Let Me Love You | Toni Kroos

Chapter 3 - Faith and a Friend

Gabi's POV

I sat on the grass patiently, waiting for Toni to appear with his ball, and maybe with Felix, because I didn't know if he'd invited him along. I stood up when I saw a figure walking towards me from the distance, bouncing a ball.

"Hey," Toni's grinning face emerged from the shade. He threw the ball at me, and I caught it against my chest before kicking it back to him. "Not bad," he said.

I laughed. "Where's Felix?"

He stared at me, astonished. "Did you want him to come?"

"No, no, I...I just thought you two usually played together, or something."

"Oh, yeah we do," he said, turning his gaze to the ground. "But today...you know, I asked you here, and...yeah."

There was a short period of awkward silence as we both tried to figure out what he was trying to say, so I decided to move things along. I stuck out my leg and pulled the ball towards me, dribbling it away from him. "Catch me," I laughed.

"Catch you?" he laughed and started chasing me. "I'll do more than catch you, Gabi."

"You sure about that?" I swerved to the side, avoiding him, and then turned around and accidentally nutmegged him.

I ran a short distance more before I turned around, only to find him just standing still and staring at me. "That was good," he said, panting slightly.

"It was an accident," I giggled and kicked the ball restlessly at my feet. But before I could do anything more, he suddenly ran up in front of me and snatched the ball away with his feet, turning and stopping only for a split second before he gave the ball a flick, lobbing it directly into a dustbin sitting a few metres away.

I felt my jaw drop, but I had no control over it. "How did you do that?" I whispered.

"Practice," he shrugged. I just stood there and stared at him as he went over to retrieve the ball and ran back to me. "Why are you staring at me like that?"

"Because...you just...did that."

He laughed and threw the ball at my feet. "Try it," he said.

So I did. I tried to lob the ball just as he did, but no matter how hard I tried, it'd either fall too short or land too far. After a while, I got tired of running to collect the ball and just plopped down on the ground in resignation.

He grabbed the ball and sat down beside me. "Tired?"

"I still don't understand how you did that."

"Practice," he repeated. "You'll do it one day, I'm sure."

"I hope you score lots of goals like that," I told him. "You're...a midfielder, right?"

"Yeah, I am," he said. "And thanks, Gabi."

We sat there silently for a long while, just throwing the ball to each other without saying a word. Suddenly, he heaved a long, slow sigh.

"What's wrong?" I asked him.

"I'm nervous."

"About the new season?" I asked, and he nodded. The new season was starting in a couple of weeks. "Don't worry, Toni. I'm sure you'll do great."

"I don't know," he said. "I'm really happy that I can play for this club, but...it's a huge club with huge expectations. What if I'm not up to it?"

"You know, I've only known you for like, two days," I said. "But I already know you're gonna make it big someday."

"Really?" he asked, turning to look at me, hope in his deep blue eyes. "You really think so?"