Professor Rice

Chapter 9

Declan's POV

I knew exactly what Mason was trying to do. I hadn't had the chance to hang out with Veronica outside of campus except for the day when I confessed my feelings for her a week ago. And this whole idea would be great if it wasn't for her friends. I mean, I didn't mind Josephine because she knew what was going on. But Mike had no clue, and he was so busy fanboying over Mason that it was hard to have a normal conversation with him around.

Mason saw the way Veronica and I kept glancing at each other and decided to take one for the team.

"Mike, my guy" he said. "Why don't we go back to the Bridge for a second so I can get you a shirt and I sign it for you?"

Is Mike going to faint? Josephine quickly grabbed his arm. She probably thought the same.

"For real?" he asked Mason.

"Sure. Josephine should come too."

And so they went, leaving Veronica and me alone, away from nosey eyes for the first time since I opened up to her.

"And then there were two" she said.

"Mason is really smooth, huh?" I laughed.

"You could say."

I finally had the chance to properly look at her and damn, she looked gorgeous. She wore jeans and a simple blue jumper (her attempt at wearing blue to support Chelsea, I guessed). Her hair was up in a ponytail, but little pieces had fallen from it and framed her face beautifully. She didn't seem to be wearing much make-up, but her lips were the same shade of red Josephine had been wearing. I really want to kiss those lips.

"You're staring" she said, waking me up from my daydreaming.

"Sorry." I could feel the heat in my cheeks. "It's just that you look beautiful, Veronica. I can't help but stare."

Now it was her time to blush. "I guess you don't look too bad yourself."

"Thanks. Um... I didn't know you were coming to the match. Did you have a good time?"

"I guess. I mean, Mike is the reason why I was here. But it was quite entertaining, much better than watching it on tv. And Jo was happy to get to see her Everton crush in person."

Her Everton crush? "Do you have any football crushes?" I asked, hoping she would say no. What if she does and then tries to get Mason to introduce her to whoever she likes?

"No, footballers aren't my type" she said with a smile.

"I'm not your type, then?" I smirked.

"What? You're not a footballer, Declan." Her confused face was adorable.

"I used to be. I would be if it wasn't for my injury." Seve years later, and I still touch my left knee whenever my injury is mentioned.

"I didn't know, sorry. Do you want to talk about it or is it too painful for you?"

The way she looked at me melted my heart. "No, it's okay. I can talk about it."

And so I told her about eighteen-year-old Declan, who was about to be given the chance to play for the senior team at West Ham. The same eighteen-year-old that was fearless and never worried about what the consequences of a bad tackle could be. Until the day one of those bad tackles twisted his knee and took away all of his chances at having a career in football.

All the operations, all the treatments... those were for nothing. They only managed to give me hope only for it to be taken away from me again and again.