Bellingham and Haaland

8)

After roughly 20 minutes, Bellingham decided it was time to go. The atmosphere was too much to handle, and Giovanni's voice was becoming unbearable.

Bellingham sneaked out the café, making sure he goes unnoticed. His head still hurt, but he could manage a training session today. Training wasn't starting until 9:00 AM, he had a whole hour before him, so he decided to walk.

Lost in thought, he carried on forward, kicking a small pebble.

About halfway there, his phone rang. He was not surprised by the caller at all. It was Reyna. About time.

"Hello?"

"Where did you go, dude?"
Bellingham rolled his eyes. Really took this boy 10 minutes to notice.

"I left 10 minutes ago."

"What? 10 minutes ago? You could have told us."
Gio sounded genuinely displeased.

"Sorry, I wasn't feeling well. I'm on way to practice, by the way."

There was a short silence, then suddenly Gio whispered.

"It's because of Haaland, isn't it?" Bellingham could feel Gio smiling when he said that.

"Sure." Jude hung up. What an annoying guy.

But no matter how annoying he gets, he still saw him as a close friend. He had a big mouth, but he always meant well.

***

Bellingham sat in the changing room in slilence. It's been a while since he's talked to his brother.

He dialed his number. It took a while for someone to pick up the phone.

"Urggg.. Hello??"
He sounded as if he had just woken up.

"What's up?"

"What's up??? I'm sleeping. Or, at least I was." Jobe answered, annoyed.

"My bad, didn't know your beauty sleep was scheduled after 8:30."

"Ohhhh, you cunt. I would kill you if I could."

"Sure. Say hi to dad, by the way."

"I'll consider it. Goodnight." He hung up.

That didn't last very long.

His thoughts were interrupted by Hummels, loudly slamming the door open. He stopped in his tracks, looking surprised to see someone other than himself here at this hour.

"Bellingham, still looking for your shoes?"

He was caught off guard, he completely forgot about that lie.
"Haha, not this time."

"Hope you find them, man. I know how much they mean to you." Hummels chuckled to himself.

"So anyways, what brings you here so early?" he asked the question.

Jude thought to himself. Not being able to come up with a convincing lie, he simply shrugged.

"Came here after a cup of coffee. Didn't have much to do."

Hummels nodded, seemingly satisfied with the answer.

"How have you been? Heard you got wasted."

He was hoping he wouldn't have to recount this anymore. It was already embarrassing enough.

"Yeah.. I'm alright. It was a miscalculation on my part." He said rubbing the back of his neck.

"I warned you. But it is fine. It happens to all of us at least once." Hummels offered his comforting words of wisdom.

One by one, the rest of the squad made their way to the changing room. Once again, it was very crowded and loud.

Eventually, everyone left the room to go practice.

Bellingham decided to tag along with Gio, like usual.

"Look, I was joking earlier. Why did you actually leave?" Gio showed concern.

Jude was surprised by the question, but he couldn't tell him why.
"Oh, y'know. Headache."

Gio showed mercy, and didn't press him any further.

They were running laps around the field, Gio abruptly stopped to fetch refreshments for both of them.

Bellingham sat and waited for his friend, when he felt a tap on his shoulder.
"Bellingham?"

Familiar voice. Big shadow towering over him. Could it be?

He turned his head. Sure enough, he was right. Standing above him was Erling Braut Haaland.

He was stunned for a moment. Then he remembered he should answer.

"Yeah?" He tried his best to sound unfazed.

"Sorry about earlier, I didn't wanna bring up last night in front of everyone else."

Bellingham chuckled. "Thanks for that."

Haaland continued, "I also wanted to apologise for last night. I didn't know what to do with you, so I handed you over to Reus. I didn't mean anything bad, I was just drunk myself." By this point he squatted down to look less intimidating.

"It's fine, really. It was the responsible thing to do." Bellingham was cracking his knuckles.

"I'll make it up to you. We can grab some lunch later. It's on me, of course."

This wasn't expected.

"No, it's fine really." Jude answered, hoping Haaland would insist on going.

"I insist."

Perfect.

"Alright, fine. I'll take up your offer." Bellingham said, hiding his excitement.

"Good, I'll see you after practice." Haaland said, standing up and taking his leave.

Bellingham turned around, only to see a snarky look on Gio's face from afar.

He ran up to him, tossing him his water bottle and sitting next to him.

"Spill the beans." Clasping his hands, Gio was all ears.

Bellingham couldn't bring himself to get mad at him.
"He invited me to lunch." Bellingham said, with the stupidest smile on his face.

"Ohhh, not bad?!? When are you going?" Gio congratulated, hitting him on the back.

"After practice." He said.

Gio nodded. "To think this was all thanks to me. Crazy, isn't it?"

Bellingham elbowed him, hard.