More Than a Game | Mason Mount

Twenty Three

I didn't realise at the time how ambitious my hope had been. From dinner that night, I could sense there was some hostility in the team. I hated that it all came from an accident that happened to involve me, but there was nothing I could do now except for try and play it down. I waved away concerned teammates when they came up to me, insisting that I was A-Okay. When Abby came to me and tried to complain about Lance doing it intentionally, I shut her down as quickly as I could, reinforcing that it was just an accident. 

But there was still tension, especially when it came to Mason. I sat across from him at dinner and every time I looked up, he was glaring across the room towards Lance. Lance wasn't making things any better, either. I had thought after our chat that he'd tone down on his, well, Lance-ness, but that wasn't the case. He seemed to be trying to rile up Mason more than usual. The first offence came when we were dishing up dinner: Lance cut Mason off in the line for cutlery.

Not a big deal and certainly forgivable, but then came training the following morning.
With our one game left for this break against Bulgaria, the plan was to train the morning before the game and then fly across in the afternoon. We'd have most of the morning free before the game, bar a quick run around on the pitch several hours before kick-off. 

Sessions the day before games were always pretty chilled, and this one was no exception. Gareth had us warm up, do some passing and then go into mini-games. The strikers went off to do shooting drills with the keepers, so the games were small, possession-based games. I'd been trying to ignore the slight throbbing that remained in my head, but when Mason and my team rotated to play against Lance's team, I sensed that it was about to increase. 

Lance made bad challenge after bad challenge on Mason, even though the game had absolutely no call for them. I tried to calm Mason down with comforting touches on the arm, or by making eye contact and shaking my head, but his body language and the way he was playing gave away how worked up he was getting. 

Training finished, and before I knew it we were on the way to the airport. To avoid taunts, I sat with Abby and Sophie North on the bus, and I would have done the same on the plane had Mason not practically dragged me down into the seat next to him. 

Travelling with Mason was something I always enjoyed. It was so easy to sit and talk to him through long trips, but equally as easy to listen to music together and stay silent, or even just to sit doing our own things in each other's company. Whatever it was, being next to Mason on trips always calmed me down. 

Now, though, I felt anxious from being next to Mason. I didn't want to give Lance any extra reasons to target Mason and since I now knew a lot of the reason Lance picked on him was because of me, I had tried to avoid spending too much time with him outside of training. Sure enough, Lance boarded the plane with the last few players and spotted us. He snorted and rolled his eyes, but luckily didn't say anything. Mason was tense next to me, so I nudged him in the side and told him to forget about it. 

I don't know what Lance said to Mason to eventually set him off, but it must have been bad. It was later that night, at dinner in the hotel. I was sitting with Kyle, Marcus and Walt, my head finally pain-free and my body feeling strong. Mason was late to the meal, which was unlike him, but when he did walk in, I wished he'd just remained wherever he'd been. He wandered in, his face set in a frown. For a moment I wondered why, but when I saw Lance come in after him, I realised the reason. I could see Lance's mouth moving, but couldn't hear exactly what he was saying over the noise from the rest of the team. 

Lance spoke; Mason spun around. Mason pushed him once – hard – backwards, only for Lance to square up more. He said something else, the sound of his voice carrying across the hall but his words indistinguishable. Mason was waving a finger in his face threateningly. I stood up, the noise in the room dropping as more people saw the pair. Lance was leering, clearly goading Mason.