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“What the fuck are you doing?”
“Trent? Hold on, I was asleep.” Andy puts his phone down. He shakes his head a few times to wake himself up, and gulps down some water before picking up his phone again. “What’s wrong?”
“What.the.fuck.are.you.doing?”
“I’m in Vegas with my mates from home. As you know. Because you were invited and refused to come since no one else was bringing their partners.”
“With Grealish? Why the fuck am I seeing pictures of you partying with Jack fucking Grealish? Drunk off your ass in a pool on some guy’s shoulders!”
“Trent? Can you stop yelling, mate? I’m not here with Grealish. Grealish heard we were here and told us about a pool party. You know my mates- completely unimpressed with me but they think the 100-million-euro man is a big deal so they wanted to go.”
“You looked absolutely bladdered. Did he get you high? Were you on gear?”
“What the fuck? NO! Me? C’mon, you know me better than that. I think I had two beers and a couple of those weird White Claw things. I’m just a lightweight you know. And it’s hot as hell here so I was dehydrated.”
“You know pre-season starts in a couple of weeks. You need to be in top shape, you still need to eat right and sleep and stay hydrated! You didn’t stay out all night with him, right? I heard his security people were rounding up strange girls to take up to his room in the middle of the night. You didn’t hook up, did you?”
“Jesus. Where is this coming from? I’m not cheating. I would never cheat on you!”
“I saw some pictures online. And I guess I went a little crazy. It’s just, Grealish, you know. He’s everything we’ve said we don’t want to be. And then I see you partying with him, and I guess I thought maybe after the end of the season and um what happened with Scotland, I thought maybe you wanted something different. Someone a little wilder who you could let off steam with.”
Andy roars with laughter. “Trent! Are you serious? Oh love. Grealish scares the ever-loving shite out of me. He’s completely out of control. The pool party was fun, but even my mates thought he was too crazy. He was guttered, hitting on everyone and everything. We left the pool, went out for a huge steak dinner then played blackjack in a private room at our hotel. Turns out I hate gambling. Hate watching my hard-earned money disappear.”
Trent laughs with relief, “I could’ve predicted that. You tight-fisted Scot.”
“You should be a bit more tight-fisted yourself if you spent money on that hideous outfit you posted.” Andy teased.
“You didn’t like it? It got tons of compliments! Way better than what people are saying about those pictures of you!” Trent knows that Andy is trying to move the conversation forward, but Trent isn’t quite ready to let go of the pictures, a decision he will immediately come to regret.
“Where did you even see pictures? Nobody here knows who I am. Not like they’re gonna tag me on Insta.”
Trent is silent.
“Trent? Where did you see them? Fine, I’ll just…”
He winces as he hears Andy start clicking on his laptop.
“Trent Alexander Arnold, the Scouser in Our Team! You are so busted!” Andy shouts in delighted outrage or possibly outraged delight.
Trent splutters nonsense knowing there is nothing he can say that will make this better.
“ THE SUN ?!? You trusted The fucking Sun? You poor excuse for a Liverpudlian!” Andy is crowing. Trent knows that he will hear about this for literally the rest of his life. He wonders if Andy will have the decency not to mention it in front of his parents. And his brothers. And Curtis.
“I knoooow,” he moans, “There was a link on twitter, I didn’t know it went to that evil rag. And then I saw the photo and I just. Ugh.”
“You got jealous and lost your mind! The Sun made you think I was snorting coke off Jack Grealish’s arse!”
“I didn’t think that!”
“The Sun made you believe I was carousing like a City lad! Me! Sweet innocent Andrew Robertson!”
“Hmmm. I’ve seen you try to carouse. Should’ve known you can’t keep up with Grealish.”
“I don’t think your friend Declan can either, but he was certainly trying.”
“Pshh, he and Mason usually end up heading back to their hotel room halfway through a night out, because they can’t keep their hands to themselves.”
“Well, Mason isn’t here so I guess he doesn’t know what to do with his hands.”
“Wait, Dec’s there without Mason?”
“Pretty sure. Think he’s just hanging with Jack’s crew.”
“Huh. That’s weird.” Trent thinks about checking in with Mason or asking Ben if he knows what’s going on with them. He wants to be a good friend, but he doesn’t want to start trouble. Hendo would know what to do—oh no, Hendo. “Um, Robbo. Have you heard from Hendo?”
“Fuck. Oh Fuck! Shit shit shit. These pictures are awful! Oh God, there’s video. He’s going to kill me. Well, that’s it then, isn’t it? I can’t go home. I live here now. Under this brutally hot sun that will burn the flesh right off my wee pasty body.”
“Just text him right away, before he calls you. Tell him exactly how much you drank and how much you slept and that you’re still working out. Make sure he knows you’re not with Grealish. He loves that kid for some reason, but he’d kill any of us if we did the shit he does. Hendo’s at Algarve with Danny and Ads and them so he may not have seen them. Plus, you know, he’s not going to automatically believe The Sun.”
“Yeah, he’s a good loyal Liverpool lad. Unlike some people who are actually from Liverpool !”
Trent sighs; he knows this is just the start. “Just get off the phone with me and text Hendo before he hops on a plane and drags you by your ear to train with him in Portugal. It’s going to be everywhere in a couple hours.”
Andy finds that scenario all too probable. “Ok, love. You good now? Relax and enjoy LA?”
“Yeah, yeah. M’alright. Behave yourself.”
“Always.”
Trent bites his lip as he gets off the phone. He wishes he’d handled that better, more maturely. He loves Andy and knows Andy loves him. He certainly trusts Andy. But he doesn’t trust Grealish or Las Vegas or alcohol-based decisions. And he knows that most of Andy’s childhood mates don’t know about their relationship. Inevitably they’re going to encourage him to pull, if just to take his mind off the last few weeks. Trent tries to imagine the situation reversed, but he can’t. His friends from childhood are his brothers and a few Liverpool academy players. They all know about Andy and are incredibly supportive. They’d be more likely to yank a drink out of his hand and pull up Andy on Facetime than let him do something stupid. Trent smiles to himself at the image. He feels a bit homesick for his family and for his team. For Andy’s stupid face and goofy laugh. He’d quite like to be home on the couch kicking Andy’s ass in FIFA.
He pulls out his phone again and messages-
Hope it went okay with Hendo. I’ll see you in 2 days, right?
Three dots immediately appear
Robbo: Talking with the skipper now. I can’t tell if he’s upset that I was partying or jealous that I was with Grealish. Either way, there will be consequences. You’ll do extra training with me, right?
Ha! It’s probably a bit of both. And not a chance. I’ll see you Thursday?
Robbo: At this rate, Hendo’s going to make me swim home for the extra work out .
Trent sends various swimming, running and weightlifting emojis. And waits.
Robbo: Ok, that’s that done. He didn’t seem too mad actually. More worried about me. Said he wishes you were with me, because you’ve got more sense than me! Ridiculous that. And that he’s going to make sure pre-season wrings all the Vegas out of me. So that’s a bit scary.
Trent sends scared face and skull emojis. And waits.
Robbo: At least Milly will get a good laugh at me. Nothing he enjoys more than watching younger lads puke during pre-season.
Trent sends vomit and laughter emojis. And waits.
Robbo: He got me buzzing for next season actually. I’m ready to get out of here. I get home late Wednesday. Can I come straight over? I know you said Thursday but I’d like to wake up next to you.
Trent grins as he types. Wednesday would be great.
Robbo: Have I told you how much I miss you?
Not even once.
Robbo: I miss you so much it’s pathetic. No more separate holidays. Promise?
Promise. I miss you too. I know you needed a break, but I hated it.
Robbo: You know I didn’t need a break from you, yeah?
Well, you needed a break from football. And we’re teammates so…
Trent’s Facetime tone chimed and he opened it to see Andy’s face looking worried.
“Did you think I wanted a break from you? Is that why you were upset about the pictures? Did you think we were on a break like Ross and Rachel?”
“NO! No, not that kind of break. Just thought you needed to get away from anything that reminds you of Liverpool or Scotland. And that includes me.”
“You absolute muppet! I invited you to come with me! Would I do that if I wanted a break from you?”
“Probably not…”
“Definitely not! Do you know how hard it was, after those miserable couple weeks, to fly here instead of just crawling in your arms and hiding?”
“Andy-”
“No, I mean, I needed the sun and my mates and the trip was already planned, it’s just, I wish you’d come too.”
“None of them brought their girlfriends though, right? Plus, they don’t know about us. We’d have to hide. It would’ve been weird.”
Andy sighs. “You’re probably right about that. But I’ve never wanted a break from you in my life. Well, maybe when you go on and on about how much better you are at FIFA. And set pieces. But I’ve never wanted to be away from you for more than 5 minutes.”
Trent can’t stop smiling. “I may need more breaks from you than that, because you can be a lot, but I don’t want to be away from you for more than one night anymore.”
Andy barks out a laugh. “I can be a lot for sure. At least according to every teacher I’ve ever had. So no more long breaks and no more separate holidays?”
Trent nods, “Yeah. Can we do that?”
“We can try. And, if you’re okay with it, I’d like to tell my mates about us.”
Trent exhales slowly. “That’s totally up to you. You trust them, yeah?”
“I wouldn’t tell them if I didn’t. But Trent, if we’re going to spend every night together and go on holiday together, people are going to notice. Are you ready to deal with that?”
“Nah. Not yet. But corner taken quickly and all that. I’ll be ready when I need to be ready. And it’ll be before anyone else has figured out what’s going on.” Trent smirks and Andy rolls his eyes.
“Mate. Did you actually just bring ‘corner taken quickly’ into a serious talk about our relationship?”
Trent’s smirk grows into a broad grin. “I did. Seemed appropriate.”
“Did it though?” Andy tries to frown but Trent is so fucking hot when he’s being cocky, he can’t help but beam at him. “Anyway, I guess I’ll go get my mates a wee bit drunk before I tell them that their favorite Liverpool player is dating the best fullback in the prem.”
“Did you just call me the best-“ Trent breaks off when he notices Andy is wearing a smirk of his own. “Oh I get it. I’m their favorite Liverpool player. And you’re the…” he gestures in the air because he sure as hell isn’t saying it.
“…the best fullback in the premier league. BY A MILE.” Andy crows then laughs at Trent’s expression. “And, if I’m being honest, Mo is probably their favorite Liverpool player, the bastards.”
Trent shrugs. “I get it. Mo is probably my favorite Liverpool player too.”
“Oh hey now, behave! You’d put me, the love of your life, in second place?”
“Wellllll, maybe third?”
“What?! Oh, Hendo. Your papa. I should be grateful Ads isn’t in contention anymore.”
“Oh awkward, I was thinking of Virg. But obviously Hendo. And you can’t separate Hendo and Milly so…”
“Fifth. I’m your 5th favorite Liverpool player.” Andy pretends to look put out but Trent looks so fucking adorable when he banters that he can’t help but smile fondly at him.
Trent nods. “If it makes you feel better, you are my favorite Scotland player.”
“Oh that does make me feel ever so much better. And you should know, you were my favorite England player too.”
“ Were ? I was your favorite England player? And now?” Realization dawns on Trent’s face. “You’re a right prick, you know that?”
Andy’s laughing so hard he can barely get his words out, “It’s just that Jack’s so dreamy with his Jamie Tartt hair and his cartoon calves…”
Trent laughs too. “I thought it would be his accent that drew you in.”
“His accent! Nah. You know, for me, if it’s not Scottish, it’d better be Scouse.”
“Too fucking right it’d better be Scouse!” They smile silently at each other for a beat.
“I’m gonna go tell them.” Andy says seriously but with a big smile.
Trent nods. “You nervous?”
“Not at all. I think it’s going to be great.”
“Okay. Just text or call to let me know how it goes.”
“Of course. And I’ll see you Wednesday.”
“Yeah, Wednesday. And, Andy, I love you.” Trent adds uncomfortably. They don’t say it a lot. They know how they feel, but they don’t say it casually.
“I love you so fucking much I think my heart will eventually explode.” Andy replies immediately.
Trent feels his own heart race. He blushes and nods as he just says, “Wednesday?”
Andy winks as he nods back, “Wednesday. I’ll see you on Wednesday.”
Wednesday. What a beautiful fucking word.