บท 32: Increased Stakes
Jack stared at the hand in front of him. A million feelings welled up inside his chest as he stared at the hand; ultimately they were spearheaded by hatred and malice.
After a few seconds, Jack stretched his hand and shook the hand in front of him. "Long time no see Dylan"
Dylan smiled. "Well, I didn't see you around in Merseyside anymore after the incident. Who knew you decided to join some rubbish club"
Jack was starting to feel agitated by Dylan. He could not tolerate anyone insulting Teesside, they were the only people who decided to give him a chance to chase his dreams when all other clubs had shut the door to him.
He managed to get a grip on his emotion soon enough. It'd be a real shame to get into a fight before the match even started at all.
"It'd be a real shame to get beaten by a rubbish club on home turf" Jack smiled.
Dylan laughed at the idea of being beaten by Teesside. It was as if he just heard a very funny joke. "Do you really think you can beat us?"
"If I didn't think that we could beat you then I wouldn't have said such" Jack said.
"Even if all our first team players are injured, we'd still be able to beat you effortlessly, we have way better players than you lot. Even our academy reject gets to captain them, what a joke" Dylan laughed.
Jack's fists tightened when he heard Dylan's remark, but a smile returned to his face soon enough. "And which one of them do you happen to be, one of the squad players that only gets to start because of injury?"
Dylan's face reddened. Jack's smile widened, he knew that he struck a nerve. Knowing Dylan from childhood, he knew that Dylan was never good enough to be in the first team. He could've made space for himself in the first team if he actually worked on himself.
Instead of training and striving to improve himself however, Dylan would constantly blame the manager and the coaches for failing to see his greatness. Seeing as he was petty enough to try and rub salt in his wounds, Jack fathomed that he hadn't changed much. Jack was right.
"Do you care to make this interesting?" Dylan asked all of a sudden. He had a smug smirk plastered over his face.
Jack frowned. He didn't know why Dylan got so confident all of a sudden. His sense of reasoning told him not to accept whatever Dylan challenge Dylan was going to lay out, but the anger he felt when he saw Dylan smiling smugly was immeasurable.
It was a classic situation of emotions versus brains. Emotions won eventually.
"What do you have in mind" He asked, ignoring the warnings that his sub conscious kept sending out to him.
"Nothing much, just a simple bet" Dylan said while smiling. If not for the unmistakable malice in his eyes, one would've easily thought that he was talking to his friend.
"Go on"
"It's nothing, I've just been thinking… I don't like you, you don't like me…" Dylan's smile became deeper "Why doesn't one of us quit so the other gains the satisfaction of knowing that their rival no longer plays"
If not for the fact that he was in public, and he was having what was seen by the on lookers as a 'friendly chat' with Jack, Dylan would have burst out cackling after telling Jack the conditions of the bet. His face gave away the fact that he was trying so hard to keep himself from laughing.
Jack's heart nearly skipped a beat when he heard Dylan's words. He placed his hands on his chest to confirm the rate at which it was beating. He looked at Dylan again, this time with a little bit less malice and a lot more shock.
Yes. He wanted to accept the bet. His mouth opened and the word almost came out, then he closed it again and thought about the implications of his actions.
He had dreams, so many of them that he had yet to fulfill and was still hoping to fulfill. All his aspirations, his fantasies about winning the English League, the European Championship, the World Cup, everything could be over just because of some stupid bet that he made with a boy he didn't like.
The fact that Merseyside Red were currently dealing with an injury crisis didn't make them any easier to beat. They still had tons of gifted players like Dylan on the bench, patiently waiting for a chance to showcase their talent
As these rational thoughts embedded themselves into his mind, he was overtaken by a sudden influx of memories he thought he had forgotten.
He remembered as he was embarrassed by the coaches during training, as he was laughed at and scorned by other players, as the person who he called his best friend and his brother, the person who he would trust with his life joined them and laughed at them. He watched as those closest to him left him all alone, he watched as the coaches already declared him a failure.
"Sure, what's the harm in having a little fun?" Jack smiled at Dylan causing the latter's expression to falter a bit.
Dylan didn't expect Jack to accept the bet. He only placed the offer out there so that Jack would refuse and he would taunt him for being a coward, he didn't expect his plan to backfire.
Had the Merseyside Ref squad been at full strength then he would've had no problem with Jack accepting the bet. In fact, he would've loved it with every fiber of his being. But right now, they were plagued with injuries. The situation was so bad that the manager had to call in some players from the under sixteens to make up for numbers.
"Alright then, you made the choice yourself" Dylan said "Don't come crying back to me when you lose"
After saying those words, Dylan turned around to join his teammates who already formed a huddle. Even though Jack acted outside his calculations, there was no way that he was going to pull out of the bet and make himself look weak. Besides, what were the odds of his team actually losing the match.
Jack on the other hand, felt as if his heart was going to leave his body through his mouth. As soon as he accepted the bet, he regretted his decision but there was nothing that he could do about it. The words had already been said, the stakes had already been set.
At that moment there was only one thing that he could do… and that was to win!
A/N: Alright guys, this will be the last free chapter. I just want to say thank you to anyone who's read up until this point. I hope that you'll be able to support me and continue reading from the next chapter.
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