New Romantics || j. rodriguez

Chapter 15: Athletic Club-Real Madrid

Scarlet's Point of View:

It was the 70th minute, and we were losing 1-0. Our last game hadn't been that great either, a 1-1 draw against Villarreal. I was pretty certain that Carlo was on his fourth pack of gum already from being nervous, but he still hasn't put me in the game. He hasn't even played me for the past two matches. I'm the player who has scored a goal in each game that I've played, I deserve to be on that pitch. Besides, James and I still haven't assisted each other.

Coach Ancelotti order three of us to warm up, and luckily enough, I was one of them. I ran back and forth, jumped a little, and it was signaled there would be a substitution. They held up 11, Gareth's number, and 5, my number. We hugged and exchanged a few words, but then he went to sit down on the bench.

I ran to the pitch, and the game resumed. By now it was the 75th minute, and the air was thickening. Pressure was on for the entire team. Lucas Silva, who also just got subbed in, passed me the ball, and immediately three players from Athletic Club surrounded me. I passed to Pepe, as we were on our half of the field. I ran out of the Athletic Club's group of players around me, and I was knocked to the floor. I fell face first, falling from a tackle from the other team. I felt players surrounding me, and multiple curse words were thrown around, but I couldn't get rid of the pain in my leg. I quickly got up, hoping that nobody would get a card, and no one did. I wanted to show the fans that I was stronger than a man that couldn't even tackle properly. "Are you alright? That looked like a nasty hit." Karim hugged me, but I only nodded and limped away.

20 minutes left. We had gotten a free kick, and I had to take it, as Gareth would usually. It flew past the half mark line, and onto James' chest. I sprinted up to the area the ball was, and kept defenders off of James, no one hurts my midfielder. What the heck am I thinking? I'm just keeping my team safe. Yeah my team.

James was in the penalty area now, and Iraola, a defender from Athletic had tackled him down. My feet carried me to James, and I pushed the defender who tackled him back. "What do you think you're doing? This is football, not wrestling." I took a deep breath and continued, and players from both teams were now talking, or arguing, with the ref. Hoping the referees wouldn't see me shoving this player.

"Do you know that you could have injured him bad enough he might have not been able to walk again? You need to think before you tackle." I walked to help James up, and mumbled a few curse words under my breath while Iraloa just walked to the red to argue with the rest of his team.

"Are you alright?" I asked James sweetly.

"Scarlet it wasn't even that bad of a tackle, I should be asking you that question." He laughed, but I could see the pain on his face.

I shook my head, "You're not playing, I can see you're hurt." I smiled, "Unless you still want to assist each other?"

James nodded, "I will play, and we will assist each other. I promise."

Since it was a penalty, Cristiano had taken it, and obviously he scored the equalizer. I ran over the him, and jumped into his arms, "Amazing goal! Beautiful!" I grinned. 1-1 now.

10 minutes left, and I was starting to doubt mine and James' promise. Little did I know that he would intercept it, and pass to me just seconds after getting the ball. He winked at me, and pointed toward the goal. I swept past two defenders, then passed to James. He volleyed it into the goal, and scored! 2-1! Real Madrid is in the lead! The team dog piled on top of James, but I stayed back to hug him afterwards. "Great goal." I smiled into the hug.

"Great assist." Rodriguez chuckled.

8 minutes left. Athletic was just trying to hold off out team from scoring again, and everyone was frustrated. They had held the ball for five minutes, and Cristiano just took the ball, and passed to me. Obviously James had to assist me, not Cris, so I passed a light tap to James, and he passed right back. Now that our promise was three-fourths of the way done, I felt a weight life off my shoulders. It was quickly replace with the thought that I still needed to score. The goalie and I were one on one now, and once again I faked roght, and shot left. I closed my eyes, and listened for the sound. Two minutes left, I thought. Swish. That was it, we had completed our deal. James ran to me, and I jumped into his arms, "We did it!" he yelled in glory.

"I could kiss you right now!" I said without thinking, but it still didn't change the fact that I wanted to. James only smiled and shooting his head laughing in return.

A few players from the team gathered around, and celebrated with us. Carlo knew we only needed to waste time now, so he used his final substitute. He'd taken out Isco, and put Jesé in his place. One minute left. Athletic got the kick off, but with only nearly thirty seconds left, they just passed the ball around in a style similar to Tiki-Taka. Once the game was over, the bench ran out, and we all hugged together. I was one of the first to walk off the field into the locker rooms.

Little did I know a Portuguese and Colombian were following me. "Hey Scarlet!" I turned around with a smile on my face, "How about that kiss deal?"

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Authors Note;
THANK YOU GUYS SO MUCH FOR 1,000 READS!! THATS TRUELY AN AMAZING NUMBER, AND THE AMOUNT OF POSITIVE FEEDBACK I HAVE RECIEVED IS ASTOUNDING. I want to say a special thanks to:
somesoccergirl
Mossfire101
RaccoonQueen92
footballholic25

All of them have given me great feedback, and two of them even inspired me to publish this book. ; ). Thank you all again! Enjoy the picture of Aaron Ramsey, because he is perfect on and off the pitch.

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