That Chelsea Boy - Mason Mount

four

Me, Emily and Madison had all been sat on a couple of the large benches that were out the front of Cobham for about 15 minutes before we started to see some of the players walk out into the car park. They all sent smiles and 'hello's in our direction and a couple of them, including Pulisic and Kepa, stopped to talk to us. The Chelsea players are all such lovely people and really don't live up to the stereotype I've always had of footballers being rude and self-centred. They were all greeting their loved ones if they'd come to watch and then headed to their cars and left.

As we'd been sat there a crowd of fans had gathered outside the gates and were holding up their phones as if they were taking photos. The security guard from earlier approached us and said we should probably wait inside. We walked inside and went to sit in the canteen. "I've told Tammy we're here and he'll let Kai know too" Mads said as she sat down. It didn't take long before we saw Tammy come in and head straight across to Mads wrapping his arms around her. He placed a small kiss on her head and once pulling away they kissed each other softly. "Eww" I said to them jokingly and the two of them stuck their middle fingers up at me.

Kai came in pretty soon after Tammy and when we reached us he pulled Emily out her seat and into a tight hug. Everyone could see how happy the boy made my friend as she was beaming from ear to ear. Me and Madison looked at each other and smiled before turning back to look at them still hugging each other tightly. We both just wanted her to be happy after her last relationship ended so badly and she had gotten quite depressed. We hated seeing her like that but already knew Kai would be nothing like him as he was already treating her like this and they weren't even properly together yet.

"You two are proper cute man" we heard Tammy say as he was looking at them with a smile on his face before he turned and smiled at Madison.

———

We'd all been sat together for a while before Kai spoke up. "Masons still out there and if no one gets him he'll be out there all night" the German said. "Wow that's proper dedication" Emily replied as she looked across at him. "He always stays out there the longest and puts us all to shame" Tammy added as he looked at his watch. "Oh hey Amelia why don't you go out there and get him then?" he asked as he looked up and smiled at me. I looked up from my phone that I had been scrolling through to avoid all the coupley-ness that was going on around me when I heard my name.

"Can't one of the two of you go he doesn't even know who I am" I told him looking between him and Kai. "Oh trust me he does" he replied quietly before Madison turned and stared at him. I looked across the large table at him feeling a bit confused before telling them "fine I'll go and talk to him then" while standing up from my seat. "Where I am even going?" I added laughing slightly. "Go all the way down the corridor until you see the changing rooms and then turn left out the door" Kai told me before I nodded and stood up and walked away from them.

I began to make my way down the corridor keeping the directions Kai told me in my mind. It seemed to go on forever and I was starting to get confused until I saw the changing rooms and looked left to see a glass door with the words 'to the pitch' written on it. Once I reached the door I could see Mason running around on the same field I'd been watching him on earlier. As I walked across the pathway he was taking shots at the goal in as many different ways as he could. I had seen a large bag of footballs at the edge of the pitch so I decided to open it up and get one out.

A large wave of confidence suddenly came over me and I thought I'd have a go at shooting at the goal. It's been quite a few years since I played football at school but I still remembered it, it's not really a skill you forget. I started to run across the pitch with the ball at my feet and mentally thanked myself for putting trainers on this morning. The brown haired boy in front of me still hadn't noticed me as I was getting nearer and nearer to the goalposts. As I fired the ball towards the net he walked across in its path and ended up being whacked on the back of the head.

"OW WHAT THE HELL" he shouted loudly as he raised his hand to the back of his head and quickly turned around to find out who had hit him with a football on an apparently empty pitch. "Oh shit I'm sorry. Are you okay? Tammy sent me out here to get you and I saw the footballs in the bag just sat there so I thought I'd have a go but oh my god I had no right I'm so sorry" I rambled at him as he ran across to where I was standing in shock. When he got to me he just stood there in front of me and started to smile. "Are you alright? I'm so so sorry" I continued as I was trying to work out whether I had hurt the footballer or not.

"Shh its fine, well its not like its the first time I've been hit on the head with a football today is it?" he laughed. I started to laugh with him as relief washed over me and I thought about when it had happened earlier while he'd been staring at me when I was sat in the stand. "Yeah you did seem like you were a little distracted earlier" I said to him as I smiled and looked up into his eyes now realising the few inches of height difference between us. "I guess I saw something I liked and couldn't take my eyes off it" he replied returning the smile and looking down into my eyes.

"Hi I'm Amelia and its nice to meet you" I said to him as I stuck my hand out towards him. "Hi I'm Mason and it's very nice to meet you too" he replied as he placed his hand in mine and shook it making us both laugh.

———

After a while of us being out there on the pitch we started collecting all of the footballs that were on the field together with him making a game of kicking them into the bag one by one while I held it up. He did miss a few of them making me jokingly question how he ever managed to get himself a professional football contract. He rolled his eyes and laughed at me as he walked over so that he was stood next to me as we started to walk down the path and make our way inside. He then leaned towards me so he could whisper into my ear.

"I actually knew who you were already Amelia" he told me. "Same here Mason" I whispered back to him before we smiled at each other as we made our way back inside the centre.