Chapter Text
It’s been a while since we are on the same team, me and Alex. I don’t ever talk to her, and don’t really know why, but it just never happened. So it’s really weird when I walk into the locker room and see her crying.
We are alone, and I don’t know if she sees me, but I hope she doesn’t, because I am fucking freaking out inside. What to do when someone I see every day is crying? I am not her friend, I guess. It’s mostly “hello” and “bye” the words that we say to each other every day, so yeah… I’m freaking out because I am alone with her, and she is crying. And I’m not her friend, but I do care about her.
“Alex?” I call, just loud enough so she can hear me.
I notice her sobs stopping, and then it takes some time before she looks at me; eyes filled up with tears, and red surrounding the blue beautiful irises. I don’t know from where the fuck the courage comes, but I sit beside her and put one arm around her shoulder.
“Hey, don’t cry…” I say softly, trying to make her feel comfortable and notice she is relaxing into my side hug.
“He-“ She tries to say, but a sob comes out. I pull her closer to me and she tries again.
“He cheated on me.” Finally, the words come out of her mouth.
I mean, I didn’t even know she has a boyfriend??? But that’s okay, we are not close enough so she can tell me that stuff.
“Then he is a jackass” I answer to her, not that softly “and he doesn’t deserve you.”
With that said, I surprisingly turn my head a little so my mouth meets the top of her head that is now laying on my shoulder. Then I kiss her hair, and she starts crying again.
Finally, Allie gets to the locker room and when she sees us, firstly she frowns with confusion, and secondly she notices Alex is sobbing and runs to the bench to seat at the other side of her.
It’s nothing like it was with me, Morgan then throws herself on Allie’s arms and starts crying even more. I probably have a scared face, and Long is kind of lost too, so I mouth to her “He cheated on her” and watch her preoccupied face turn into an anger one.
The rest of the team starts to show up soon, so I get distant from Alex. Some of the girls talk to her, and Kelley manages to make her laugh.
“THE FUCK HE DID TO YOU?” She yells, and then starts to do some weird movements that she swears are some really dangerous karate moves, and Alex laughs.
She just laughs, beautifully. I could not be more thankful for her weird movements, because it’s not my thing to watch girls that always smile, crying over someone that doesn’t deserve them.
Abby joins Kelley on her weirdness and suddenly even Hope is trying to make Morgan smile, and Hope is like an iceberg. Don’t take me badly, we love Hope. It’s just that she probably could really kill someone with those eyes.
I am laying my back against the wall, watching the girls making Alex smile when Cheney comes closer to me.
“Hey Toby” she said, making me roll my eyes because I hate that stupid nickname and she knows it.
“Hi Chen” I say, ignoring the fact that she has a weird smile on her face, but after a minute, she starts creeping me out with that white teeth blinding me. “What do you want? Jesus, your smile is blinding me!”
“Well, YOU tell ME what do YOU want.” That makes me frown, because that woman is literally crazy. Probably seeing the face I made, she rolls her eyes. “I see you smiling to the Miss-my-boyfriend-broke-my-heart over there, and you just won’t stop with the heart eyes.”
“What the fuck, Chen???” I am seriously going to murder her, because there is no way she is actually insinuating that. “Are you really saying that shit?”
“C’mon Tobito, we all know your famous heart eyes!”
“I have not heart eyes, I have normal eyes with normal circular shape!”
Cheney laughs loudly and the whole team is looking at us now, all that dork’s fault. I just can’t handle her, oh my god.
Kelley’s eyebrows are up and I already know what she is going to say next, unfortunately.
“Would you care to share the reason of the laugh that interrupted my BEST joke, Lauren Cheney?” She tries to say it serious, but fails miserably. Alex laughs again. I feel my cheeks redden, and Lauren smiles evilly.
“Tobin was just saying she is not making heart eyes to certain someone.” I feel the need to kick her ass right there, but only took my hands to my face so I could hide my embarrassment.
“See!” Chen says, “She is even covering her face!”
“That’s true, you guys...” I can hear Abby saying, and after that the whole team is teasing me, even Alex. All of them wanting to know who is the one that makes me have heart eyes, but thank God I hear Pia’s strong voice entering the room.
“What the fuck is happening here? Do you think it’s high school all over again?” She is probably mad because no one was at the pitch warming up. “Get the fuck out of here you pieces of shit!” She yells again, and everyone runs out of the locker room to start the warm ups.
The training was like always, but I caught myself starring at Alex more often. Of course it didn’t go unnoticed by Cheney, I could notice she looking at me sometimes to check if I was looking at Morgan. Now the only thing I hope is she keeps to herself the heart eyes thing, I am too tired to explain I don’t have this kind of feelings for Alex.
I was stinking and all the showers were being used, so instead of going to the hotel smelling badly, I put my earphones and keep chilling there, until someone gets done.
Obviously, I got distracted and only after some minutes that I noticed the shower room was empty, so I went to take a shower. It didn’t last much time, and in less than ten minutes I was clean and ready to go.
What I didn’t expect was that I would, once again, meet with Alex siting on the bench.
I keep my way to my locker and grab my things, but before I leave I stop in front of her.
“You okay?” I ask, looking down at her.
She stands up, and now I have to look up because she is taller than me, it makes me feel tiny and I am not even that small.
“I am broken, but better, yeah…’ Her hoarse voice echoes through the locker room, and I feel blue. I can see the sadness in her eyes, and can’t help the feeling of need to make her eyes shine, filled up with happiness, again.
“I just decided to wait for you and thank you. I mean, we aren’t even close but you hold me when I needed and I can’t be more grateful.” She says, and the air gets stuck inside of my lungs. I just bite my bottom lip and nod my head, not being able to speak actual words.
Alex gives me a little smile and turns around, walking out of the room. I let out the breath I was holding and make my way towards the hotel, this time thinking about how many questions I would get from Cheney once I get into our room.