Chapter Text
“And then, she just threw the smoothie at her!”
Lindsey let out a snort as she retold the story for the umpteenth time, her audience this time consisting of several of their teammates who showed up for a pickup game in the park the following day. Within minutes of Kelley’s departure the day before, Lindsey had already spilled all of the details to Tobin. Then, she crashed Emily’s FaceTime session with her sister to tell it again to Emma and their parents, by proxy.
Still, it didn’t get any less embarrassing the more Emily was forced to relive the moment. She reminded herself to leave some of her socks in the hallway so that Lindsey might possibly trip on them on her way to the bathroom in the middle of the night.
“That sounds like the most ‘Sonnett’ thing I’ve ever heard,” Rose Lavelle, fellow sophomore and midfielder, said through her giggles.
“It would have made the perfect Insta story,” Allie Long, another midfielder and Tobin’s best friend, sighed wistfully. Emily glared at the older blonde over her water bottle. “What? If soccer doesn’t pan out, I have to start preparing for my backup career as an influencer.”
Mallory Pugh, the youngest forward on the USC team was Emily’s only support if her words could even be called that. “It could have been worse,” Mal piped up, “You could have hit her in the face.”
“I mean, she did basically grope the girl, too,” Lindsey ducked to avoid the oncoming shin guard Emily sent rocketing at her head.
“Thanks, Mal,” Emily otherwise ignored her best friend in favor of moving on, “at least somebody on this team is actually supportive of me.”
Lindsey kicked her ball at Emily’s feet, “I support you,” she smirked, “I fully support you making a fool out of yourself in front of a pretty girl.”
Eyes narrowing at the taller girl, Emily moved to take a threatening step towards her. Sadly, she couldn’t get close enough to strangle Lindsey because Tobin stuck her arm out, effectively blocking her path and preventing her from committing murder in the second degree.
“Sorry, Sonnett,” the older girl shoved her back lightly, “I can’t have you killing Horan two weeks before preseason starts, Becky would murder the both of us.”
The thought of their captain Becky Sauerbrunn sent a quick shiver down Emily’s spine. The soon-to-be senior was a force to be reckoned with on and off the field and took her position very seriously. There was no doubt she wouldn’t be thrilled if Emily strangled their starting center mid. The thought alone was enough to send the girl back to her original spot sitting atop of her soccer ball, but she didn’t miss her roommate sticking out her tongue at her and filed it away for a later date.
“Yeah, let’s leave ‘Saucy Sonny’ alone for the time being,” Allie coming to her defense after taking part in her teasing caused Emily to shoot her a look mixed between suspicion and relief. “We have more pressing romantic matters at hand.”
Everyone, even Emily turned to face Tobin, who was too busy juggling her ball to register what her best friend was implying.
“Right, Tobin?”
“You got it,” the lanky brunette let the ball drop to the ground, “wait, what?”
“I would like to hear about your star-crossed love endeavors with a certain dark-haired forward whose eyes are ‘more beautiful than the rarest emerald’ as you explained last night,” the junior quirked a brow.
Face flushing, Tobin fell into her default ‘on the spot’ stance with her left hand itching at the back of her neck. “Oh, um, she’s cool.”
While the younger girls were hanging off every word, Allie let her dissatisfaction with Tobin’s vague, short worded answer be known with a deep sigh.
“Tobin Heath don’t you dare pull that aloof act with me, you know I need details, or I won’t be able to sleep at night.”
Scrunching up her face, Tobin rolled her eyes, “I’m flattered that you’re as interested in my life as Keeping Up With The Kardashians but you’re being a little intense,” she cut off the blonde midfielder before she could speak, “and if you really must know, she invited me to a party tomorrow night with her friends.”
As if she had spoken the magic word, Emily, Lindsey, Rose, and Mal leaped to their feet, shouting over one another.
“Party?”
“Can we come?”
“I’m the best wing woman!”
“Please, please let us come!”
Tobin took a step back from the madness, “Woah, you guys, I’m not even sure if I’m going.”
“What do you mean ‘not sure’ if you’re going?” Allie crossed her arms, “If Christen is going to be there, then you’re going, and so am I because I’m the best wing woman in all of California,” she directed at Rose, who shrank back at her glare.
Apparently, her three younger friends were all on a similar page several chapters ahead of Emily, herself. They all exchanged glances before Lindsey cleared her throat, using her unofficial status as Tobin’s mentee.
“You know,” the blonde drawled, giving Emily the briefest glance before continuing, “if Christen friends are going to be there, that probably means Kelley is going to be there. It would be a travesty for Emily to miss out on hanging with the future Mrs. Sonnett.”
Emily shot Lindsey her favorite finger, then her words registered and her face paled.
“That’s a wonderful idea,” Allie’s eyes lit up at the information, “now you have to go because if not, Emily will be heartbroken.”
Emily couldn’t see Kelley so soon if she wanted to salvage any remaining dignity that she had. She would need weeks, no years until she would feel comfortable enough looking at the other soccer player from across the room, let alone interacting with her at a party. Where there’s alcohol involved. Which could result in Emily making an even bigger fool of herself, if that’s even possible. Emily had to shut this down right now.
“No, I won’t,” Emily waved her arms in front of her frantically, “in fact I─”
“─would be devastated,” Rose clamped her hand over Emily’s mouth to prevent her from ruining their plan. “Plus, Christen must really like you if she wants you to hang out with her friends.”
Mal did her part by giving Tobin puppy dog eyes that could melt the iciest of hearts.
“You think she likes me?”
Of course, Tobin was more focused on the second half of Rose’s statement, instead of Emily’s panicked expression at the idea of falling victim to another display of idiotic behavior in front of Kelley. It didn’t hurt that Allie decided to latch onto Tobin’s interest and lovingly manipulate her into accepting Christen’s offer.
“You’re Tobin Heath, soccer extraordinaire and future star of the United States Women’s National Soccer Team,” Allie knew exactly how to butter her friend up. “She’d either be incredibly crazy or blind not to see what a catch you are!”
Typically, Tobin couldn’t be coerced into something with just simple flattery, but impressing a crush was a whole different story.
“You think so?” Her entire body perked up at praise, backheeling her ball towards the pile behind her. “That she’d be into me?”
“Oh, Harry,” her blonde friend sighed, “I’d say she’s already into you.”
“Okay then, let’s go.”
Tobin was stunned at the possible revelation, a dopey smile forming on her lips as she plopped down into the grass, lying back and staring up at the sky, wistfully. It almost made Emily hurl it was so nauseatingly adorable. The rest of their little pickup group cheered, but she was too preoccupied with the concept of running into Kelley again.
What were the odds that their paths wouldn’t cross for one whole night?
Emily’s normally fully stocked closet mocked her from where she was sat on her bed across the room. Now most of her wardrobe laid in scattered piles on the carpet from her earlier attempt in searching for the perfect outfit. Yet, everything she picked out was either too ‘frat dude’ or had the Adidas logo on it.
Emily tilted her head back on the bed and cried at the ceiling, “This is impossible!”
Not a minute later, Lindsey’s blonde ponytail was peaking around the corner, “Did a Category 4 tornado just rip exclusively through your room and miss the rest of Los Angeles?”
“I have nothing to wear,” Emily’s voice was muffled through the pillow clutched over her face, “absolutely nothing.”
If Emily's sight wasn’t obstructed, she would have seen Lindsey shoot the ceiling look of exasperation as if she were searching for some kind of higher power that could help her out. Then, she started picking up Emily’s discarded clothes and shuffling through them, depositing them into new piles with purpose.
“What are you doing?” Emily asked, lowering her pillow when the sounds of her best friend’s movement reached her ears.
Not looking up from her task, Lindsey responded, “Putting your clothes into three separate piles: yes, maybe, and burn.”
There were a few items in the ‘yes’ and a decent amount in the ‘maybe,’ but her roommate was tossing a lot, mostly Emily’s abundant amount of Adidas sweats, into the ‘burn’ pile.
“Hey!” the defender sat up in her bed, “you’re not burning any of my stuff!”
“Fine,” Lindsey sighed, returning her attention to a pair of black leggings and a white blouse. She held them up for Emily to see, “since it’s mostly going to be soccer people, you can probably get away with this, but we’re going shopping soon because you’re lack of date attire is stressing me out.”
Emily eyed the seemingly simple outfit choice skeptically. Typically, the Georgia native dressed like a frat boy and that was the way she liked it, but the desire to impress Kelley—even though she would swear up and down that she didn’t like like the freckle-faced girl—overrode her natural instinct to wear a backward baseball cap.
As Lindsey was handing over the clothes, she practically begged, “Please, for the love of God, do not wear a pair of ratty sneakers.”
“Converse?” asked Emily with a hopeful smile.
Lindsey pinched her nose between her thumb and forefinger, letting out a deep breath, “I’ll allow it.”
Yet, as Emily reached for the pair she had shucked off after returning from work that morning, they were unceremoniously slapped out of her hands.
“Not those ones, Sonnett!” her blonde friend cried in exasperation, “The brand-new ones sitting right there in the closet.”
Knowing she had already received as much leeway from Lindsey as she was going to get, Emily didn’t put up a fight. Instead, she thanked the other girl for ‘saving her love life’ as Lindsey put it and politely (read: aggressively) kicked her out of her room so that she could change.
It didn’t take her long to slip out of her sweats and into her outfit for the night. She left her hair in its natural state, the long blonde strands falling down her back neatly.
Standing in front of the mirror in her ensuite bathroom, Emily fought the urge to throw on the Waffle House snapback that was lying on her dresser. Not only because it was an awesome hat, but also because she felt kind of naked without something that she’d usually wear to one of these things.
She told herself that she shouldn’t care what she looked like, that she was only going to this little shindig because Tobin was hopelessly crushing the UCLA Bruins’ star striker. Although Emily found the concept bordering on treason, she was starting to feel like a hypocrite because she couldn’t get a certain pair of hazel eyes out of her head.
But the soccer player could only stare into her reflection for so long while her thoughts bounced around in her head, nerves taking form as butterflies fluttering around in her stomach.
I really need a drink Emily thought to herself, leaving her room in search of whatever Lindsey might be pouring in their kitchen as a pregame.
Emily could hear laughter as she rounded the corner that led the living room and kitchen. She almost forgot about the rest of the girls meeting at their place before heading over to Christen’s teammate’s party.
It seemed like she was alone in her room for a little longer than she thought because Mal, Rose, and Allie were lounging on their sofa with several cups of what could have been anything sitting on the coffee table. They must have started their pregaming without her by the looks of things.
So, instead of greeting the others, she made a beeline straight to the kitchen, where Lindsey was pouring a shot.
Before Lindsey could even put the cap back on the handle of vodka, Emily was already downing the liquid. Wiping her face with her arm, she slammed the glass back onto the counter while Lindsey glared at her and Tobin looked confused.
Speaking of Tobin, Emily took in her teammate’s attire, which consisted of a white t-shirt, dark-washed jeans, and a… black snapback.
Lindsey’s comment of, “so it’s going to be one of those nights,” went ignored because Emily’s nerves had manifested themselves into anger.
She turned her glare from the still confused Tobin to Lindsey, “How come she gets to wear that?”
“Is there something wrong with my clothes?” a puzzled Tobin asked, looking down at her outfit.
“No,” Lindsey shoved Emily towards the rest of their group. “Sonnett’s just upset because she can’t pull off a white tee and snapback without looking like a tool.”
“Wait,” paused Emily, “you think I look like a tool?”
“A really pretty tool!” Allie called from the couch, Mal and Rose giggling at the junior’s words.
Pouting, Emily forgot about her brown-haired, hazel-eyed problem for just a moment, “Take that back! I’m not a tool and no one rocks a white tee and snapback like I do.”
The room was silent, it’s occupants, sans Emily, glancing around at each other. Almost in unison, they all burst out into laughter, leaving the blonde defender to stand with her arms crossed.
Lindsey looked down at her nonexistent watch, “Oh, would you look at the time? We better get going!”
“This conversation is not over!” Emily called as she hurried after the retreating group of soccer players.