Total pages in book: 124
Estimated words: 119005 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 595(@200wpm)___ 476(@250wpm)___ 397(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 119005 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 595(@200wpm)___ 476(@250wpm)___ 397(@300wpm)
While I was at the academy, I’d shared two classes with Beth, even though I was a year older. It was how the senior classes worked at the school. We’d become friends quickly, and then we became more. The “more” didn’t last long before she made sure we became nothing.
I’d shared things with her I’d never shared with anyone. And just after her sixteenth birthday, a few months before I left to play for Caley, Beth stopped talking to me. She avoided me in the halls, started sitting as far from me as possible in class, and she’d started dating the son of a millionaire who was a complete prick.
When I’d finally gotten up the courage to confront her, she’d told me that we were “too different.”
I’d taken that to mean exactly what I knew she’d meant.
I wasn’t good enough for a fucking Carmichael.
My hands fisted around the leather steering wheel of the Land Rover.
Aye, I’d shown her. I’d shown them all.
“Are you okay?” Georgia asked quietly.
“Fine. Which number are you?”
She gave me her house number and I pulled off onto the side of the road at her direction.
“Well … see you around?”
I nodded, giving her a barely there smile. “Thanks for last night.”
“Aye, right,” she huffed with a tight smile of her own and jumped out of the vehicle. “Arsehole,” she muttered before she slammed my door a wee bit too hard.
Honestly, I couldn’t tell anymore if I deserved her anger or not.
Thankfully, I wasn’t late by the time I pulled into my parking space at the Caley training grounds and stadium in south Carrick Knowe. The gaffer fined us ten quid for every minute we were late.
The restlessness I’d felt all morning began to fade. Coming here was always like coming home. Danny, a security guard, let me in, and I quickly asked after his wife who’d recently given birth to a wee girl. He knew about the fining system, so he didn’t keep me long. I waved at Janice behind the reception and at the familiar faces of the staff as I hurried through the hallways to the locker room.
“Oi, oi!” Baird yelled as I strolled inside. “Here he is. Late night?”
No matter how well the cleaners cleaned, and how carefully our kit manager took care of the place, the locker room still smelled of Lynx deodorant over a layer of dirty socks.
The guys laughed and joked about the possible reason for my late night as I dropped down at my cubicle and started to change.
“Please tell me it was Beth.” Baird leaned in with a wink.
“Fuck off. I wouldn’t touch her with a ten-foot barge pole.”
Baird looked genuinely affronted on Beth’s behalf. “Then there is something seriously wrong with you.”
I pointed a finger at my best mate. “Do not befriend her.”
“All right. On one condition. Tell me why you hate her.”
“I want to hear this,” John piped up from my other side.
“Hear what?” Kaito Tanaka, one of our central defenders, called from across the locker room. The Japanese player’s hearing was far too good. He was one of three Japanese players on the team. Ever since Japan made the top twenty in the International Football Association rankings, clubs from all over the UK had started recruiting players from the country, Caley United among them.
“Nothing.”
“It does not sound like nothing.” Kaito turned to his fellow countryman, Botan, and started speaking in rapid Japanese, gesturing to me.
Botan turned to me, surprised. “Girl problems? You?” His next words were in Japanese.
“He said,” Kaito translated, “‘if you have problems, the rest of us are fucked.’”
That broke through my irritation, and I grinned at Botan. “Not at all, you sexy bastard.”
Botan’s spoken English wasn’t as great as Kaito’s, but he understood and grinned arrogantly.
“Naw, naw.” Baird pulled on the vest that would house the unit that tracked and measured his performance during training. “Let’s not change the subject. Beth. What is going on there?”
“Why are you so interested?” I cocked my head at him. “If you want to fuck her, go ahead.” As soon as I said the words, I wanted to take them back.
Baird narrowed his eyes. “Maybe I will.”
Wanker.
“Right, lads, are we all here, then?” Our gaffer marched into the room, our assistant manager Sven at his back. Brian O’Kelly had been the manager for Caledonia United for the last two years. We came second in the Scottish Pro League last year, something Caley hadn’t done in decades. It was probably the only reason Brian hadn’t succumbed to the seeming two-year rule at the club. We, like most clubs these days, went through managers like serial monogamists.
“Saved by the bell,” Baird muttered, side-eyeing me. “But we’re not done here.”
“You are worse than a gossiping aunt,” I growled back. “And I’m going to aim every ball at your balls for the next six hours.”