Sunday, November 27, 2022 7:15AM
I woke up this morning to an empty room, Frankie and Kevin had practice this morning and it's apparently earlier than mine so they left early. I was currently stretching with the rest of the Portugal team getting ready to play a nice friendly.
"How you holding up ?" My dad nudges me.
"I'll survive," I sigh, "I'm just angry. I mean you can't look at me with a straight face and say this tournament isn't," I look around making sure no one is paying attention to our conversation 'rigged' I mouth. "You know I love Leo, and I think the world of him, as a person, and as a player, but you can't tell me things aren't looking to favor him right now. It bothers me because everyone thinks it'd be the biggest tragedy if he retired without a Word Cup, but what about you ?" I ask, "don't you deserve it too ? I think outsiders shouldn't meddle if he wins it, he wins it fair and square, if he doesn't, oh well, we can't gift every legend with a World Cup."
"Yeah," he sighs, "I get what you mean."
"And it's like the double standards, because you can't sit there and tell me that if they were favoriting you, it'd be the same. You can't tell me if you were getting this special treatment, the media wouldn't target you and talk about how the Cup was rigged and whatnot. The media chose their 'goat,'" I say doing finger quotes around goat. "And that's fine, we're all entitled to label who we want as the greatest of all time, biases aside, I think it's you, but when we're handing out World Cups the way this one feels, it takes away from the player, because it shows they needed help to win it. Odds are stacked against you," I sigh, "but promise me, you'll do everything in your power to walk out with the World Cup."
"I promise," he says holding out his pinkie finger and I intertwine mine with his.
My dad and I were playing on the same team which sucked for whoever was playing against us. In the first half, my dad and I scored back to back goals while the other team couldn't even get the ball close to the net. João who was on the opposite team had been pushing my buttons the entire game, constantly trying to steal the ball away from me but failing. This time, I was dribbling the ball at a good pace, and here he comes again.
"You're breathing down my neck," I tell him but he doesn't back down. "João back up." He once again doesn't listen and I lose my temper. I place my foot over the ball, trapping it in place, and push him to the ground with as much of my strength as I can.
"Hey ref, that's a red," Cancelo says as one of the players posing as the ref walks up to us and pulls out a red card. João Cancelo cheers as I help João Félix up.
"You alright ?" I ask. "You're not hurt are you ?"
"I'm fine," he huffs dusting himself off.
"Yeah, I think that's enough for me today," I sigh apologizing to the rest of the team and heading off the field.
João's POV
"I don't understand what happened," Cristiano says, "Sofia is very good about leaving her problems off the field. This has nothing to do with you," he reassures me, only I don't know if I believe it, "she's all over the place because of last night's game."
"Is she alright ?" I ask, "I noticed her eyes were red and puffy."
"You haven't spoken to her ?" He asks me. "What happened to you guys anyway, you went through the trouble of asking me for permission to date her to never ask her out ?"
"Um no," I scratch the back of my head, "last night she went with the team, and this morning she wasn't around, it's not like she'd even speak to me, she barely even looks in my direction," I huff. "I wanted to ask her, but then the Kai stuff happened, and I thought it'd be best to let it," I pause "dissolve. And now, I think she's mad at me, although I don't really know what I've done."
"I'll talk to her about it," he breathes out.
"And you think she'll tell you ?" I ask, "the truth, I mean."
"There are no secrets nor lies between Sofia and I," he tells me, "she'll be honest."
Sofia's POV
I walked back to my hotel room and took a quick shower then I headed up to my dad's suite to meet Nessa and Cooper to watch the games on their big screen because I had no desire to go out today. I truthfully felt bad for pushing João, but he definitely deserved it.
After the Belgium and Morocco game, my dad walked out of his room asking to have a word with me.
"What's up ?" I ask walking over to the kitchen area for a bit of privacy.
"What's going on between you and João ?" He asks.
I remain calm but I'm panicking on the inside. My father and I don't lie to each other, I don't think I can tell him about what I saw because I don't want his attitude towards João to change, he may be a shitty lover, but he is a good kid.
"Nothing," I say "what's this about ?"
"He thinks you're avoiding him," he tells me.
"Dad, Cooper is here, Nessa just got here, and I have so many other friends here besides him, I can't give him my entire undivided attention 100% of the time," I groan. "I mean, I missed Valverde's match because I was so laser focused on João."
He nods in understanding, "why doesn't Kai like him ?"
"He had his reasons," I shrug.
"Do those reasons include you ?" He asks.
"Possibly," I say nonchalantly.
"Why ?" He asks.
"That would be a great question," I pause, "for Kai," I smile at him.
"Very well then," my dad says, "make a little time for him," he tells me and I laugh a little, "Sofia the boy feels neglected, he looks like a puppy that was stepped on," he laughs.
"Fine," I laugh. "Anything else ?" I ask grabbing a bowl of chips to get ready for the game.
"Yes," he says taking the chips and replacing it with an apple and I roll my eyes. "That's all."
I go back to my friends in time for the Croatia game, they were playing Canada. Sure win for Croatia if you ask me. After we watched Croatia destroy Canada, we all decided to get ready for the Germany game, they'd be facing Spain.
I wore a Pedri jersey, Nessa wore a Gavi one, Cooper wore a Müller one, and Sophia, Kai's girlfriend was wearing a Kai one when we met up at the stadium.
9:00PM S P A I N V S G E R M A N Y
We began watching the game and a few minutes before halftime, Germany is awarded a free kick that leads into a goal.
"OFFSIDES," Cooper calls out.
"Atta boy Coop," we hear a voice behind us, and low and behold, it's João, Hugo and Cris.
"Dude, who are you cheering for ?" Sophia asks Cooper.
"I'm good with however wins," he shrugs and Sophia rolls her eyes. "Look, Kai is on the bench, I'll go hard for him when he gets on the field," he says, "if they ever decide to put him on," he mumbles and I laugh.
A few minutes into a second half, Torres is subbed off for Morata who scores a beautiful goal with an assist from Jordi, I cheer alongside the Spanish fans as Morata celebrates with the team.
"Put Kai in," Sophia shouts as she sees Germany make some switches. Kai unfortunately was never subbed on, but Germany did manage to tie the game.
S C O R E: S P A I N G E R M A N Y
1 1
After the game, we all headed our separate directions to get some sleep for the following day. I walked back with João and Cris since our rooms were next to each other and we parted ways to get some rest.
I arrived to the room and immediately got ready for bed. It only took a few minutes for me to be out as soon as I crawled into bed. I randomly awoke at 3 in the morning and after several failed attempts to go back to sleep, I got out of bed, put on some shoes and a hoodie and headed for the door.
I had been sitting in the sand of the makeshift beach for a couple minutes when I heard a voice I knew all too well.
"Your dad said you pushed me because you were angry about the Mexico, Argentina outcome, how much of that is true ?" He asks.
"About 97%," I say not even looking back.
"What about the other 3% ?" he asked as he sat down next to me.
I stood up on my knees, placed my hands on his shoulders, and began heavy breathing down his neck. "How do you fancy that ?" I ask.
He laughs, "fair enough, I wanted to get under your skin," he admits.
"Oh you're not very discreet João," I say holding my hand out as he places his water bottle in it. I take a quick sip of the water and pass it back to him. As he gets comfortable, I lay my head on his shoulder and we stay like that, in a comfortable silence for a bit.
"What happened to us ?" He asks, "I mean, one minute we're getting to know each other, moving in the direction of potentially becoming more than friends and the next you're avoiding me like the plague ?"
I sigh, "I don't want to talk about it João."
"Well I do," he says slightly annoyed. "Why are you mad at me ? What have I done ? Have your friends told you anything about me ?"
"João my friends don't care enough about you to go digging up dirt on you," I roll my eyes straightening up, my head no longer on his shoulder. "If I'm mad at you for whatever reason, it is because of something you did, don't blame my friends for your faults."
"And what have I done ?" He asks.
I roll my eyes as I get up, "figure it out," I say, "aren't you aware of what you do ? Retrace your steps and think which one of those made me upset. And it's not just upset with you, it's more so with myself for being stupid enough to get caught in your web," I angrily walk out of the pool area and back to my room.
I heard him call out to me, but I ignored him. I raced towards the elevator in hopes of shutting the doors in his stupid face. I luckily got there just in time, rode the elevator alone, and walked to my room. I crawled under the covers and went to sleep.