Chapter Text
Midway through the flight to Brazil, room assignments were handed out. Hoots and Hollers were whistled throughout the cabin as Kelley kept blinking at the name before her. Hope Solo. She leaned up to the seat in front of her, "Carli, is this for real? Why did you put me with her?"
"She asked to room with you. so i did." carli responded nonchalantly.
"can i switch? please?" Kelley pleaded with desperation.
"No. I'm not doing that musical roommate shit. just deal with it. it's only for a week. you will be ok."
It's not that Kelley didn't like Hope. On the contrary. But Kelley didn't want to be put in a position that could jeopordize her current situation. She isn't dumb about the power that the goalkeeper has over her and all she really wanted to do this Olympics was focus on the task at hand. winning a gold medal.
Kelley entered her hotel room to find Hope already unpacked and comfortably lying on her bed reading a book. "Hey. took ya long enough to get here," Hope said with a little chuckle.
"Yeah, i was helping Alex with something," Kelley lied. she really just milled around, avoiding her roommate for as long as she could.
"Well," Hope dragged out, "How are you feeling? about the tournament."
"I feel good. I think we have all pieces we need to make a good run at it..."
"No, Kelley," Hope interrupted, "How are YOU feeling?"
"truthfully? a little nervous. i mean, i just won my starting spot back this year and i don't want to screw it up. The whole Ali vs. Kelley thing is going to just get exasperated if i screw up."
"You can't pay attention to that stuff Kel. All you can do is play your best and of course, listen to everything i tell you," Hope suggested wih a strong smile at the end.
Kelley smiled a weak smile,"thanks. and for the record, i always listen to everything you tell me."
"Oh really?" Hope's voice starting to grow an octave higher, "i seem to recall last Olympics when i told you to.."
"That was last Olympics! this is now and a completely different set of circumstances," Kelley feverishly interjected so Hope would not finish her sentence. The memories of 2012 were not what Kelley wanted to relive at this moment.
Hope noticed the uncomfortableness in Kelley's demeanor and decided to change the subject. She saw the defender was playing with the two friendship bracelets on her left arm.
"So you never told me who gave you those," Hope pointed out as she nodded her head towards the tied fabric.
"You never asked."
"I'm asking now," She said softly.
"Why did you ask to room with me?" Kelley boldly asked.
"You aren't going to answer my question?" Hope challenged as her eyes grew a little wider.
"You'll get yours when i get mine," Kelley stood firmly.
"Kell, what's going on?" Hope wondered with concern to the freckled faced woman.
"I'm not sleeping with you!" Kelley declared.
"What the Fuck Kelley!" Hope was taken aback by the statement and the sternness of Kelley's voice.
Kelley let out a long breath to keep her emotions in check, "these," she said pulling at her two bracelets,"these are from my girlfriend. we've been dating for almost three, four months now and it's good. I like her. A lot. And Carli told me you wanted to room with me and you bringing up the last Olympics. i just, i just want to focus on the tournament. I can't do what you want me to do. With you."
"Were you with her when we..."
"No! i mean, we were talking and stuff but we hadn't gone on a date or anything" Kelley defended. "Look Hope, I was honest with her. I told her about us. I told her about the last OLympics and about the other times. I wanted to be honest with her. i didn't want to start out a relationship with lies."
"A relationship?" Hope sounded wounded as she stood from her bed.
"Yes. No. I don't know how serious we are right now. Serious enough that she's flying down with my family to watch me play."
"Oh." Hope's voice lilted at the realization that Kelley was taken.
"Hope, listen to me," Kelley stated empathetically, "She's nervous about you. About what we had. About how we didn't care who we hurt just for a fling."
Hope felt like she got shot in the heart at the word fling.
"It's what broke up Ann and me and I don't want to be responsible for doing that to someone else."
Hope got surprised and defensive at the revelation, "I broke you and Ann up?"
"That's not what I'm saying. We were at Syd's wedding. Out of the blue she starts talking to me about how this could be us someday and when we wanted to have kids and stuff. She asked me if i saw this future with each other and you know what my first instinct was? To look at you. I saw you standing on the other side of the room looking all beautiful and shit and the first mention of marriage and kids and my reaction is you. She noticed but we tried to ignore it for a couple of weeks. in the end, we couldn't lie to ourselves anymore. I called and texted you wanting to talk but all i got was radio silence from you. Ignored until camp in January. And then, well, you know what happened then."
Hope couldn't help the smile creep on her face as she remembered the sneaking around to spend breathless moments with the younger woman.
"We do bad things when we're together Hope. We're not very honorable people with what we have been doing," Kelley argued trying to make Hope understand, "you know that when you got your 100 shutout, I looked at you with such awe. i couldn't believe how lucky i was to be able to play with one of the best players to ever play the game. you know how daunting that is? And i swore that as your teammate, i was going to whatever i had to do to get you another gold medal. you deserve to have the most awards. the most medals. the most everything because you work so damn hard. please Hope, can we just be teammates this go around and let me help you become one of the most decorated players of all time?"
Hope could not help the tears that formed in her eyes by now. Touched was an understatement. She softly nodded too overwhelmed to speak.
Kelley softly smiled, "Good. I'm gonna go to Tobin's room cause I think we both just need some time apart to digest all this." Kelley's head told her to turn around and head to the door. That's what she wanted to do. That's what she should have done. But when she went to grab for the door, her legs betrayed her and she ran to Hope and hugged her tightly laying her head on Hope's shoulder, "You will always have a piece of me Hope. For so long I wanted you to have all of me but I can't give that to you anymore if i can't have all of you either. I'm sorry."
"It's ok Kelley," Hope said reassuringly as she rubbed Kelley's back,"I understand. You should go. Get your mind clear for the game coming up. We got a pretty big job ahead of us don't we?"
Kelley sniffled the tears that now filled her eyes," Thank you Hope." was all she could say as she grabbed her key and closed the door behind her leaving Hope alone to collapse on her bed and begin to cry.