Castles Crumbling

Grocery shopping (Chapter 7)

The changing room was quiet after practice. Everyone just changing and showering after recovering from today's practice. Katie was laying on the floor, barely awake and she was probably the one feeling the sickest. Not surprising considering the insane amounts of shots she did yesterday. With anyone who would join her. In other words, I wouldn't want to be her today. 

I walked inside the store with my headphones on, music blasting and grabbed a cart. First on the list were vegetables, root vegetables and fruit. Everything looked very fresh, and they had everything we wanted. I continued further into the store, grabbing stuff as I walked. In the dairy section I saw a familiar face, Leah. She stood there grabbing what seemed to be milk. I walked up to her and tapped on her shoulder. She jumped at the touch, turned around while taking off her headphones. "It's you." She said, not sounding very happy. "I got to say hi to my teammate when I see her outside of football." I answered with a smile. "Of course you do. I just didn't expect to see you here." Leah said, her face actually lighting up as she spoke. "Yeah, I'm just doing the shopping for the house, probably my only one for the three of us since I get access to my own apartment in less than a month." I said still smiling softly. While we were talking the two of us had been grabbing all the things we needed from this section. "Yeah, I know, they managed to find you one in the same neighborhood most players live in. I think it is right across the hall from my apartment." Leah said still smiling which was strange since she seemed to hate everything that had to do with me. 

"So, we are going to be neighbors. How are you going to handle that if we aren't friends?" I asked her in a joking way. "Well, I thought about and maybe we can be friends. You really do seem like a nice person." Leah answered me with a smile on her face. "Thank you, that is such a nice thing of you to say. And what made you change your mind about me?" I asked her. "None of your business." Leah answered and walked away from me. All that and no progress made. 

I continued the rest of the shopping in silence. We were having a moment and I somehow ruined it by just existing. Maybe I couldn't even make friends here, was I such a bad person that no one would like me? With thoughts spinning in my head, I drove home. I was tired, angry, annoyed and insecure and the combination of them were a bit too much. 

Leah's POV

Why did I ruin that moment? Everything was going to well and I couldn't keep my big mouth shut. The look on her face when I walked away was pure disappointment and I regretted doing what I did. But I liked her, my feelings shouldn't matter in this. Football should be put before everything and dating someone in your team was amazing. Until you broke up and were forced to live with the awkwardness. Knowing exactly what would make the other person crumble, every spot on their body and regretting ever getting with them. It doesn't matter that the years with them were the best in your life. 

I should have been nicer to her. I wanted to be her friend. Now that we were playing for the same team, I might have a chance with her. If she was gay, no one really knew since she kept her sexuality and relationships away from the public eye. Just like I did. The way fans just assume you are dating a person just from you hugging them or even looking at them was sick. When I dated Jordan we kept our relationship secret, I wasn't ready to come out at the moment and the media put our relationships under a magnifying glass. Mostly rumors, but it ruined our relationship.

Not that I would get into a relationship with her. If she even was gay, she would never like me. She was so confident on and outside the pitch, very beautiful and a football talent. In other words, she was way out of my league. I shouldn't think about this. Just focus on being friendly against her Leah. Better being her friend than not. Because I would see her, talk to her and hopefully fall out of love with her. 

Can we all just take a moment and appreciate how Leah is head over heels in love with Ottilia and her not having a clue.

But being in love with a friend sucks. Especially when she is gay and sending me very much mixed signals.

Oh, and by the way I love grocery shopping. My favorite weekend activity.

Love E