Chapter 26 - the two figures

A/N - in just the last chapter, I was thanking you for 15k reads. And now we're close to 30k! When I began to write this I genuinely thought it would just flop. I never expected to receive the amount of support you all have given me since february, so thank you so much for all the votes and comments! :)

Friday 10th June 2022

Rosie's POV:

As soon as I got in from a morning walk with Keira, Lucy led me straight through to the kitchen. She seemed unusually overly excited about something and I was curious to find out what. Looking behind me to find Keira following us closely, it was clear by her facial expressions that she also knew exactly what was going on. 

On the kitchen counter, there was a fairly large white evelope with 'Confidential' written in big, black letters in the top right corner. It was addressed to Lucy and had been opened and resealed. I stood and looked at it for a moment - unsure why she had led me to some post she had received. Lucy stood beside me and motioned towards the envelope, "well come on then, open it". I replied, "I don't really care about your bank statements or whatever if i'm honest". Her and Keira exchanged a smirk between them, "oh trust me, it's much better than a bank statement". My confusion only grew from that statement. If it isn't anything I had mentioned, then what the hell is it?

Cautiously picking up the envelope, I turned it over and pulled the flap open. Sliding out the letter, I read over it multiple times before my brain finally registered what it meant. A large smile creeping up onto my face as I turned to the other item in the envelope. My birth certificate. Expecting to see Gary and Chantelle's names, I was surprised at the sight of Lucy's. I turned to face Lucy and just threw my arm around her, "is it real?". Her and Keira laughed, "of course it's real! I could never do that to you". Pulling Keira into the hug aswelll, I could feel tears brimming my eyes and desperately tried to rub them away, but it was no use, because they just kept coming. I'm not an emotional person, so for something to make me cry, it must have been pretty special. When the very long hug ended, Lucy noticed the tears in my eyes and I could see the same in hers. After 6 months of endless arguments and disagreements and struggles about her becoming my mum, my wish had finally come true. I had the most loving mother in the world, and her name was on my birth certificate - no one elses. 

Lucy then handed me a card which, inside, read: Looks like you're stuck with me forever. Grinning at the words, I told her, "There's no one I'd rather be stuck with".

After an emotional morning, Keira made us all some lunch. When we were eating, I questioned Lucy, "how did you get my birth certificate anyway? I thought Gary and Chantelle had it hidden away somewhere?". She smirked, "the judge basically forced him to hand it over. He didn't have any other choice". After the judge heard what Beth had witnessed 3 months ago, my ex-home in Sunderland was deemed an unsafe place to return to. Both Gary and Chantelle were facing upcoming trials for numerous accounts of abuse and I couldn't be happier. After all these painful years, I had finally won.

Georgia and Steph came round for dinner later. Steph gave us a simple card with congratulations written across it. Georgia ,on the other hand,  handed a card over that said, 'Congratulations, you're a mum!' with a picture of a mother looking exhausted, cradling a newborn baby. Lucy joked, "thanks G, but I think Rosie might be a little bit older than that". Georgia smiled, "just a tiny bit".

I helped Keira cook spaghetti bolognese, and after we had eaten, we all gathered on the sofas. Lucy being Lucy had a cup of coffee, while the rest of us stuck to water or tea. Personally, I would have liked a latte, but when I told Lucy I was going to make myself one she told me it was too late. Then, when I complained that she was having one, she hit me with the, "I'm your mother" phrase. Up to today, when she had said it, it didn't really mean too much, but now it felt like she had all of this power and authority over me. Previously she was like a best friend who I lived with, now she's turned into an actual mother. But I wasn't complaining.

When Keira and Steph's conversation about dogs finally finished, I took my opportunity to ask Lucy, "can a few friends come round tomorrow when you and Keira go out?". Lucy and Keira hadn't been on a proper date in the longest time because Lucy didn't want to leave me alone in the house. I could tell that a night out together would do both of them a world of good, so when Lucy asked if I would be alright on my own, I didn't want to spoil her plans and just assured her that I would be fine. Now that the time has come around, I'm not really too keen on the idea of being alone in a big house until the early hours of the morning. Lucy thought about my question for a bit before replying, "who would you invite?". She didn't say no, but she didn't exactly say yes either. However, I was hopeful she would let me invite some people round so I named off the people I knew she liked, "errr Millie, Charlotte, Alex and a few others from football". Georgia interrupted, "ooo a party, can I come?". Lucy frowned and stared at her, "no G, not a party". She then turned to me, "fine, but maximum of 10 people. I don't want to come home at 2am to find my house absolutely wrecked by teenagers". When she said that, I grinned and made my way over to where her and Keira were curled up together to give her a hug. 

I sat back down and texted the Man City U16s groupchat: my house, 8pm, Tomorrow. Immediately, I was bombarded by eager responses desperate to get a look inside Lucy Bronze and Keira Walshes house. So far, only Millie had been allowed round, partially for the reason Lucy had just stated that she didn't want all of my friends damaging her house. I only realised I was grinning like a Cheshire cat when I looked over the top of my phone screen to see Lucy glaring right back at me, as if she could see through me, "not a party, just a few friends round. And please no alcohol. I don't want to be dealing with teenagers being sick over my floor". I replied, "I don't even know your password for the alcohol fridge so...". She cut me off, "I meant tell your friends not to bring any". Ever since that New Years Eve, Lucy was paranoid that I would take some of her alcohol and get absolutely pissed, so she put a lock on her fridge.

Keira and Lucy began talking between them, and I looked across at Georgia who was mouthing towards me, "Party. Party. Party". I winked at her before seeing Steph staring at both of us very confused. 

Saturday 11th June 2022

It was 7.30 pm and I was counting down the minutes till Lucy and Keira walked out that door. I genuinely think Lucy had said, "remember this isn't a party" nearly 100 times throughout the course of the day. 

Lucy and Keira were giving me a very detailed description of what to do in case of any type of emergency, "if something catches fire, leave the house and call 999. Lock all the doors once everyone's in the house. If someone becomes seriously ill, call an ambulance. If-". I interrupted and said with a smirk on my face, "I get it. If something really bad happens, i'll just call 999. I don't know why you're worrying so much, i'm going to be fine". Keira then spoke up, laughing lightly, "I don't trust you when you have that facial expression". I rolled my eyes and tried to usher them towards the front door, "whatever. You go have fun on your date and i'll have fun here". Lucy narrowed her eyes at me, "why are you so eager to get us out the house?". I shrugged my shoulders and tried to have an innocent look on my face. Just at that moment, they opened the front door, and Millie was walking up the drive. Keira's eyebrows raised and she wiggled them as she said, "I know why! She wants to fuck Millie". Lucy punched her softly on the shoulder, "errr thanks for that image of them doing that on my kitchen table". Millie, who had just entered the conversation, looked very confused, "what the hell have I just walked into? And who's fucking who on the kitchen table". I pulled her by the arm into the hallway and pushed Lucy and Keira out, mumbling, "apparently us". When she comprehended what I had said, she let out a loud laugh as we waved my mum and her girlfriend off in their taxi.

As soon as we had shut the door, she grabbed my shoulders and gently pushed me against it, leaving a trail of light kisses up my neck, before reaching my mouth. Our lips moved in perfect sync for a while until we needed to pause to breathe. I wrapped my arms around her neck, hers resting on my hips and we both leaned in together once again. 

We had our first kiss not longer after the Arnold Clark Cup in February. The perfect opportunity had appeared multiple times before we finally had the courage to act upon it. I was round Ella and Alessia's house telling them about how I really wanted to kiss her, but was too scared. I'll give them a bit of credit because they actually helped a lot. Who knew Ella could be so serious when talking about relationships? That night, I had football training, and after when we were the only ones on the pitch, the moment finally happened. We were both lying on the grass, exhausted, in silence. Until she spoke up, "how would you feel if I kissed you now?". Trying to act confident, I managed to say, "try it and you'll see". 

After it happened, I got in Lucy's car with the biggest smile on my face and she noticed, "what are you smiling about?". Without even looking at her, I just blurted out, "me and Millie kissed". She seemed surprised at first but was clearly happy and excited for the both of us. Of course, as soon as she walked in the front door, she told Keira who was also beyond happy.

Just as Millie picked me up and I wrapped my legs around her waist, the doorbell rang. She managed to hold onto my entire body weight with just one hand as she opened the door to reveal Alex, Charlotte and Morgan standing there with a tesco bag each. They entered the hallway and we all made our way into the living area. I explained, "i'll give you a tour when everyone arrives don't worry". They set their bags down on the kitchen counter and Millie asked, "what's in the bag?". Instead of telling us, Alex opened one of the bags with a smirk on her face. Bottles and cans of pure alcohol filled the bag to the max. Millie let me down and walked over towards the bags for a further inspection where she approved, "oooh you've brought all the good stuff". I joined her and pulled out a bottle of vodka before grabbing the shot glasses from the cupboard, "shot?".

After only three shots each, Morgan rested her head on the kitchen counter and whined, "I feel sick already". We all laughed lightly and Millie called out jokingly, "lightweight! The party hasn't even started yet". 

By the time it was 8.30, everyone who had said they were coming, were now following me round on a tour of my house. I showed the fairly large group : Lucy and Keira's shirts for England and Man City, some of the Champion's League medals Lucy had brought back from her parents' house and the framed and never seen before photos of Lucy and Keira. One of the girls even begged me to take them into Lucy and Keira's room but I didn't want to invade their privacy, so I opened the door slightly for them to take a glance. Personally, I don't think theres anything special about my house, but the whole team was in awe. Olivia told me, "I still can't believe that you live here with them". Grinning, I winked and said, "neither can I to be honest". 

After the tour, we all gathered in the living area with our cans of strongbow dark fruits cider. Someone had connected to the bluetooth speakers that were around the house and was playing some really bad music. Cleary, I wasn't the only one who didn't think much of it, as Millie who was sat next to me, grumbled, "can someone turn this shit off?". Whoever was connected to it switched the song immediately to another one that still wasn't great, but it was better. Some of the girls were dancing stupidly to the music and others were recording them to put all over Instagram and Snapchat, but most of us were sitting on the sofas either talking or scrolling through tik tok. I had just been watching the girls sing and dance when my phone buzzed on the coffee table. Millie who was lying against me reached for it and handed it to me as my arms were wrapped around her toned shoulders. Unlocking my phone with face ID, a text from Ella showed up on my screen:

Tooney : how's the party going? ;)

Confused at how she knew about my party, I removed my arms from Millie's shoulders and texted back, trying to play dumb: don't know what ur talking about. It wasn't long till three dots appeared, indicating that she was typing. Soon enough, she had replied:

Tooney : G told me and probably the rest of Manchester. Don't think Lucy knows tho. Can me and Less come round?

Slightly annoyed that Georgia had told pretty much everyone apart from Lucy and Keira about my party, I replied to Ella: sure. If I didn't say yes, she would have come round anyway so there really wasn't any point in arguing with her. As I was just thinking about Lucy and Keira, a snapchat popped up at the top of the screen from Keira. It was a photo of Lucy with a huge plate of food in front of her. Chuckling at how big Lucy's appetite is, I sent back a photo of me with Millie's head resting against my stomach. 

Feeling very relieved that neither her or Lucy knew anything about my party, I sat up abruptly and shouted to everyone, "truth or dare time! And if you don't do it you have to have 3 shots". At the mention of truth or dare, everyone came to sit on the sofas surrounding the coffee table. Charlotte went first, asking Millie, who chose dare. To be honest, the dare she gave her was pretty tame, "I dare you to kiss Rosie". Millie turned to look at me and smirked, "easy". Her comment was soon followed by her lips capturing mine in a passionate kiss. A series of 'oohs' filled the room and as soon as it began, it was over. She looked into my eyes, clearly satisfied with what had just happened, and swiftly moved on, "Mia. Truth or dare?". Mia replied rolling her eyes, "truth. I am definitely not kissing someone in this room like how you two just did". Millie frowned as she was trying to think of something juicy to ask her. When she finally thought of it, her eyes lit up and she flashed an un-apologetic look for what she was about to ask, "have you and Josh had sex yet?". Mia is one of the very few girls in the team that is straight. The rest of us are either a bit gay, very gay, or very confused. Her face began to go red with embarassment as Olivia squealed before Mia could even say anything, "you have!! I can tell. Was it good?". When she saw that we were all pleased for her and not judging, her face muscles visibly relaxed and she breathed out with a wide grin on her face, "so good. We-". Millie interrupted, "okay move on I don't want any details". Alex said, "you're just jealous that you and Rosie haven't yet". Millie just rolled her eyes and tried to move the game on as quickly as possible. I rested my hand on her leg and rubbed my thumb back and forth to let her know that I was there.

A few people kissed, others had to leave hickies on someone's neck, Morgan revealed that she had a girlfriend. When I eventually got asked, "truth or dare?", I thought about which option would be the best to choose. As much as I liked kissing Millie, I didn't like doing it in front of 15 other people. I guessed that if I chose dare, they would just ask us to do something, so I picked truth. Katelyn, who was asking me, immediately asked with a develish smirk, "are you a top or a bottom?". I hadn't really thought about it before too much, so I turned to Millie to see what she thought. With no hesitation, she said, "babe you are definitely a bottom. However, I wouldn't mind you topping me from time to time". Widening my eyes at how open she was, I looked at Katelyn and answered while nodding my head towards Millie, "there's your answer".

 Most people had already gone, but Ruby was still left. Throughout the entire game and just in general, she was the most annoying person ever. Not in a really bad way, but me amongst the rest of the team were growing tired of her constant remarks and unnecessary comments. When she chose truth, I tried to think of a question that would leave her speechless until the end of the night, "who did you cheat on Alex with?". 

When I arrived at Man City in January, Ruby and Alex were the type of couple everyone would aspire to be. Sometime in March they had a huge argument after we lost to Arsenal. Alex then announced that they had broken up a week prior because Ruby cheated on her, causing a whole team argument. For about 2 weeks after that, the whole team was divided with some people on Ruby's side, and others on Alex's. We only reunited again because Ruby didn't turn up to training for about 2 months.  Now that she was back, there was still tension, but it was no where near as bad as it was before.

My question seemed to have caught her off guard as she barely managed to stutter out, "what did you say?". I repeated my question and all the girls stared at her - desperate to know the secret that she had kept for months. Sadly, she chose to take 3 shots instead which made all of the girls grumble and complain but Millie whispered into my ear, "I bet you anything it's someone on the team". I began to scan the room, looking for any suspicious behavior but I was interrupted when there was a knock on the door.

The darkness from outside had enshrouded upon the house and the only light was from a dimly lit floor lamp in the corner of the room. The outside lights shining on the garden were also visible through the thin curtains covering the big, glass sliding doors. I looked at Millie who just asked calmly, "you expecting someone?". I narrowed my eyes and replied, "no". In response to my answer, Millie gripped my hand and we looked around the rest of the girls. Mia rolled her eyes, just as another knock came, and exclaimed, "oh for God's sake go and answer the door". Both Millie and I stood up and cautiously made our way down the hall. We could see through the glass in the door that the motion sensor light had been activated, indicating that someone was there. I picked my house key off the stairs and handed it to Millie, who turned it in the lock. When she opened the door, we both looked around the front drive in confusion. No one was there. I called out, "hello?", but no answer came. When I looked at Millie, she said, "probably just someone trying to be funny knocking on doors then running away". Trying to convince myself that she was right, we returned to the group of girls and explained that there was no one there. 

We finished with truth or dare and moved onto playing Just Dance on the TV. We moved all of the furniture out of the way and 4 girls moved into the clear space while the rest of us sat on the sidelines cheering them on. Most of them were slightly tipsy from the alcohol they had consumed which made their dancing even funnier when they stumbled into eachother. Millie and I had just been pushed into the space by all the girls to do a 2-person dance when a knock came. However, this time it sounded like someone was knocking on a window instead of the door. Some of the girls, amongst Millie and I began to go into rooms to see if someone was at the window. I headed straight for the formal living room and Millie followed me. Others checked the study, the downstairs bathroom, the utility room and the games room. When we found out that there was no one outside of the window, we looked across the hall to Ava and Mia in the games room. Mia quickly looked under the table tennis table and concluded that there was no one there. Everyone else's searches also determined that as far as we could see, there was no one outside the house. 

When we all met back in the kitchen/living area, we put the sofas back in their place and sat in silence. I gripped onto Millie's upper arm, leant my head on her shoulder and whispered so only she could hear, "I'm scared. What if there's a murderer or somebody out there-". She cut me off by placing her finger on my lips, "shh don't worry. I'm sure it's nothing". 

None of us dared to move in the pause in activity.

The break didn't last long. A dark, impenetrable shadow loomed behind the curtains. We all took in a sharp intake of breath as the shadow became more clearly distinguished as a moving object. A person.

Immediately, we all stood up and moved as far away from the sliding doors as possible. Cowering into eachother, we watched as the figure seemed to turn into two figures and move about the garden causing the shadows to dance on the curtains. My fingers sunk deep into Millie's arm and she put a protective arm around my waist - also gripping tightly. Ruby exclaimed, "Rosie I swear to God if I get kidnapped in your house, my dad will sue your mum". Everyone turned towards her with daggers in the eyes and Millie hissed sarcastically, "can you be any fucking louder?". 

A few of the girls began to record as the shadows moved closer and closer to the door. The serious side of Millie came out as she instructed, "if anyone comes in the house, run to the front door". Just as she said that, we all heard the soft sound of the sliding door opening. Before we could even acknowledge the movement, two dark figures shoved the curtains back and ran towards the group.

As we all ran down the hall, terrified for our lives, the figures scrambled after us. Screams pierced the empty house as someone fumbled with the key in the lock. 

The two figures stopped chasing us and bent over. Almost as if they were laughing..

We all just stopped screaming and stared at them as one of them said in a very familiar voice, "I'm going to wet myself". The other one said in also a very familiar voice, "oh my God that was so funny". Striding up to them, I pulled down the black face masks that they both had on, and exclaimed, "are you fucking serious? We thought you were coming to murder the fuck out of us". Ella Toone and Alessia Russo stood in my hallway dying of laughter in front of 15 girls terrified out of their minds, relieved that they're still alive and starstruck at the two footballers in front of them. Alessia said, "you should have seen your faces when we came from behind the curtains". 

After all of us had calmed down, we headed back into the living area. Alex questioned me, "why are Ella Toone and Alessia Russo in your fucking house pretending to be kidnappers?". I looked at her and answered, "I wish I could tell you". Ella then chose to explain to everyone, "we heard that there was a party going on here so decided to come along and give you all a good scare". Still in shock, I realised I was still gripping hard onto Millie's arm so I removed my hand and quickly apologised before turning to Ella, "you two are going to be dead when my mum finds out". My plan was to tell Lucy what they did to get them back for it. However, I didn't quite think it through because Alessia pointed out, "that's the best bit. If you tell your mum, we'll tell her about your party and the amount of empty cans and bottles that are scattered about". Feeling defeated, I looked at the pair of them who looked smug, and gave in, "fine. You don't tell her about the party and I won't tell her about what you did". Ella looked the room and the group of us up and down before smirking and replying, "deal".