Glastonbury
England — August 2024
England lost the World Cup final on a Sunday.
Leah watched Spain lift the trophy from the sidelines with her hands shoved deep into her pockets and her heart somewhere outside her body entirely.
She smiled for the girls.
Held them while they cried.
Told the media how proud she was.
Captain things.
Then she got on a plane home and emotionally unravelled quietly somewhere over the Indian Ocean.
—
By the time Glastonbury came around, Leah still hadn't properly fixed things with Elle.
A few texts.
One awkward FaceTime.
Too much silence in between.
The fight in Australia lingered unresolved because both of them kept missing the right moment to say the things that actually mattered.
And honestly?
Leah didn't know how to explain what Australia had done to her.
How watching England lose somehow hurt almost as much as missing the tournament itself.
How coming home felt emptier than she expected.
So instead—
she went to Glastonbury with Grace.
Which turned out to be the worst idea either of them had ever had.
—
"Leah Williamson at a festival is deeply unnatural," Grace informed her while they walked through mud toward one of the stages.
Leah rolled her eyes beneath oversized sunglasses. "I'm literally behaving."
"That's what concerns me."
Around them music pounded through warm summer air while crowds moved endlessly through the fields.
Grace's cousin walked ahead carrying drinks while Leah stayed close beside Grace mostly because she felt too emotionally exhausted to pretend sociable.
She still looked tired lately.
Not physically.
Soul tired.
Grace noticed obviously.
She always did.
"You okay?" Grace asked quietly once the others moved ahead slightly.
Leah shrugged.
Classic avoidance.
Grace sighed softly. "You still haven't fixed things with Elle."
Not a question.
Leah looked down briefly at the grass.
"No."
"Why?"
"I don't know."
Lie.
She knew exactly why.
Fear.
Pride.
The terrifying possibility that maybe Australia had changed something between them permanently.
Grace watched her carefully for a second too long.
Then softer—
"You love her."
Leah laughed weakly under her breath. "That obvious?"
"To literally everyone."
Unfortunately fair.
Her phone buzzed in her pocket.
Instagram notifications.
Again.
Leah frowned slightly opening them.
And immediately groaned.
Photos already everywhere.
Leah and Grace laughing together through the festival crowds. Grace with one arm around Leah's shoulders. Videos of them dancing beside the stage with friends.
The internet had already started.
Leah and Grace back together??
Whatever happened with the American girl?
This feels suspiciously soft-launch coded.
Grace glanced at the screen and looked away quietly.
Something shifted after that.
Tiny.
But enough.
Leah felt it immediately.
The silence.
The way Grace started looking at her when she thought Leah wasn't paying attention.
Like hope had crept back in accidentally.
And suddenly Leah felt dread curling low in her stomach.
—
Later that night they sat alone outside one of the tents while distant music echoed across the dark fields.
Festival lights glowed gold against the night sky.
Grace's cousin and the others had disappeared somewhere hours earlier, leaving just the two of them wrapped in hoodies against the cold.
Leah stared ahead quietly nursing a drink she barely wanted.
Then Grace spoke.
"You know what the problem is?"
Leah frowned slightly. "What?"
Grace looked down at her hands.
"I think I stopped trying to get over you the second Australia happened."
Leah went very still.
Because Grace never said things like this aloud.
Ever.
Grace laughed softly under her breath, but it sounded sad.
"You stopped talking about Elle the way you usually do."
Leah's chest tightened immediately.
"Grace—"
"I know," Grace interrupted quietly. "I know she's who you want."
The honesty in her voice somehow made it worse.
Because Leah suddenly realised Grace had probably known that for a long time.
And still stayed anyway.
"I'm sorry," Leah whispered softly.
Grace shook her head once.
"You don't have to apologise for loving someone else."
The guilt hit Leah hard enough she physically looked away.
Music drifted softly across the fields while silence settled painfully between them.
Then Grace looked at her again.
And Leah saw it immediately.
The emotion.
The heartbreak.
The lingering hope.
"Grace..."
But before Leah could finish, Grace leaned forward suddenly and kissed her.
Small.
Brief.
Desperate more than passionate.
And the second it happened Leah pulled back immediately.
Not cruelly.
But instinctively.
Like her body reacted before her brain could.
"Don't," Leah whispered.
Grace froze completely.
And suddenly the reality of what had just happened crashed down between them.
The friendship.
The years.
Everything complicated and painful and unfinished finally sitting there exposed.
Grace looked devastated instantly.
"I'm sorry," she said quickly. "I shouldn't have—"
"No."
Leah stood abruptly, panic flooding through her chest now.
Because all she could think about was Elle.
Elle in New York waiting for a version of Leah who still hadn't chosen her properly out loud.
Elle loving her through every difficult broken part while Leah stood here letting old feelings and old rumours blur lines again.
Grace looked up at her from the grass, eyes glassy now.
And quietly—
"There it is."
Leah frowned. "What?"
"That look."
Grace laughed softly, painfully.
"You're completely in love with her."
Silence.
Leah couldn't even deny it anymore.
Not after this.
Not after how wrong that kiss felt.
Not after realising the panic in her chest wasn't about Grace kissing her—
it was about losing Elle.
Grace looked away first.
"You should probably go fix this."
The words hit Leah like physical force.
Because suddenly waiting felt impossible.
Leah grabbed her phone with shaking hands, heart racing too fast now.
Grace blinked up at her. "What are you doing?"
Leah looked terrified.
And absolutely certain.
"I'm going to New York."
And somewhere beneath the distant music and festival lights and the wreckage of a friendship quietly ending, Leah realised something heartbreaking:
sometimes loving someone meant finally choosing them completely.
Even if it cost you everything else.