#its a football thing

[sunwarmed-ash]

So I saw this video as a new bby gay

and it still cracks me the fuck up with its relatability

but now I also see Billy/Steve and I just gotta write it.

[pouletpourri]

hatsune miku and the pines twins, but everyone's brazilian

[solhunder]

what if amity park was in mn part 1/?

happy fooball everyone

[jewreallythinkthat]

The most moderate, nuanced and productive people I have discussed the Israel-Hamas war with have been Jews, Israelis, and people with Palestinian family. Everyone directly affected by this just wants it to stop and to have peace and safety in the region in a way that minimises the casualty count.

The most extreme and performative and vile things I've been told are by people who have no connection to this and like to think they are experts because they have covered adjacent topics during learning, or read stuff online.

If all the randos in the west would just shut up for ten minutes and let those of us actually affected, with an understanding of the history of the land and the culture and the generational trauma experienced by Jews and Palestinians alike talk, we might actually have a chance to salvage this and stop it spiraling

[applepixls]

watching ren's scootball episode and joel being the aggressive star scootball player? there is so much room for aus and rival scootball team stuff with etho...

[towerofluin]

C’mon Raph, don’t noogie the elderly

(Or: finally, communication)

[littleplantfreak]

Okay but ghost Umemiya who has unfinished business?

Imagine you move to Makochi and keep seeing a tall guy with white hair hanging around. You start really feeling bad that no one pay as much attention to him even though he seems to be so so happy to be there. When you ask about him, however, you get a weird look from people, or maybe its discomfort, but you don’t know for sure until someone tells you about the death of a boy beloved by the town. He died too suddenly and so young too. Internal bleeding from a fight that never got fully checked out or whatever the story seems to be.

If you reach out, to you he’s solid, but no one else can see him and he nearly cries in relief, being able to talk to someone for the first time in four years.

Helping him check in on everyone and tie up the loose ends so he could move on peacefully instead of staying stuck watching the people he loves live on without him oof. and maybe you slowly fall in love with this sweet boy only you can see idkidk

[marblerose-rue]

click for better quality!

the planes of existence

[mash4077confessions]

wild how they decided to play it safe and not involve Mulcahy in the major plot of "George", but still decided to have him show up for a bit, where he gets tackled, and dog piled by like every single corpsman in camp.

[ridragon]

You guys should read 17776. It's best to go in blind. It's about how football will look in the future.

(Warning that there is a very fast moving part specifically in the beginning in case you have photosensitivity, and the story includes gifs and videos. If you are sensitive to unreality some parts may bother you.)

[holymountdias]

Love triangle pt. 1

Erling Haaland x (fem)reader, (mention of Jadon Sancho)

Summary: A past relationship of yours broke you to the point that you weren’t being yourself anymore, but what happens when your ex’s best friend takes interest in you and he helps you take revenge. Will it all be just a game for you or become more than friends?

Word count: 3.7k

Notes: angst, smut, fluff

PARTS: 1.0 2.0 3.0

You were lazily laying on your bed along with your best friend, both scrolling through your phones with no words being exchanged as you were too bored and had nothing really to talk about. The past month was only filled with stress and bad mentality as uni and life was challenging you to the fullest with the only interesting part of the day being when you were going to sleep or eat. You had no energy to go out hence why you were currently laying around on a Friday night at your house, instead of being somewhere outside “enjoying life”.

“i swear to God if i see another story of someone from our class at the club, i’m gonna go insane” you kept listening to her complaints the past hour and you only hummed uninterested in response not really taking her seriously.

You sense her eyes on you after that but you still give no reaction to it, until you feel her move around on the mattress and the next thing you know your phone disappears from your hands. You turn your head to the side to glance at your friend annoyingly only to meet with an ironic grin.

"We need to go out” she suddenly blurts out and you groan out in frustration

“ i don’t want tooo, i look and feel like shit can’t we just stay in?’’ you whine out in protest as you move to lay on your side down before closing your eyes as well.

“Noway i’m going to let you sulk in your room for the millionth time this month; besides if i remember correctly you have already been invited to some fancy ass party’’ she responds, while emphasizing the last part with a different tone.

“Its just Jadon’s birthday he won’t judge me if i don’t make an appearance and i’m pretty sure he just asked me cause he is friends with my brother and just wanted to be polite’’

“oh shut up as if he hasn’t been texting you since you two met’’ she says, making you huff out.

To be truly honest you would also like to believe your friend’s little romance scenario as well, since Jadon Sancho was one of the few people in the football field that stood out to you after meeting them.

You were introduced to him through your brother, the infamous Mason Mount, after a football match since they were both playing for the England team at that time.

You soon found yourself spending like an hour with the both of you leaning against the wall in a random corridor inside the stadium building, throwing jokes and opening up about your lives.

You ended up exchanging numbers and socials and from then on you would text each other from time to time. You didn’t know what to expect from him, after all he was a football player with a busy schedule and quite the following when it came to girls, so you just never took anything seriously that came from him; not the teasing, not the random compliments when you posted a story on your ig, not the time he asked you to hang out that you might or might not rejected cause you were scared that he just wanted you for sex; quite the frequent habit for all the footballers but you weren’t up for that. Not after what happened with him. So in other words even if he indeed was interested in you at first he couldn’t still be after all this time, right?

“If you met him too you would know he is friendly to everyone” you open your eyes to look at her seriously and she just smiles devilishly at you.

“Well if it won’t be about Jadon tonight, i’m sure Erling will be, he will be there right??” she asks persistently.

“probably…”

“Perfect” she speaks loudly and gets off the bed quickly heading towards your closet.

“Y/F/N NO’’ you try to protest but with no results as she looks determined to get you ready for the party tonight.

“ok so dress or skirt?”

You sit up in your bed before brushing your hand through your hair in frustration. 

“I seriously don’t want to see him.”

“fuck….faster..”

He started thrusting in faster at once as his grip around your hips tightened, almost making it hurt. The combination of pain and pleasure made your pussy pulse around him and you heard him let out a groan in reaction.

You kept moving your hands in front of you on top of the vanity as if you were trying to get away; your mind was driven by the ecstasy while your eyes were closed and your mouth slightly open as quite whimpers kept escaping from you.

Suddenly you felt his upper front being pressed against your back as he leant his face down, resting it beside your face, his mouth touching your ear while his breaths brushed against it.

“Look at the mirror baby”

You obeyed to his words and first thing you saw is his darken gaze on you, how he eyed you like a starved animal and you were his prey. His thrusts slowed down but you felt his whole body moving against your body in such way that he somehow hit deeper inside you. You were so turned on, that your whimpers became loud moans but were quickly muffled by Erling’s hand as he covered your mouth with it.

“shut up”

Your lower back arched as you felt his other hand grabbing your ass and then spanking it a few times, his face once again turned towards your face, close to your ear as he kept talking dirty to you.

“do you want to get us caught baby? do you want all the people in the house to come and see what a slut you are for me? how much you love my cock and fuck you with it? hmm?”

His voice was driving you wild, making you tilt your head from the back to the side, your eyes closed once again, as he traced his mouth lower towards your neck, slightly sucking on it.

You could sense your climax nearing but he already knew that by how much your walls were tightening around him so he moved his hand around you, placing his long fingers on top of your clit as he started playing with it while his thrusts turned into pounding.

“Cum for me baby” 

Your body automatically started shaking from your intense orgasm but he kept holding you close to his body til you were calm again but right afterwards his own orgasm started coming through, since your climax triggered his too.

You knew this man for a about 5 months and he somehow managed to have you wrapped up around him with his generous, charming and affectionate character and of course his handsome looks.

Damn everybody could see how much different he was compared to all those snobbish and stuck up footballers and you admired that for him. You first met him at a club where your dearest brother held a party for his birthday celebration and couldn’t you have thanked him enough.

You kept throwing glances at each other from afar but none of you actually came up to introduce yourselves until it was time for you to leave but your ride had ditched you up for someone else and what more perfect time for him to appear like your prince, offering you a safe ride home.

Now in a normal occasion you wouldn’t accept because obviously, stranger danger, but you were slightly drunk and your mind was driven with interest to get to know this man. So you did and it was great and you thought that you would never regret it til you did…Long story short after the ride he asked for your number to your surprise and you did give him it.

There was so much attraction between you two that quickly turned into sexual tension and soon enough you would both be testing it out. You never really discussed about labels but he treated you in such a way that he made it seem as if he was serious.

He took you out on dates, gave you his flannel, invited you to his matches to watch him playing, he would take care of you in every way possible. And of course everything in secret from the public and your brother and everyone else from your inside circle.

Basically you were the only ones who knew. So here you were at your brother’s house that he held a party at and you were fucking in one of his bathrooms behind everyone’s back. And everything was perfect or so you thought..

He slowly pulled out of you but the motion still managed to take your breath away for a second as you adapted back to the emptiness inside you.

You turned around to stand against the vanity with your hands behind your back, to watch him as he cleaned himself up and discharged the condom away.

Right when he was done, he turned to look at you with a small grin on his face, before he came to stand right in front you, bending his body towards you with his hands gripping the counter behind, cornering you in between them.

“Hopefully nobody heard you or else i’m gonna have to deal with your brother”, he joked and you rolled your eyes; the corners of your mouth turning up.

“First of all there is a whole party going downstairs and secondly i wasn’t that loud Haaland”

“Is that so baby?”He whispered after he leaned closer above your face.

Your height difference had you tilting your head slightly backwards to look at him straight through his blue eyes with as much confidence as you could master up without getting flustered like a high school girl.

“Yes” you slowly muttered with your gaze fixed on his as if you were put under a spell, your pupils were dilated as you were filled in with lust once again and he loved it.

No matter how many times he would ruin you, you would still come back for more and couldn’t he be more happy to comply to your wish.

He shifted his hand right under your chin and raised your face towards his, your lips were so close that were almost brushing, but never touching and to your frustration that’s where he paused.

He just continued to observe you, looking at every little detail on your face, from your wet lips, to your rosy cheeks, to your sparkling eyes, to your messy hair. There was not a single thing he disliked on you, in fact he could see himself being with you in the feature as well but right now he knew the truth and the truth hurt.

His face frowned slightly for a mile second and that got you intrigued in what he possibly could be thinking.“What?” you questioned quietly snapping him out of his train of thoughts.

He just shook his head instead initiating that it was nothing, but before you could ask him again he closed the gap between you, pecking your lips gently as the palm of his hand cupped the side of your face.

“We should go” he muttered after a minute, shaking you out of your zone and you pouted in a teasing way in your effort to get him to change his mind. You had been in this bathroom for about half an hour and you knew that he was right, if you wanted to keep people out of suspicion, but it was getting hard for you sometimes to keep acting like strangers.

A corner of his mouth lifted as he reacted with amusement to your childlike way to convince him otherwise, but he just pecked your lips one last time before he started getting ready to leave and that seems like that was your answer.

A sigh of disappointment escaped you which gained you a chuckle from him but nonetheless you slowly started dressing back up ass well.

Just before he could open the door to go, your words stopped him in his tracks.

“When do you think we can tell the others?” he shifted around to look at you as you spoke again “You know…about us?” you stared at him; your eyes burning with both hope and anxiety for what his response was gonna be.

“Look i think we should keep it low for a little while more” you instantly felt your chest falling to your stomach, as your hopes crashed to the ground, your brows furrowed while sadness overcame you.

Instantly bad thoughts started filling in your mind like, was he not feeling the same? did he intend to have you hidden until he grew tired of you? were you just a plaything for him after all? His form standing right in front you had you snapped out of your thoughts; he picked up your face by the chin to make you look at him.

“Hey, stop thinking too much about it, i just- i just have a lot on my plate..with the team right now and bringing you to the public won’t be very helpful for me, like people are gonna start attacking you and then there is Mason, its juts not..easy right now.”

You nodded repeatedly as you tried to look understanding to what he told you while you forced your face to relax from your previous sad expression.

“No i get it, its a whole process and i can’t give you that kind of pressure right now.” You assured him and he just smiled at you affectionately. “You are not giving me any pressure baby, we are in this together alright?” you hummed in response and after he gave you a soft kiss on the cheek, he finally exited the room.

Once the door was closed you let out a sight of disappointment but also regret before brushing your fingers through your hair and taking a sit on the side of the bathtub, hanging your head low; your mind deep in thought once again.

On one side what he said made sense like your situation was not as easy and that could also be because of who your brother was but at the same time you couldn’t help but feel a bit sad that he didn’t want to take the next step and regret for even asking him for it in the first place. The last thing you wanted was to keep him out of focus from his job.

“Look i know what happened, but it needs to stop affecting you whenever you see him. Especially when there will always be a chance of you two coming across each other because of your brother.

So..” she picks up a satin dress from the hangers of your closet and shows it off to you, initiating for you to take it. “dress up girlie.”

No matter how much you wanted to protect your own feelings you know she is right and it is probably about time for you to move on, so what better sweet time to do it. You drag yourself clumsily from the bed and after your best friend gives you a heads up you take the dress from her to start preparing.

After you left the bathroom, you found yourself chatting with some girls from the party, including some football player’s girlfriends and although you didn’t know all of them, you were having fun. At some point you wanted to get a new drink so after excusing yourself from the group you headed towards the kitchen.

Before you were to go inside, you heard loud voices and laughter coming from the room, among some you could recognise, like Jack’s, Phill’s, John’s or Rice’s and some other guys, but you couldn’t tell who they were. The kitchen was a bit further from where the party and the loud music was taking place so the voices were clearer in this area of the house.

There was one voice in specific that made you want to stay behind and continue listening to what was being said in the room.

“Hey Haaland that was a long bathroom break dude” you heard someone say, as the rest of the group started laughing while he just shook his head in annoyance.

“Drop the act, what’s her name” the same voice asked causing the others to start questioning.

“I don’t know what you are talking about” Erling tried to deny but they all mocked his answer, knowing well that he was lying.

“Man, i saw you the other day with some blondie, was that her?” you heard Phill this time.

“No” he bluntly responded, but they started protesting for his lack of information.

“Drop the name man who is it?” Declan asks and all the guys around started agreeing.

“It’s no one, just a random one i met some time ago” he finally reveals, making the rest of the circle become loud with excitement once again.

“It’s nothing serious, we are just fucking” he quickly interrupts them, hoping that that will shut their noisy asses up but it wasn’t the case.

“Does she know about the other chick’s you have been fucking behind her back?” you hear Jack ask him and the room fills in with loud laughter once again.

“Not really”, he replied and the guys went wild.

“Yoo dude is it even serious like, are you going to tell her or?”

“Look i told you its nothing fucking serious, i’m just fucking with her for a little while and i move on, that’s it”, “I wouldn’t even care less if she found about the others, i can replace her anytime” he adds, making the group laugh out again.

You had heard enough.

You pushed the door open and entered the kitchen as the room soon went silent to see who it was.

“Hey Y/n” Declan was the first one to greet you and you greeted them all back with a plastered smile on your face, while avoiding the eyes of a particular person.

“What did i interrupt you guys from?” You asked them cheerfully as you headed towards the fridge to grab yourself another drink.

“Nothing we were just talking” someone spoke up and you leaned against the kitchen counter with your drink in your hand.

“Ohh i get it, hooks up of the week” you said with a small giggle and they agreed.

“Hey y/n did you perhaps catch a glimpse of a girl Erling was in the bathroom with, about an hour ago. He was locked up there for like half an hour and the guy tried to convince us that he was by himself.” Phill interjected this time and you looked at him with a knowing grin on your face, “no way, who was it?” Declan asked but you just shook your head slightly.

“Look guys, its not my place to say, but maybe Erling here, doesn’t want to share the name cause he forgot which one of his chicks was it.” your answer made Erling tense up more as he kept burning holes on you with his gaze the whole time you have been in the room. “Isn’t that right Haaland?” you ended up shifting your attention on him all of a sudden.

“Not the important one’s” he answered as the whole room burst in laughter,

“What are you saying dude, you literally admitted that she was just a plaything” Jack adds in the conversation making you grin lowkey sadly as you lowered your head for a second, but thankfully no one noticed.

“Oh how comforting it must be for her to at least remember her name then huh?” you spoke ironically; your words tasted like venom and he knew that cause they were directed towards him.

“Anyway guys, i gotta get back to my group, sorry that i couldn’t help you identify Haaland’s 4th chick of the week.” you joked once again but you knew that all jokes were on you in the end cause you were the one they were looking for, your were his plaything of the week or better say for the last five months, along with some other playthings of course, but for Haaland that was not worth being mentioned.

After you left the room you heard your name being called and you could tell it was him but you neither had anything more to say or even had the energy to talk to him for the rest of the night, especially when you were supposed to be celebrating your brothers birthday party.

“Y/N WAIT” you heard him yelling before he finally caught up with you and stopping you from walking any further, grabbing you by the arm and you turned your body around to look at him.

“Look i was going to tell you-”

“Oh really? i thought you wouldn’t care if i found out since you can replace me anytime” you cut him off by repeating his own words back in the kitchen, and he seemed to get more frustrated with the situation.

“No you don’t get it, i really lik-” before he can finish his sentence he got interrupted by people singing the birthday song and you both turn your heads to glance back in the main room where all the guests were gathered around a huge cake and your brother standing in the middle.

The sound was so much louder since you were closer to the party area now, making you frustrated as well. Nevertheless that was your signal to end this, cause you had more important things.

“It’s too late for that shit Erling, we are done, no buts” you finally said and you made a move to leave but he caught you again forcing you to look at him with pure anger in your eyes.

“I can fix this, give me another chance” he slowly says while the intimacy in his eyes burned into yours; when he grabbed you for the second time, he had managed to pull your body so close to his that even your faces were only a few centimetres apart.

“Have fun with your side chicks Haaland” you slowly muttered before looking at him one last time and after getting your hand out of his grip you hurriedly headed towards the celebration.

Your eyes were glistened as tears threatened to spill but you were quick to angrily wipe the corners of your eyes and hold yourself back from breaking down in front of a bunch of people. The only thought that clouded your mind was

How could you be so stupid?

[takiki16]

(click for image descriptions)

[meteora-fc]

of all the england players to score against ireland it just HAS to be rice and grealish 😭

[th3swarm]

you ever feel a hyperfixation coming on . like i thought my mom said the title of the thing and i was like 👁👁👁👁 . if i watch this its going to take over my whole brain and its gonna be awful

[trentskis]

i hate man united deeply but ppl saying the away fans last night gave the players more support than they "deserved" is such a good example of the miserable bitch attitude amongst english football fans. like i actually think it's nice when fans stand by their team and players regardless of their performance and maybe even more so if they played like ass but that's just me

[effervescentdragon]

a little snippet of a much bigger fic (hopefully, sometime) that wouldn't leave me alone since the lfc-ajax legends game, for @san-maranello and @sebsrainbowbicycle <3 also i feel like posting something so there.

“He is really good,” Jamie says, because he is old and he remembers playing against the Mancs in the legend game and he could barely keep his breath halfway through the first half. Torres just played full ninety minutes, as did Stevie, and no matter what, that in itself is admirable.

Stevie says nothing, just sips his beer. Jamie… doesn’t want to let it go.

“I mean, he’s what, almost forty, yeah? And he -”

“Just turned forty,” Stevie interjects. “Three days ago.” 

Jamie looks at him. Stevie taps his fingers on the beer glass. He doesn’t look like he wants to say anything. He looks like those words were torn out of him already. 

Jamie goes on. “Yeah, forty. And he played full ninety, innit? Amazing,” he finishes, and takes another sip of his beer. Stevie nods, his face flat. “Too bad he couldn’t keep that form up with the billion pound bottle jobs,” he says laughing. “For him, not for us, but whatever. His decision, his fault.”

He goes to take a sip and catches the shadows on Stevie’s face. There’s something in his eyes that Jamie almost recognizes from a long time ago, but it’s gone when Jamie puts down the glass. Stevie doesn’t look like he’s going to say anything and so Jamie continues. 

“They put him against us right after,” Jamie says. “I said this to Gary, that last time we played Chelsea, what, four, five years ago? Yeah, s’mthing like that,” he continues, “I told him, That was a mistake, not against us, not after everything, yeah?” Stevie isn’t looking at him, just staring into his glass. “My thoughts, that’s what fucked him over the most. That’s why he couldn’t get himself together after.”

Stevie taps the glass. “You talk about Gary loads, yeah.”

It’s not a question. Jamie still shrugs. “Yeah, guess so. We work together, ya know? Might’ve caught us on the telly sometimes, if you bothered to watch Premier League anymore,” he adds with a grin. 

Stevie gives a small smile. “Can’t be arsed to watch ya manhandle the Manc,” he says, and Jamie refuses to think any more about it.

“Back to the El Niño,” he grins, “not a niño anymore, right? He’s a huge fella now, looks like he ate himself, honest.”

Stevie laughs, shaking his head. “Yeah, but he was always big, innit, always taller than us.”

“Anyones taller than youse,” Jamie says with a wicked grin. “‘Cept Gary, I reckon. He’s tiny.”

“‘Cept in his waistline,” Stevie laughs. “If anyone looks like he ate himself…”

Jamie frowns.

“Don’t go tellin’ him that, yeah? He’ll get mighty upset. ‘Sides, ‘s not even that bad, I just like taking the piss out of him for all those chocolates he eats, though they do make him less grumpy. Feels like that’s the only thing I can wind him up about.” He pauses. “And how shit United are, obviously.”

They exchange a look that very cleary says That FA Cup game was a fluke and we aren’t talking about it, and then Stevie chuckles. “Fine. I won’t make fun of your boyfriend, least not in his face.” He laughs. “Or waist.”

“Fuck ye,” Jamie says, but he knows Stevie means it. He isn’t the kind of guy to go for the below the belly shots, Stevie, proper and honourable lad he is. Those kinds of shots are more Jamie’s territory.

Speaking of…

“Could you even hug ‘im after the goal, with how broad he got since the last time we played?”

Stevie narrows his eyes. “Yeah, was fine. That was a nice goal, I’m glad he could score again. Would’ve liked to have scored one meself, but it wasn’t meant to be I guess.”

“Not for a lack of trying. He was passing you the ball something vicious.” Jamie chuckles. “I liked when you just laid there in front of the goal after you missed, felt very oh-seven. Some things never change.”

“Yeah, well. Some things do.”

Now, Jamie knows this is something he should let go. They haven’t talked about a lot of things for a very long time, and it’s been a very long time since it happened. They’re all in their forties now, doing different things and moving on with their lives. 

Except, are we? Jamie thinks. I’m with Gary, watching more football than I ever played, or so it feels. Stevie’s in Saudi, coaching, just like Xabi in Germany, and hopefully in England soon. Even Torres is coaching in Spain, Under 19s or sommat. Did we ever move on, really? Can we?

The thoughts are a mite depressing and too serious for a night out with his best mate who doesn’t come home nearly as often as Jamie would sometimes like him to. They throw off his rhythm in a way he doesn’t know what to do with. 

“Yeah, could’ve scored more for us if he weren’t a cunt and went to Chelsea,” he says nonsensically, a sentence he’s said a million times in the past, what, fifteen years? They’ve all said it thousands of times, in every tone imaginable, and he thinks nothing of it. 

Stevie usually thinks nothing of it, and usually agrees, or at least shrugs, unwilling to give any more of his thoughts on that disaster. 

Not tonight, apparently. 

“He was so good,” Stevie says, taking a huge gulp of his pint. “We were so good, fuck, it was the same today, yeah? One pass and I knew where he would be, and I knew where he’d expect me to be, ‘cept I can’t run that fast anymore and neither can he, not like we used to.” Jamie doesn’t like his tone, doesn’t like how it feels like it will stop being calm any second now. “I came in late, couldn’t get away before, and they pulled us into this shoot, barely had a moment to say hello to anyone and then we were already on the pitch.” He shakes his head. “And it didn’t matter. He still knew, and so did I, just like before.”

He should interrupt. He should. This isn’t… they don’t talk about this.

Stevie slams the glass on the table. “Yeah, well,” he says, rubbing his left eye with his ring finger. “He went, didn’t he? Fucked himself well over with that, yeah,” he says with a small snort. “Didn’t fuck us, but he fucked himself well and done when he left. Was never any good after us.”

Jamie thinks about whether he should say anything. Again, he thinks about how Stevie doesn’t come home often, sequestered away in Saudi and how good it is to have him home, if only for a while. He thinks about unsent messages and about how these days, he texted someone else instead of Stevie first. He thinks about Gary and about how his phone would light up sometimes and how Jamie would know it was their United of ‘92 group chat just by Gary’s smile. (Look what Scholesy sent me, Carra - Is it his feet, do you have to pay him, is this a foot fetish - Fuck you, no, it’s a meme and it’s really funny - I doubt it, but show it to me anyway Gary-lad) He thinks about Torres’ face every time Stevie was next to him, way back when in oh-six, oh-seven, and how he never looked away, his eyes always only on their Captain. He thinks about Xabi’s message, Take Stevie out tonight? He will need it. And drink something for all of us, James, and I might see you soon ;) and the Fuck you, don’t get me hopes up he sent in response. He thinks about how he never made an effort to ask for Torres’ number after that last charity match, and how he knows that Stevie still has it. (Called him, yeah, for the charity thing - Why? - Because he’s one of us - Is he? - He was. He is - I don’t think it works like that - You fucked off to the States - I didn’t want to - Yeah, Stevie, I know - It’s not the same - No, it ain’t - Yous can’t have him for your team - I don’t want him, the fuck would I do with him, he was always yours - I don’t think that works like that either.)

“Yeah,” he says, “you’re right there, Stevie.”

Stevie takes a moment, then sighs.

“Fuck you, Carra. But?”

“But what?” Jamie plays stupid, except, he learned how to play stupid when he was a kid standing right next to Stevie. 

Stevie, who rolls his eyes in the same way he always did when Jamie was a tad obnoxious.

“Exactly. But what, Jamie?” Stevie asks again, sharp and careful.

Jamie, curiously enough, thinks about Roy out of all people. About Roy saying They think they can come for one of mine, well, I think they should pick on someone their own size about Viera and Gary that once a lifetime ago when Jamie despised them all and he thinks about how Fernando was always big and strong but his eyes were always childish and wild when he looked at Stevie and he says, “But, Stevie… you told ’im to go.”

The breath Stevie sucks in is sharp. His voice, sharper. “Go get us ‘nother pint, Carra, yeah?” Captain’s voice, like a blast from the past.

Jamie knows not to disobey his captain when he uses that voice. He gets up and says, “Youse payin’,” and thinks he’ll never listen to that curiously cheerful-sounding voice in his head saying Jaaaaamie, you have to talk about your feelings man, or you’ll combust! 

Fuck Micah, and fuck Xabi, and fuck Stevie and Torres, and fuck all of this, he thinks, and orders them Lagavulin to go along with the pints. Stevie’s payin’ anyway. Jamie’s gonna take advantage of that.

What are best mates for, if not drowning sorrows in good whisky?