Steal My Heart (Victor Blade)

Chapter 23

2 weeks had passed and a lot had happened. Luckily, we'd won the game against the Pirate Bay, thanks to Arion who'd finally managed to evoke his warrior spirit. So we'd passed to the national championship.

To defeat the Fifth Sector, we had to win the whole tournament, and we still had a long way to go. We'd also played against the school of Akizora, and found out that's where Doug, a former striker of the team, had transferred.

There'd been some drama that match too, between Gabi and a new player, Aitor, whom Victor had suspected being an imperial for a little while, before realising it was improbable. In the end, we'd managed to win and show Doug the light.

Word had come that more schools were joining the rebellion, and Mr. Hillman was slowly gathering votes. I sometimes thought of Colton, and how he would have been happy about all this.

As for Victor and I well... frankly, we hadn't had been able to speak, just the two of us in quite awhile. His black eye had finally completely healed, and he looked as if he'd never been beaten up.

Of course, at school, everyone had looked at Victor badly when he'd shown up with his bruised face, but the team had done its best to shield him for everyone. Even if they didn't necessarily like Victor very much, they treated him as a player of the team. As a friend. And I knew that deep down that meant a lot to Victor.

We hadn't had any night excursions either. To be honest, I'd been tempted to call him, but after that night, I knew I had to work on my insomnia. It couldn't keep eating me up forever.

"Earth to Avril?" Jade called, pulling my from my thoughts. We were walking down the hallway, heading to the soccer field for practice.

"Oh sorry, I was just thinking about something else." I said, sipping my smoothie.

"Like how Victor beat up somebody for you?" I spit the drink and started coughing, turning bright red. Jade smirked.

"W-what?" I asked, finally calming down.

"Well, I didn't know for sure, but now I am certain Victor didn't get mugged." Jade said, inspecting me.

"I..." I sighed. "I don't know what you're talking about." But my friend was clearly having none of it.

"Come on, don't play dumb with me!" She playfully punched my arm. "It doesn't take a genius to understand he beat someone up for you."

"What even makes you say that?" I asked, seriously confused. Out of everyone, Jade was the only one that would not let this go.

"Look at it this way: Friday, you show up to school, hands full of bandages, saying you fell from your bike, which we all know is a big fat lie by the way." She said and I sighed. "Then the next day, Victor shows up with a black eye, saying he got mugged."

"So?" I said, not following her.

"So, it's a really big coincidence that just when you get hurt, Victor happens to get beaten up." I bit my lip. Jade's reasoning is actually not bad. "Besides, Victor gave himself away during the game."

"What?"

"When he arrived and saw your hands, he didn't ask what happened. Why? Because he already knew." Jade mimicked a mic drop as I shook my head.

"Whatever you want to believe, Jade." I said, trying to shake her off.

"I'm just saying, there's nothing bad to it. The boy obviously has a thing for you, so-"

"Again? I thought you'd dropped this!" I said, exasperated. Ever since the first game against Mannouzaka, Jade has been convinced Victor has a thing for me. Which he does not, clearly.

"Honey, I don't drop anything." She said smirking.

"Victor doesn't like me, Jade." I rolled my eyes as she pouted.

"I'm just saying, there would be nothing wrong in Victor liking you. Besides, I'm sure you have a thing for him too." I turned red, spitting my smoothie once more as Jade smirked.

"You have to warn me when you do that!" I said.

"It's more fun this way." We laughed as we reached the football field.

The whole team was sitting, seemingly fixated on something or someone. When Arion saw us, he excitedly ran over to us.

"Jade! Avril!" He squeaked. "You'll never guess who showed up!"

"Avril?" I freeze, dropping my smoothie as I stare at his grey eyes.

"Shawn?"
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VICTOR'S POV

When Shawn Frost had showed up, out of nowhere, I knew something was going to go wrong. Arion seemed super excited, knowing all about the striker, and even the Coach had been glad to see an old friend.

I thought Shawn knew Avril played here now. But he clearly didn't.

"Avril?" He'd said, standing up, as she dropped her smoothie, incredulous.

"Shawn?" She'd murmured, startled.

"I didn't know you played here." He'd smiled warmly at her, and past the first moment of uncertainty, Avril had smiled back.

"Oh Shawn!" She'd then basically jumped in his arms, both laughing as they hugged. We were all looking at them, confused, not knowing what to do.

Shawn finally let Avril go, and she turned to us.

"Guys, this is Shawn, my coach back in Hokkaido." She explained as Arion and J.P. jumped excitedly.

"We know, we know!" They'd exclaimed, as we all laughed and relaxed.

"I didn't know you played with the Alpine Junior High." Riccardo said, the files about the players in his lap.

"Oh, well..." Avril nervously scratched her am. "A lot happened in between." She shrugged, but I knew what she really meant. Colton.

She then turned back to Shawn. "Shawn, what are you doing here? Last I heard, the Fifth Sector ran you out of town." We all gasped as Shawn smiled sadly.

"Is it true, Shawn?" Coach Evans asked, all of a sudden seeming worried for his old friend.

Shawn slowly nodded. "Yeah. They weren't happy I wasn't listening to their orders. Told me I had to get out of town as fast as possible and replaced me with some guy named "Grizzly" or whatever." Shawn then turned to Avril. "That's why I didn't testify."

Testify? What was he on about?

Avril quickly shook her head. "Doesn't matter. I had a vague idea that's why they sent you away so soon." She pressed her lips. That meant they were talking about Colton. Was Shawn involved?

"What are you talking about?" Aitor asked, to which Avril went silent and Shawn quickly looked at her, making sure she was fine.

"Nothing, don't worry about it. Old stuff." Shawn said slowly, smiling warmly at us.

I couldn't help but stiffen as I realised Shawn knew exactly what had happened.

They both sat on the bench, next to Coach Evans, Miss Hills and Coach Sharp, as they started catching up like old friends would do.

"Shawn, what happened over there? I didn't exactly keep contact after I left." Avril asked, trying to seem as cheery as possible.

"It's the reason I came, actually." Shawn sighed. "You're not going to like this." He said, looking at Avril and our coaches.

"Shawn, what happened?" She asked, placing a hand on his arm.

"They turned Njord over to their side."