Chapter Text
Have you ever met that one person that you connect with on a higher level than anyone else? Ok but have you ever met them and then allowed them to rip your heart right out… I didn’t think so. Well that is what happened to me when I met Christen Press. Four years ago she broke my heart and I haven’t seen her since, all that is about to change though because I just found out that we are both attending the next national team camp.
Christen and I have both been around the national team for the past three years but we have never attended camp together before. To begin with I got called up a lot but Christen never and then when I got injured Christen was getting called up all the time so this will be the first time we are called into camp together.
I hope everything goes smoothly and I don’t need to see Christen all that much, I will be pleasant but I refuse to go out of my way to see or speak to her. The good thing is that no one on the team knows that Christen and I have history or that we used to date so that means that I can avoid all the questions from my teammates about how I feel. Christen and my relationship wasn’t a secret, we just didn’t know many of our current teammates back then and the ones we did know weren’t really as close to me as they are now.
~
I don’t know if I am ready for this, I haven’t seen her for so long and yet there she is; staring at me. To be honest I really don’t know what to do; do I go over to her or do I ignore her. Ignoring her would be really immature but I don’t think I am ready to face her, she broke my heart and I can’t get passed that.
Since everyone else seems to be greeting her then I suppose I should too, it would look odd if I didn’t. I just have to suck it up for a few seconds and greet her before I can get out of this room and take a breath of fresh air.
“Hi” is what I hear from that voice I loved so much. “I didn’t know whether to approach you or not.”
“Hi” I say coldly before I begin to move away.
“Toby can we talk?” I glare at her, how dare she think she can just act like nothing happened.
“My name’s Tobin” I utter angrily. “And no, we cannot talk.”
“I don’t want there to be any tension between us.”
“There won’t be if you stay out of my way and I stay out of yours” I state before walking off to find some fresh air.
“Hey Press, long time no see” I hear Kelley from behind me before I hastily leave the room and sigh in relief when I get outside and the cool air hits me.
“Are you ok?” I hear beside me and then I see Ashlyn.
“Yeah, I just needed some air” I answer before issuing the keeper with a weak smile.
“Me too, it was getting awkward in there” Ash says and now I am confused. How does she know it was awkward, no one knows about my past with Press? Ashlyn must sense my confusion. “Ali and I aren’t in a good place at the moment so the team have sorta divided” she explains.
“What happened dude?” I ask concerned. Ali and Ash have handled a lot throughout their relationship but deep down we all know they belong together.
“I don’t really know, she’s got some family troubles but with me staying in the states and her in Germany it makes things hard” Ash tells me. “I want to be there for her and help her but I can’t be who she wants me to be when I am thousands of miles away. I hate seeing her so sad but it’s not like I can jump through the computer every time we Skype.”
“Woman are complicated sometimes eh?”
“Speaking from experience?” Ash asks and I nod.
“Kinda, yeah” I answer. “You know I had some trouble with my ex.”
“Yeah, I just fear that’s what will happen to Alex and me” Ash tells me worriedly. “I love her but I don’t think that’s enough.” It wasn’t enough for Christen clearly. I thought I had finally move on in life but I guess the world has other plans for me.
“Hi Ashlyn” I hear from behind me. Is christen deliberately trying to mess with my head?
“Hi Press, how are you?” Ashlyn says with a smile before hugging her. “Tobin, have you met Press?”
“Yeah, we’ve met” I answer before looking away from those eyes that have a tendency to draw me in. “I didn’t know you knew each other.”
“Yeah, she’s friends with Ali so we sorta just became friends by default” Ashlyn shrugs before smiling. “You are looking great Christen.”
“Thanks, the injury is all healed” Christen says before nervously playing with her hands. “Do you know where Ali is, I want to speak to her?”
“The last time I looked she was talking to Becky” Ash answers with a sad shrug.
“Ok… I am going to find her” Christen says before hugging Ash quickly and then leaving.
“Christen has been plagued with hip injuries so that’s probably why you haven’t seen her at camp” Ashlyn says. “She’s a nice girl, shy at times but really friendly.” I just nod, I know pretty much everything about Christen other than why she had to break my heart. I guess I should add heartless to the list of things I know about her. She may look cute and adorable but deep down she is nothing but a bitch.
“Do you know much about her?” I ask nosily. If she is going to be my teammate then there is no harm in me asking others about her is there?
“Who Press?” Ash asks and I nod. “She plays in Sweden, she moved there about four years ago I think.”
“Has she always been at the same club?”
“No, she’s at her second club just now. Tyreso I believe it is called, Ali and Frankfurt played them in the Champions League at the end of the European season last year” Ash explains. “As you know Frankfurt won, obviously since they won the Champion’s League.”
“Yeah unfortunately, I can’t believe that PSG and me never even made it to the round of sixteen” I say, still a little sad that I wasn’t able to have another go at the title.
“Kling used to play with Press as well but they don’t anymore” Ash tells me. “Press is a major deal over in Sweden, she wins quite a lot of club awards.”
“So she’s a good player then?” I ask but I already know the answer. I always knew she would be destined for greatness, it’s just a shame that she had to string me along and break my heart along the way to her achievements.
“Oh yeah, she’s a brilliant goal scorer but she is also a good all round player” Ash smiles. “I hate when she is on the opposite team in practice but then again I like it because it give me a good practice against someone of her calibre.”
“Is she single?” Jeez, the question is out before I even know what I am saying. I want to know but on the other hand I don’t.
“You have a girlfriend Tobs” Ash says with a smirk.
“I know that Ash, I was just curious. It doesn’t mean I am asking for myself” I retort.
“Honestly Tobs, I couldn’t tell you” Ash starts. “She’s very private about that sort of thing, she never talks about dating. After the last camp I had with her she went out with Ali, Kelley and a few others and apparently she got hit on a lot but I think she just laughed it off.”
“Right.”
“All I know is that she had a girlfriend in college, Kelley was able to tell me that” Ash says. “She didn’t say it outright but during Press’s first camp Kelley asked about her girlfriend from college, according to Kelley they were a big deal even though Kelley never explicitly got introduced to her when they were at Stanford together.”
“What happened between them?” I ask.
“No idea” Ash says as she shakes her head. “I have no clue.”
“Hey, may I steal my girlfriend Tobin?” Ali asks, appearing from nowhere.
“Sure” I answer with a smile before I begin walking off. When I look back over my shoulder I can’t help but feel a little sad seeing Ali and Ash in such an intimate embrace, that could have been me and you know who. Despite the fact that Ali and Ash are having troubles you can still tell how in love they are.
~
“Hi Ladies, welcome to our first team meeting” Jill says after we have all sat down. “Before we start I want to say welcome to all of you, whether it be your first camp or one of many. Today I will briefly go over what our main aims are for this camp and what I expect from you all…” I zone out for pretty much the rest of Jill’s speech and end up staring at the back of Christen’s head as she and Kling whisper to one another.
“Are you actually paying attention?” Alex whispers from the seat next to me.
“Not really” I answer distractedly while maintaining my gaze on Press and Kling.
“You need to pay attention so we know what the coach is saying” Alex whispers. “It is no good if we are both not listening.”
“You listen for us then” I hiss quietly.
“I can’t, I’m texting Serv so I am relying on you to keep me updated on this meeting” Alex says before going back to her texting.
“Tobin, Alex… is there a problem?” Jill stops her speech to ask.
“Yeah, Alex is texting her boyfriend and it is distracting me” I say before throwing Alex a cheeky smile.
“I….Uh, I was…” Alex says as I watch her flounder.
“Pay attention, both of you” Jill says sternly. It feels like we are in school again. “Everything you hear at a team meeting is essential.”
“Sorry coach” I apologise and then Alex does the same. I just manage to catch the quiet ‘I’m going to kill you’ that Alex mutters to me.
After another forty minutes of the meeting we finally get set free but not before Dawn issues us with our room assignments.
“You better sleep with one eye open Heath if we get paired together” Alex tells me. “After your stunt earlier then you better watch out.”
“Oh I’m nervous, Ash protect me” I say sarcastically before pulling the blonde keeper in front of me. “You couldn’t even scare a fly Alex.”
“Tobin, you will be rooming with Christen” Dawn tells me, filling me with dread. This day just keeps getting better and better. If I didn’t know any better I would guess that Christen is behind this, she isn’t exactly hiding the fact that she wants to talk to me.
“Great” I mumble sarcastically under my breath.
“Hey, what’s wrong with that?” Kelley whispers, clearly she heard my mumble. “Chris is great Tobs, you will like her.”
“I am not so sure I will” I answer before walking off, leaving a confused Kelley O’Hara behind.
“What’s up Tobin’s butt?” I hear Kelley’s loud voice before I hear a few mumbles from Ash and Alex.
I slowly make my way to my room, I know it won’t be long before I come face to face with Christen again. She is probably already in our room right now.
“Hi” Christen says when I enter the room.
“Hello” I reply formally, too formally that it has just made everything ten times more awkward.
“Can we talk?”
“We already are” I say sharply.
“I mean about us” Christen replies, moving closer to me.
“There is no us, you ruined that” I say before entering the bathroom and slamming the door behind me. I am really not in the mood to deal with this right now.
As much as I want to remain locked in this bathroom I know I can’t because we are supposed to be having a team dinner at seven. I just pray that when I open this door that Christen is not in the room.
I slowly open the door and scan the room quickly and find that it is empty, thank goodness for that. As I make my way over to my luggage I notice a note on top of the bed.
I’ve took my clothes to Kelley’s room to change,
See you at dinner,
Chris x
I quickly grab a pair of jeans and a top before I disappear into the bathroom again for a quick wash. I text Alex to tell her to meet me in ten minutes so that we can walk to the restaurant together. At least if Alex is with me then she can act as a buffer and I won’t be cornered to sit with Press.
~
“Looking hot Heath” Alex says when she sees me. “What’s with the dressing up?”
“I am no more dressed up than you Alex” I answer.
“I know but you don’t usually make such an effort, normally you are the most casual one there” Alex says, eyeing me suspiciously.
“I wasn’t sure how fancy this restaurant was going to be so I thought I would play it safe and make more of an effort” I say, trying to get my best friend to believe me.
“You look good anyway” Alex compliments me before we make our way to the restaurant. Truth be told, I only dressed up to show Press that I am good without her and I don’t need her.
“What are Servando’s plans for tonight?” I ask as we walk.
“He’s going out with a few guys from his team” Alex answers. “I just hope he doesn’t drink too much he promised we could Skype in the morning.”
“We can’t have him breaking a promise” I say jokingly before Alex and I enter the restaurant.
“What took you two so long?” Kling asks. “We have been waiting here for a while.”
“Blame Tobin” Alex says before she sits down next to Ashlyn leaving me with the only other seat available which unluckily seems to be right across from you know who. At least I am not sitting next to her.
“Now that everyone is here can we please go to the buffet?” Kelley asks impatiently. “I skipped lunch for this.”
“So did I?” Ash interject before receiving a glare from Ali.
~
“Damn” I mutter under my breath before sitting down in my seat.
“What’s up Tobin?” Hope asks while trying to stop Kelley from stealing from her plate.
“There was no pork left and I hadn’t had a bit yet” I complain to the table.
“Yeah, Alex and Kelley seem to have took all the pork” JJ tells me.
“You can have my pork” I hear from across the table.
“It’s ok” I decline politely but it seems Christen has other ideas since she is leaning across the table and putting the meat on my plate. “Thanks.”
“No problem” Christen says, showing me her megawatt smile. Why did I need to look up?
“Are we all excited for camp to start?” Kelley asks excitedly. “I can’t wait to do another beep test.”
“Oh no, are we really doing one this camp?” Ash asks. Out of all of us, Ashlyn is the one who hates running the most and Kelley is the one who likes it the most.
“I missed the last two beep tests so I think my luck will have run out by now” I say while finishing off my pork. I am not going to be immature and not eat it since Press gave me it, I like pork too much to act like that.
“Do you remember at Stanford Press, we used to have the beep test every month?” Kelley asks to which Christen replies that she does. I remember it myself, getting a phone call from my girlfriend telling me how much she dislikes the beep test.
“How could I forget?” Christen replies before giving me a shy glance. How could I forget either? To encourage Christen I used to promise her that if she did well then she would receive an extra thirty minute massage from me the next time we saw one another. Let’s face it, those massages almost always turned into something a lot more than your average massage.
“You were good Press, not as good as me but you held your own” Kelley says with a small laugh.
“What can I say? I had good motivation” Christen says, looking straight at me. If my glare was fierce enough to kill someone then Press would be dead right now.
~
“Do you want me to wake you up the morning?” Christen asks while searching through her bag for something. We just got back from dinner so since we have a big day of training tomorrow we all decided to go back to our own rooms.
“No, I have an alarm for that” I answer plainly.
“I thought you hated alarms” Christen says.
“I don’t anymore” I reply. “That’s the thing Press, over the years you begin to love things that you hated and you begin to hate things that you loved.” I make sure I emphasise the last part.
“I guess I deserved that.”
“No need to guess, you know you did” I say. I know I am acting petulant but I am entitled too, she broke my heart so I am not exactly going to let her off lightly.
“I am going to the bathroom to change” Christen then departs and I decide to call my mom.
“Hey mom, it’s me.”
“Hi sweetheart, did you get to camp ok?”
“Yes I did” I say with a chuckle. It doesn’t matter how old I am I always phone my mom on the first night of camp and she always asks the same questions.
“Who’s your roommate this time?” my mom asks.
“It’s just a new girl” I lie.
“What’s her name?”
“You won’t know her.” Another lie.
“Stop deflecting, I will be at the upcoming game so I will find out all of the names at camp eventually” my mom tells me. My mom likes to take it upon herself as the ‘head parent’ so to speak. Keeping all the other parents informed of where to sit and what time to turn up at the stadium.
“Don’t freak out but…”
“They roomed you with HER...” my mom says and I can hear a slight bit of anger in her voice. “Do you want me to phone the coach because I will, I am not having HER messing with your head and affecting your game.”
“For crying out loud mom, I am not a child” I utter. “I am not in school and need my mommy to phone the teacher for me, I can handle this” I say. “It will be a good test of character for me.”
“I knew she was going to be at camp with you but I at least thought she could keep her distance.”
“It will be fine mom, don’t stress about it” I say to try and calm her down. “And while we are on this subject, Stacy may be going to one of our games so please be nice.”
“I have no problems with Stacy Press, we can’t exactly pin it on her that her daughter is a heartless bitch” my mom says. “Stacy was just as shocked as I was when the bitch broke your heart.”
“Good but despite what Christen has done, don’t call her a bitch in front of Stacy, she is still her daughter.”
“Don’t worry about me Tobin.”
“I better go just now, she’s in the bathroom at the moment so she will be out soon” I say. “I love you mom.”
“Love ya Tobs.”
“Bye mom.”
“Bye.” And with that I hang up and as if on cue, Christen comes out of the bathroom. I can’t help but laugh, it’s not even that funny but for some reason Christen covered head to toe in pyjamas with cupcakes on them made me burst out laughing. It was either burst out laughing or be consumed by my thoughts of how even now I would probably find it cute.
“What?” Christen says insecurely. I know it is mean but for a few seconds I decide not to answer and continue laughing causing Christen to probably feel even worse. “Are you laughing at me?”
“Your pyjamas, they eh…” I say, trying to stifle my laughter.
“They what?” Christen asks annoyed, clearly not happy that I laughed at her.
“They look…” I start. “Delicious.”
“Oh grow up” is the harsh response I get. “I get that you are not my biggest fan but you don’t need to act like an imbecile.”
“I only laughed at your pyjamas” I say shaking my head. “On a scale from someone laughing at your obviously novelty pyjamas to getting your heart broken I know which end of the scale I would prefer, and it isn’t the latter.”
“Look Tobin, I…”
“No Press, that wasn’t an invitation for us to talk about how you broke my heart” I intercept before Christen can finish her sentence. “We are teammates and roommates, that’s it. There will be no talk of the past.”
“But…”
“No” I object. “I don’t care about what you have to say and I especially don’t care about you so please, stay out of my way.”
“I want to explain why I did it” Christen says pleadingly. “I didn’t want to break your heart or my heart, I didn’t want to live these past four years without you…”
“Stop it!” I say louder than I meant. “Please just stop, I refuse to let you ruin my life again. Goodnight.” I then disappear out of our room and I head for the lobby, a place where I can be alone.
Not long after I sit down on the large sofas adorning the lobby I get a text from my girlfriend; Rhian.
Rhian: Hi babe, how are you? How’s your day been so far? Xxx
Tobin: Hi, I am good thanks. How are you? My day has been ok, boring really xx
Rhian: I’m good too. I’m sorry that your day has been boring. I have some good news xxx
Tobin: What’s the news?
Tobin: Don’t leave me hanging
Tobin: I need something to cheer me up, I’m sad
Rhian: I am coming to your game on the twenty-eighth so that means we can see each other in two weeks xxx
Tobin: Now I’m happy. I haven’t seen you in forever xx
Rhian: I know. I miss you xxx
Tobin: I miss you too xx
Tobin: Alex is texting me, give me two minutes Rhi
Rhian: Ok babes
I quickly scan the text from Alex before replying just as quick.
Alex: Tobin Heath where are you? I went to your room and Christen said you had left. Press seemed a little off, did you two argue or something? Text me back!!
Tobin: I’m in the lobby Alex. Nothing happened between me and Press. She was taking a private call so I left and now I am trying to talk to my girlfriend and you are interrupting me. Everything’s good.
Alex: I guess Press was maybe off because of her call. I will leave ya in peace, see ya at breakfast x
Tobin: Night Al x
Alex: PS Ask Press where she got her pyjamas, I want a pair. They look super cosy and cute x
Tobin: ask yourself in the morning, goodnight x
I quickly go back to texting Rhian before it is about time that I go back to my room. Thankfully when I get through the door Press looks to already be asleep so I quickly get organised before I get into my own bed.