the best surprise was you...

The day after

Beep beep beep "ughh" Viv groaned as she aggressively slammed on her phone to make it shut up. She had absolutely no desire to get up and if it were up to her she would stay in bed all day. It was however not up to her. In an hour's time, she had to be up and ready to go, cause today was the last practice for their FA cup final against Chelsea. So Viv got up, brushed her teeth, got dressed and was about to make breakfast when her phone rang. She saw that it was Katie and picked up. "Hey, Katie what's..." however Viv had no time to finish her sentence cause Katie broke in; "YOU AND LISA BROKE UP!" She shouted through the phone. Viv had to keep it at arm's length so as not to get deaf. She secretly knew this would be coming, but she didn't expect it to be this fast.
"Yeah, I did and before you give me any kind of lecture on why I shouldn't have done it, I did it to protect not only me but her as well."
"Protect yourself? What do you mean to protect yourself?"
"Look I would love to tell you, but as things stand I'm already late and I still need to have breakfast. So if you don't mind..."
"Okay, I'll let you eat but this convo is far from over. See yous at training"
"Yeah see yah"
Viv shoved her phone in her pocket, quickly downed her breakfast, grabbed her bag and went out the door.

"There you are, we've been worried" Viv looked up to see who'd spoken and saw that it was Leah. "Yeah sorry 'bout that, I forgot to message saying I was running late."
"Well, you're here now. Come on let's gets inside, the meeting has just started." Viv was surprised by Leah's calm reaction. Usually, she scolded people alive whenever they were late. But Viv was thankful that she didn't, because that would definitely not improve her mood.
"So, why are you late?" Leah asked curiously as they walked up to the training centre. "Hectic morning" Viv replied curtly. "Why was it hectic?" "It was just one of those mornings you know." Leah nodded and stopped asking questions. She probably took the hint Viv thought because she indeed wanted to stop talking about it.
They arrived at the meeting room, went in as quietly as they could and sat down. Viv sat down next to Beth who put her thumb up and then down to ask how she was. Viv saw this and put her thumb sideways cause she had actually no clue as to what she was feeling. She felt sad because of what happened with Lisa, annoyed with herself for being late and also scared to really live alone for the first time ever. Beth saw and gave her an encouraging smile. Viv returned a weak smile and turned her attention back to Jonas.
During the meeting, everything seemed to be going past Viv. She was usually the one taking the lead, especially when it came to the last meeting before an important match. Today however she was not and that made Viv even more annoyed with herself than she already was.
"So that concludes our meeting. We'll be training on the pitch in about 15 minutes, so make sure you're ready." At those words, everyone stood up and made their way to the dressing room. Viv made to do the same but Jonas held her back. " Is everything okay Viv? You seem a bit off". Viv shook her head. "No I'm not okay. I broke up with my girlfriend of seven years last night." She had always praised herself for having a really open and honest relationship with her coach and therefore decided on telling the truth.
"I'm really sorry to hear that. Is there anything we can offer you here at the club, to help you cope?" Viv shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know, I will have to think about that."
"Do you want the team to know?" Viv shrugged her shoulders. "No, I don't want them to feel sorry for me. I'll tell those close to Lisa but other than that I just want to forget about it." Jonas nodded. "Just know we're all here for you, whatever you need." Viv gave a short smile, said "thanks" and headed for the dressing room.

"Hey" Beth greeted as Viv flopped down next to her. Viv smiled and changed into her football gear. Leah put on music and some of the girls started to have a dance-off. Viv and Beth chuckled as Jordan tried to do the worm. Jen walked over to them and took Beth for a dance. Viv watched them as they jumped up and down singing at the top of their lungs. She never joined in but did enjoy seeing her teammates being silly and goofing off from time to time.
Viv checked her watch and saw that it was nearly time to be out on the pitch, so she put her stuff away and started making her way to the training pitch.

"come on girls, push." They were halfway through the training and had just started their 11 v 11. Viv was running back and forth trying to get the ball, but every time she got close to the ball she either mistimed her tackle or her teammate was too quick. Viv was getting so annoyed with herself that at the 5-minute break, she smashed her water bottle on the ground, causing it to explode. "oy, watch it." Katie said as she jumped backwards so as to avoid the splashing water. Viv didn't even look back or say sorry. She didn't want everyone to see the tears welling up in her eyes. All she wanted to do was curl up in bed and cry. She tried to calm herself by taking deep breaths whilst looking at the ground.
"Is everything okay?" She nodded, not looking up because there were still tears stinging in her eyes. "Are you sure? cause I'm pretty sure you're crying." Viv kept her head down determined to not break, not here at work.
She suddenly felt a hand lifting her face. She looked directly at Beth's bright blue eyes. They had something calming about them and without realising what she was doing or why she was doing it she wrapped her arms around Beth and burst into tears. "hey it's okay, whatever it is you're going through we're all here for you." Beth tried to soothe Viv by rubbing her back. "I just keep m-m-messing up" Viv stammered. "hey it's okay, we all have those days. It's nothing to be ashamed of". Viv shook her head "no it's not like that. I meant my personal life. I broke up with Lisa." A silence fell at those last words. Viv knew that beth was shocked to hear it. "okay, here's what we'll do; we'll finish training, have lunch, drive to your place and put on a movie. I'll stay with you, this is not a time where you should be alone." Viv was kind of surprised by this. It wasn't that they weren't friends before, but they rarely hung out and now Beth was willing to give up her free afternoon to take care of her. Viv let go of Beth wanting to say that's not really necessary, but instead, she said "thank you". they walked to the rest of the girls where Jonas took Viv aside again. "are you sure you don't need anything?" Viv shook her head "no I don't need anything. I'm actually feeling better now, thanks to Beth" She looked over and saw that Beth gave her smile. It made Viv warm up on the inside. "okay if you say so. Do you want to stay on cause I could sub you off." Viv shook her head vigorously. "no don't do that, I want to stay on. Like I said, I'm feeling better." Jonas didn't look entirely convinced but turned his attention back to the group. "okay girls lets have it. 30 minutes left so let's see what you've got." He clapped in his hands and everyone made their way back on the field to their positions.  Viv quickly ran over to Katie "Hey sorry about before. It wasn't against you, I'm just dealing with a lot at the moment." Katie smiled "It's alright mate, it can't be easy what you're going through right now". With that, the game started again. Viv didn't know what it was or what changed but she could completely focus on the game.

"Ready to go?" Viv looked up and saw Beth smiling at her? Viv nodded. "Good, I do need to run an arrant real quick if that's okay with you" "of course it is" Viv said. She took her stuff and followed Beth out the door.
It was a very silent car ride. Not that Viv found this uncomfortable, if anything she found it rather soothing. Sitting here with Beth just listening to music and enjoying each other's company. She looked out the window at the passing trees, letting her mind wander of.
It therefore took her a while to realise that they had already arrived at Tesco's and that Beth had turned off the engine. "I'll be in and out in no time." Beth opened the door and got out. Viv watched her go as she suddenly felt this empty feeling creeping in. It was like the silence started to consume her, which was weird because it had been silent the whole car ride. Yet now that she was completely alone it felt heavier than ever. She felt tears stinging in her eyes. Was this it? Was this what being alone really felt like? If so she absolutely hated it. She started to fully cry at these thoughts, which made her even angrier with herself. This is what I wanted she thought angrily as she tried to wipe away the stream of tears. I wanted to find out who I am on my own... But now that she was actually experiencing what it was like being alone she wasn't sure she had made the right decision. She was lost in her thoughts so much she didn't even notice Beth coming back in the car. Viv gave a jolt as she suddenly felt a hand on hers. She quickly turned and saw the bright blue eyes she knew so well, yet she had the feeling there was something different about them. "Hi" Beth whispered softly. The grip on Viv's hand tightened, and she could instantly feel herself calming down. "Let's get you home." Beth let go of Viv's hand, started the engine and drove off.