*
Leila holds you close until the sun comes up, running her fingers through your hair, occasionally kissing your forehead and perhaps making one too many promises that you are too tired to protest against but you know the defender will most likely break again.
You rebuild the walls standing between you and the former Barca player, stronger than before after you notice the way she looks at you from across the gym.
You dive deeper into football than ever before, even more so than when she broke your heart the first time and it doesn't take long before the team starts to notice - how you've begun to match them in training, how clean your passes are and how improved your overall decision making is; you even manage to overtake Hempo in a sprint.
This change is also picked up by the coaching staff and you become a regular starter alongside Laura in midfield, showing not only yourself but also Leila that despite bearing your scars, despite all the hurt and suffering, you weren't going to let them, let her, get the better of you and that it was going to become a fire so bright, it would push all thoughts of her and that night from your memory.
The defender meanwhile couldn't help but admire how well you now carried yourself, what this change of mentality had done for your smile, your body, but she also remains extremely puzzled at how sudden you could just 'turn off' your feelings.
It was almost like she didn't matter to you anymore.
For someone usually so confident, she didn't have the courage to confront you, she wasn't particularly angry because there was no reason for her to be, she was more confused than anything, more than she perhaps would like to admit, but in her opinion it felt like you were ignoring her.
Lauren had called her out on it and even Ellie mentioned her lack of energy, asking if she'd leant it to you after the recent turn of events, which unknowingly had sent Leila spiralling even deeper into her mood.
The Spaniard had thought about a lot over the past few weeks, mostly about you, what you were doing, who you were with and how this felt like a breakup even though it definitely wasn't.
She found herself staring off into space and more often that not, was caught lost in thought while seemingly staring at you and boring holes into the side of your head. Like now, she was sat watching you and Bunny talk about something that happened in training, not particularly bothered about the fact you were talking but more by the fact you seemed so unbothered.
You were laughing and joking with the forward as if it was a perfectly normal thing for you to do, despite the things that were happening in your private life.
You seemed completely fine and it was as if your late night confession had never happened, in spite of the fact you both knew better and Leila couldn't understand how you could move on so easily while she was stuck in this unexplained rut.
Having had enough of watching from afar, she had made up her mind and decided something needed to be done, the former Barca player seething as Alanna gave you a quick side hug before running off to her physio appointment.
Nerves, a new sensation that she didn't associate with you until now, fill her body as she approaches your table and despite your best efforts to block out anything to do with her, your body still responds to her closeness and can't help but break your conversation with Bunny to look at her.
