For The Love of The Game

I looked at the chart, seeing that Fernando was next. I grew a bit tense knowing that I’d been reacting a little different towards him lately, what with my unusual dreams that wake me up in the morning. I wasn’t sure how I was going to react to him, basically naked. Sure I’ve seen him with no shirt on, but that was before these dreams started to occur. I exhaled deeply as there was a knock on the door, followed by Fernando announcing his presence. “What do you need me to do?” He asked as I walked him over to the examining table. I smiled at him before replying, mentally counting to ten to calm my nerves.

“I need you to take your shirt off Nando.” I flipped through his file while he did as I asked and noticed that he had been having some hamstring problems as well lately. “And your shorts too.” I kept my head down in his file so he wouldn’t see my rosy cheeks, this may be a bit difficult, I wasn’t sure why I was acting like this, I mean, I was never like this around Cristiano, even before we dated. I looked up feeling his eyes staring at me. He sat clad in just his briefs, kicking his legs that were hanging off the table and smiling at me. I returned the smile and proceeded with the examination.

“Why are you shaking?” I looked at him as he grabbed my hand in his while he lied on his back as I checked his pulse. “I don’t think you’ll get an accurate pulse if you’re shaking.” I tried to steady my hand myself, but failed miserably, searching desperately for an excuse.

“Your body is cold?” I questioned more than stated. Fernando could sense that I wasn’t comfortable and I didn’t like that he knew that.

“Princesa, you’ve done this a million times, the fact that I’m your best friend shouldn’t change anything…just, think like we’re at the beach.” I was grateful that he thought I was nervous for a different reason. I did not need him thinking that I like him right now. Why do I like Nando? Why did I have to be tortured like this, he’s my best friend, let alone my brother’s best friend, I shouldn’t be feeling this way. Maybe it was because I was in so much pain from the way things have been going with Ronaldo, maybe I was just looking for comfort. Nando patted my arm and I continued, leaving my thoughts. I checked out his thigh, made him do different stretches that flexed and worked the muscle in different ways so I could see if it was functioning 100% again. I have to admit, his thighs weren’t as muscular as Ronaldo’s, but then again, Cris is known for having big, strong thighs. It looked as though his hamstring was completely fine. I tried to push out the thoughts that were starting to cloud my head about things I would do to Nando while my hands ran down his legs, but I wasn’t having much luck. I quickly finished and cleared my throat, letting him know that he could put his clothes back on. “Am I healthy, can I keep playing?” I turned to him with a smile.

“As healthy as I’ve ever seen you, go on, back to practice.” He gave me a smirk and kissed the top of my head as he headed out the door.

“I’ll try and convince Sergio not to mess around when he comes up.” I rolled my eyes knowing my brother would want to mess with everything and not cooperate once he got up here.

“Alright, thanks Fernando, I’ll see you later.” I huffed going through his file, jotting down a few new notes about his injuries. That went better than I thought it would. I still couldn’t understand why now, all of a sudden, I was having all these feelings for him, it was odd, and it scared me a bit.

+++

“Sergio, put that down! Don’t put it in your mouth! ¡Ay Dios!” (Oh God!) I grabbed the random instruments he was messing with from his hands and smacked him upside the head. “Can you please let me just examine you and get you out of this room. Did you listen to Fernando at all?” He looked up at me and smiled from the bed.

“All I heard from his mouth was ‘blah blah blah, be good for Karm, blah blah, don’t make us kick your ass, blah blah blah.’ You know, the usual.” I closed my eyes and tilted my head from side to side to release the tension in my neck. And he’s supposed to be my older brother, when he’s around a group of friends, it’s like he changes how he acts. He becomes childish and arrogant.

“Sergi, por favor, para mi.” (Sergi, please, for me.) He gave me an annoyed sigh and removed his shirt, lying down so I could take his pulse. I looked in his file after taking his pulse, a little bit of shock running through me. “Why didn’t you tell me you had pulled a back muscle and dislocated your shoulder! Sergio!” I smacked him in the arm. He looked at me, scrunching up his face as if I hurt him. He sat up and began flailing his arms in a fit of anger.

“Because, I knew you’d get worried and mad that I wasn’t careful, sorry I can’t help what happens on the pitch.” I clicked my tongue and hugged my brother, he held me tight and leaned his head against mine. “I didn’t mean to yell, sorry.”

“It’s okay, I just would like to know, because you know I can help you with these injuries, and if I’d known sooner…I don’t know, I wou-“

“There’s nothing that you can do that Addison couldn’t have done down here. She took care of it, don’t worry.” I nodded my head as we separated and went into my bag to grab some Kinesio tape.

“I’m going to tape it up again for safe measures.”

“That sounds good, I was actually going to tell you that I was starting to feel a strain in my back again.” I walked over and had Sergio flip over on his stomach so I could tape his back and his shoulder again. Halfway through taping him up, Sergio decided that the silence was killing him. “So…Fernando likes you.” I held the tape in my hand for a second as I thought about what he had said.

“Well of course, he’s my best friend.”

“No, I mean, he likes you likes you. He told me and asked me if I was okay with it.”

“¿Que?” (What?)

“Listen, Cristiano is gone, and I see the way Nando takes care of you, mi hermanita, I think you should give this a chance. You know he’s a good guy, and he likes you! What more could you want?”

“Sergio! He is my best friend! I can’t believe you’re trying to set me up with him! And he’s your best friend too! How are you okay with this?!” I finished taping his shoulder after I did his back and he sat up, pulling his shirt on while I put the tape away. He hopped off of the bed and slung an arm around my shoulders from behind me.

“I would rather you be with someone I know and trust than someone I don’t, I mean, look what happened last time, and the time before, and the time before tha-“ I held my hand up to stop him.

“I get it, you’ve never liked my past boyfriends. Cristiano because he’s a Porto, Alejandro was a Spaniard, but an asshole.”

“Yeah, I broke his nose.” I shook my head as I continued.

“And Steven, English,”

“and a pervert. Glad I broke his nose too.” Sergio finished as I shook my head, once again. “I’m glad you never had any other boyfriends…I would have sore knuckles and probably would be in jail.” We both chuckled at his statement as he shook his head this time. “Steven…” He said under his breath in a mimicking way.

“You used to call him Esteban every time you’d talk to him, remember that.” He laughed, nodding his head then clearing his throat, preparing to imitate Steven.

“My name isn’t Esteban, ‘Serhio’, it’s Steven, call me Steve if you can’t say it. Idiota.” We both keeled over laughing. “Like Steve is a big difference from Steven.” I pushed him out the door, knowing that if I didn’t initiate his departure, he would never get to practice, and I would never finish checking the rest of the men. “Discoteca tonight hermanita! We’ll go home so we can change, but we’re going to dinner right after, so you won’t have much time! And think about what we talked about!” He yelled as he jogged down the hallway backwards so he was facing me as he spoke, glancing behind him every now and then to make sure he wouldn’t run into anything. I nodded my head and held the door open as I saw Sergio García turn the corner. What did I have to think about Fernando, he was already making regular appearances in my dreams…he wouldn’t have really told Sergio that he liked me, would he? Then again, those two are gossip queens when placed in a room with just the two of them, they’ll talk about everything and anything. I blinked, letting those thoughts leave my mind as I smiled at García, letting him in.

+++

“¡Discoteca! ¡Discoteca! ¡Discoteca!” Sergio and a few of the other boys on the team that I came to know from Fernando as the ‘party boys’ began to chant as we walked into the private, high class club with the majority of the team. They decided, that tonight, the night before we would be flying to Austria, they would like to go clubbing.

“I don’t think he’s going to wake up in the morning if he’s going to party like this.” I said to Fernando as we watched Sergio down his 7th shot in the past 5 minutes we had gotten into the club.

“No worries nena, he always gets up when he has to.” I looked over at Fernando with an are-you-sure look, to which he just smiled and nodded his head towards the rest of the group. I walked over to sit down in one of the booths with Fernando to find Iker sitting with his arm around a girl who had her head leaned against his shoulder as he was speaking to her. She was beautiful, her brown hair, falling shoulder length, and her blue eyes, I’m sure that’s what mesmerized Iker. Iker stopped talking and smiled over at Fernando and I when he noticed us.

“¡Bueno! Megan, you know Fernando. This is Karmen, Sergio’s sister and our new fisioterapeuta. She’s the one Sergio and I stayed with in England when we went for a match a while back.” I smiled and shook her hand as she reached over the table.

“So nice to meet you, Iker’s told me so much about the time he spent with you and Sergio in England.” She smiled a bright smile, showing off her perfect teeth. It was clear that she was a perfect match for Iker, I felt bad that he had never mentioned her to me, but didn’t think twice on it seeing as he never had a reason to. Iker continued his conversation with Megan while I looked at Fernando for some background information on the couple.

“He never said anything to me about a girlfriend.” I whispered by Nando’s ear as he chuckled a bit and answered back.

“Iker’s a very private man, you know that, unless asked, he won’t give out information. Other than that, Megan and him have been together for about 4 years now and they’re so perfect for each other that it’s scary sometimes.” I laughed at Fernando’s wording as he leaned back and gave me a full on smile. “I’ll be right back, I’m going to get us something to drink.” I smiled back nodding. I looked around and frowned as Fernando came back to the table.

“Where’s Addison?” I asked aloud. He took a sip of his drink before replying.

“She’s probably at the airport waiting for Gerard’s flight to come in.” I frowned knowing that I probably wouldn’t see her before we left tomorrow. “Don’t worry, you’ll see her again, she’ll be at a few of the matches with Gerard.”

“Why isn’t he playing with you guys?” I asked as I took a sip of my drink Nando had placed in front of me.

“He is still on the U-21 team, not old enough to play with us yet.” I laughed at the fact that he was only 21, he didn’t look at all that young from what I remember of him. Sergio ran over with a shot glass in his hand, the contents spilling as he came up to the table. Once he reached us, he tilted his head back to take the shot and realized the glass was empty; he had spilled it all while he jogged over to us. He shrugged his shoulders and tossed the glass behind him, not caring what happened to it as he reached his hands out towards me. Everyone laughed as he attempted to grab at my hands.

“¡Vamos Karmen! Let’s show these people how to dance!” I shook my head as fear ran over my face.

“Oh come on Karmen, don’t deny your brother.” Iker said as I looked over at Sergio again with wide eyes, he was giving me a sad face.

“He’s drunk!” I said, which caused them all to start laughing again. I felt Nando move out of his seat so I could get up. I huffed and got up, Sergio pulling me a bit harshly into him.

“Watch and learn my friends, Karmen and I are the best at what we do.”

“And what’s that?” I asked, causing him to stop and ponder his answer.

“Flamenco!” I looked at Iker and Fernando pleading to get me away, but it only encouraged them more as Iker waved his hand towards the dance floor.

“Go on Karmen, I’d like to see this.” I rolled my eyes and followed Sergio on to the dance floor. He left me for a second to go up to the DJ and came back, people clearing an area out for us in the center. Great, now we were the entertainment.

“Sergio, you’re drunk, don’t make me look like an idiot.” I whispered a bit harshly in his ear.

“Don’t worry mi hermanita.” He slurred back. “We’re gonna wow them!” I rolled my eyes as the music started. Three songs later and the crowd was clapping as I blushed, Sergio putting all his weight on me with his arm draped across my shoulders. “See, I told you we’d wow them!” I let a small smile slip as I noticed Iker, Megan, and Fernando standing up at the booth, clapping.

“Come on Serg.” As soon as I was ready to walk back to everyone, Sergio decided it was the perfect time to fall asleep. Without a word, his head fell on his arm that was draped around my shoulder, and I buckled under all of his weight, letting him fall with a thud to the ground, not even flinching him awake. “Of course you would.” I huffed and looked towards Fernando, who was already headed my way to help me get Sergio home. What a lovely night it has been.