Page 53 of Off the Pitch

Chapter Twenty-Two

BREAK DOWN THE WALL

King and Co Face Dortmund in Last 16 First Leg

The Guardian

Christian

I woke up on the morning of my birthday to the sound of a whistle being blown in my ear.

“Wakey wakey, sleeping beauty!” Liam crowed, blowing the whistle again just to make sure I was properly deafened. I grumbled, rolling over and trying to smack him in the face, but all he did was laugh and slap my butt. As I buried my head in the pillow, I was sure I could hear someone knocking at the door, but I was not moving to investigate.

We were in Germany for the first leg of our next Champions League match, having made it to the last sixteen, and I was under no illusions that it would be an easy match. I was hoping for a birthday to remember in the best way possible. Still, it sucked that I couldn’t spend the day with Lily, since we’d hardly had a birthday apart since we were born. Last year I’d flown out to New York to surprise her, and we’d gone to seeThe Lion King.

Sure, we had plans for when I got back, but still, it felt weird to be celebrating without my twin.

Plus, this year I had a boyfriend, and I couldn’t deny it would have been nice to get some sexy birthday kisses from David. And whatever else I could convince him to give me before his first cup of coffee.

“C’mon, birthday boy. Time to get up,” Liam said, poking my thigh. I wasn’t quite sure how I’d drawn the short straw and ended up rooming with themostmorning person ever. It was probably some sort of joke on the team’s behalf—no birthday lie in for me. Not even five extra minutes. They’d probably given him the whistle as well.

“Yo, is he up?” Jordan’s voice was still thick with sleep as he stumbled through the door and collapsed onto Liam’s bed wrapped in a giant hoodie.

“Just about,” I grunted, stretching my arms and feeling the familiar pop in my shoulder. “Am I not allowed to sleep?”

“Nah, mate. Not if you want presents.”

“Seriously?” I asked, my interested piqued. “You didn’t have to get me anything.”

“I know,” Liam shrugged, shoving Jordan down his bed to make room for himself. He was clutching two mugs of coffee, one for himself and one for Jordan, who took it greedily. Reaching behind the bed, he pulled out a brightly coloured gift bag, patterned with footballs. The small collection of presents inside were wrapped in paper patterned with red and blue robots.

“Don’t judge the wrapping paper. Jordan picked it.”

“Hey, robots are cool.”

I smiled, a flood of happiness filling my chest. I began to unwrap the gifts, loving the way they directed me to open certain ones next. Eventually I’d opened a couple of board games, including a cool looking card game called Fluxwhich Liam assured me would provide endless hours of fun while we were on training camps and basically allowed us to be endlessly mean to each other. It looked like something Lily would love! There were also two remote-control cars, a mixed box of LEGO bricks, a huge bag of chocolate buttons, and a bath bomb set, which I turned over in my hands, uncertain what to make of it.

“Ali picked that,” Liam said and then looked down into his coffee and smiled. “Well, I mean, she bought it, but I picked it. I got one for Christmas, and it’s the best thing ever. Plus it smells like cake.”

“Wait is that the one you got me?” Jordan asked. Liam nodded. “Aw man, it’s the fucking best. My step-mum tried to nick it for herself, and I was like, Sarah, if you’re gonna use my bath bombs, I will dye Mia’s hair blue.”

“Bet she loved that,” I laughed. Somehow, I didn’t think Jordan’s family would approve of him dying his six-year-old sister’s hair blue. Jordan just shrugged and muttered darkly into his coffee mug about his threats working.

Turning the box over, I pretended to study the list of products included, but all I was really doing was trying to hold back the happy tears prickling my eyes. These two were some of the best friends I’d ever had, and all I could feel was an overwhelming sense of love. I’d never told them about my love of bath bombs because even though they were my best friends, I’d still always held a little bit of myself back, afraid of being rejected. Because if they rejected silly little things about me, then how could I tell them the big things? It was funny how such a simple thing like a box of cake-scented bath bombs could knock me sideways and make me think about everything differently.

Maybe things wouldn’t be so bad if I told them about David and me? Maybe they’d actually accept me for who I really was, instead of who I pretended to be.

“Come on,” Liam said, standing up and grimacing as he swallowed the dregs of his coffee. “Breakfast time, and I have it on plausible authority that there may be cake.”

There was cake. And a couple more presents too. But the best one was the two-one win, with my own late goal securing the away win. I didn’t even mind when the team dumped iced water over my head as some sort of birthday-slash-victory prize, especially because they made up for it with another cake.

I was glad to make it home the next day, though.

We’d been allocated the rest of the day off, but then it would be back to training tomorrow for the upcoming weekend match. This time we’d be making the journey up to Manchester to face Manchester City, who were currently topping the table. My brain was already trying to think about it, even though I really wanted to switch off and enjoy my afternoon off catching up withThe Good Place.

My phone flashed next to me from its place on the sofa.

DavidFancy coming round tonight? I have a surprise for you.

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