When I opened my eyes, it took me a few moments to remember where I was. I had spent my first night ever in America! I tried to move out of the bed, but I wasn't able to. It was pretty dark in the room, so I wasn't able to see much. Once my eyes had adjusted themselves to the darkness, I discovered Jamal had wrapped his arm around my back, holding me close to him. To be honest it was quite comfortable, but I was scared it would be awkward once Jamal would wake up.

I carefully removed his arm and slipped out of the bed. I went to the bathroom to get ready for the day. I brushed my teeth and did my skincare. When I walked back into the room, Jamal had just woken up.

"Hey," he greeted me with his morning voice. "You're awake early,"

"I couldn't sleep anymore," I walked over to the bed, stopping in front of it.

Jamal patted the bed, gesturing me to sit down. He rested his head on his hand and looked at me still a little bit sleepy.

"Everything all right?" he asked.

"Of course," I lied.

Jamal frowned and I could tell he didn't believe me, but he didn't ask again either, which I was grateful for.

"Are you excited for today," I changed the topic.

"Yes, I am. What are you doing while we train?"

"I'm not sure yet. I texted an old friend of mine, who moved here, a few days ago to maybe meet up or something, but he hasn't replied yet,"

"He?" Jamal raised an eyebrow.

"Yes, he. It's a boy,"

"Is it a date?"

"No, no, like I said, we're old friends. We haven't seen each other in like two or three years. We went to elementary school together and were neighbors for like half our lives," I explained and I thought I heard a breath of relief leave Jamal's mouth, but I wasn't sure.

"Well then have fun, I guess," he smiled at me, but I could tell it wasn't as genuine as usually.

While Jamal was in the bathroom getting ready as well, I was in the other room changing out of my pajamas into more breakfast appropriate clothes. Since it was very hot outside, I picked out some black shorts and a white tank top.

Once Jamal was finished in the bathroom as well and had changed his clothes, we made our way to the restaurant for breakfast.

On the way there, we met Leroy and Serge and talked with them until we reached the restaurant. Once we arrived there we saw a few other team members sitting on a long table and joined them.

After breakfast, the boys had a meeting about the next days friendly match, which I obviously wasn't allowed to attend.

I was in my hotel room waiting for the meeting to be over, to watch the boys train. I hadn't received an answer from my childhood friend yet. I looked up from my phone, when I heard a knock on my door.

I opened it and Celina and Daniel were standing outside.

"Told you," Daniel smiled and Celina handed him a 5 euro note.

I looked at the duo in confusion and gestured for them to come in.

"What was that about," I pointed at the money now in Daniel's hand.

"We had a bet. I said you'd be in your hotel room, alone. She said you'd not be here, but somewhere else instead, discovering the hotel or whatever," Daniel explained a smile still resting on his lips.

"Well, I did discover the hotel yesterday,"

"Alone?" Daniel asked.

"No, with Jamal," I shook my head.

"Means I still win. I've just spent more time with her than you," he shrugged his shoulders.

"Well in that case, I guess it's time to catch up on that spending time together, now," Celina sat down on the couch.

"Any destinations in mind?"

"You pick," Celina replied.

"I have never been in Washington before, I don't know any good places. I was actually planning on visiting the city later today with Jamal,"

"Uuh, does that mean the two of you are finally going on a date? Did you kiss? What happened? Wait, why didn't you tell us? Isabella!" Daniel rambled.

"Okay first of all, nothing happened," I said, but blushed thinking back about how I woke up in his arms a few hours ago.

Daniel noticed me blushing and raised an eyebrow.

"Don't lie to us,"

"Fine, when I woke up this morning, Jamal had his arm around my back-"

"You cuddled! Oh my god, that's the first sign! I'm like... I don't even know what to say right now! This is great! What did he say?" Daniel screamed.

"Nothing, I went to the bathroom, before he woke up," I shrugged my shoulders.

"Why?" Celina wanted to know.

"Because I didn't want it to be awkward between us. He doesn't know and that's okay. I don't want to ruin our friendship,"

"Oh, stop it already with ruining your friendship. Just go for it," Daniel said.

"You sound like Sofia,"

"Well, that's obviously because she's right," Celina stated.

I groaned, "I don't want to talk about this anymore. I appreciate your help, I really do, but the less I think about it the better,"

"We just wanna make sure, this "in between thing" isn't eating you up from the inside," Celina said.

"It's not. I'm okay, I promise," I reassured them.

Celina stood up and walked over to me embracing me in a hug.

"Group hug!" Daniel joined us and we all laughed.

...

I spent the time after the training session with Daniel, who was editing a few videos, which the media team shot during training. The last few day Daniel had started teaching me how they edited videos.

Jamal and a few of the other team members were in the hotel gym, working out. I only saw Jamal during training, but we didn't get to talk at all.

I had spent almost every free minute I had, ever since I met him, with Jamal. I knew it was stupid, but I missed him, even though I had seen him only a few hours ago. If it was up to me, I would spent my entire time with him. He always managed to make me laugh and I was always happy when I was with him.

...

I had lunch with Daniel and a few other members of the media team, because we had quite a few clips to go through and they were supposed to be uploaded in the evening.

I sent Jamal a quick text, to let him know I wasn't going to watch them train.

Since he didn't reply I assumed they had already started to train.

Daniel was in the middle of explaining something to me, when the door to my hotel room opened. I turned around in my chair and saw Jamal walk through the door. I looked at him with surprise not expecting him to be here.

"What are you doing here?"

"I just forgot something," he said side eying Daniel. Jamal grabbed something from his suitcase and exited the room again.

"What was that about?" Daniel asked after the door closed.

"I don't know. But it was kind of awkward, right?" I wanted to know.

"Yeah, definitely,"

...

The next time I saw Jamal that day was for dinner. I was sat in between Thomas and Joshua, Jamal was sitting opposite of me, because he and Phonzy arrived late.

There was an awkward silence surrounding Jamal and me, but I didn't even know why. I didn't want to ask him about it either, with the whole team around us.

I felt a nudge on my arm and turned my face to see Thomas leaning closer to me.

"You okay?" he whispered.

"Yeah of course, why wouldn't I be?" I whispered back.

"You just didn't really say much all dinner, I just wanted to make sure nothing is wrong," he smiled.

"Everything's fine. Just... thinking,"

"Do you wanna talk about it?"

I looked around our table gesturing him, this wasn't the right place. He nodded in understanding and I sent him a slight smile.

...

I was sitting on the bed, already wearing my pajamas, typing on my phone when the door opened.

"Hi," Jamal greeted me and sat down on the bed in front of me.

"Hi," I put down my phone.

Neither of us said anything for a few seconds.

"What is going on? There's this weird... vibe between us," I said.

"This morning, before you went to the bathroom to get ready, I wasn't asleep anymore," Jamal started and my eyes widened, "We cuddled. Again. We didn't talk about it. Again,"

"I know,"

"Why didn't you stay in bed, why did you leave?"

"I didn't want to make it awkward. I didn't want to have to think about it. I... I don't know," I frowned.