Dirty Little Bastard

25

A week passed.

The last time I had seen Theo had been a few days ago when he'd taken me to dinner. In spite of the absolutely amazing time we had, I began ignoring him.

I stopped replying to his texts and his calls.

I detested doing so, but I was offended. Way more than I should be, taking into account we were only dating, nothing serious. So many more articles about us seemed to pop up, discussing how me being in his life might possibly be a huge distraction and lose England the World Cup win.

Right after our dinner when I arrived home, a picture of him guiding supermodel Kira Keen into his car began circulating, and the internet went wild.

The picture was apparently from the day before our dinner date, when he had specifically texted me he desperately wanted to see me after their match against Iceland - which they had won - but was understandably too knackered to drive over to see me. I had told him I was fine with it and for him to get some rest.

He had lied to me, and gone frolicking around with a goddess of a woman. It upset me to think about this, but I couldn't help it. I knew it had been a mistake developing such strong feelings for him. How could someone like him ever settle for someone like me?

The titles of the articles about this picture made me over-think even more.

Being sort of public with Theo was hard enough already, I didn't need this kind of drama. It was the people on the streets, at coffee shops, at the hospital... even in my neighbourhood. They all found it appropriate to basically stalk me.

I really had no privacy in public anymore, and would so much have liked for him to either not want to make a public statement of us dating if he would then go have fun with his models and completely embarrass me.

__

His name lit up my screen. I didn't answer his call. England was playing Colombia today, and I knew he would be wanting to explain himself before it.

I had tried to distance myself from everything him, but it was impossible. He was our whole country's star, everybody constantly talking about him, gossiping about him and so on. I even found myself wearing his hoodie to sleep because it comforted me, even if it was a little pathetic.

I turned my phone face down and gave Tim a tight lipped smile.

"Sorry, ignore that," I told him with a shake of my head to brush this whole thing off.

He smiled kindly, before sipping his coffee opposite me. He had joined me for my coffee break today.

"That's alright. Are you going to watch the match today at the stadium?" Tim asked.

I shook my head, not wanting Tim to know about how Theo and I hadn't spoke in a while because of me and my over-thinking self.

"No. I'm just staying home tonight and watching it," I replied, "what about you?"

"I was thinking of doing the same. Maybe I could join you?"

I hesitated. Tim and I had never had anything physical between us, and since there really was no attraction, at least on my part, I knew we'd just be two friends watching the match.

"Why not," I finally spoke up, shrugging with a small smile, "might be nice to yell at the television together."

He chuckled, "I had no idea you were so invested in football?"

"I'm not. I barely have any idea what's going on half of the time... I just need England to win the World Cup," I explained, glancing down at my cappuccino.