Alessia's POV
I push open the changing room door, the smell of deodorant hitting my senses instantly, and head over to my usual spot in the room. Most of the girls are in here and getting changed already, as I was a little delayed.
I place my kit bag down on the bench and turn around to place my other belongings in to the locker behind me. Then I turn back to open my kit bag, my eyes naturally deciding to wonder around the room as I do and I really wish they didn't because they've just landed on the one person I really didn't need to see right now.
Leah Williamson... who's standing in just black shorts and a sports bra. Oh fuck.
Her face expression is unreadable and she's just staring back across the room, her eyes connected with mine.My heart is tripling in speed, but I don't break my gaze, not when I'm afraid to accidentally let myself look below her neck.
We stay staring at each other neither of us moving. Why is she not looking away? And why is she not giving me any sort of expression to go off? We're literally in some sort of staring contest right now, I don't know what's going on.
I know I need to get changed, but l'm not being the one to break this. Hell no. I'm not backing down from her like I usually do, not this time. I'm not letting her think she has some kind of hold over me because she fucking doesn't.
All of a sudden a thought hits me. A thought about doing something daring. Something that is bound to get a reaction out of her one way or another, and that's all I need right now. I don't care how it's about to look?
I don't know where my confidence starts to come from, maybe it's fuelled from anger, but I move my hands to the bottom of my t-shirt and slowly begin lifting it up, not breaking eye contact for a second.
Her eyes widen immediately and I think I see her lip twitch slightly, clearly taken back by my boldness. With a swift movement I lift my t-shirt over my head, and by the time it's off I notice that Leah's eyes have moved off of me and instead she's simply smirking to herself and slightly shaking her head, making me unsure on what she's feeling.
I want to smile and be glad that my plan worked but for some reason I'm angry. I'm annoyed at myself. Looking at her right now, I'm being reminded of everything that happened in that storage room and I want to hate myself for what I did and how l've been feeling about it.
I'm supposed to hate her so why the fuck am I doing this? Why am I entertaining the thoughts in my head? Why am I even letting her get inside my head? She's making me overthink everything, why the fuck am I letting her do that?
I finish getting changed along with the rest of the team and head out to the training pitch, my mind however is far from football. I need to show her how much I hate her. We need to go back to normal, back to how it's supposed to be, or I know it's going to drive me insane.
We begin doing a light jog to warm up and I find myself wanting to keep my distance from everyone, even Lotte who I barely say three words to when she tries to speak to me. After the warm up we move in to a passing and moving drill. It's a basic drill where the four players wearing bibs have to try and win the ball off the rest of the team who are passing it around inside a small area marked out with cones.
I begin on the team passing the ball around but after a few minutes we rotate round and I become a player wearing a bib. As I pull the bib over my head, I find myself looking at Leah who stays as one of the players without a bib. She gives me a quick expressionless glance and turns her attention away from me almost as soon as her eyes land on mine.
