One

Chapter 13

It turns out, Dec doesn't have Stephen covered. Stephen's lanky-looking frame made Dec and the others in his team underestimate him. Talk about looks being deceiving.

At the blow of the whistle, Jonny passed the ball to Stephen. The tall man then darted with the ball from the center circle to the penalty box. Dec had to work double time to get ahead of Stephen to block the shot. Stephen, however, had other plans. He outmaneuvered Dec, causing the smaller man to trip, and took aim for the goal. The ball sailed through the air and whistled past the goalie's outstretched arms, hitting the upper corner of the net.

"Get in!" Stephen yelled in celebration. His teammates ran up to him and congratulated him for scoring the first goals just a few minutes into the game. When his team dispersed, Stephen blew a kiss at Ali and mouthed, "That was for you."

Meanwhile, Dec brushed himself off and glared at Stephen. At that moment, Paddy jogged up to him. "Dec, I think I should take over guarding Stephen. You take over Jonny."

"No, Paddy. I've got him, alright," Dec said through gritted teeth. He ran away from Paddy to get the ball that their goalie threw back into play.

Hoping to redeem himself, Dec dribbled the ball down the field, but was stopped at the halfway mark by Stephen. The tall man easily caught up with him and made a clean slide and sweeps the ball away from Dec's feet. Jonny was quick to recover the ball and passed it to another teammate that was already near the goal. Despite all that effort, that player missed the goal, much to Dec's relief.

Pete, the goalie for Dec's team, kicked the ball to the far end of the field, landing close to the penalty box. Dec raced for it, leaving Stephen to eat his dust, and dribbled it towards the goal.

Ant anticipated Dec's shot, moving from side to side as he gauged where Dec was gonna aim. Dec gave the ball a swift kick and it zoomed past Ant's hands and hit the back of the net. Ant had no chance at all against it.

It was now Dec's turn to celebrate a goal. He looked at the bleachers and gave Ali a wink before confidently running to the other side of the field.

The rest of the game went on like this.Stephen and Dec strove to show up the other and to impress Ali. It was practically a game between Stephen and Dec; they dominated the game. The others in their team were just there to pass the ball to them once in a while. As Stephen scored a goal, Dec would make sure to match it.

After the first half though, Stephen and his team managed to pull ahead in the points; they were two ahead now. With that, Dec got more aggressive with his defending of Stephen. He'd rough up Stephen once in a while just to get the ball. One time he did this, Dec managed to dribble the ball down the field and score a goal, closing down the lead to only one point.

The game was almost over and with the one point difference, Dec was determined to score another goal and force the game into being decided by a penalty shoot-out.

Jonny had possession of the ball and running on the other side of the field, was Stephen. Jonny made the quick pass to Stephen, which he bounced off his chest before dribbling the rest of the way to the penalty box. Dec knew Stephen was getting ready to kick, so Dec resorted to a sliding tackle. His tackle, however, was not as clean as Stephen's. Dec's leading foot made hard contact with the side of Stephen's knee, causing the taller man to fall on the ground.

The game was stopped as Stephen laid on the grass, clutching his left knee.

"Shit," Dec cursed as he got up to see if Stephen was alright. "I'm sorry, man. I'm sorry. I swear I didn't mean it."

Stephen hissed in pain as he rocked from side to side, still holding onto his knee. Ali parted the crowd circled around the two men and knelt next to Stephen. In her hand, Ali had a cold water bottle, which she immediately pressed against Stephen's injured knee.

Her nurturing hand stroked Stephen's head as she tried to comfort him. "Shhh, it's okay."

"It really hurts, Ali," Stephen says with a pained expression on his face.

"Okay, I know it does, Stephen, but you've gotta be strong for me. Alright?" Stephen nodded in response. Ali leaned in and kissed his sweaty temple. "Good. Now, we'll get some of the guys help you to your car and I'll drive you to the hospital to get your leg checked. You got it?"

Stephen only nodded again in response.

"Guys, can I get some help here?" Ali looked around to the other men in the pitch.

All at once they approached the injured man. Dec, being closest to Stephen already, hooked Stephen's arm over his shoulder, while Jonny did the same with Stephen's other arm. They were about to lift Stephen off the ground when Ali stopped them.

"Dec, I think you've done enough today. Maybe you should let someone else help Jonny with carrying Stephen to his car." There was anger in Ali's voice as she said that and everyone noticed it.

Stephen frowned. "Ali, it was an accident. I'm sure Dec didn't mean to hurt me." He hissed again when a shot of pain ran up his leg. This did not help his defense of Dec.

"He probably didn't, but I'd rather have someone else help you to the car."

Not wanting to anger her even more, Dec had Paddy switch places with him and distanced himself from her and Stephen. He watched from afar as she gathered Stephen's stuff and walked towards the direction of the car park with the two tall men carrying Stephen.

Lisa came up to Dec to comfort him. "Ignore Ali. She's just a bit worried about Stephen right now. I'm sure she's not really angry with you."

"I hope so," Dec glumly said as he watched Ali walk away.