Lean on Me

Part Two - Chapter Seventeen: Facing the Backlash

“What do you mean Cassidy’s been sacked?” Frank shouted making the locker room fall silent as everyone turned to look at Fernando; no one had seen Cassidy in over a month now and it had made them all curious about what was going on.

Fernando shrugged as he glanced over at Juan who was now staring at him intently as if dying to know what had happened to Cassidy; Fernando turned away from him knowing that this was all Juan’s fault.

“Roman thinks that she was too much of a distraction and since she’s apparently tearing the team apart then he didn’t want Cassidy working for the club anymore,” Fernando said knowing how devastated his fiancée had been to lose her job, she loved working at Chelsea and now she had lost her job she had thrown herself into planning their wedding and looking after the twins.

“It wasn’t Cassidy’s fault… it was yours,” Juan spat furiously jumping to his feet and glared at the older footballer, he couldn’t believe that Fernando had cost the brunette her job; however the sound of someone laughing made everyone turn to look at Petr.

“If it’s anyone’s fault Juan it’s yours… you started all of this,” the goalkeeper said making Juan open his mouth in protest before the rest of the team agreed; Juan looked around unbelieving that they were all blaming this on him, he had only expressed his love for the brunette and his hatred for Fernando.

Everyone stared at Juan wondering why he didn’t see that this was all because of him, Cassidy had told him that she loved Fernando and that was her choice; she had been with the forward for twenty-one months and she had children with him yet Juan continued to cause problems for the couple.

***

Cassidy sighed as she cooed at Noah and lifted him up as she looked at her sister, she knew that Cassandra was having relationship problems especially since she had announced her pregnancy to the family.

“I can’t believe you got sacked,” Cassandra said as she sipped on her drink, she watched her older sister knowing that she was hurting; the last thing that she expected to happen was this, she had worked so hard and now her career was over because of what had happened with Juan.

Cassidy shrugged holding her son, she knew that her birthday was coming up but she just didn’t feel like celebrating right now; she knew that Fernando had plans to spend Leo’s birthday with him but she hadn’t been invited to celebrate the little boy’s second birthday.

“So how are the wedding plans coming along? Mum was excited to get her save the date,” Cassandra asked as if sensing that right now the last thing that her sister didn’t want to talk about what had happened; she’d had a month to sulk about it before she had gotten into gear and started to plan her wedding.

Cassidy grinned nodding her head, the couple had decided that they would get married on the 3rd of June 2013; it stood right between the end of the season and the start of international duty when Fernando was meant to travel to Brazil for the confederations cup if he was selected for national duty.

“I was actually wondering if you wanted to be my maid-of-honour?” Cassidy asked sitting down and looked at her sister, she didn’t have a lot of friends especially since she had worked at a football club and most of her friends were men.

***

Juan glared at Fernando’s back as the team prepared for the match against Sunderland that coming weekend; it also signalled the twenty-sixth birthday of Cassidy, who had no idea about surprise party that was being thrown after the match for her.

“Get over it Juan… you’ve done enough damage,” David said noticing the look on the face of the midfielder, he could sense that Juan was angry but there was nothing to be done now that Cassidy had been fired Juan glared at him before he turned back to glaring at Fernando wondering how he could live with himself.

“How can he live with himself?” Juan spat disgusted as he shook his head, if only Fernando had left Cassidy alone then she wouldn’t have lost her job; she could have been happy with him and she would have still have the job that she loved so much.

David frowned looking back at Juan, he could sense a lot of anger in the younger man and it worried him just what he would do now that Cassidy wasn’t around.

David cursed as Juan charged towards Fernando who was completely unaware what was about to happen.

Juan quickly tackled the older man to the ground and started to punch him, he couldn’t contain the anger that he felt at Fernando any longer and continued to punch him until he was pulled away by David and Demba who held him so he couldn’t do anymore damage.

“Mata what the hell is going on?” Rafael asked storming forward and looked between the two Spaniards; he knew that there had been trouble between them before but he hadn’t expected this to happen, he looked at Fernando’s bruising face and knew that he was going to have a black eye soon after the beating he had taken.

“You know how I felt about her and you still asked her to marry you,” Juan spat finally starting to deal with the emotions that he had tried to lock away deep inside of him; he stared furiously at Fernando wanting to punch him again.

Everyone fell silent as they stared between the two men knowing that this had been a long time coming; they had never thought that this would how the two friend would end up.

“I don’t know what you want me to do Juan… I’ve been in a relationship with her before she even met you,” Fernando said annoyed that at the end of the day this is what it came down to, Juan wasn’t going to let go and it was clear that there was no way to save their former friendship; not now that Juan was content in just hating him.

“I love Cassidy… I love her more than anything Juan,” Fernando said running a hand through his hair, he had considered changing it again but with everything going on he hadn’t gotten around to it; he had even considered going back to his natural colour since Cassidy had said she’d love to see it.

Juan glared at him, he didn’t care what Fernando had to say about any of this; he had made his decision clear and he wasn’t going back on it, the brunette should be with him.

“That’s enough… someone take Torres to the medics and Mata get out of my training session, you’re suspended for two months,” Rafael shouted knowing that if he didn’t put an end to all of this now then there would be trouble later.

Juan stared at the manager speechless, he didn’t know what to say about his sudden suspension and he was surprised that this was the road that Rafael had taken; he’d caused a lot of trouble in the past few weeks and he wondered if there was something that he was missing.

Fernando sighed as he got to his feet and looked at Juan, he had hoped that this feud would come to an end soon but it was clear that this wasn’t going to end anytime soon.

Watching as Juan stormed away from the field, he just hoped that the two month suspension would allow the other man time to think.