A victory is worth celebrating, that's exactly what they were gonna do.
They reserved a table at a club for the night, which was a 30 minute drive from the stadium.
Jude, Gio, Mats and Marco were all going together, with Marco as the driver and Mats occupying the seat next to him.
Both Jude and Gio wanted to drive, but the other two didn't trust them with a vehicle.
Jude hoped Erling would come with them, but given their current relationship, that was unlikely to happen.
He ended up going by himself.
"Don't drink too much while you're there." Reus said, keeping his eyes on the road.
"And never trust extremely attractive women with your drink." Hummels added with no elaboration.
"Well yes, but why attractive women specifically?" After a long pause, Jude asked.
Hummels let out a long sigh and didn't answer.
"Come to think of it.." Gio though out loud.
"Can Jude and I drink?"
Hummels turned to face him and looked him dead in the eyes.
"We're not in America, cowboy." He said, poorly imitating a southern accent.
"This is Deutschland!!! Legal drinking age 16." Hummels said, progressively losing his accent as he kept talking.
"Point taken." Gio rolled his eyes.
"Don't you guys drive on the left side of the road?" Gio fired back, a smirk spreading across his face.
Hummels glared at him, prompting Jude to burst out in laughter.
Gio lightly bonked him on the head, now Hummels gave him an even meaner look.
"I'm not talking to you anymore." Hummels slowly turned around to face the road.
After a few minutes, Hummels forgot about what he said and kept talking to Gio, Reus and Bellingham.
They reached their destination, parked their car a few blocks away and covered the license plate.
They covered their faces and entered through the back door, entering their private room.
A good portion of the team arrived before them.
Bellingham immediately scanned the room for Haaland, he was sitting on a couch with Burki and Dahoud.
While Bellingham was closely observing Haaland, Hummels kicked the door open, carrying several packets of beer.
The presence of beer affected the atmosphere.
Just as Bellingham was about to turn to face Gio, he saw him rapidly switching channels on the TV, looking for something.
That something was probably a football match.
Reinier still angered by the red card he received, immediately cut to the chase and started giving out beer.
"Take this, you deserve it." He said, shoving the can in Bellingham's hand.
Before he could say anything, Reinier was already at the next person.
Bellingham made his way through the crowded room and planted himself next to Giovanni.
Giovanni didn't even notice Bellingham. He was so focused on some match on the TV.
The commentator was speaking in Korean, and there was another commentator dubbing over the Korean in German, so whenever Gio heard a word he could recognize he nodded his head, with a serious look on his face.
Bellingham waved his hand in front of Giovanni's face to catch his attention.
"Hello, Earth to Reyna?"
"Uh-huh?" He was snapped back to reality.
"What the hell are you watching?"
"I'm not sure. I think West Ham against Everton." Gio shrugged.
Jude was quickly bored of whatever was being shown on the screen, so he wanted to look at something more interesting.
He looked for Haaland.
He hasn't moved an inch, still talking to Burki and Dahoud.
He cracked open his can, still keeping his eyes on the three people of interest.
"Where did you get that?"
Bellingham flinched. He forgot Gio was right next to him.
"What? The beer?"
"Yes, the beer. What else?"
"Reinier gave it to me."
Gio stood up and left to hunt for alcohol, by then Jude had already opened another can.
***
"The traffic was absolute shit. I got stuck at 6 red lights. Fuck's sake."
Dahoud complained and Burki nodded in agreement.
Haaland tried to be a good listener, but couldn't shake the feeling that he was being watched.
He turned to see Bellingham, discretely staring at them. He either got bored or noticed, so he stopped.
He was admittedly weirded out, but if he expected anybody to be looking at him, it'd be Bellingham.
He was also weirded out by how present he has been in his life recently, even though they never talk.
"Has the beer kicked in yet?" Dahoud asked Haaland.
"No. Well, not yet at least."
"What is it? What's on your mind?" Burki joined in.
"Can I tell you something? You have to keep quiet about it."
Now both of them were interested.
"Of course."
Haaland leaned forward and clasped his hands.
"Few days before our game today, Bellingham came up to me and said... Something? I don't know what he said. Then he stood in front of me, looked at me for a while then walked away." Haaland said.
"...And? What happened?" Dahoud asked expecting an interesting answer.
"That's it."
All three went quiet.
"I don't see the big deal." Said Burki.
"There's been a really weird tension between us ever since. For your information, he was staring at our table just now."
Both immediately turn to look at Bellingham, he was watching some random match from across the room.
Burki raised his eyebrow.
"Just go talk to him."
Haaland groaned. That was the last thing he wanted to do.
***
After what felt like forever, Giovanni returned with several cans in his hands.
"I'm back and I brought these babies with me." He proudly exclaimed.
"This isn't all for you, is it? Sharing is caring, you know."
"Don't worry about it." Gio scoffed.
Gio sat back down on the couch, taking up as much space as he could.
"Now, about our bet." Gio put his hand around Jude.
"We won, so you know what that means?"
"Yes, 3-1. Not 8-0." Bellingham added.
"Now, that wasn't the deal, my friend. I just said that if we won.."
"Why would I bet we would lose? Is that what you're suggesting?" Jude slapped his hand.
"Don't play dirty with me. Things aren't always the way they seem." Gio was scratching his Adam's apple.
"You know you begged Haaland to score another 7 goals, you geezer."
"Shut up." Gio was covering his ears, signaling his lack of care.
Jude ignored Gio and took another can. And then another.
Both were already tipsy and continued rabbling.
"I absolutely was not begging Haaland to 'score goals for me'. You are spewing bullshit." Gio jokingly pushed him.
"Like hell you were. You are a shameless slut. You buttered him up real good too." Jude said pointing at him.
"What did you call me?" Gio couldn't control his laughter.
"A shameless slut."
"Why? Are you jealous you get no action from Haaland?"
Bellingham froze.
That sounded way more provocative than it should have.
Bellingham didn't know why he reacted this way either.
At this point Gio was crying.
"No??" Jude defended himself.
"Oh that's definitely the reason! Do you want validation from the man-eater himself?" Gio grabbed him by the shoulder and started shaking him.
"No, couldn't care less."
"You can't fool me, things aren't always the way they seem."
Again with that damn phrase. Jude was holding himself back from strangling this man.
Gio went quiet. Seemingly thinking about something.
"I'm gonna bless you up real quick." Gio was up to no good.
He slowly stood up, almost losing his balance.
He slided past their table.
He made his way across the room.
Shit.
He sat next to Haaland, put his arm around him and started speaking. He paid no attention to Dahoud and Burki, he was speaking directly to Haaland.
Jude wished he was 6 feet under at this point.
After a long suspenseful wait, Gio stood up and dragged Haaland with him.
Jude's jaw was glued to the floor.
"Jude, Erling will be joining us, don't be mean!"
Gio cracked open another can and showed him the match they have been watching for the past hour or so.
Haaland wasn't really interested, he looked just as uncomfortable as Bellingham.
Gio started talking again, to the other two's dismay.
"See, my friend here and our fellow teammate, Jude Bellingham. Huge fan. He has known you before you knew yourself. Could you do him a-"
Bellingham elbowed him in the stomach and gave him a mean look. Haaland was very confused.
"Auuugh, you dickhead!"
"Shut up." Bellingham said through his teeth.
Haaland looked interested enough not to ditch them.
He sipped his beer and kept listening to their bickering.
Giovanni was blessed with another idea. He leaned in close to Bellingham.
"I'm leaving you alone now, wink wink."
It took all his might not to punch him in his face. Gio stood up and almost fell over again. He slowly made his way to Hummels and Reus, who were watching the game.
Bellingham flipped off Gio behind his back. Haaland snickered.
"Mind explaining what this was about?" Haaland broke the ice first.
"Don't mind him, he's stupid. I'm so sorry about everything." Jude said, making sure he understood him this time.
"It's fine, no big deal."
"Do you know why he asked you to score another 7 goals?"
Haaland shook his head.
"He said that if we won 8-0, all scored by you, I would pay his rent for 1 year." Bellingham put his head in his hands.
Surprisingly, Haaland laughed.
"Lucky I didn't, then. Saved you from paying his bills." Erling said, reaching for another can.
"How long have you been training for Dortmund?" He continued.
"Pshhh.. God knows. End of 2019?" Bellingham knew the exact date, but didn't want to seem too eager to answer.
Haaland nodded.
"Hey look, penalties. Still 0-0." Erling pointed out.
"Shit, you're right. Hope Everton wins."
"Very good."
Everton ended up losing 3-0 on penalties.
"Rigged?! Bullshit, I don't believe it, bloody bastards." Bellingham slammed his fist against the table, almost tipping over several cans of beer.
Erling laughed. "Fifa mafia, I tell you."
"Fuck it is!"
Bellingham spent another few minutes complaining.
The combination of utter rage, alcohol and lack of oxygen made him extremely lightheaded.
Bellingham stared at Haaland for a moment. "You know, your eyes are..."
"...soul-sucking."
After that, he promptly fainted.
"Ok. Thanks." Haaland didn't notice his friend's lack of consciousness and continued talking.
Haaland talked to himself for another 8 minutes or so, then finally turned to see why he was getting no answers.
"Hey, don't fall asleep on me."
He attempted to shake him awake. No response.
Haaland looked for the most sober person in the room. "Dahoud?"
"Yeah?" He shouted across the room.
"Come quick, we have a situation here."
Dahoud slid past the crowd, only to find Haaland sitting next to a lifeless Bellingham.
"What did you do to him?" He was genuinely concerned.
"Me?!? Nothing he just passed out next to me like a second ago.."
Dahoud shrugged. "Ask Reus to take him.. somewhere."
And so he did.