The Princess & the Football Player

Chapter 27

"You and Declan are on the cover of The Sun. Someone caught you kissing last night at Wembley."

"What?" I say, quickly sitting up.

"Someone saw you and took some photos and a video" David says.

"That... That can't be."

"I'm so sorry, Eleanor. It was all my fault. I should have been paying more attention, tell you to go somewhere else, to be more careful. It's all my fault."

"Eleanor, what is it? What happened?" Declan says next to me. "You've gone so pale..."

"They..." I mutter, David still apologizing over the phone.

"They what?"

"I... I..."

"Eleanor, take a deep breath."

"I can't. I can't breathe" I manage to say.

"Hey, look at me" Declan says, gently grabbing my chin and making me look at him. "Breathe."

"They... They know."

"Who knows?"

"The... Press" I say, trying to take a deep breath. "Dec, I..."

"It's ok, it's ok" he says, caressing my cheek. "Breathe."

"I can't" I sob.

"Yes, you can. Inhale..." he says, making me follow him. "Exhale. That's it, c'mon."

"Inhale..." I repeat. But I can't keep going. My words are getting stuck in my throat, my legs shaking. And I am feeling so hot.

"Eleanor. Eleanor, hey" Declan says, his blue eyes looking bigger than ever. "Eleanor!"

━━━━━━❃━━━━━━

"Hello, you."

"Hi" I whisper.

"How are you?" Declan asks, putting a lock of hair behind my ear.

"Thirsty."

"One minute" he says, leaving the bed. While he is gone, I try to process where I am. What has happened. Why do I feel so... Rough. "Here you go."

"Thank you" I smile, slowly sitting up.

"Feeling better?"

"Yeah. What... What happened?"

"You had one of the big attacks. I can't remember the last time I was that scared."

"I'm sorry."

"Don't be, it wasn't your fault."

"It was... Oh, no. Dec, what... What are we going to do?" I say when I remember David's call, what he told me.

"I don't know yet. I've been too worried about you to think of anything else. But whatever happens, whatever we do... We'll do it together, ok?" Declan says, cupping my face.

"Together."

"I love you, Eleanor" he says, resting his forehead on mine.

"I love you too" I reply, not ready to face what is coming our way.

━━━━━━❃━━━━━━

"Finally!" I say when Declan walks through the door, throwing myself at him and hugging him. "Congratulations on today's win!"

"Thank you."

"What took you so long, tho? The game ended hours ago."

"Pick a guess" he sighs, taking my arms from around his neck and moving to sit on the sofa.