Chapter 18

*Payton's POV*"Come in" I say, hopefully loud enough for the person on the other side of the door to hear.

Kaden walks through as I turn my phone off.

"Can we talk since we never got to?" He asks and I motion over to the edge of my bed as a way of saying yes.

"What's up?" I ask.

"Well I think you know what this is about.."

I sigh before responding, "yeah, I know.."

"What's with us lately? Two years shouldn't of changed anything between us yet we haven't talked at all since you moved here and now you're dating someone else, I don't get it."

"I got tired of waiting around. You couldn't of just expected me to wait for you to come back to LA, and there's no denying that we grew apart when you left. I'm happy with Brooklyn now, and I'm sorry if you can't see that or be happy for me," I explained.

"I'll always be happy when you are, but I've just always thought we'd end up somehow. We've liked each other for years now, and haven't done anything about it. Doesn't that disappoint you a little?" He said with defeat in his tone.

"Of course it does, it makes me sad how we made plans on marrying each other when we were 7 and now we don't talk nearly at all. Now's just not the time though, if we were meant to end up together, it'll happen later on in life, just not now."

"I get it. Can we at least try and be friends in the time being?"

"Of course, you didn't think I'd stop talking to you or anything, did you?" I said with a small smile.

"Go to bed," he laughed, getting up and walking towards the door.

"Good night Kaden," I said.

"Good night Payton."

~~~~~~~Buzzzzzzzzz

Buzzzzzzzzz

I groan slightly and open my eyes, searching for my phone. Who the hell's calling at 1am?!

"Hello?" I say in my morning, but shouldn't be morning voice.

"I love you," I hear someone's voice say. I find it creepy at first, then realize it's Brooklyn's unmistakable accent on the other end.

"What? Brooklyn I love you too but it's 1am and I was sleeping..." I whine.

"I know, I'm sorry.. But when I got up in he middle of the night and checked my phone I realized I forgot to tell you I loved you, and you went to sleep not hearing that," he said. Awhhhhh! I'm not even (that) mad anymore for him waking me up.

"That's cute, but please don't call and wake me up again because I will hit you Beckham." I say, still half asleep.

"Your morning voice is cute," he laughs.

"I shouldn't be awake Brooklyn," I laugh back.

"Well then good night beautiful, I love you," he tells me and I smile to myself, "a lot," he adds.

"I love you too, Brook. See you tomorrow, Kay?"

"For sure," he says, then I hang up the phone and fall asleep.

~~~~~~~

My eyes creep open and I reach for my phone once I'm fully awake. I open my texts and see I have 4.

•Brookie•Morning Beautiful, I'm off to practice, you can come watch if you'd like(; love youuuuu

I check the time and it's only 7:30. Why the hell am I up so early?! I usually sleep in until 1! I know that Brooklyn's practice starts at 8, so I decide to go and get ready.

I swing my feet off of my bed, and step down. I take a shower and do my usual routine, blow drying my hair once I get out.

I put on light makeup, and curl the ends of my hair messily, and put my football stuff on, along with Brooklyn's sweatshirt.

I make my way to Wintler fields, and once I'm there, I walk onto one of the fields, and see that practice hasn't started yet. I see my brother there, along with some other guys I recognized on the team, but not many. Brooklyn isn't here yet apparently, so I walk over to the field across and get my football out. I start just by running some laps, then some drills to warm me up. I notice Brooklyn's here now, and he makes his way towards me.

"Hey Pay, glad you decided to come," he winked giving me a short but sweet kiss.

There are those freaking fireworks, I've missed those damn things.

A wave of relief swept over me, as I realized that I wasn't insane.

"Oh, by the way, here," I say taking off his sweatshirt that was on me before, handing it to him.

"Wh-what?" He asks, confused.

"It doesn't smell like you anymore. I want it back once it does," I explained.

"Don't do that Payton, you almost gave me a heart attack," he laughed. "Here, wear this," he said taking his own sweatshirt off and swapping it with the one I just gave him. I put it on and inhale that addicting smell. I smile, and he kisses my cheek before he goes and runs off to practice.

*Brooklyn's POV*Payton gives me the sweatshirt I gave her a while ago, back to me.

Did I do something wrong?

What's happening? Is she breaking up with me?!

I kept the panic inside.

"Wh-what?" I can't help but stutter.

"It doesn't smell like you anymore. I want it back once it does," she says, and I feel a sense of relief come over me.

Thank god, because I can't lose her again.

"Don't do that Payton, you almost gave me a heart attack," I laugh. "Here, wear this," I tell her, swapping sweatshirts. She looks so cute in her football stuff, especially mine. I run off as practice is soon gonna start, and see that Payton's decided to practice herself. She must be feeling better today. I steal glances over at her every now and then, as she's just juggling the ball at her feet for a while, and sometimes doing tricks, like headers, and resting on her back and stuff.

"Must be all she knows how to do," I hear one of the guys from my team, Jax, say. He stands there laughing with his friends as they all look over at Payton.

"Hey, shut the fuck up Jax, she can fucking outplay all of you," I tell off Jax.

"Yeah. Sure Beckham. Why do you care so much?" He asks me.

"Because I don't like you talking about my girlfriend that way. That's why I care," I scoff, trying to contain my anger.

"Oh she's your girl? She may be a sucky player, but she sure is fit." he smirks.

"And that's why she's mine, got it?" I almost yell. I see Payton running over here, midway through my sentence, and now my whole team's crowded around us.

"Hey, what's going on?" She asks me. Guessing she heard the yelling.

"Nothing, we were just.. arguing about something, doesn't matter," I lie. I don't wanna get her worked up over this.

"All I said was that you were pretty good.. at the only skill you could do," Jax chuckled, receiving some other laughs from other guys on my team.

I didn't know what to expect from Payton.. crying, anger, aggression...

"Listen here, dipshit, I can fucking beat you with my left foot and closed eyes."

Anger and aggression.. wonderful.

"Love to see you try," Jax smirked.

"Gladly." Payton responded as she pushed past everyone and grabbed a football. "You coming? Or are you backing out already?" She made an adorable fake pouty face.

"Y-yeah," Jax stuttered. I'd be scared too tbh.

"I'll go easy on you, you know.. since you're a girl," Jax added as they reached center field.

"And I'll go easy on you.. since you'll be considered injured after I kick your dick in." Pay sarcastically smiled, Jax and everyone stepped back a little. She was getting really worked up about this.. I just hope that her knee's fine.

I kicked over the ball to Payton and they started playing. She started attacking towards Jax, and used a mesmomeg to nutmeg him(first move in video in media slot). She runs up to about 20 yards, and puts her hands over her eyes and kicks with her left foot, bending the ball just enough to make it into the goal. That's my girl.

"Who is that girl?" A guy on my team asked.

"So she knows two moves. Big fucking deal," Jax says rolling his eyes.

"She scored against my dad, Beckham and Van Persie all on her own. I'd say it's a pretty big deal," Sean added smirking.

By then the coach came in through the gates, signaling that practice had started. Payton waved a bye to me before jogging over to the other field to practice by herself.