ABLE

TWO

They strolled silently to their locker room after receiving their medals. Tammy Abraham, when he heard the door open, looked at them. He looked at the ground, shaking his head.

"I'm sorry, guys " He managed to say, choking on his tears. "I - I didn't mean to. I swear." He then looked at the English woman, by the name of Bethany England, and he shook his head again. "I didn't mean to miss that penalty. I swear it."

"Tammy please stop." Bethany jogged to where he was and placed her hands over his softly. "We know. And we don't care if you missed the penalty. We still love you. Don't let it bother you at all. Please."

"She's right, lad." Lampard backed the English woman up. "Everyone misses penalties. Don't let it get to you." He then turned to the rest of the team. "At least we won the UEFA Europa League to reach the Super Cup finals. We should be proud of that. We should celebrate tonight."

Azpilicueta nodded in agreement. "Let's pack up, boys. Our job here is done. The bus must be waiting for us outside the stadium."

Tammy flinched at the mention of 'outside the stadium.'

Bethany noticed it, and turned to look at him. Her eyes were already asking the question.

Tammy picked up his phone from the bench he was on and gave it to her.
When she read the first line of his social media chat, she gasped. She looked back at Tammy who was just looking at the ground.

"What is it?" Kovacic stood beside her and she handed him the phone. He wasted no time in reading it. He himself was shocked. There were a lot of racial messages directed at Tammy.
There were also threat messages. One of them telling Tammy that they will 'show him where he belongs' outside the stadium. Kovacic was breathing hardly now. He handed the phone back to Bethany.

"They didn't even play a minute of the game, and they think they have the right to dish out punishment?" His voice was low and deep, dangerous. Suddenly, he shot out of the locker room, towards the backstage. "Racist bastards!!"

"He's going outside!" Marcos Alonso warned.

"Oh no." Caballero gulped.

"Willian, Olivier, stop him before he breaks someone's nose." Lampard ordered quickly. The duo sped out of the locker room.

"I'm not going out there." Tammy stated firmly. Bethany looked at him.

"Tammy-"

"I'm not going." He repeated, looking up at her. She knew he meant it. However, she wasn't going to leave him in the stadium.

"Hey." She grabbed his hands. "There's no way we're leaving you here. No matter what you did out there, you did your best. And we all appreciate it." She smiled at him.

Tammy looked away. "I didn't do my best. If I did I wouldn't have missed that penalty. God I'm such a-"

"Don't." She turned his face towards hers. "You're not an idiot. Everyone misses a penalty. It's normal. Please let's just go. I promise I won't let any angry fans hurt you."

Tammy just looked at his locker again. She sighed, then looked at Lampard. He understood her communication, and he turned to the team. "Let's go, lads. Tammy and Bethany'll meet us in the bus." They started leaving, Kepa popping his head back to look at them.

"Call me if you need help." He whispered.

Bethany smiled. "Thanks." Kepa gave a little salute and joined the others.

Bethany bit her lower lip as she turned to face Tammy. He was still staring at his locker. She bent down to  his height, since he was sitting on a bench. He was still looking at the locker  with his name on it. She somehow understood why he was looking at it.

"No." She stated.

He looked at her.

"You're not leaving Chelsea." She continued.

His eyes widened a little. How did she know what he was thinking about? A mind reader she was.

"Tammy," She moved to sit on the bench beside him. "Stop. Stop hurting yourself. You missed a penalty. So what? I've missed a penalty. Both for Chelsea and England. Barkley has missed a penalty. Heck, even Jorginho has missed a penalty! Even Lampard. Drogba. Let's not forget our legendary goal scoring defender and captain, John Terry. Anyone can miss a penalty. Even the two best players in the world have both missed quote a number of penalties in their careers."

He shook his head. "This penalty was very important....."

"Every penalty is important, but it doesn't mean people can't miss. Of course people don't intentionally miss penalties -though some do sometimes -but it doesn't mean it's inevitable."

She put her hand in his shoulder. He looked at her. She gave a small smile. They stayed like that for a few moments. Then he smiled back at her.

"C'mon," She stood up. "Let's go."

He nodded, and rose to his feet as well.

"Hey." Bethany called softly.

"Huh?" He replied.

"Promise me one thing."

"What?"

She sighed. This was going to be hard for him to do, but they had to try.

"Promise me you won't leave Chelsea. At least till the season's over."

Tammy blinked twice. Was she begging him to stay? After his grave mistake cost his team a very valuable trophy?

"Bethany-"

She quickly grabbed his hands with hers. "Please. Promise me."

He looked at her. She was about to cry. Here he was, he totally messed up and yet someone was begging him to stay. If anything, he was grateful.
He smiled at her. "I promise."

She sniffled a little, and smiled back. "Alright." She released his hands and turned around to walk out.

"But the fans...... outside......" Tammy stopped and put his hands in his pockets.

"Fine. I'll call Kepa." She reached for her phone. "Let's just hope Mateo hasn't broken anyone's nose....... yet."

Tammy looked at his locker again. He knew he had a long season ahead of him, now that he was staying in London.

And to be honest with himself,

He wasn't prepared for it.