Chapter 9
“I said 7 o’clock sharp Alex!” Ashlyn yelled from their living room.
“We’re almost ready!” The three of them called back.
Ashlyn gave Megan an eye roll knowing that this was the typical routine every time they went out.
“You would think it wouldn’t take this long since she has two people helping her.” Pinoe said with a slight chuckle.
“Not with Ali, I don’t think there has ever been a time where she has been ready on time.”
“Kelley and Syd are helping her though so at least she doesn’t have to do everything.”
“Honestly the two of them are probably going to make it take longer. There’s possibility for disagreements when there’s more than one person.”
Suddenly, many footsteps were heard coming down the stairs as Kelley helped Ali walk down them and Syd slowly came down behind them.
The room seemed to light up as Ali made her way down the stairs.
“Once again, the wondrous Ali is not ready on time, but once again the perfect Ashlyn has planned for it.”
“Wow, somebody is full of herself.”
“I have to be when I’m always overshadowed by you.”
Ashlyn leaned in to kiss her beautiful girlfriend, possibly the last time before they were engaged.
///
“Did you really feel the need to go back to the same restaurant? We’re already paying for so many of my medical bills and it’s so expensive. I said I wanted to finish our date not restart it.”
“I can’t just start a date directly from where we finished off! It has to be perfect. Besides, you’ve gone through a lot in the last month. I want you to feel as special as you are to me.”
“This is what I wanted though. I just want to relax on the beach with you. We haven’t gotten much time to just relax together.”
“Well, you’re still getting to do that now so stop complaining.”
Ali became quiet as they continued walking down the beach. She knew that her energy was going to be even more limited than it currently was starting tomorrow so she just wanted to take everything in.
“What are you thinking about?” Ashlyn asked, trying to distract herself from her nerves.
“My treatment, life, everything.”
“Let’s not think about that kind of stuff. Tonight's a night to let all of that stuff go.”
“I know, I know. It’s just looming really close over my head.”
Ashlyn was trying to think of something else to talk about, but Ali was right. The cancer had been their life for the few weeks and there wasn’t much else that had happened for them to talk about. Ali was the first one to speak up though.
“I know you just said you don’t want to talk about this, but how have you been doing with everything? We keep talking about me, but nobody has been too worried about you.”
Ashlyn was a little shocked. She hadn’t even thought about this. She was worrying constantly about Ali that she had no time to think about herself.
“To be honest, it’s been really hard. You see so many other people go through this and it always seems tough, but when you’re the one going through it, it is an entirely different situation. Unspeakable. I’m just so exhausted from all of it that I don’t know what to do with myself.”
Ali just continued to walk, ingesting what Ashlyn had said.
“Thank you for telling me. I know all of this has been so hard on you. I’ve been making huge, enormous decisions without even consulting you and I’m sorry about that. I want to have you more involved in everything. You at least deserve that. I know you are truly supporting me through everything, but you may not have the same view and I don’t want to make this any harder for you than it has to be.”
Ashlyn squeezed her hand to acknowledge all of what she had just said. She couldn’t do much more as she was so emotional. She had held everything in up until now and it felt so good for her to let it all out.
Ali stopped them in their place, turned around and hugged Ashlyn. She knew it was time for her to be the shoulder to cry on since Ashlyn had been there for her for so long.
///
The two of the had been walking on the beach for a little while when Ashlyn had pushed away all of her nerves and finally calmed herself enough to do something she had been waiting to do for a long time.
Ashlyn squeezed Ali’s hands to get her to stop. She took a deep breath and turned to face Ali, taking both of her hands in her own.
“Alexandra Blaire Krieger. This has been a long time coming, but I finally feel that we are at the right time and both of us are ready.” As Ashlyn continued to speak, Ali’s eyes welled up with tears and a smile formed on her face. “You have been so amazing to me for so many years. Your smile is the first thing I want to see every morning. Your eyes light up every moment of my day. The way your nose crinkles when you laugh is one of my favorite parts about you. Your strength, your passion, you will to keep on pushing even when you really don’t want to. I don’t know how I could live life without every single little piece of you. Alex,” Ashlyn took a knee in the sand, reaching to her pocket to grab the ring. “Will you marry me?”
Before the words were even out of Ashlyn’s mouth, Ali was yelling out her answer, yes, as the tears fell down her face. Ashlyn took the ring out of the box and slid it on Ali’s finger. She jumped up and hugged Ali, lifting her up and spinning her around. The two of them kissed each other endlessly. It felt as though they were in a dream.
///
“What’s for breakfast?” Pinoe said loudly as she practically ran down the stairs.
“I thought you were leaving this morning?”
“Eh, I got time.”
“Well in that case, we’re having waffles, eggs, and sausage.”
“Sounds delicious!”
Ashlyn was cooking as the laughing and talking continued. Sydney and Kelley made their way downstairs and into the kitchen.
“So, how was your date last night?”
“Perfect.” Ali said with a bright smile. “I’m really glad we got to finish it.”
“What did you guys do?”
“We went to dinner at my favorite restaurant then we just went to the beach and talked. We would’ve gone to the carnival like we did last time, but there isn’t much I can do there and I didn’t have much energy to walk around the whole place anyway.”
“If only Dom would treat me to a nice date like that.” Syd said, looking as though she was dreaming of it.
“At least you guys all have someone. I’m still single!”
“Awww. Poor Kelley. At least you’ve got us.”
They all laughed as Kelley rolled her eyes and groaned.
“Breakfast is served!” Ashlyn said as she placed the last part of the meal on the table. Megan was the first one to reach for food as she dove in. Everyone else followed behind soon after.
As Ali reached to grab a waffle, Syd’s eyes widened.
“Hold on. Is there a part to your date last night that you aren’t telling me?” Syd practically yelled out.
Everyone stopped eating and Syd grabbed Ali’s hand.
“You better speak up or else!”
Ali and Ashlyn just smiled widely.
“We decided we wanted to wait until you guys noticed just for fun. We were looking for a good reaction especially.”
Megan hadn’t really been paying attention to what was going on around her and was quite noticeably very confused.
“Wait what’s happening?” Pinoe exclaimed, her mouth filled with food.
“Look at Ali’s hand.” Kelley said sharply.
Immediately, Pinoe’s jaw dropped open.
“Give us every single last little detail. I don’t care if it means I have to miss my flight.”
They were all glaring at her waiting for her to spill. It felt as though their eyes were burning holes through her skin.
“Okay. Wow. We were just down the beach together when Ash turned me around and had me face her. She started talking about all the things she loved about me and how she couldn’t live without me.”
Pinoe interrupted Ali at those words. “Really Ashlyn? You couldn’t have thought of anything better?”
“Hey, I was nervous. I’m just glad I didn’t fumble over my words or pee my pants.”
“Besides, it was really sweet. It was the perfect thing to listen to after a perfect night.”
Ali leaned over and kissed Ashlyn even through all the groans of her teammates.
“So, as I was saying before Ashlyn rudely interrupted, once Ashlyn finished saying all the kind things about me,” Ashlyn smiled. “She got down on her knee and asked if I would marry her. By that time, I was a puddle of tear but still managed to yell out yes.”
“Finally!” Megan yelled out. “I’ve been waiting for you to do this for months!”
“Give me a break. Ali is not easy to please. What did you expect me to do? Have it ready on the field with me after we won the World Cup?”
“Oh my god, yes! That would have been so perfect!”
“I already told you I didn’t want to do it during the tournament.”
“Well technically that was after the tournament was over since the game was done.”
Ashlyn gave Pinoe a look that told her she just needed to shut up now.
“I wanted to do it more privately and away from all of the madness of soccer. This was the best way I could think of to do it.”
“And it was absolutely perfect.”
///
“Why did you bring so much stuff Syd? You were only going to be her for a weekend. Plus, you can’t carry any of it so you were just going to depend on all of us to carry your three bags for you. You would think after traveling so much you would have perfect the art of packing, meaning not over packing.” Ashlyn said.
“Do you really expect any less of me? Also, what if I had decided to stay longer to help you guys?”
“You couldn’t for one since you have your check up with your doctor once you get home today and you are about to burst. And two, no offense, but we probably wouldn't want you to stay since you can’t really help around the house or much of anything for that matter and we have to take care of you practically. You knew you weren’t staying longer in the first place.”
Kelley and Ali were sitting on the porch waiting for Ashlyn to finish with Syd’s stuff.
“I’m going to miss having you with the team. It won’t be a true victory tour without you guys.” Kelley said as tears filled her eyes.
“Look on the bright side Kell. At least you’ll get to take my spot on the field.”
“Oh come on. Don’t joke about that. Now I’m going to feel guilty every time I step on the field.”
“Sorry, sorry. Ash and I will try to come to as many games as we can, but it really depends on how well I am feeling and whether my doctors allow it or not. It’s a lot of travelling for anyone, but especially in this state.”
“There is the game in Orlando next month so you can definitely go to that. Maybe Jill will even make an exception and put Ash on the roster for that game.”
“I hope so. I gave her the option to continue to play with the team, but she doesn’t want to. I’m still trying to convince her to have us go back up to DC because that’s where I would be more comfortable. She’s being really stubborn about it and saying that we shouldn’t leave the doctors here, but I already talked to them and they said it was fine for us to go there.”
“Ash is Ash. Stubborn as always.”
///
“Ashlyn please. I really don’t want to take you away from your training, but I want to go home. I’m sure the Spirit would let you train with them since you are taking time off from playing with the Spirit. Dr. Fletcher already said that it was perfectly fine for me to continue my treatments in DC. Besides, it will much easier for me to stay healthy and fit there too since I would have trainers who know me there.”
“But we are already starting your radiation treatments within the hour. What if you’re not feeling well enough to just pick up and move back to DC.”
“Ashlyn. I won’t be feeling the effects of the radiation for a few days and what do you mean just pick up and move? We have ninety percent of my stuff there already. I would be closer to my parents, more of our friends. Please.”
“Fine. I give in!”
“Thank you, thank you thank you! I love you so much right now!” Ali leaned over and hugged Ashlyn.
“Okay, you are about to make me crash right now.”
“Oh, whoops.” Ali said with a light laugh.
“You realize I’m only agreeing to this because you’re you and I love you so much.”
“Well I love you more.”
///
“Okay Ali. We are going to lock this mask in place so you won’t be able to move your head until this is done. This whole process should take around 25 or 30 minutes each day, but the treatment itself should take only a few minutes. Do you have any questions?”
“Is there anything I should start doing different after the treatments?”
“Your appetite may change so you may want to eat more small meals everyday than a few big ones. Be careful when washing the area where we are going to be shooting the radiation beams. You will likely get very tired easily and you will lose some hair but it won’t be your full head. Anything else?”
“No. I think I’m good.”
“Okay. Are you ready?”
Ali hesitated. “Uh, yeah, I’m ready.”
“Okay. I will just be in the room right next door if you need anything.”
///
“How do you feel?” Ashlyn asked.
“I feel okay. Just a little tired, but nothing too unusual.”
“That’s good, but we definitely have to watch it in the next few days.”
“So are you ready to get packing?”
“Dang. I thought you had forgotten about that.”
“Oh come on Ashlyn. What’s so bad about going back to DC?”
“Nothing. I just don’t like the idea of leaving your doctors.”
“I already said they were okay with it and you know that. There’s got to be something else bugging you.”
“I kind of like staying here and just getting to relax for a little.”
“We’ve been doing that for almost two months thanks to me. I want to be active again.”
“I know, I know. I’m ready too. We have a lot to do in the next few days and we will have to call your doctors and let them know, or just tell them tomorrow. We definitely need to let the Spirit staff know that we are coming so we don’t just suddenly pop in at practice. We have to schedule flights and get everything packed. Empty out all of the perishables from our kitchen and pack up some things before we leave since we will be leaving for a while.”
“Wow. Since when did Ashlyn become so organized.”
“Well, this definitely isn’t my first rodeo.”
“To DC we go!” Ali shouted out with a smile.