Fighting Society

it's not your fault kiddo

"Leah and I are going out to take a walk, seeing as she hasn't left the house in a while. Fancy coming with us?"

Lia was perched on the end of the young girl's bed, her hand resting softly on the duvet that Jess was burrowed away under, only her head peeking out at the side to indicate her presence. A small shake of the head trembled the bed, as a sigh escaped from Lia's mouth. They'd had another concerned email from the school, this time stating how the young girl hadn't said a word all day and had spent most of it just hiding around the corners, refusing to even go into Miss Edwards's classroom. It would be a lie, to say that they hadn't been expecting something like that, given the events of the morning.

~

Jess was dressed and ready for school an hour before her alarm had even gone off, desperate to get out the house as soon as possible, despite her alarm clock still only reading 7am. The quicker she could get out, the better. She crept down stairs, in attempt to grab her things from the kitchen, trying to slide her shoes on so that the two upstairs remained asleep. Breakfast wasn't needed at that point; she just wasn't hungry, her stomach instead filled with butterflies that had invaded the boundaries further than she was used to. A small creak from the landing indicated to her the awareness of somebody else, moving quicker in attempt to leave the house as soon as possible. 

"What's with the rush?"

Her eyes lead her to the Swiss midfielder stood on the stairs, her hair still messy having only recently woken up. It was pulled into a loose messy bun, bags under her eyes and an oversized t-shirt proving she wasn't ready. Jess ignored the older woman, hoping to make her way out of there as soon as possible.

"Woah slow down there munchkin. You don't need to leave the house for another hour. It's not like you to be this eager for school anyway."

Once more she continued to move around, hoping that the Swiss captain would just leave her alone, but to no avail. She finished tying her converse up, moving to grab her grey jacket hanging by the door when Lia placed her hands on the young girls shoulders.

Big mistake.

She spun round, lightly shoving the older woman so that she stumbled back a little bit, Jess backing herself into the corner of the room, her eyes widened. She wasn't panicked; it was just Lia, at the end of the day. She just didn't want to be touched.

"Okay, okay, I'm sorry kiddo. I didn't mean to catch you off guard like that. Look, I know last night was difficult for all of us, but you don't need to head out this quickly. You've got time."

Jess only stared back, as she zipped her jacket up ready to leave the house, Lia unable to stop the young girl as she reached the handle to the front door, pausing for a moment before she unlocked it. Lia was stood by the bottom of the stairs, watching as the unusually calm girl had prepared herself so quickly pause for the first time that morning, as she looked towards Lia,

"Leah didn't say goodnight to me last night."

And with that, she moved her way out of the door, the midfielder feeling her heart break slightly at the confession as the door shut behind Jess, making a noise that woke the England captain upstairs, as she began to call to see who had left. Lia made her way up the stairs to greet her, heading into the room she had shared.

"Who was at the door?"

"Nobody was at the door."

"So why did it open?"

"It was Jess."

"Really, she doesn't need to leave for another 50 minutes at least?"

"She needed some time."