Baby of the team - WSL

part 4

⚠️ TW SH, ED, OCD ETC

13th September
Tally woke up feeling the regret of yesterday's phone call with esme. She knew she had stressed esme out with what she said but it was true. No one could ever know that though. Tally got up and checked her appearance in the mirror she had bike shorts and an oversized long-sleeve top on as her pyjamas. She grabbed her water bottle and went to fill it up.
Leah was sitting in the kitchen. Tally felt more at ease with the girls now and was beginning to come out of her shell a bit. Tally smiled at her as she filled up her water bottle. Leah patted the seat next to her and Tally went over and sat next to her. "Good morning sweetheart me and the girls were wondering if you wanted to come with us to meet the rest of the team?" Asked leah as tally sat down. "Yeah?" Tally said apprehensively feeling nervous about meeting the team, wanting them to like her. When she had sat down she had inadvertently let her shorts ride up leaving her thighs on display. "Great okay I'll tell the girls you want them to c... kid what happened to your legs?"

Tally looked at her horrified knowing that her thighs had been on display for everyone to see. Leah was shocked, they looked self-inflicted but she didn't know what to do, now she knew what esmes message was about. "Nothing it was just the ummm cat!" Tally stuttered out hoping the lie was plausible."Kid I know that's not true, why did you do it and can you come with me I have a first aid kit and I know for a fact that if you've done it there the chances are you've done it more in other places. Let's go into my room there's more privacy there and I want to have a little chat if that's OK?"Leah said gently as the girl just looked scared before nodding scaredly at her. Leah put her arm around the girl leading her into her room. She could have sworn she felt her flinch, she was going to have to call esme later and have a chat with her. We made our way into my room. I gestured for her to sit down on the bed as I shut the door.

"Kiddo what's going on, look I know you barely know me but trust me okay you can't keep doing this it's not good for you I promise you there are better ways of dealing with whatever you are going through, please can I clean those cuts though, all of them please!" Said leah as tally just kept looking down at her nervously fidgeting hands. Leah put her hands on top of hers calming her down instantly. No one had calmed her down that quickly since him. she sighed and rolled her shorts up and took off my top leaving her in just her sports bra to reveal the cuts on her arms and stomach. Leah gasped as she saw her.

Tally felt tears begin to pour down her face as she watched her look at her cuts. leah pulled her into a hug as she rubbed her back comfortingly. She got some anti-septic wipes out of her first aid kit and began to gently work on the girl's legs gently wiping them with the alcohol wipes looking at her with big sorrowful eyes every time she drew a sharp breath when it stung.
" what are the other girls like?" asked tally with a louder voice than leah had heard come from her. maybe it was a sign of her being more comfortable? leah smiled at the young girl warmly as she moved on to sticking plasters onto the deeper cuts on the girl's thighs who was avoiding looking at what she was doing feeling ashamed and embarrassed for doing it. "the girls are all lovely and Jordan one of mine and Beths England teammates and best friend is coming over earlier as well as ruesha who isn't an Arsenal player but is Katie's girlfriend and comes over a lot then the others who are coming over later in the day!" leah said resting her hand on the girl's knee sensing her anxiety. 

"Can we finish doing this in my room please I need to take my meds now, my watch keeps reminding me!" asked the girl once again going quieter. leah looks at her confused but nods hoping the girl might elaborate. when they got into her room she looked at leah embarrassed before opening her drawer hoping that leah wouldn't look too close. she grabbed her antidepressants, OCD meds, allergy, birth control and anxiety meds before realising she didn't have her water bottle. 

"I left my water bottle out there so I'm gonna go grab it!" tally said to leah as she put a hoodie on to hide the cuts and rolled her shorts down over her newly plastered and bandaged legs. she quickly left the room and walked to the kitchen to grab her bottle and fill it. Beth took one look at her and laughed. "well that's rude!" gesturing to her hoodie, only then had it hit the young girl she had in fact put on one of her favourite hoodies which just so happened to be a man city one. "oh yeah haha I'm a city fan but technically my whole family is so I don't have a choice and Ez plays there and shes basically family and let's be honest I look great in light blue!" said tally while laughing, beth laughed as well and was happy that the girl was coming out of her shell a bit. Tally filled her water bottle up and went back to her room and closed the door to a guilty-looking leah. 

while tally had been gone the older woman had had a look in the drawer that Tally had gotten her the stuff out of. she was shocked to see basically a whole pharmacy including a suspicious-looking little black box she could easily assume what was in there. she took a quick photo and sent it to esme with question marks and a text saying "did you know she was cutting herself, come down when you can I can tell she would love to see you, hasn't spoken about her family once but said you are basically family?" and closed her phone . she knew the kid wouldn't like the fact that she had done that but she had to she was worried but felt slightly relieved upon hearing Beths and tallys conversation.

Don't mind the spelling mistakes my auto-correct doesn't work very well on my phone 😃😃