Once More. | Manuel Neuer

Chapter Nine.

It had been two days since the dinner party, and Arabella hadn't left her hotel room once. She had fallen into her old ways; not getting out of bed, barely eating, not showering. All she did was lie in bed.

Manuel hadn't texted her once, and she felt heartbroken. Not only did she feel heartbroken, she also felt like a piece of shit. Wasn't she the one who left Manuel in the past in the first place? She had pushed him away, and now that he had accepted that, she wanted nothing more than to have him back. She felt selfish and confused.

Cristiano had given up on trying to get her out of bed. Don't get it wrong, he loved her more than he loved himself –which is a lot- but he needed to focus on his football. He needed to make his country proud, and focusing on a girl that wouldn't listen anyways was not going to help.

Even though she checked her phone every five minutes, Arabella hadn't responded to any texts from Mesut. All she did was check if Manuel had sent her anything, and when she saw he didn't she would put down her phone and feel sorry for herself.

Manuel, on the other hand, had thrown all his anger in the training. Their first match would be in two days and he had committed himself to football. And when I say committed to football, I mean committed to football. His teammates didn't see him at all these past two days, only on the training grounds. And even then, when they tried talking to him, the German goalie would just simply turn away from them without uttering a word.

This was not the Manuel everyone knew, and it had gotten everyone worried. It worried them more than seeing him heartbroken, because he spoke about his feelings a lot when he felt like that. Now all they saw was an angry man who was on the brink of exploding, and there was nothing that they could do to help him.

Thomas had tried more than any of the other German players, but nothing worked. He had desperately tried to get Manuel to speak to him, even forcefully broke into his hotel room, but all he got was a blank stare in response.

"Maybe we need to bench him." Joachim Löwe was sat with his assistant coaches Thomas Schneider, Marcus Sorg and goalkeeping coach Andreas Köpke as they discussed the state Manuel was in.

"Do you really think that's a good idea?" Thomas questioned.

The four of them looked at each other, none of them knew what to do with the situation.

"Well, I don't think it's a good idea to let him on the field like this. His defence is incredibly aggressive and I'm afraid that if he won't hurt himself first, he'll end up hurting someone else out there," Andreas spoke.

Out of all the coaches Andreas had worked with Manuel the most, and even he could not deny that these past two days something had snapped within his star goalie.

Joachim made a grunting sound as he massaged his temples, "Is this about Ronaldo's little toy again?"

"I think so, apparently the two caused a scene in a restaurant a few days ago," Thomas grumbled.

All for men sighed and fell silent. All of them were thinking about a solution for the problem Manuel was causing.

"Maybe we should send him home?" Marcus suggested. "Maybe that way peace will come back in the team?"

Andreas snorted loudly before looking at the man with a frown. "You want to send him home? Might as well book us all a ticket then!" He yelled.

All four of them fell silent once more as they wrecked their brain on what to do.

"Neuer! Take a break!" Andreas yelled. The goalie only grunted in response and jogged over to his trainer.
"Here," Andreas said, handing him a water bottle. "We need to speak."
Manuel didn't say a word and just looked at Andreas waiting for him to speak again.
Andreas sighed and sat down on the bench as he looked up at Manuel.
"Joachim wants to bench you for the first match."
Manuel's face controrted in confusion as he registered the words Andreas had just said.
"You're too angry, you don't communicate with the rest of the team, and you can really injure someone badly with the aggression you put into football. Honestly, you need to man up! She left, boohoo, life goes on you know!?"
Andreas was shouting now.
"Are you really going to throw away your career just for Ronaldo's little playtoy!?"
Andreas looked up at Manuels face and knew he had crossed a line.
"Don't ever say that again," the German goalie hissed through clenched teeth.
"What? So you are throwing it all away?" Andreas questioned as he stood up straight.
The goalie still towered over him but he didn't care.
"I'm keeping the goal empty, aren't I? Doing what I am supposed to do!?"
With that Manuel just turned and walked away. His fists were shaking with anger.
"We'll talk about it later, when you've  come to your senses!" Andreas yelled just before Manuel disappeared into the dressingroom.

In the dressingroom Manuel lost it. How dare he!? How dare he call her that? How dare he threaten Manuel with benching him?

Manuel furiously changed his training kit for sweatpants and a black hoodie. He stormed outside, pulling the hood over his head.
Still shaking with anger Manuel decided to walk back to the hotel. Maybe he could lose a bit of his energy in stomping through the busy Paris streets.

How ever, after only 10 minutes of walking Manuel was close to tears. All these goddamned people walking along the streets like zombies stopped him from walking at a fast pace, and Manuel grew frustrated.
All he wanted was to be okay. He just wanted to play the damn match, to just be like he was before. But most of all he wanted to be held. He wanted someone to tell him everything would be fine and that all the hurt would soon pass.
But instead all was empty. There was no one that could possibly tell him all would be okay, because Manuel would know they were lying.

So, when after ten minutes more of walking with tears threatening to spill from the German's eyes he was beyond relieved to walk through the hotel door and into the lobby.
Walking with his head down Manuel quickly made it into one of the elevator and mindlessly pressed the button. The tears finally spilled and Manuel broke down.
He felt so awful, and even though it would be easy to blame everything on Arabella, he knew it wasn't fair nor true.

When the elevator opened Manuel stormed out. He nearly ran through the hallway, his keycard ready in his hand.
Once he finally reached the door he pushed his card into the card reader, but the door didn't open.
Manuel tried and tried again but all he got was a red light, something that only added to his frustration. So, he did the next best thing, he hit the wall with so much force he felt his knuckles ache and pulled his hair with his other hand.
In his frantic state Manuel however, did not notice the door opening from the inside.

"Manuel?"