MAPI'S POINT OF VIEW:
📍La Ciudad del Fútbol de las Rozas, Madrid metropolitan area

"Did she ever text back?" My best friend and roommate at Spanish camp, Leila Ouahabi, wondered as we were getting ready for breakfast.
While I didn't like the thought of my teammates being involved in my dating life with one of their own, I couldn't wait to tell Leila, who played abroad for Manchester City, about the beautiful German girl who had stolen my heart.
Unfortunately for me, the day I told Leila, said German started acting weird toward me.

"Yes, she did" I replied, turning my phone around to show Leila the conversation.

[7.11.2024, 20:04:25] Emi<3: Do you  have time for a call?<3

[7.11.2024, 20:07:01]: I'm still at dinner, give me 10 mins princesa.
[7.11.2024, 20:30:58]: I tried calling you multiple times, call me back when you're ready<3

[8.11.2024, 7:17:43] Emi<3: I totally forgot about our call

[8.11.2024, 7:18:02] Emi <3: I'm sorry, baby!!

"How can she just forget?" Leila scolded, angrier about the whole situation than I was as she had never been a huge fan of Germans. 

"I don't know, but I don't want to deal with it right now" I shrugged, putting on my jacket. "Are you ready to go downstairs? I'm so hungry!"

Our trainer Vilda, arguably the worst trainer we could have possibly gotten, had a rule that forbid us from bringing our phones to training, allegedly to minimize any distractions. However, we all knew it was to prevent us from recording his unethical and dangerous training methods, something we were unfortunately already used to at this point. The whole point of an international break wasn't to have fun representing your country anymore, but instead to try your best to not get injured. Understandably, the general atmosphere was already not the best.

When Leila and I went back to our room in the afternoon after a full day of nerve-wracking practice, I still hadn't gotten another text from Emilia, so I opened Instagram to distract myself, not wanting to make it seem as if I was running after her.

Even though I definitely wouldn't mind.

"What the fuck?!" Leila and I exclaimed simultaneously, bursting out in laughter as we looked at each other.

"What did you just see?" the dark-haired woman wanted to know, making herself comfortable next to me.

"Here" I sighed, turning my phone screen to Leila again.

emiliacortes20's story 8 hours ago

"What is that even supposed to mean?" Leila stared confused at the German sentence on Emilia's Instagram story with Sydney.

"No idea, but what is she doing with that bitch?" I scolded, quickly typing the sentence into google translate. "Still a morning grouch? What does that mean?"

"I don't know, you can't trust google translate these days. Or your girl, for that matter. Look!" Leila turned her phone around to show me the recent Instagram post of the German national team.

Liked by laurafreigang, sydneylohmann and 21'827 others
dfb_frauenteam: team bonding in Murcia 🌞
---
laurafreigang: meine Mädels :) ("my girls")
^^sydneylohmann: lieb euch ("love you guys")
^^emiliacortes20: ❤️❤️

"You've got to be fucking kidding me" I hissed angrily, still looking up what a morning grouch was supposed to be. "According to google, it's someone who isn't a morning person. Why on earth did German people have to make up a word for that?"

"I don't know. German people are just fucking weird" Leila cringed, remembering all of our international fixtures against the German team, some of which arguably didn't end in our favor.

"Yet you still follow them on Instagram?" I grinned, inspecting the post.

Why was Emilia looking at Sydney like that?

And why on earth were they even spending time together?

I could tell Leila's cheeks were turning bright red, no matter how hard she tried to hide her face. "Remember two years ago when there was a rumor of Ona dating that German player?"

"Felicitas Rauch?" I remembered, thinking back to the rumors circling around them after the Euros.

"Exactly. I might have stalked her a little too much" my best friend laughed ashamed. "Don't ever tell Ona! I was definitely playing hard to get back then."

"Sure thing" I grinned, slipping back into my sneakers and grabbing a hoodie. "I'm gonna go outside to call Emilia."

"Don't get too mad at her, Meli" Leila warned me, having witnessed countless of my anger outbursts in her life, before I stormed out of the room, making my way to a bench overlooking the football pitch outside.

As fast as I could I facetimed Emilia, my hands shaking, hoping she'd pick up, unlike last night. Luckily, this time her beautiful face quickly appeared on my screen.

"Hola guapa" She smiled beautifully, making me forget the reason I called originally. "I'm so glad you called! I have so many things to tell you!"

"I'm sure you do" I grumbled, unable to help my heart beat faster as I looked at her.

If only I was with her right now.

Emilia looked at me in a confused manner. "Yes? I don't even know where to start, you won't believe it, but-"

"Maybe start with the part where you posted your ex on your Instagram?" I interrupted her harsher than I intended to, instantly biting my lip to make myself stop, Leila's words about not getting too mad still echoing in my head.

I just couldn't help it, sometimes my temper got the best of me, especially in situations that reminded me of everything I went through with Ana.

"Believe it or not, but I was actually just gonna tell you about that, María" Emilia replied coldly.

"Come on, don't María me now" I tried to lighten up the conversation, genuinely afraid of screwing everything up.

"Vale, María" the German teased me, her expression becoming softer again as far as I could tell through the tiny screen.

It would be so much easier to just have her here.

"So basically, I talked to Laura and it turned out that Ingrid had already told her that she saw us kissing. Speaking of which, Ingrid and the whole Norwegian team are here in the hotel too, but I've only seen her once from far away so far. However, I've come to the conclusion that it couldn't have been Laura nor Ingrid who took that picture" Emilia blurted out, gasping for air after her flood of words.

"Wait, what happened? Were we ever suspecting Ingrid?" I asked, confused by so much new information. However, it wasn't really the information I wanted.

"I was" Emilia shrugged, presenting me with more information as if she was Sherlock Holmes. "But listen, I noticed that the text message was written in flawless Spanish and we both know that Ingrid and Laura would not be capable of that. Additionally, I now know the reason why Laura was acting so weird that day. I promise you, she had nothing to do with that."

"Hmm, you could be right. But then who could it have been?" I agreed confusedly, hating the fact that we had to start from scratch again.

"I don't know, but Sydney said that-"

"Sydney? Your ex Sydney?" I angrily interrupted her once again, my blood starting to boil.

"She's not my ex. Using that logic you'd be my girlfriend by now and you made it pretty clear that you're not when you demanded we keep all of this a secret." Emilia exploded, throwing me as angry of a look as it was possible through a phone screen.

Her words cut through my heart harder than they should have, even though I knew she was technically only saying the truth. "I- it's not the same! I just want what's best for my team."

For now, anyway.

"Oh really? Then you should probably know that everyone already knows about us thanks to Ingrid" Emilia hissed angrily when suddenly voices arose on her side of the call.

"Where are you?" I wondered, trying to scan her surroundings, but unable to look at anything but a white wall, plastered with some colorful paintings behind her.

"In my room. Why?" Emilia answered, seeming a little stressed out all of the sudden, when a second blonde head appeared on the screen out of nowhere, saying something to Emilia that I didn't understand. Despite Emilia's efforts to push the blonde girl away, she turned her face to me, waving to the camera with a big smile.

It was Sydney.

"Emilia, you've got to be fucking kidding me. What is that bitch doing in your room?" I yelled, instantly hoping that Sydney doesn't know any Spanish.

"María, you need to calm down right now" Emilia demanded coldly as Sydney threw her a confused look, before saying something in German to another person in the room that I couldn't make out.

Ashamed, I bit my lip, mad at Emilia for putting me in such a situation where they probably were all making fun of me by now.

"You know what?" I sighed. "I don't need to listen to your bullshit. Don't call me again."

Even before I hung up, the tears started streaming down my face, fearing that I had possibly just lost the girl of my dreams.

A/N: this is my third try at uploading this stupid chapter... it's like Wattpad doesn't want me to break your hearts. Also, I'm going to an Arsenal match tomorrow! I'm soooo thrilled.