Chapter Text
Alyssa un-velcroed her gloves, taking them off and placing them in her locker. She grabbed her phone from her bag and turned to sit down on the bench. Before even starting to untie her boots and change after practice she found herself instead focusing on a text she had received just after practice had started.
“Have a good practice! Can’t wait to see you soon!”
Despite the short and simple message, Alyssa found herself smiling at her phone, a grin spreading across her face as she typed out a reply, knowing the other person would most likely not see it for at least another hour given that their schedules didn’t seem to line up this week.
The sound of cleats on concrete brought her back to the present, reminding her that at any second her teammates would come into the locker room to change after practice. Before any of her teammates could see the goofy grin that had been on her face moments before, the neutral-faced Alyssa was back, slipping into her post-practice routine while her teammates' laughter and jokes filled the previously silent space.
A little while later after getting back to the hotel and sitting through a positional meeting, Alyssa headed outside to go on a walk just as her phone started ringing. Although she had been planning on an uninterrupted walk, the contact card reading: Christen Press didn’t bother her as much as the initial ringing had. Hitting accept, she answered the phone and greeted her friend, secretly really glad she had called cause suddenly a question popped into her head.
“Hey Pressy, what’s up?” Alyssa greeted.
“Hey Lyss, how was practice?” Christen asked.
“It was good, it’s been going really well but I’m also looking forward to our day off coming up,” Alyssa answered.
“I’m glad it’s going well. Tobes and I actually wanted to check in about your day off. I know we’re doing the whole team dinner thing that evening, but we were wondering if you wanted to come over earlier and just chill for the day. It’s kinda on the down low right now, but we’re actually planning on stopping by practice the day before, and if you can get it approved with coaches and the big guys you could come back with us. We’ve got nothing planned, but we both miss you and a quiet night and some chill time seems like a good break from the craziness of camp,” Christen explained.
“You guys know me so well,” chuckled Alyssa.
“So… what do you say? Ask the coaches later on and get back to us, no pressure either way, seriously,” Christen reassured. “Lyss?” she asked not hearing anything on the other side of the line.
“Yeah sorry, I would love to and I’ll ask the coaches later. But, um…,” Alyssa paused, fidgeting with the ends of her ponytail.
“But? What’s up Lyss, you can totally say no and we won’t be offended cause we’ll see you anyways for dinner the next night. I mean Tobes might be a little disappointed cause I know she was hoping to play ping-pong with you but she’s a big kid and will get over it,” Christen chuckled, trying to lighten the mood but also figure out what was bothering her friend.
“It’s nothing bad, I promise. I would love to come over after practice, but I was wondering if you and Tobin would want to come to a sporting event with me. I kind of already have a ticket cause someone I know is playing and asked me to be there and I can’t really just not go, but I could get you guys tickets too,” Alyssa rambled.
“Hmmm,” Christen hummed. Conveniently enough Tobin had chosen that moment to wander into the kitchen where Christen was standing, still hearing her on the phone during what was supposed to be a quick conversation.
“What’s up?” Tobin asked, “is that Alyssa? Did she say yes to coming back with us tomorrow after practice?”
“She said yeah and she’s running it by the staff later but she also asked us if we wanted to go to a game with her,” Christen replied, choosing to put Alyssa on speaker so they could both be part of the conversation.
Tobin looked up with a questioning glance, “what type of game?”
Christen just shook her head indicating that they hadn’t gotten that far in the conversation. “I’ve got Tobes with me, and we would love to go but we’re also wondering what type of game we’re going to?”
“It’s um, it’s a women’s rugby game. One of my friends from Chicago is an eagle and plays for the national team and they have a game against Canada tomorrow evening. She got me a ticket when we figured out that camp and the game would overlap and I know she would be more than happy to get you both tickets if you’re interested,” Alyssa explained.
Getting a nod of confirmation from Christen, Tobin spoke up, “we would love to go to the game Alyssa! It sounds like a lot of fun, and I don’t know about Chris but I’ve never seen a rugby game before but it sounds badass.”
“Yeah? Great! I’ll call her when she’s done with practice and tell her. It means a lot to her that I’m there and it means a lot to me that you guys are coming too,” Alyssa said, trying to convey her appreciation for two of her oldest friends over the phone.
“Hey Lyss, I think I’ve got to get going and start making dinner but we’re both really looking forward to seeing you and the rest of the team tomorrow and also going to this super cool rugby game cause you know we love 'the sports' in this household. We’ll see you tomorrow!” Christen confirmed hanging up the phone.
Alyssa looked down at her phone feeling herself smile again, something that had been happening a lot in the past few months. Something that may or may not be the result of a certain rugby player that conveniently had just finished practice for the day and was now texting a certain goalkeeper. She sent a simple, “they’re in!” message, receiving a rugby ball, eagle, and thumbs up emoji in response. Laughing at the reply, Alyssa sent one more message before heading back to the hotel for dinner, knowing she would be calling the other person later that evening for a full debrief of the day. But until then, a simple “I miss you and I love” would have to do.