noticeable?" 

"It was at the time. It's the normal now. What happened?" 

"So much." 

"Care to explain?" 

"We were....kind of a thing. We spend every minute off together. But we never told Trinity because I didn't want to." I explained. 

"Why didn't you want to tell her?" 

"I didn't know how she'd react and it was just selfish on my part." 

"I understand what you mean. But I feel like she deserved to know." She said. 

"And that's where Ashley and I differed. She wanted to tell her, and I didn't." I sighed. "And I'm depressed. I'm not myself ever since I broke up with her, in the heat of the moment. But I wasn't about to go crawling back. Now, I'd rather go back than have to suffer anymore." 

"It's a tough thing-" 

"And I've been beating myself up over it since that day. It's so bad, Devon. I'm beating myself up over one night specifically, when I hooked up with a certain teammate." 

"Ooh, who was it?" 

"Not important." 

"Trinity? No. It wouldn't be. Was it Tara? Oh it was definitely Tara." 

"You're right." 

"I'm not surprised. You two make the best blonde-brunette duo. You're just about the hottest brunette out there." She laughed. 

"Hey, just because I'm not blonde like you doesn't mean you can make fun of me. At least I have blue eyes." 

"You could always go blonde." 

"I think my brown hair is nice. At least I'm not super duper pale." 

"I'm not pale." 

"I'm just saying." 

"Let's get out of here before all the kids get out of school." Devon said, grabbing her stuff. 

"Sounds good to me." I grabbed mine and followed her off the field. 

Our practice field was locked today because it was an off day, so we just had to find a random field to practice on, hoping no one would show up and bother us. 

While I was back at Devon's apartment, my dad called. 

"Hey Kyla!" He said happily. 

"Hey dad? What's up?" 

"Nothing. I just wanted to call you now before your game tomorrow because I'm going to be in meetings all day and I don't know if I'll get a chance to call you. Challenge cup final, big game!" 

"Yep." I said. "Hold on one second." 

I told Dev that he called and I needed to take it, then I went outside in the hallway to finish talking. 

I couldn't help but notice my dad sounded more excited than usual on the phone, and we talked almost every day so it's something I would notice. 

After I got off the phone, Devon and I started to make cookies and then invited Trinity and Tara over to hang out and help us eat the cookies. 

Trinity took a picture of Dev and I making the cookies when she walked in. She thought our aprons and oven mitts were hilarious for some reason. 

"My favorite Canadian and I made cookies." I said, taking them out of the oven. "And we used my grandma's recipe." 

"Sweet." Tara said, walking in. She went to the counter to take a cookie. 

"Absolutely not." I pushed her hand away. "Those are fresh out of the oven and you'll burn your mouth." 

"Ugh. I just want a cookie." 

"Go sit down." 

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Ashley's POV

I just stared at that note all day today. 

Kyla's still in love with me?? Then why'd she leave me? 

I'm just confused, because I think I still love her too. 

I went on instagram before I went to sleep, and I saw that a few hours ago, Trinity, Kyla, Devon Kerr, and Tara were all hanging out,, which really didn't bother me. What I wanted was one of those cookies, because Kyla never makes cookies without her grandma's recipe, and they are so damn good. 

On Trinity's story, there was a hilarious picture of Kyla and Devon in the kitchen, and a video of Tara trying a cookie and her face lighting up. 

Then I went through my feed, and there was a new post from Kyla. We hadn't unfollowed each other. It felt unnecessary because we're teammates. 

But the post was a picture of her and Tara being oddly touchy. 

Maybe they weren't to the average person, but this is the girl who claimed she was still in love with me cuddling up to another girl and posting it on instagram. 

I just thought it was weird. 

And it hurt a little. 

I can choose to look at it as me being paranoid, or her moving on right after I got that note, in which she was definitely hung up. 

And I have no idea how to react, because I thought I was gonna tell her. But surly I can't now, right?