Chapter Text
Tobin has always been dreaming of this fame, not really for the fame itself but for the fact that she would be famous for some reason (rather it be for soccer than anything else). For her, it was more than just knowing that she was making a name for herself by playing for UNC. Being called up by the USWNT was awesome and she was more than pleased with the way her life turned recently, even if she had worked her whole life to get to that point.
Never in her life, she would have thought that she could be more popular than she already was thanks to a video that was supposed to stay between her best friend and her.
***
"Harry, I already told you to stop playing this song, I can’t take it anymore” Allie groans while she steps into Tobin’s bedroom.
Tobin’s eyes shoot from the screen that she was watching while strumming her guitar, with a smirk. ”On the vodka, vodka, take another sip”.
"Huhhhhh, stop it,” she says, throwing herself on Tobin’s bed. ”Please, you’ve been singing this exact same song since that party Harry.” Her voice was muffled because her face was on some pillows.
Tobin stops playing and gets up, putting her guitar back at her place. ”Sorry Harry, KO’s fault, I think the song played like 3 times if not more.”
"Yes and so ?” Allie answers, she catches her best friend’s eyes and stares at her. ”I know you, you don’t usually sing a song this much if there isn’t any thought about it.” The blond smiles when she sees that her friend's eyes are finding something really interesting on the wall behind her. ”So? What is it? Because it’s probably not the vodka part that got you, is it ?” She asks with a satisfied grin.
"Huh, can we like not talk about it now? I guess I’ll just stop playing this one and try to play another artist or whatever ?” She demands, there is no way that she’s gonna talk about it with her best friend.
Allie can see the way the brunette’s jaw is tensed as she asks her to drop the subject. Eventually, she knows better than push the singer when she doesn’t want to talk about why she is locked with one song, but she’s come around when she’ll need her point of view.
"Ok, you can play it, you know I like when you play guitar and sings Tobs, but not just this one, please.” She says with a little smile.
When she closes the door she can see her best friend thinking, and she knows for sure that the subject is going to come back in their conversation earlier than she thought initially.
***
Allie was watching some soccer game when she sees Tobin coming to her, and she knew, it was the moment.
"Hey Harry, what are you doing ?” The singer asks while sitting next to the blond.
"Listening to you and helping you now, I guess ?” She asks, muting the TV and turning towards the other girl.
Tobin shakes her head a bit with a little smile, thinking that her friend knows her all too well.
"You know, at this party, there were like some Stanford girls ?” She asks, looking at anything that’s not the blond eyes.
"Yeah Tobs, it was Kelley throwing a party, so obviously, her best friends and teammates were there.” She says like it was the most logical thing in the world.
"Huh, I might have a little crush on one of their forwards ?” She almost whispers like it was some math problem that Allie could solve.
It took all she had to Allie to not laugh at her best friend because the brunette was anything but shy, she could be confident, cocky, funny, charming but it was probably one of the first time she saw Tobin being shy, and, on top of that, with her.
"Oh you mean Christen Press right? The girl you look at a little bit too much every time we play Stanford? Or the fact that you’ve been extra clapping when she scores when they’re supposed to be our rival? Oh let me guess, is Christen the girl you’ve been avoiding all this party? Because I can swear that you’ve been everywhere in this house but not near her.” She knows it a bit harsh but she’s been waiting for this for way too long and she has to have a bit of satisfaction at the face that her best friend is making right now.
"You knew ?” That was all Tobin could say.
"Of course Harry, you’ve never been the kind to not be confident around girls, so I guessed it’s because you really like her ?” She challenges Tobin to say otherwise when both of them know she’s right.
Tobin being Tobin just smiles a bit awkwardly and looks at her best friend.
”I’m sorry I didn’t tell you earlier, I just thought it was nothing. I thought I felt that because she is beautiful and that she’s Kelley's friend, and I don’t know? Oh my God, Harry, I didn’t even know before I decided to talk to you about it.”
"So what’s up with the song then ?” She pushes a bit, knowing that if Tobin wants to stop talking about it, she will tell her.
"I guess I’m just… tired ?” She says, not sure about herself. When her best friend frowns, she adds, ”You know I kind of have this popularity about soccer, and girls,…” she tries to find the words she’s searching for, ”huh, and even guys,” she adds, kind of disgusted, ”try to get me to hook up with them and hit on me and I don’t want that anymore, I want someone that I can be with because of who I am not who they see on the field or what they can read…” she stops, looking at Allie, ”do you know what I mean Harry ?”.
Allie doesn’t say anything and just hugs her.
”So Christen is it for you? Someone who can be with you for you ?” She asks carefully.
Tobin laughs at that. ” I don’t know Harry, I don’t even know her, but I’d really like to get to know her and yes, I hope that she can be it for me.”
They don’t speak, they just hug and look at each other, and laughs a bit at that conversation when Tobin adds. ” But I don’t know her, she could be the worse human on this planet, she just seems so nice and genuine. But I guess, like everyone, I just know her for her soccer skills and medias.” She seems a little bit sad about that.
Allie would never say it out loud but at that point, she made her mission to get Tobin to get to know Christen.
Because if Tobin said what anything to go by, she felt like Tobin ”having a crush” on Christen was probably a little bit too much of what Tobin was really feeling.
***
Few days after that, Allie came back from uni when she heard the same song that her roommate promised to stop playing so much. Before she could go and yell at her about it she thought better and got her phone. She was very careful to not make any noise, and by chance, when she got to Tobin’s room, the door was ajar, so she took a video of Tobin strumming her guitar and singing.
"I know girls like you, I know girls like you
Passive aggressive, mad at their ex's
And they gon' whirl like you
But some say love is overrated
Some say love is getting faded
I think love is finding that girl
That's gonna stick with me when I'm famous
Some say, people think it too much
But they ain't thinking enough
But she just wants a man that's lasting
I just need some damn attraction
We just need to set our boundaries
You right there, me right here
Used to be all in your ear
I could see us in a year”
When she stopped recording, she got back to the door and slammed it shut, so that Tobin knew she was home. She sent the video to Kelley saying ”Thanks for the song KO! She keeps on playing that vodka song, and she doesn’t even drink !!!” She followed the message with a few emojis laughing and closed the app before her roommate entered the room.
***
”Allie Long, I’m gonna kill you,” she says when she enters the apartment.
"Huh, why are you being so dramatic? What did I do this time ?” She asks with laughter.
"You leaked a video of me playing guitar ?!!!!” Tobin answers, not so pleased about the fact that her phone was blowing from notifications for the last two hours.
"Tobs, I didn’t? What makes you think I could’ve done that ?” The blond looks at her best friend and sees that she’s in trouble because even if she didn’t do it, the singer looks really upset about it.
"Harry, don’t mess with me now,” she says while throwing her phone at her roommate, ”who could have taken that video? I’m in my room, playing that song that you hate so much.” She adds, her jaw setting. ”I know I said I would stop playing this fucking song, and believe me, I’m gonna stop now, but you could have said something before doing this and throwing me under the bus, you know I hate the extra attention.” She was clearly pissed about it.
As Tobin was becoming a little redder by the minute, Allie looked at the video on Tobin’s screen, which was uploaded on YouTube. She realized her mistake.
"Okay Harry, I’m sorry, I did take the video, but I never posted it, and I wouldn’t have done it without your consent.” She pauses, giving Tobin her phone back and searching for her own. She opens her conversation with Kelley and holds out her phone to the other. ”I send it to KO, it was just to annoy both of you, because I thought she would send you a message, but obviously she had better plans.” She says, calmly.
Tobin looked at the exchange of messages, Kelley saying that she didn’t even know that she could sing and play guitar, and some Kelley comments on getting girls easily (which made Tobin smile, because it’s Kelley). She looked back at her best friend.
"Sorry Harry, I really thought it was you, I mean, you’re obviously the only one able to take that video, otherwise, it means someone had to break in…” she says with a little grin, ”I’m gonna call Kell and kill her” she adds before hugging quickly her best friend and going into her room.
***
It was almost a month later that Tobin entered her apartment to Allie with Kelley on FaceTime.
”What’s up Tobs ?” She asks when Allie turned the camera so that she saw Tobin coming through the door.
"Hey Kell, waiting for the next game to kill you for leaking the video, and you?” She answers with a smirk.
"Oh cool, you’re talking about that video, I was talking to Allie about you starting a YouTube channel to cover songs, there are a lot of demands of fans, on your socials, Allie’s and mine. So we created you an account, you just have to cover and do your thing Tobs. Now that I’ve dropped the bomb, I’m gonna go, Christen just got home, see you losers.” She says as fast as she could, hanging up.
Tobin looked annoyed, angry, and then a little flushed when she heard the name Christen.
Allie was trying to find a way to get Tobin to not be mad at her, but before she could say anything her best friend smiled and said ”Okay, I’ll do it.”
And the blond knew that Tobin was thinking that if doing covers was a way of getting girls, maybe it could, at least, get her to talk to her crush.