right where you left me

Chapter 48 - Home Is Where The Heart Is

The calm. The before. The storm.

The calm before the storm.

She was my storm.

I was hers.

Through the chaos, and the hurt and the harms, and everything in between, I was just a girl. She was just a girl.

"Do you- um- do you still love me?" Leah asked, looking down at the ground.

"What do you think?" I said, slightly laughing. I moved closer to her, wanting to pour even more of my heart into the person that stood in front of me.

"Well, I don't know," she replied, not looking at me. "I'm broken. I am sad, like all the time. I feel- the world isn't... I'm just not the same girl I was a month ago." I brought her chin to look up at me, her sadness fueling my heart.

"I don't care. You're still my Leah. That's all I care about." She looked away, tears slightly falling from her face.

"I'm a different Leah," she answered. This conversation scared me. She scared me. I had no idea where she was going with this. Was this a declaration of everything or nothing?

"Not to me," I responded. She took a step back; her body moved further from mine even though I wanted anything but.

"I love you, Leah," I said this so solemnly, and with so much heart that I hoped this would sway her. I hoped she would see my love pouring through my veins, and running towards my heart.

"I- I- I'm scared," she soon said, turning away and walking towards the exit.

"Stop, stop," I shouted, running after her. "Stop trying to find a problem here. Leah, I love you. You love me. What more is there?" She didn't have a response.

"I don't know."

"See, this is inevitable, Leah. You and me. We are inevitable. You can't ignore it. You can try, but it won't work." I grabbed her hand, and held it tight, my other going towards her cheek to wipe the small tear that trickled down it.

"I don't know what to do," she soon said.

"About what?" I asked.

"Everything," she replied. "My knee. My teams. You."

"We do this together, okay? Everything we do together." I wrapped my two arms around her waist bringing her into my body. I felt the warmth of her skin against the coldness of my own.

Hot and cold.

Yin and Yang.

Leah and Tippah.

A Few Weeks Later

It was the final day of the WSL.

We would be finishing third, no matter the result today. Leah had had her surgery, and I was back in our apartment (finally). It felt like things were finally looking up. Caitlin had also moved in, bunking with us since her break up with Lia. Despite Leah's allegiance to Wally, they've been keeping civil. Just like how Cait and Wally were caught up in Leah and my break up, we are caught in there's.

It was all getting quite messy, and Leah I vowed to stay out of it. It wasn't our place, as we both would say.

Come the final day, we were up against Aston Villa. Third place was guaranteed, and due to our injury crisis, we knew it was best to take this game easy, which was a weird feeling going into the match.

Normally there is pressure to win every game, but with the Champions League secured for next season, there was nothing else to fight for in the League.

All we had left was the final; the final of the Champions League.

That was the most important.

We lost the game against Aston Villa, which was disappointing. It wasn't great preparation going into the final, but we knew that our health was more important. As long as no one else got injured, we were happy.