We watched tv, cleaned out the apartment and went to bed. I sat in my bed thinking about what Elena had said. Did I have a dilemma? Did I like any of them? I didn’t know the answer to that or more I was too scared to explore it so I decided to sleep. I woke up with the most amazing smell of chocolate chip cookies. I walked into the kitchen to see Elena taking out a tray of fresh cookies.
“Morning,” she said cheerfully.
“Morning,” I said taking a fresh, warm cookie. “I love you,” I said as I bit into one. They were my favorite. I loved when Elena randomly baked.
“I know you do. So today is the match! We should try to get our shopping done before it. Matt said we should watch it at their place,” she told me.
“Sounds good,” I said to her. Today the game seemed so different to other games because it was the first game I did an analysis for and I really wanted to know if they would consider what I said. Before I knew it, time had passed quickly and we were all in the boys’ apartment getting ready to watch the match. I just thought about how I never got to greet Cesc properly. I took out my phone and sent him a message:
Hey Cesc, good luck for the game, hope you score ;)
Maybe he didn’t consider me a friend but he was so different when Daniella was not around.
“Texting someone?” Elena asked me.
“No,” I said but I noticed she just texted someone as well.
“You texting Thiago?” I asked her jokingly. Her shrewd smile changed into a guilty poker face.
“No,” she said but I could tell she was lying.
“That’s a yes,” I heard Demi say next to me.
The match was about to start and they just showed the line-up.
They clearly did not look at my analysis. I was in shock. No Villa? No Messi? No Iniesta?
“Interesting line up,” Matt said.
“Yeah, no Messi?” Demi said.
“Well have faith guys, let’s see how this goes,” Nate said. We all sat down and watched as the game started. Within 10 minutes Xavi had already scored.
“GOAL!” we all screamed.
“He is pure class,” Matt said.
“Good set up by Cesc,” I said.
“You would see that,” Elena said.
“And an amazing assist from Sanchez!” Demi said. They just finished showing the highlights of the first goal.
“GOAL!” I said standing up and screaming. Literally a minute later and Cesc had just scored. I felt so happy for him.
“Someone seems excited,” Matt said.
“Yeah jumping out of her seat,” Elena said staring at me. Jade why did you jump out of your seat for Cesc and not for Xavi?
“We’re 2 up and its only 12 minutes! This game is going to be amazing!” Nate said as we all nodded. Within 15 minutes the mood had changed. I watched in horror as someone challenged Alexis. He was on the ground and he looked to be in pain. He couldn’t stand up. My mind immediately went to the day before when he joked around about getting injured and I told him he’d be ok but he wasn’t.
“Oh my god,” Demi said in shock, “Is he ok?”
“That didn’t look good at all, the way they collided,” Elena said as they started showing the replay.
“How bad?” Demi asked Elena.
“Not good, look he has to be stretched off,” Elena said pointing to the tv. I felt my heart sink and I could see Demi feel bad too. He looked to be in pain, I just wanted him to be ok.
“Yeah, I hope he won’t be out for too long,” Nate said.
“Looks like Villa is coming in,” Matt said and as much as I love to watch Villa play, it should not happen at the expense of Alexis getting injured. It really took the joy out of the game because I was focused on how Alexis was. Normally when someone got hurt in Barca I would worry but this time I actually knew who got hurt and it felt personal now.
Half time came with no more goals from either side. We sat waiting for the second half to begin. I felt my phone vibrate and looked at it. It was a message from Cesc:
Thanks for the luck Jade, seems like you gave me a goal ;) wish me more luck for the 2nd half
I couldn’t help but smile at the screen.
“And what does it say?” Elena said snatching my phone from my hands.
“Elena give it back!” I said running after her.
“Thanks for the luck Jade,” Elena said reading it out loud.
“Elena!” I said grabbing her and trying to take my phone.
“Demi catch!” she said.
“No, I suck at catching!” Demi said.
“Pass here Elena,” Nate said as she threw it to him. He caught it and stared at the screen surprised.
“You’re texting Cesc Fabregas? The famous soccer player?” he asked with his eyes wide as I took my phone from him.
“I just wished him luck, ok?! And I thought I’d ask him to check up on Alexis,” I said.
“Good idea,” Demi said.
“There was a wink face,” Nate said looking at me.
“Ooh a wink face, he totally likes you,” Matt said going on like Elena.
“Can you all shut up?” I said.
“Whoa, moody Jade,” Matt said “She must like him then.”
“How much time do you two spend together?” I asked Matt and Elena. He was sounding exactly like her.
“Jade?” Nate asked me.
“He’s just a friend Nate,” I said.
“Ok,” he said to me, “As long as I’m still your best friend then I don’t mind.”
“Of course,” I said hugging him.
“Hey, message him before half time is over,” Demi told me.
“Yeah, you’re right,” I said as I quickly texted Cesc:
Haha well good luck then, how is Alexis though? Is he ok? It looked quite bad, please let us know how he’s doing, thanks :)
I waited but I never got a reply and before I knew it the 2nd half was already starting. The game went on for a while but then my heart dropped a bit when the opposition scored.
“This is not good,” I said.
“Relax, we can turn it around, we just need another goal,” Elena said. Soon enough in a similar fashion like Barca, Real Sociedad had managed to score 2 goals within 2 minutes.
“This is not looking as good guys,” I said and I had a bad feeling inside of me about this game.
“Jade relax, we can turn it around,” Matt said as Barca called for a substitution.
“The Messiah!” Demi exclaimed.
“Ok now we’ll see some goals,” Nate said but there never was any and the scoreline ended 2-2. It wasn’t a loss but it felt like one because we lost points and Madrid could capitalize on them. It was frustrating to watch that the players tried to get goals and had a few chances but nothing went in. This was even worse considering that we were playing AC this Tuesday.
“That was unexpected,” Matt said for all of us.
“Yeah, and we’re playing AC this week,” I said.
“Maybe that’s why then, maybe Pep wanted to rest key players before the match and maybe it was all on their minds,” Nate said.
“The league is long, we just have to make sure we keep on going,” Elena said.
“Yeah Elena’s right,” Demi said as we all nodded. We were all feeling a bit down and decided to go to our apartments to sleep.
“So you did text Thiago?” I asked Elena.
“I just wished him luck like you did,” she said to me.
“But Marc-,” I said as she cut me off.
“There is nothing to say about him,” she said.
“Ok well I’m tired and I have work to do tomorrow,” I said to her.
“Tomorrow is Sunday,” she said a bit confused.
“Yeah but we play again on Tuesday and I’m going to have to think a bit harder after tonight,” I said.
“You really care about the club don’t you?” she asked me.
“Don’t you?” I asked.
“I do,” she said.
“Yeah you have to be checking on Alexis,” I said hoping he’s ok.
“You’re right! I better check ways to speed up his healing process,” she said.
“Exactly,” I said.
“Ooh maybe I can tell him to take of his shirt and then call you,” she said.
“Haha funny,” I said.
“It would be, you’d be glued to his body!” she said.
“Not true!” I said but I probably would be but she did not have to know that. I went to bed feeling affected by the game but I was more worried about Alexis. I hope his injury wasn’t bad and not because he’d be out of the team but as a person he’d feel helpless. I just hoped the team was not too down after drawing today. They needed to be in the right frame of mind for Tuesday. I kept thinking about it until eventually I drifted off to sleep.