My Goalkeeping System

"Amber." The winger called to try and snap her out of her daze, but she wasn't responding. "You flash drive's over there."

He quickly figured out that maybe it was because he was on her body and quickly got up from her body to sit on the bed.

"I'm sorry about that, but you were the one that pulled me down." He said.

She didn't say anything for a few seconds before she slowly sat up from the bed.

"Yeah, it was my fault." She said before sitting up on the bed.

'He was on my body for a while, didn't he feel anything? Or doesn't he see me that way?'

"Um….Amber." He said before giving her a light tap on her forehead to snap her out of her thoughts.

"Uh….Yeah, I'll just pick up the flash drive and leave." She mumbled before she got up from the bed and slowly made her way to the television.

"Hey, are you alright?" Mateo asked after noticing her sudden change of attitude.

"Yeah, I'll be leaving now." She said after putting the flash drive in her bag. "See you later."

"Hey, wait," Mateo said and grabbed her by her arm before she could get to the door. "What's wrong with you?"

"What are you talking about? Nothing's wrong with me." She had to put on a smile to say that, but that wasn't fooling Mateo.

"You can't fool me with that smile, I know it's fake." He said.

After saying that, the smile on her face suddenly vanished.

"Hey, what about this?" He said before he got up from the bed and went behind her to push her closer to the bed. "You sit down on the bed and we can talk for a couple of minutes, you're not in a hurry to get back to work, are you?"

"Um….not exactly." She said before shaking her head.

"It works out then." He said before he placed his hands on her shoulders and got her to sit down.

After making sure she was sitting, he slowly sat down beside her.

"So, what's the problem? You look like you suddenly remembered something that put you in a bad mood."

'Seriously? Is it really that hard for him to see?'

"Do you really want to know?" She asked.

"Yeah, as long as it's okay with you." He said.

"Okay, then." She said before letting out a sigh. "It's you."

Before the winger could even say anything, she leaned closer to him and pressed her lips against his.

That was very unexpected.

The kiss didn't last that long as she had to pull back after a couple of seconds to read the emotions his eyes were giving out.

He was shocked for sure, that came out of nowhere.

"You kissed me." He muttered.

"Yeah." She replied with a nod.

"Why?"

"Why? Because I like you of course." She said.

"You like me?"

"Yeah." She replied. "Don't you feel the same way about me?"

"Um….I like you but not in that way." He said.

"Not in that way."

Just repeating those words, she felt a stinging pain in her heart over and over again.

"I see." She muttered before slowly putting her head down.

"Amber." He called but there was no response from her.

'What was I thinking? That was a desperate move, he's going to think I'm cheap now on top of this rejection.'

As those thoughts ran through her mind, she slowly clenched both of her hands into fists.

"Amber."

As soon as he called her name again, she quickly got up from the bed and made her way to the door.

"Hey, you're leaving?"

"Yeah, maybe I should have just left the first time, I wouldn't have to hear this anyway, I'm sorry."

"Wait, Amber."

Before he could try to reach her, she left the room and slammed the door shut.

The winger stared at the door for a while before he slowly crashed down on his bed.

"What is wrong with me?"

_______ _______

The second leg of the Europa conference League qualifiers was coming up tomorrow, and because of that, the team needed to have a nice training session.

The training session started at 10:00 AM and had just ended by noon.

Dave was heading down the tunnel alongside Mateo and just like since the start of the training session, he didn't seem to be in a very good mood and that reflected on his performance a bit.

"Hey, are you going to tell me what's going on or not?" Dave asked. "You're not usually like this."

"It's nothing." He said before he let out a sigh and shook his head.

"It's nothing and your face is like that, you know when something's not right with me, you always persuade me to tell you what's wrong, why is it different in your case?"

"Um…I don't think I can talk about it in the locker room." The winger said.

"Then, let's go outside," Dave said before walking past the entrance to the locker room but Mateo just stood there.

"Hey, come on, let's go."

"Okay," Mateo said before following him.

It didn't take long before the two got outside and sat on the little step leading down.

"So, can you tell me what the problem is now?" The goalkeeper asked.

"Um…."

"Does it have anything to do with Amber?"

"How do you know that?" Mateo asked.

"Well, Emma told me she came back to work yesterday looking really, she said she went to your place to pick up something she forgot in your car."

"Oh, I see." The winger said before slowly putting his gaze down.

"She tried to find out what was wrong with her, but she just said everything, now I'm starting to wonder what you did to get her upset."

"She had feelings for me and I didn't know." He muttered with his head down.

"She has feelings for you and she told you that?"

"Yeah, I wasn't expecting it but she kissed me, it was my first kiss, after that I told her I didn't feel that way about her and she had to leave heartbroken, I feel bad for her, I shouldn't have said anything." The winger expressed.

"If what you told her is the truth, then it was the right choice to tell her there, you would only be hurting her by making her believe you feel something for her when you don't, but I wonder."

"Huh?"

"I wonder if what you told her was actually the truth." The goalkeeper said.

"What do you mean?"

"If what you told her was the truth, then you wouldn't be this hard on yourself because that was truly how you felt but you are not even clearly sure of how you feel, I know you're in a dilemma, Mateo."

"What are you talking about?"

"Well, you already had feelings for Sofia before she came around and started messing with those feelings and because you already have feelings for Sofia, you try to tell yourself that you don't feel anything for her but this isn't exactly the truth." Dave articulated.

"I…um…"

"Don't think about it too much," Dave said before putting his arm around his shoulder. "I warned you not to get caught up in stuff like this and you had to go get caught up in it."

"What you just said, it's sort of true, I don't know how I feel anymore." The winger said.

"Yeah, but just put that at the back of your mind for now," Dave said.

"Huh?"

"We have FC Basel to face tomorrow, and if we're going to beat them, we need you to be at full strength, thinking about all these is already zapping away all your strength, just focus on the match and after we win, we can talk about this again."

"Okay, I'll try to get my head straight for the match, I know we're not going to lose."

****

Mass release goals.

A magic castle= one extra chapter.

Two magic castles= two extra chapters.