DROPPING WALLS (MANXMAN) ~UNDER REVIEW~

Thomas' got a date for the event.

Last week's laziness was quickly forgotten as the tryouts got used to the new daily routine.

Thomas got to bed at 9 p.m and woke up at 5 a.m every day. Took his breakfast at the training center and hit the gym for two hours of running, and some weightlifting. Got to the training pitch by 8 and trained his ass off until they were free for the two hours long lunchtime. During his two hours he ate and went to get a masses when the massage dude/girl was there, to the swimming pool, to the sauna, he did try to use all the benefits of the training center offered the boys.

During the week Thomas saw a lot of Legends, former players who had retired while playing for Unity. The boy had the chance to speak with a couple of them while passing them in the halls or when they met him at the sauna. He enjoyed the talk with the men.

The legends were mostly old guys with a lot of money and a lot of time to spend. They liked to visit the training center to use its tennis court, meet old friends and talk with important people from the team, always looking for opportunities to get richer.

Apart from his random talks to the Legends, Thomas kept his cool and didn't talk much. He exchanged words with his roommates and talked about the day's training with his housemates when they were eating dinner or watching tv in the den. The only person Thomas really talked was with Tim, the boy knew Thomas would only engage in conversations about soccer, so he always talked about it when he wanted someone to talk to. The two of them are breakfast and lunch together every day. Thomas suspected that Tim only kept following him to lunch because now Thomas' friend wannabe Lucas was always eating with them, and as Thomas ignore him he enjoyed talking to Tim and Tim was more than satisfied to be entertaining his idol every day.

"So, are we friends already?" Ask ed Lucas on Wednesday afternoon when he followed Thomas out of the cafeteria.

"I'm pretty sure this kind of questions are made only when you're six or seven," Thomas said and smiled, he didn't mind how easy his smiles showed up when talking to Lucas anymore. "I'm not sure," he said answering the question. "I don't want to punch you for following me for no reason at all anymore, that's a good sign isn't it?"
Lucas had one of his loud strong laughter and kept following Thomas.

"Do you have fancy party clothes?" Asked Lucas and Thomas looked at him confused. He raised his left eyebrow questioning the man. "Well, as you probably saw on your month's schedule we have a team event next Saturday night, it will be a celebration if we win the game or a consolation pity party if we lose."

"I didn't bring that kind of clothe," said Thomas preoccupied.

"Don't you worry, I can take you to shop on Friday, or you can pick one of the team's choices, but I gotta warn you mate, they always choose the ugliest and cheapest suits in this town to give to the tryouts." Thomas didn't plan on going to the event, so he just nodded to Lucas invitation, he saw the smile the other man gave. "I'm really excited about the game man, we haven't played in a while, and the opening show will blow the crowd's mind... Good thing we play for a fucking rich team, we can afford to pay for things most clubs cannot! So, what you're doing now?"

"Maybe I'll get a massage, if they went for luck I'll go to the sauna. You?"

"Prepare myself to be great this weekend, see you later then, later this week the players and tryout will play together... I need to prepare myself for that too, need to block you lot from passing to my quarter of the field, and I need to make sure those goalies of yours will focus more on their training."

Lucas patted Thomas on the back and went away, the boy breathed and thanked the universe for the silence that descended.

Sky caught Thomas when he was leaving the sauna, all sweaty and sticky.

"Twilight, what a pleasure," said the boy and she looked at him pleased with his joke and smiled, he rolled his eyes instantaneously and she laughed.

"So, joker boy, I need to ask you for a favor," said the young woman and he kept walking, listening but not looking at her. "On Saturday you guys have that big party, a lot of rich and popular people, I was wondering if you can take me with you."

"Why?" He asked that was weird and he started feeling himself shut for the conversation.

"Well, I work here but this ain't a staff friendly kind of event, it's more PR than anything, but the guest can bring a plus one if you already have one I can figure it out by myself..."

"Why are you asking me? I'm not even going to this thing."

"One, yes you are, it's mandatory for tryouts and players, and two, because I feel like I would enjoy going with you."

"Ask someone else, I'm not bringing a date, if I have to go I'll go alone. Any of the other tryouts will say yes to ya'" he started walking again and she kept going after him.

"But none of them are as cool as you are, I mean, I can rankle you just by smiling, it makes me so good," said Sky.

"You like that you annoy me? That's creepy" Thomas didn't say anything else as he made his way to the dressing room, she followed him with patience and a big smile on her face. When the boy got to the place he wanted he opened the door and was entering when she spoke.

"Please Thomas S. Fitz. I went last year and it was just too amazing, I need to go again, but I don't like going with just anyone..."

"If I say yes you'll own me... And I'll ask you to pay your debt!" Said Thomas and her eyes shone.

"YES, YES, YES... I don't care, come on, say yes..." Thomas didn't say it, he just nodded and the girl jumped in the air. "Thank you, you're just the best. We gonna have so much fun... If you accept me on Facebook we can arrange the details of our encounter there, il just dm you on your Instagram... You should follow me by the way. Popular boy!" She smiled at him and left all smiley and happy.

Thomas was happy for being there, to be training and on his way to become a professional player, but he couldn't see him being that smiley at work, it just seemed stupid.

As if talking to Sky made him remember, the boy checked his Instagram account, it only had one picture yet, but the number of likes and comments made him shake his head in disbelief. 10 thousand people liked his picture so far, he had more than 60 thousand followers. He knew that was a lot, but it wasn't as close as the number of followers the other boys had, they did live things and posted a lot, talked to their followers, they were building their group of fan. Thomas thought it was a smart move, but also thought it was a way of making sure that even if they didn't make the cut they would be able to rely on something else.

Thomas only followed Sir, Unity, and Lucas. He didn't know Tim's account, and the other boy didn't try to talk about it. He searched for Sky and after scrolling down for a few seconds he found the girl's account. Her profile was full of pictures of herself with her unknown friends and lots of pictures with the players. The boy wasn't surprised to see lots of pictures with Vizanno, but he got interested in the pictures with Sir Elenon, they looked like best friends in most of the pictures, he made a mental note to ask her about his relationship with the player when he got the chance. He only had ten minutes of his break, so he went to change back to his clothes.