š e j a n

2

šime woke up early that morning. ha, like he was even asleep. he was tossing and turning to whole night in his bed and when the digital clock striked 6 a.m. he decided that it was enough. he sat up on his bed and waited like an excited little kid waits for his parents to get out of the house and onto some trip.

he never really had that, the only trips he took were the ones to the grocery store a few miles down the road with his mother a couple times a month. he was content with that; he didn't ask for much. not like he would get anything he wanted anyway, maybe an ice-cream once a week, if he worked hard.

and he never complained. he didn't really know better. he was born just at the time of war. he wasn't really aware of it at the time but it took a lot from him. his father was traumatised and hasn't reallg acted like a father, and his mother worked as hard as she could to support her child. and that was enough.

šime glared at the clock every few minutes, hoping it was time for him to go meet the captain of the team and other teammates. but that was about an hour and a half away.

his attention was shifted somewhere else as he heard the door open. and soon he was face to facw with a drunken boy that fell atop him. he was momentarily asleep as soon as he came in the contact with šime. but šime did the good thing of rolling him on his own bed and covering him.

it was a long night for this boy, he assumed.

-----

the time for šime to go was nearing so he got ready in silence, careful not to wake the other boy up. he thought that the boy sleeping there was his roommate, but god would only know.

he opened the door slightly, still weary not to wake up the unknown boy, got out on his tippy toes and got out, silently closing the door after himself.

----

šime was on the football field with coach anderson waiting for that infamous captain to arrive. there were some other players, talking and laughing among themselves, but nobody really talked to šime which intimidated him quite a bit.

coach anderson was trying to get ahold of dejan's phone for the past 20 minutes and he was furious by now.

when he finally did answer, coach was yelling so much that anyone within 5 feet of him temporarily lost their hearing. it was still buzzing in šime's ears, 15 minutes later, when dejan decided to show up.

šime's breath kind of hitched when he laid his eyes upon him. he brushed it off as being intimidated but it was actually kind of because he was hot as hell. not that šime was gay or anything, just very observant.

i mean, everyone with eyes could see just how hot he really was, right?

------

dejan dreaded coming to meet the new player. he still hated the idea so much. he even detested the poor guy, even though he probably didn't deserve it. but his judgement was clouded by something closely resembling jealousy. and dejan didn't like it whatsoever.

what was he so jealous of? nothing, apparently, he thought as he laid eyes on the guy. he was tall but lanky and looked to be nowhere near dejan.

dejan filled with anger the longer he looked at him so he shifted his gaze to the rest of the team, jogging up to them to go greet them.

"remember what we talked about?" he asked and the rest of the team nodded. "good!" he yelled because he was already halfway to meet that new kid. it was inevitable.

"hi, coach, sorry i'm late," dejan apologized with that look in his eyes that coach hardly ever resisted. dejan was like a son to him. "and this must be the new guy," dejan turned towards šime with a whole different look in his eyes. it was cold, hostile.

šime just now realised this was the guy who came into his room and slept a few hours ago. or so he thought, he couldn't really see much.

dejan held his hand out for šime to shake, and šime awkwardly did so. "yeah, my name is šime, šime vrsaljko."

dejan almost started laughing at how uncomfortable he made the other guy feel. "you say you can play?" he asked. šime gulped and hesitantly nodded.

"da te vidimo."