druga strana

chapter sixtysix - la calma antes de la tormenta ( ; calm before the storm)

nadas pov

brahim and i shared a coffee in my coffee cup at the airport. i loved how he did not care to take the vip lounge, the vip shops, the vip everything. we carried our bags on our own. he kept on rolling around a ball beneath his feet, while scrolling through instagram and sipping on the cold coffee.

"i don't know why the fuck i'd be so calm right now, nada. what the fuck am i even doing?", he said, and looked at me shaking his head.

i laughed, cause that comment was random and literally came out of nowhere: "better than stressing. it's good to be calm. remember that night, the clasico? where you only slept 4 hours and stressed about that?"

"back then i cared about what zizou says. today, i'm doing it for me, the team and my family."
i smiled at him and all of the sudden, when i turned my head, i noticed a group of three teens walking towards us, each of them eyeing first brahim, then me.

"hallo.", they said.

i looked at brahim, wondering how he would react to german.

"uh- uh. can you write-", that one guy started to stutter while trying to ask brahim for an autograph.

i watched the guy become desperate, and how he struggled to find the right english words. brahim looked at me confused.

"wollt ihr, dass er unterschreibt? (do you want him to sign?)", i asked the boys, who smiled at me and nodded in sync.

"they asked if you can sign their stuff.", i whispered and poked brahim.

"yea, sure! sure.", brahim said, got one of their pens and signed the one boys jersey, the other one had a real madrid card and the other one wanted a signing on his phone case. ironically, it was a bayern munich phone case that brahim just signed on.

"kannst du ihm von uns "viel glück" sagen? (can you tell him, "good luck"?", that one boy, whose face turned full on red at this point, asked me, with the sweetest smile ever.

"they wanted to wish you good luck."

"thanks guys. thanks, i appreciate that so much.", he held out his hand to shake each of theirs and then waved them goodbye.

-

when our cab arrived, brahim made sure to get my bag ready and struggled to find space for his football. he ended up just taking it with him in the backseat, where we were sitting while the cab driver kept on changing the radio channels. he eventually stopped at a sport news report, for which brahim pushed himself off of the seat for. i smirked, and so did the cab driver.

(radio report)

manson: "today is the day of the long awaited ucl - uefa champions league final. millions of people are preparing, whether its at home or at the allianz arena in munich, germany. what a match that is going to be. what do you think, lucas parker?"

(the reporter switched to his colleague)

parker: "very, very excited and hopeful for tonights game. it's a pity that this crazy season is slowly coming to an end, but nevertheless, hoping for the best results."

manson: "best results for premiere league winner liverpool or uefa regular ucl finale attender real madrid?"

parker: "i gotta go with los blancos. no matter their recents defeats, they have some amazing strikers to offer. there are high hopes but also big pressure on karim benzema, but also on brahim diaz, who fans reportatly have not seen arrive at the hotel the team is staying in. zidane did not make any statement about the missing player, but people sure are hoping on him. let's hear what our fans think about the finale today or who they hope will lift their trophy this time.

fan 1: "i'm going for 3:1 for real, since we have karim and diaz as goalscorers in the squad, ramos in the defense. that's always good."

fan 2: "i'll say 2:2, penalties will be real madrids key to the trophy."

fan 3: "liverpool, cause van dijk and salah are always ready to turn the match around in the most unexpected way."

manson: "supposedly, brahim diaz has not been seen at the last training back at home, madrid. do you think there is a chance of him maybe stepping back, stepping towards a loan, like zidane has already hinted?"

brahim shook his head: "the media somehow.."

parker: "i really don't think, and really don't hope so. he is a world class player at age 19. they don't call him the young messi for nothing. what i would like to see of him more is goals. if he won't score today, he will most likely be at least karims assistant. at least that's what i think. what counts the most; he did score his first goal against barca, which let them to tonights match."

manson: "exactly. i'm sure everyone is already preparing and getting ready, grabbing breakfest before the closed training tonight, near the allianz arena in munich. i repeat, it's a closed training, no fans allowed. the calm before the storm. everyone have fun watching tonights match. and now, to get into that feeling of a good football night, let's listen to imagine dragons, who will also be performing tonight!"