Better Sorry than Safe

22.

"And here's another shot of Sem manslutting." 

Sophie held up her phone for Sem's entire football team to see, and Sem glanced at the picture himself with mild interest. There he was, on her screen, along with some girl whose face he didn't even recognise anymore. He had his arms around her, and they both smiled at the camera. Damn, Blake's cocktail had sure done a number on him; he couldn't even remember posing for that one. He only vaguely recalled a group picture that some promotional photographer guy took way at the beginning of the night. 

"And, another one with a different girl!" Leanne piped up next to Sophie. 

Most heads turned in Sem's direction, and he suddenly found himself surrounded by grinning and expectant faces. The guys obviously hoped for a snide retort, maybe some fighting to liven up the gym cafeteria and the boring strategy meeting Nick had insisted on after training. 

"Okay." Sem raised his shoulders indifferently. 

Maybe his memories were blurry, but he was damn sure he hadn't done any real 'manslutting.' He had less than zero desire to do so now that he had Connor, even when drunk. Sophie and Leanne were just full of shit, clearly only trying to pick fights with him because of Emma. 

Luckily for the football team, Ethan was all about picking fights. 

"Good one girls. Hit him where it hurts: his ability to pick up chicks!" Ethan said, giving Sophie and Leanne two thumbs up and a broad smile. It earned him a couple of snickers from Matthew and the rest of the team. 

Well, the team except for Nick. 

"Guys. Focus. We're here to talk about our passing techniques and mistakes. Judging from our training today, we have a lot to talk about. Football. Not club photos." Nick frowned, clearly unhappy with the distractions. "Can the photos please wait for a moment, yes? Thank you." 

Sophie just rolled her eyes. She and Leanne continued looking at their phones, probably selecting and tagging the more flattering pictures of themselves.    

This was so typical, how both his and Emma's friends had completely taken over the entire him/Emma club thing and ran with it. 

Much as Sem had tried to shut Ethan and Matthew up, of course word about the club fiasco had spread to the football team and to Emma's other friends. Who was going to let it pass quietly when someone got soda thrown in their face by two girls in one evening, and rejected Emma, the girl pretty much everyone on the team would bone if they had the chance? Nobody, that's who. 

It's not like they talked about him and Emma all the time, but it was definitely there playing in the background. Every now and then it came to the foreground in the shape of sharp remarks and bickering during which the boys took Sem's side, and the girls took Emma's. 

Somehow, he hadn't been the recipient of Emma's glares though. At school she avoided him, and she hadn't even shown up to watch the training. It was just Sophie and Leanne today. 

They'd been on the sidelines, whispering and glaring at him every so often. But just when it started to feel real awkward, Connor had jogged by, like he still did every Tuesday during football practice. He'd briefly smiled at him, and that was enough to suddenly make Sem feel like he could handle everything again. Screw Sophie and Leanne and their glaring. God, no matter how many difficult situations he got in, Connor was so worth it. 

"Sem, you're listening right?  That teamwork remark counts especially for you. We're not winning if people are too busy showing off rather than working together and passing in time." 

Nick shot him a stern look. As the captain of the team, and definitely the one with the most insight in football, Nick always got very try-hard mode, really wanted to win. But he was definitely being more harsh with Sem than he would've been if he wasn't, you know, thrust in this weird position where everyone around him pointlessly bickered about his best friend and the girl he liked.