From Brothers to Lovers: Declan Rice and Mason Mount

6. Dealing With The Fallout

Declan and Mason were suddenly awoken by an angry, Scottish voice.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" they heard.

The sudden appearance of blinding light made it difficult for them to open their eyes. Suddenly, the towel that kept them warm was ripped away from them, exposing their intertwined bodies. Declan managed to open his eyes and saw that his manager was standing at the end of the lounger with a furious look on his face. Some of his other teammates were in the room as well, most of them looking pretty shocked. They were so exhausted the previous night they had forgotten that West Ham had a training session today.

"Really, Rice?" yelled David angrily, "sleeping with the opponent right before this team's most important game?" He went on, "you know full well your contract doesn't allow you to have relationships with your own teammates or with players from other teams, especially players we're about to play against in the final."

The manager had a point. It was a conflict of interest clause found in both Declan's and Mason's contracts. Being in a relationship with a teammate could lead to suggestions of favouritism and weaken cohesion within the team. Being in a relationship with a player from another team could lead to accusations of the couple going easy on each other during matches. In any case, being gay could lead to abuse and threats and to hurtful stories in the tabloids. David understandably wanted to protect Declan from all that, especially before such an important game.

"This news is spreading like wildfire. I can't let you play in the final, Rice," declared the manager.

Declan's face was turning red from the shame and embarrassment. He wanted to cry. A man who, as it so happened, loved another man. Why did an entire career have to be put on the line because of that?

"No, please," said Mark, "Deccers is one of our best players. We can't leave him out of the final."

"Look, boss," added Jesse, "Dec's devoted his entire life to the beautiful game. We all know he's gonna give it his all no matter what. And so what if a couple of people stuck in the past hurl abuse? You can't punish Dec just because there are people out there who aren't accepting. It's not Dec's fault. It's not Mason's fault either."

Declan and Mason felt a bit better knowing the team were supportive. The manager, however, wasn't swayed by their arguments.

"I'm sorry, lads," said David, "I've made my decision and I have a feeling the reaction's going to be the same over at Chelsea."

Mason knew this. His love for Declan was now public. All that was going through his head was panic, fear, and worry.

David asked Mark to get Declan and Mason their clothes from the changing room.

"Get dressed and go home," ordered the manager. 

David left along with the rest of the team leaving Declan and Mason alone in the room.

Declan held Mason tight.

"What are we going to do, Mason?" asked Declan. His voice was breaking from all the emotions that were swirling within him.

"We'll get through this," replied Mason, "remember what we said last night. We'll always have each other, no matter what."

They shared a gentle, tender kiss.

Then, Mark entered the room with Declan's and Mason's belongings.

"I'm really sorry, mate," said Mark consolingly, "I hope you're ok."

"Yeah, I'm fine, Mark," replied Declan, "it's just a massive shock, that's all. We'll be ok. Don't worry."

Mark handed Declan and Mason their things and headed towards the door to leave.

"Wait, hold on," said Declan.

Mark stopped at the door and looked back.

"Thanks for standing up for me just then," said Declan, "and give my thanks to Jesse too. It took guts to do that."

"No worries, mate," said Mark, "we would never want you gone. You'll always be our teammate. You'll always be our friend. The amazing Deccers."

Mark gave the pair a comforting smile before leaving.

Mason went through his bag to look for his phone. Declan didn't even want to be anywhere near his. He knew there would be a torrent of abusive direct messages and tweets waiting for him. People tended to be nastier online because they could hide behind a mask of anonymity.

Mason dug through an avalanche of notifications and eventually went through his messages. The first few ones were those from his teammates who were wondering where he was because he was late for training. Then there were a couple of messages containing screenshots of a tweet which had a photo of Declan and Mason in each other's arms asleep in the lounger. The photo was quite dark but the two were still recognisable. An unscrupulous security guard must have taken the photo whilst he was doing his morning check of the stadium and posted the photo online in exchange for payment. Mason showed the photo to Declan.

"For God's sake," exclaimed Mason, "I can't believe this."

"What absolute pricks," added Declan.

"I guess we should have been more careful with our words last night. We really are trending on Twitter now," said Mason jokingly in an attempt to lighten the mood.

Mason then read an angry message from his manager. It was similar to what Declan's manager said earlier.

"I won't be playing in the final either," said Mason with a sigh.

Declan could see Mason was really upset so he gave him a hug.

Then, Mason looked through his direct messages on Twitter and Instagram.

"Oh, Dec," said Mason, "take a look at this."

Declan peered at Mason's phone screen.

Mason went on, "I guess it's not the end of the world. There are loads of supportive messages."

"Yeah. They're the true fans. They're there for us no matter what," said Declan in agreement.

"But look at those," added Declan, pointing at some of the more insulting messages Mason received, "that's awful."

"A couple mean messages, a handful of homophobic remarks, and a few death threats," said Mason as he went through the messages with a dejected sigh.

"Hey," said Declan softly, "forget about those. They don't matter. What matters is that we still have each other, our real friends, and our real fans by our side."

Then came a text. It was an angry, breakup text from Mason's girlfriend.

"Well," said Mason, "I guess that was expected. She's moving her things out this very moment. You should check your phone too, Dec."

Declan got his phone out of his bag and took the courage to take a look at the screen. He only went through the message previews on the lock screen. It was already all too much for him to handle. At the top was also a breakup text from his girlfriend.

"Yeah," said Declan, "she's already left."

There was a silence. It was as if it lasted forever. The two men were contemplating their careers, their future.

Then, Declan decided to break the silence, "you know what, Mason? We've been through a lot today. Why don't you stay round mine until we can sort all this out?"

"Yeah," replied Mason, "that sounds like a nice idea."

"We should get dressed first though," laughed Declan, "we haven't had a stitch on us for hours now!"

"That out of context sounds like something you would say after one of your drunken antics, haha," joked Mason.

They both laughed, lightening the mood. They both got up and got dressed.

"Come on," said Declan with his hand on Mason's back, "let's go home."

Mason responded with a loving smile and they both left the stadium and headed for home.