Lean on Me

Part Two - Chapter Fifteen: Careless Act of Revenge

Juan glared at Fernando as he spoke with Frank and John, it had been a month since he had kissed the brunette and since then a lot of the other players had taken Fernando’s side in what was going on.

No one wanted to listen to what Juan had to say on the matter and even the captain had warned him not to mess with Fernando’s relationship with Cassidy anymore; he couldn’t believe that no one could see that he was clearly the better choice for her.

“She doesn’t suspect anything?” Frank asked smiling at Fernando, he was surprised when Fernando had approached him with the idea of holding a surprise birthday party for Cassidy’s twenty-sixth birthday; he wanted it to be special since it was the first since the twins had been born.

Fernando shook his head as a smile formed on his face, he knew that he had been extra careful to make sure that Cassidy doesn’t figure out what he was doing.

“Nothing… I just want everything to go perfectly, Leo’s birthday is two days earlier so she thinks I’m helping Olalla with his birthday,” Fernando said pleased with himself before Roman walked into the locker room with the new manager since Roberto had been sacked only days before.

The players were sad to see the Italian go after everything that they had done under him; however it wasn’t surprising since no one seemed to last long under Roman’s reign on the club.

“Gentlemen this is Rafael Benítez, he is your new interim manager,” the Russian said making the group nod, Juan frowned as he stared at the former Liverpool manager before he looked at Fernando.

Juan knew that they’d had a good relationship when Fernando had played at Liverpool and he wondered if that was why he had been chosen to take over from Roberto.

***

Juan sipped on his drink as he watched Fernando warming up, his blue eyes sparkling as an idea started to form in his mind about what he could do; he wanted revenge against the older man after what had happened with Roberto.

“You okay Juan?” César Azpilicueta asked approaching the older man, he knew that things had fallen apart for him and Fernando after what had happened with Cassidy; he just hoped that it wasn’t going to affect the two for long.

Juan smirked as he looked at César knowing that this would be the start of his revenge, he wanted to make sure that Fernando would lose everything after what he had done to him.

“Just thinking… don’t you think it’s a little strange that after everything that Benítez said about Chelsea that he’s now the manager?” Juan said starting to plant the seeds of his plan; he knew that César was going to go and talk to others about what he had said, it would then spread and then everyone would turn against Fernando.

“I mean… isn’t he a close friend with Torres? I find it a little strange that after what happened with Roberto that someone like Benítez would then be hired,” Juan said sipping on his drink again; his blue eyes watching Fernando who had no idea that his former friend was plotting against him.

César opened his mouth to speak as Juan’s words sunk in, he stared at the older Spanaird before he hurried away making Juan smirk knowing that César had fallen for it.

“Let the games begin,” Juan whispered knowing that no one would be pleased to hear that Fernando was the reason that Roberto had been fired; he couldn’t wait to see what sort of mayhem that it would cause for his former friend.

***

Cassidy paused as she heard some of the younger players whispering as she walked past them, she spared them a glance wondering what was going on; she knew that Rafael had been appointed the manager until the end of the season that morning.

Cassidy brushed some hair from her face as she headed towards the locker room so that she could collect the car keys from Fernando; she couldn’t shake the feeling that something bad had happened.

“Cass,” David Luiz called bounding up to Cassidy and hugged her, he knew that she was looking for her fiancé and Fernando was organising some surprise details about her surprise birthday party that she couldn’t find out about.

Cassidy smiled as she hugged the Brazilian back, she hadn’t seen much of him since she had returned to work after having the twins; she pulled back knowing that she could rely on him for anything since her friendship with Juan had collapsed because of his feelings for her.

“Is everything alright?” Cassidy asked glancing at a couple of the younger footballers, she didn’t know what it was but she needed to make sure that there wasn’t any trouble related to Juan and Fernando happening again.

David nodded his head as he looked at the brunette confused, everything had been fine during training; he wasn’t about to tell her what her fiancé had planned for her.

“I know it might sound silly but I’ve had this bad feeling all day since I found out Benítez was made manager,” Cassidy said making David smile at her reassuringly, she was probably imagining things but he had noticed that there was a lot of whispering happening.

“It’s probably nothing,” David said shaking his head as Fernando appeared, he smiled gratefully at his friend as he wrapped an arm around Cassidy; she looked at him for a moment before nodding her head.

Fernando glanced at David curious about what was going on, he knew that things had gotten a little weird towards the end of training and a couple of his team-mates had started to glare at him after a while.

“So I’ll see you tomorrow,” David said to the couple, they had to travel to pick the twins up from Cassidy’s parents; he just hoped that the brunette’s bad feeling was wrong.

David was sure that everyone had picked up on the change that had occurred towards the end of training; he knew it had something to do with what Juan had said to César at the start of the session.

Heading back into the locker room, David sort out Frank quickly worrying that maybe Juan had said something that he shouldn’t have; the younger man had been upset with how things had worked out with Cassidy and he knew that he held Fernando responsible for that.

“Frank… do you know what is going on?” David said looking at the older man, he could already see that Juan had left and he wondered if he would do something stupid to get revenge on Fernando.

Frank looked at the Brazilian and shook his head before Oriol Romeu spoke up alerting the older men to what was going on.

“Didn’t you hear? Fernando got Roberto fired so that Benítez could become manager,” Oriol said making Frank and David stare at him shocked; they both knew that there was no way that Fernando had done such a thing and if Juan was going around saying that he had then there was going to be trouble.

“What have you done?” Frank muttered knowing that it wouldn’t be long before someone lashed out at Fernando for something that he hadn’t done.