Million Reasons (Miniminter)

88

The game against Barcelona was interesting to say the least. We started the game on the front foot but the Spanish team got back quite quickly, it was very high as both teams were eager for the win. If Barca won they would win the whole tournament and we needed to win to get that second place position.

It wasn't until the second half when it went downhill, I managed to pick up the most stupid yellow card then the same player tackled me which made me come off minutes in, with crippling pain which was obvious I had either badly bruised or fractured a few of my ribs.

I decided to leave straight after the game which everyone understood, as they were staying one more night to watch PSG play at the weekend. Which I would of liked to have done, because side note, I like Zlatan. But whatever.

I picked up the dogs and went straight down to Newcastle. As I arrived mum was already clearing out dads things, separating them into things for the charity, things for the new house (she is going to move down to Devon) and things that we could pass on to friends or family. Zara was luckily still here, which I was quite thankful as I wanted some company as I didn't think mum would give a lot.

I started of tidying in dads room, which I found loads of his vinyls which had a large variety of artists, going from Prince to The Rolling Stones to The Temptations to Madonna. Which pretty much showed his personality, you never really knew what mood he would in when he came home from work. I remember he was always dancing around the living room to all the different genres and he pretty much knew every song that came on.

We were pretty quickly choosing everything for the funeral service, the church, the place of his burial, the choice of hymns, the prayers. Dad always has said he wanted an open coffin so people could say their final goodbyes. He also said that he wanted Angels by Robbie Williams as his song. He never really liked Robbie (he was a big Gary Barlow fan) but he said that, that song struck a cord with him. Mum was in charge with his resting outfit, while I had the flowers and the speech to do.

I invited the gang through our Groupchat to make it casual, so they didn't feel pressured that they needed to come along if they were busy doing something else. I didn't really expect them as it was a 5 hour trip for a service for a man who a lot of them didn't meet.

None of us really knew how many would turn out until the day, I walked in before they walked the coffin in and see the whole church was filled with black and white shirts of the Newcastle jersey that had gathered. Mere squeezed my hand as she lead the way. As we walked down the aisle my eyes wandered around to see a lot of people that I have never seen in my life, with Alan Shearer and Paul Gascoigne' faces that stuck out like sore thumbs. If I was to tell my dad that two Geordie football leagues would be sitting in their old work kits at his funeral, he would of laughed. But here they are sitting alongside my family.

I felt Mere pull me down to sit down as my eyes stopped on Simon, who was sitting a few rows back with Josh and Ethan on either side of him, he was looking down at the little booklet that you giving at the services with the persons picture on.

I looked down at mine, it had a photo of my dad on his wedding day. He had his cheeky smile which showed off his dimples, his hair was smartly gelled back. He looked rather handsome and you could tell why mum fell in love with him.

The music started playing with the sound of everyone shifting around me to stand up. I felt a lump in my throat as I took Mere's hand, I looked back to see my uncle along with the under takers walking in slowly with their heads lowered. My eyes connected with Simon, he gave me a small wink probably noticing I was getting emotional.

"Miss Yasmine" a voice made me drop my attention from him to the priest.

I nodded and walked up to the microphone. I looked around the room to see everyone's attention was on me. My eyes scanned to Sav,G and Joe who were sitting behind Simon. Will, Gee and Freya were sat together. I spotted a few of my Arsenal teammates, along with some of my school friends, an ex boyfriend had found his way at the service with his parents. My breath hitched as I looked back at the open casket, that's when I saw him smartly dressed in his suit and bow tie, his hair was neatly gelled back. He was wearing his silver wedding band with his golden chain I got him for one of his birthdays along with his famous gold pinky ring.

"I... um..." I whispered as I looked back at the crowd. "I don't think my dad would of every thought this many people would of turn up at his funeral" I said with a small smile. "As I look around the room, I see my family, his friends that are just like his family, and a lot of people who he probably knows through football or some who know him from only having one encounter" I said softly not holding eye contact with people no more than 5 seconds.

"But I would like to thank you everyone for coming, because it would of made his heart burst how much of an impact he had on a lot of people" I spoke. "When I was younger my dad always used to tell me was 'it doesn't matter what you do in life, unless you make an impact that will live on until you have moved on' he always cared for other people before himself..." I spoke starting to get choked up.

I looked around the room again but this time I felt as if they were all on top of me. I felt the sharp pain in my side with my ribs, I could feel my heart become rapid as my breathing became uneasy.

"Are you alright" mum appeared beside me.

I shook my head before I apologised and ran down the aisle and outside. I practically clung onto the wall as I gasped for air, I rested my head on the wall as I closed my eyes and tried to control my breathing.

"Yas are you alright?" I heard a voice appear, with their hand gently touch my back but then quickly removed it.

"I'm sorry, I couldn't do it" I cried even more.

Their hand appeared on my hand as they pulled it to turn me around, I looked over to see George, he gave me a sympathetic smile before pulling me into him.

"You did hell of a lot just by getting up there and writing out a speech" he whispered as he rubbed my back.

We stayed just hugging each other for a few minutes until I felt my heart race go back to normality, with my tears drying up. Once I felt better I pulled away from him and noticing he was now rocking the bleach blonde hair look, which was semi decent.

"Who took the speech?" I questioned instantly realising the service was still going.

He took my hand and squeezed it. "Chill, G took over. It's all under control" he spoke softly. "You don't need to go back in until you are ready"

I nodded letting out a shaky sigh. "It just makes it very...real" I said slowly. "He looks so peaceful, like he's asleep but knowing that he will never wake up...."

He stopped me by hugging me again before I had another break down. "I'm sorry" I whispered.

"Hey I'm used to people crying on me" he shrugged.

"No I mean for dropping you, the way I did"

He rolled his eyes as he wiped my cheek. "Oh shut up!"

......

Who wants a third chapter tonight? Triple upload????