Schritt für Schritt (step by step)

The thing that should not have happened happens.

Ana's word is law.

The both of them get drunk together that night.

It's warm in Barcelona when they land despite it being later than 9pm. After dropping of their luggage, the driver takes them to a rooftop bar-turned night club that seems to be reserved for the Barça team and their loved ones.

"Are you going to know a lot of people there?", Leah asks Lia. Wally shrugs.

"I know Ana and a few of her friends. She brought some of her teammates to Switzerland once, Patri and Aitana, and obviously she is close with Keira now. I heard Lucy is supposed to be really lovely as well."

Leah chuckles. She doesn't know Ana that well yet. But if someone associates Lucy Bronze with the word "lovely", they must really try to break through the walls people they get to know have built up. Leah considers it as a likable quality. Later that night she will not be sure whether she likes Ana-Maria Crnogorcevics capability to determine the innermost thoughts of her counterpart.

The party is already going strong. The first beat thrown at them is a heavy reggeaton one. The second one is what seems to be a really drunk Keira Walsh hurling herself at them, almost tearing Leah down. Lia manages to catch both her friends (oh what it does to Leah to be caught by her when she is falling for her) and chuckles: "Be careful Keira. She is injured royalty." Keira's eyes widen and she coos loudly. "You", she manages to shout through the noise of the party, "are both here." She points her index fingers at Lia and Leah, poking their chests harder than she probably intended to. Leah looks at Wally in fake pain and rubs her chest. The sober footballers giggle at their intoxicated friend and Lia is happy that Leah created this situation for them to laugh at together. She loves to laugh with Leah. She loves it.

"You two... are here, to- together. You came... together.", Keira continues, and the lightness of the situation is gone immediately.

"Of course we are", Leah diverts quickly. Wally adds, just as swiftly: "I mean, it's not every day both our best friends win the Champion's League". Apparently, this is enough for Keira to forget her initial assessment of the situation. Her face lights up with a bright smile as she raises her drink. Leah identifies it as some sort of ginger-scented alcohol when she sniffs at the liquid that Keira has partly spilt over Leah's shirt. Keira screams something that most likely should have been a triumphal Spanish catchphrase, but despite Leah's poor Spanish skills she knows it is not.

They do get drunk together, but Leah is the one to get the party started. There is no other way to get herself out of the mess she finds herself in.

Keira and Ana decide that Leah and Wally are not drunk enough. Somehow, they manage to convince them to take part in a game with a few others that have also been labelled as un-jolly killjoys. They are sat at a round table in a corner of the club where the music is a bit less obtrusive and the volume allows a yelled conversation. Keira and Ana, both very drunk, explain the rules to Leah and Wally as well as Lucy, Laia Codina and two brunettes that neither Leah nor Lia recognize. A challenge, written on a white piece of paper, is drawn out of a large glass bowl. (Lia holds up the three middle fingers of her hand with a sombre look and purses her lips together to imitate whistling. Leah laughs and shouts: "May the odds be ever in your favor". Ana, annoyed at the loss of attention, tells Leah to stop flirting with Lia. Leah stops laughing and hopes, slightly panic-ridden, that Lia did not hear what Ana said.) If the player does not fulfill the dare, they have to drink anything the player to their left orders them to. 

Leah concludes that the game's aim is to somehow rile her up. The first brunette – she introduces herself as a friend of Patri Guijarro's, but Leah can't remember her name – has to twerk for two minutes in the middle of the dance floor. Laia has to get on the table and sing the national anthem from another country than Spain. She opts for God safe the King and from what Leah can tell, it's not terribly bad. But when Leah reads the challenge she draws, she feels her throat close up. "Come on, what is it?", Keira pressures excitedly. Leah looks at Wally to her right and at encouraging, warm eyes and is so overwhelmed. "Ugh – it's, uh... it's. Uhm. I'm just going to read it out loud. Give the person to your right a lap dance."  Though still warm, the eyes are now mainly filled with anxiety. It's in that moment Leah decides to drink. She doesn't think she would have had the nerve or the composure to give Lia a lap dance, but she can't deny the slight twist in her gut at how appalled Lia seemed at the mere thought of it. "I'll drink", she says, and when she turns to look at Keira who is her other neighbor, she immediately knows that she somehow muddled with the challenge she has given her. Her disappointment is obvious. Leah feels anger at her friend bubbling in her stomach as she downs the two incredibly disgusting shots Keira prepared for her in one go. Keira, who just won the Champion's League and is intoxicated on top of life's Ferris Wheel, can tell. But apparently, she does not understand that Leah's situation is not a positive one, one with potential for something good. Instead, it has the potential for devastating heartbreak. The gravity, the magnitude of the tragedy that it puts Leah in catches up with her once again. She gets up stiffly and leaves the table, feeling the need to get some fresh air on the rooftop.