❝didn't see you for ages
didn't pick up your phone.❞
MAY 15,
fifteen days after the funeral.
TO
end the season on a high note, jude and all his teammates decided to celebrate their last game at marco reus' house. they all sat in a circle on the floor and played the game they used to play after a game to decompress. the rules were simple, someone would give a date—usually a circle around the table—and then they would point to a person who would show the photo that corresponded to that day and explain it afterwards.
erling haaland had decided that the first of january two thousand and nineteen would be a good date. "there are always interesting things happening on new year's," he had said, and jude had been given the honour of being the one chosen. the englishman had then pulled out his phone before going back to his gallery. many photos matched the date, but one, in particular, caught his eye. his face had closed somewhat and as several seconds passed, his teammates were becoming impatient, wondering why jude was taking so long to show them.
as the rules of the game dictated, he eventually turned his phone towards the others and loud 'ouuuu' were heard by the majority. the picture was fairly mundane, he had taken it while he was lying in bed, smiling with all his teeth and his thumb up in the air. only a female presence next to him had caught the eye of his teammate, nisha. the girl was facing the footballer and her head was half buried in the pillow, glitter on her face due to her make-up which had faded a little over the evening. despite everything, she was still very pretty.
"who is she?" asked julian brandt with his eyebrows moving in waves.
"nisha," answered gio reyna instead of his friend. jude had told him so much about the girl that the american felt like he knew her by heart.
"well that doesn't tell us who she is, idiot," replied mats hummels.
"jude's best friend," gio said, glancing at jude, who seemed to be staring into space as he was strongly thinking about her.
the englishman's teammates must have noticed his scowl and his silence because they decided to annoy him even more by making animal cries echoing throughout the room they were in.
"best friend really or 'we could be more," asked karim adeyemi with a small smile.
"no, she's just my best friend," jude breathed through his teeth, already tired of the conversation, causing the footballers around him to sigh with disappointment.
jude's exasperation grew even stronger. he hadn't planned on telling some of his teammates about her, not today, not ever. not because he was ashamed of her, just because their relationship at the moment was crumbling and he could feel nisha drifting away from him and he couldn't do anything about it, but also because he didn't want some of them to try anything with the young woman. nisha deserved someone serious and not as unstable as some of his friends from dortmund. he wanted to keep her to himself a little bit—in a platonic way, though.
"yeah 'best friend', the girl is pretty i know you my boy bellingham," it was thomas meunier who spoke with a laugh, wanting to embarrass the young boy at all costs, "you shot your shot with her."
all their assumptions made him uncomfortable because one, it was wrong, and two, he didn't like the way his teammates talked about her. that was another reason why he didn't talk about her too much. such a large number of men locked in a room with alcohol talking about a girl the age of one of their teammates could sometimes be heavy, especially for the main person involved.
