druga strana

chapter seventyeight - muñecos de palitos ( ; stickfigure)

brahims pov

9:48 am

zidane and i had a moment of just starring at eachother in silence, while i handed the sheet over to him. he looked at me as if this was just messing up all of the plans he had made, like he was already forming another one in his head. zidane hesitated to grab the paper, didn't take his eyes off of me, still didn't say a single word, so i just let it fall onto his desk and leaned back right away. the paper landed on top of all of the other certificates, on top of the transfer folder. i really didn't want to be just another one of those transfers. i needed to stay.

zidane was stuttering, lowered his head and eyed the paper again.

but i was convinced of my decision. i didn't even think about it anymore. for me, it was clear.he turned the sheet around and wanted me to take another look: "the salary is.."

"i don't care- i don't mind the money. for me it's not about the money. i won't sign it."

i refused to even look up to zidane again, simply because i was dissapointed that he would even show that to me in the first place.

"okay.", zidane smirked, "i'm not suprised but- the-", he dared to look up to me and hesitated to continue, "it really shows how much you want it, diaz. it shows how much you belong here."

i nodded, but other than that, looked out of the window in disbelief - or more, dissapoint."i'm glad you want to stay, diaz."

i was actually hurting, hearing him say that. even though it was something good, i was so unsure about what was happening, what was coming next.

"look, me and the assistants have been going through different line up systems for tonight but we couldn't get a proper hold of it, simply because - if it was for you leaving, joining them, i couldn't play you."

and at that point, my heart lit up and i immediatly turned my head.

"the time is running, you know. since normally planning the line up this late is very unusual for us."

i had to let out a little giggle, since we always joked around about bettoni being late to literally anything, any meeting, any training - anything.

"it's unusual. just forming a line-up under pressure is not the best idea. you really made it hard on us. not that i'm trying to- not that i'm trying shove the fault over to you, blame you- that's not it. but we're-"

at this point, i really couldn't tell where this was going. zidanes face LITERALLY was as white as the sheet, that was still laying between the both of us. i knew this was the moment, where he told me -

sorry diaz, we thought you would take liverpools money and head out right away, so we didn't put you into the line-up.

sorry diaz, karim, vazquez, bale. they are what we need. you don't have enough experience.

sorry diaz, you don't seem to be mentally stable enough to get onto that pitch tonight.

sorry diaz, we can't afford to get you injured, since your leg is already fucked.

i was already getting used to the feeling of being shoved onto the bench for that night. i looked up to zidane, whose face was still white as chalk. he leaned forward, grabbed the paper and put it back into the folder. i was preparing to go- i thought this was it.

"i'm glad you're staying, brahim.", he repeated, and actually let out a sigh of relief while pushing himself out of the seat. he opened one of the drawers of his desk, put out a blanc piece of paper and placed it right in front of me.

i looked at him, frowning, confused about what he was trying to tell me with that paper.

he took a pen, drew three stickfigures in one line, every single one was wearing a tshirt though. my frowning was intensifying cause well, you wouldn't expect your coach to draw you a bunch of stickfigures after he asks you to come to the office.

he then took the paper and covered his drawing with his hand.

"what do you think of-", he looked down, smirking.

"that?", he handed me the paper.

i couldn't take my eyes off of it. i couldn't believe what i was seeing. my heart dropped and there was this pressure on my chest, which i expected to hit me a little earlier that day already.

but for real-

no shit-

i was in shock.