Cruel Summer

Chapter 6

Fifa World Cup 2018... 

Nobody wants to talk about it. Nobody wants to do interviews with the press, nobody wants to listen to Gareth's speech about how they all tried their hardest and made their country proud, and nobody wants to take off their boots and accept that the game is over.

It's all over. They're out of the World Cup.

Dele just about manages to keep it together on the coach ride back to the hotel. He's never been very good at compartmentalizing, but today is different. Today he has to be good at it otherwise he's going to shatter into a million pieces.

So he sits with Harry, as always, but he doesn't talk to him or even look at him. Instead, he puts his headphones in and stares out of the window and focuses on just not punching something.

He's utterly heartbroken, and in a way, he has never experienced before. The Euros were tough, but they had hardly been in them long enough to garner any hope of winning. The Euros were embarrassing, but this? This is just painful. Because they were so close. They were on top of the world and England was so proud of them and they just kept winning. Until Croatia, until Perišić and Mandžukić tore them to shreds while the whole world watched.

No. He's not going to think about it. He can't. He can already feel himself tensing up to the point where he's struggling to breathe.

Dele looks at Harry, but he sees Harry turn away, his mouth pressed into a hard line, so he also turns away from Harry, rests his head on the window, and closes his eyes against the screaming in his brain.

He can still hear the roar of the crowd when Croatia scored. He can still see the disappointment on the faces of the English fans.

They came all that way, he thinks, and for what? To see us fail. 

Dele knows he's on the verge of tears again, so he keeps his eyes firmly shut and tries to ignore the visceral ache in his throat and jaw. And he can't help thinking more has ended than England simply been out of the World Cup.

Oh, how the mighty fall. 




...





Back at the hotel, the England Squad disperses to their rooms, a sadness floating in the air, everyone feels it, everyone is heartbroken and utterly miserable, but, no one more than Dele, He turns to Harry. "I'm so sorry, Harry, really, I am," Dele says only now letting the tears fall in the hotel lobby. He expects Harry to say it's alright or it's not your fault. But Harry does not say any of those things. He wipes Dele's tears away and replies. "Me too, Del," this, makes Dele sob more and he rushes into the elevator and presses up, as Harry just stands watching, eye contact only breaking when the elevator doors close. When they do, Dele sinks to the floor and loud sobs rattle through him. See, the thing is, they did have an opportunity, Harry crossed it to Dele, and Dele messed the shot up and it went wide, all because neither player was at the top of their game! due to the love drug, they took a few nights prior and was finding it difficult to shake away the comedown, the cost being the entire England Squad is now officially out of the World Cup 2018. When the elevator door opens straight into Dele's penthouse room. He rushes into his room and begins breaking things out of rage, anger, sadness, and sorrow. When there is basically nothing else to break, he sinks to his knees once more, heartbroken, guilty, and feeling like the shittest footballer in the world. 




... 




A while later and after drinking half a bottle of brandy a drunk Dele lays and cries on the bathroom floor, he wishes Harry would come to his hotel room, but he knows he won't. There'll be another final match yet, to see if England can place 3rd. But right now Dele is too grief-struck to think about any of that. Right now he wants to wallow, so he does, for a while, one hour or so later, after forcing himself up, he goes to Harry's room, only to find Harry has moved hotels. So Dele goes back to his own room, like a zombie on autopilot, then something he sees on the trashed hotel room floor makes him pick it up. It's the translucent bag of love-drug containing one pill. So just to feel anything. He takes the pill out of the bag and drinks it with a swig of whiskey. He then simply sits down and waits for the effects.  







Present-day 2019... 






Dele arrived at Anfield Stadium Liverpool 2 hours ago, he is currently being briefed on what will happen he will train with Liverpool for like 3 weeks and if the club deems him good enough, he will officially transfer from Tottenham Hotspurs and join Liverpool full time.
"Ok Son, well I will show you to the changing rooms, nice to meet you," Jürgen Norbert Klopp, tells Dele and walks him to the changing rooms, Dele gets the impression Kloop does not like him much, and the feeling is also mutual, Dele does not like Liverpool much either, the managers, players or anything, but at the end of the day football is what he loves, and Liverpool are the only club to have shown him any interest since his "coming out" scandal. A sheepish Dele is lead into the Liverpool changing rooms by Jürgen Norbert Klopp. "Right everyone, this is Dele, train him well," Kloop says. "We know who the Southern prick is," someone says under their breath but loud enough for everyone to hear, and laugh. Dele fights the urge to turn around and fuck off the other way. Instead, he walks and puts his gym bag down, and changes into the Liverpool kit. It all feels so strange, so foreign, and not right. Then Dele sees Him he is at the back of the changing rooms staring at Dele, "Alright, Del?" Roberto Firmino asks him and he swallows and nods, see despite Dele and Bobby being from rival teams, there is a history to the relationship of the two. Dele says "Yeah," and then Dele finds a pissed off, angry Mohamed Salah in front of him.
"Just so you know, this ain't Tottenham! we don't suck! we actually win shit! so if you plan on sticking around.... well, you will have to work on your.... well, everything!" Salah says before shoving Dele and leading the rest of the Liverpool squad to the training pitch. Bobby Firmino offers a weak as he passes and Dele takes a deep breath knowing this is gonna be a difficult 3 weeks.