Come As You Are | E. Sonnett

one

"Orlando." Emily mumbled to herself quietly, tears welling in her eyes as she got off of the plane to visit her new home for the first time.

The trade was one of the most sad and humiliating events of her life, and although the coaches and team managers never specifically said so, Emily knew it never would have happened if she hadn't gotten tossed from the Utah game. That stupid Utah game. It had ruined her life.

"Over here, Sonnett!" Emily heard. She looked over to see Alex, her friend and now teammate who had come to pick her up.

Emily made her way over to Alex, who was expecting a hug, or even just a smile, but instead got nothing but the sad image of Emily slowly walking past her with tears threatening to pour from her eyes.

Overcome by her sadness, Emily walked right past the baggage claim, and slowly made her way out of the airport. Alex sighed at this image of her friend, and went to the baggage claim, initially questioning if she knew her friend well enough to identify her bag. After waiting a few moments, she immediately recognized Emily's bag as soon as she saw a Portland Thorns logo with a 16 embroidered underneath it.

Alex quickly grabbed the bag and ran out of the airport to catch up with Emily. "It's not nice to make pregnant people run." Alex laughed as she caught up with her friend.

Having expected a laugh, Alex frowned when her friend didn't even react in the slightest. Looking closer at Emily, she realized that her eyes were puffy, and that her cheeks were more red than normal. Realizing Emily had been crying, Alex just carried on with a frown.

When the two of them finally reached the car, they got into Alex's jeep and were off to the Morgan-Carrasco household.

After a few minutes of the so far silent ride, Alex spoke up. "Hey Sonnett, I know you really liked Portland, but I think if you try to lean into it, you could really like it here."

After a few more moments of silence and no response from Emily, Alex looked over to see that Sonnett was sound asleep with a few stray tears still running down her cheeks.

As Alex pulled into her driveway, she put her hand on Emily's shoulder, softly shaking the younger girl awake. "Emily, we're here..."

The blonde defender began squinting, her eyes adjusting to the light.

"How are you feeling?" Alex asked softly.

"Like hell." Emily mumbled with a raspy voice. When she recognized her surroundings she sighed. "I have a terrible headache and my stomach hurts."

"Let's get you inside and get you some water."

"Okay." Emily mumbled, and so began Emily's visit to her new home city of Orlando. Throughout the trip, Sonnett was pleasantly surprised with how much she liked the city, however it just wasn't Portland. It just felt like something was missing.

She had visited the stadium, met many of her teammates, received loads upon loads of team gear, and even gotten in a training session with the team. No matter how happy they tried to make her, though, she just couldn't see herself as happy as she once was.

Throughout the trip, Alex kept noticing how off Emily seemed. The Sonnett who Alex knew was a constant ray of sunshine upon every individual she crossed paths with. The Sonnett who Alex knew was like a shaken up can of soda. The Sonnett that Alex knew— wasn't the Sonnett staying in her household.

As she was driving Emily back to the airport, Alex looked over at her younger friend. "So what do you think?"

"It's different." Emily mumbled.

"Different better?" Alex questioned.

Emily glanced over at Alex before shaking her head ever so slightly.