Chapter Text
Lamine feels a tap on his shoulder, waking him up from his short nap. He lifts his head, yawns then rubs his eyes. As he looks to his side, he sees Marc, who has pity written on his face. Marc whispers, “You shouldn't have trained so late, now you'll be tired for our game.” Lamine knew he was right, he came back to his dorm at two in the morning. Lamine had woken up at 8 after sleeping through his alarm. His roommate had to wake him up when he was just about to leave, making Lamine have to rush to get ready for his first class of the day.
All Lamine remembers from his first class of the day was being extremely hungry and dissociating. That afternoon he doomscrolled on his phone while eating lunch before going to his second class. Now he's waking up in a room full of people he doesn't know the names of, but he honestly can't find it in himself to care.
Marc is staring at him, clearly worried, but he looks away. Hector starts up a conversation with Marc, whispering so they don’t bother students around them. Lamine tries to listen in, but their voices are too quiet for Lamine's clouded brain.
Lamine reaches into his backpack, grabbing his headphones and sliding them on his head. He pulls his phone out, ignoring the dozens of texts he hasn’t responded to. He looks through his playlists, trying to decide which genre would be best. Lamine feels a finger tap his shoulder. Looking over, he sees Hector gesturing for him to take the headphones out. He pulls them back, the sound of music weakening.
“Wanna play a game?” Marc smiles. “We were thinking truth or dare.”
“Yeah, sure,” Lamine responds.
“Okay, I’ll ask first, Marc, truth or dare?” Hector asks.
“Dare, I'm not a wimp."
“Hm, I dare you to shout that you love someone on the soccer team. You can do it outside the room, but you have to stand next to the door.” Hector says. Lamine can see Marc's eye twitch with a look of bewilderment.
“Are you serious?" The giant smile on Hector's face tells him all he needs to know. Marc stands up and walks out of the classroom. A few seconds pass, Lamine and Hector make eye contact. Lamine watches as Hector quickly pulls his phone out of his pocket to secretly record, making sure to hide it from the professor.
After a few moments, Lamine’s face contorts, thinking Marc only walked out to trick them. Suddenly, they hear a shout from outside the room, “I love Hamza!" Hector smacks his face with the one hand available, hiding his laughter, while Lamine looks up at the ceiling, hiding the developing tears in his eyes.
As Lamine looks around the class to see everyone staring at the door, including the professor, who has stopped teaching to stare at where the noise came from. After a few seconds of silence, Marc walks back into the room with a fake shocked expression.
He sits back in his seat, people still staring at him, and says out loud, “Did you guys hear that? Some random person was walking by and screamed!”
Lamine burst out laughing, trying to hide the sound of laughter by putting his face down on the desk.
“Hector, I will never forgive you for this,” Marc said, clearly joking but probably not at the same time. “Okay Lamine, your turn, truth or dare?”
Lamine didn’t really have a choice, picking truth would be mean to Marc, who went all out for the stupid game, and he isn’t a pussy. “I pick dare.”
Marc thinks for a second before saying, “I dare you to flirt with someone you don’t know in this class tomorrow, and you have to sit next to them the whole class.”
Lamine sighs before looking around the room to find someone even a little bit attractive. He looks at the back of the room; he sees a group of cute girls, but they weren’t his type. He sees an okay-looking guy, but he doesn't feel like flirting with him. He looks in the middle of the room, but something is blocking it.
“Marc, move your fat head. I need to find someone to flirt with.” Marc laughs at him, but he moves his head.
In the middle of the room, Lamine saw a guy. His head was slightly tilted due to laying his head in his palm, either paying attention to the lesson or dissociating. He had brown hair that effortlessly fell down his face.
As if he could tell, the boy looked at Lamine, beautiful eyes that pierced into Lamine's soul, leaving him speechless. He had dark, thick eyebrows and long eyelashes to contrast his light eyes. The guy looked away; Lamine missed the feeling of the guy's eyes on his own. “Okay, I found the person.”
“Can I move my head back?” Marc asked, rubbing his neck. Lamine didn’t care to reply as he stared into space, the beautiful boy's face stuck in his mind.
———
Sweat drips down his forehead as he drills. His thoughts were empty; only the sound of the ball repeated.
Lamine was used to this. Late nights in the middle of the field training because that’s all he ever knew. He was used to the sky being dark and having bright lights shine down on him. He was used to being disappointed.
Lamine walks over to his bag, placed near a bench; he grabs his water, pausing to stare at the night sky.
The blue reminds him of the guy's eyes. They looked blue with even a bit of green; Lamine had to get another look. Just to check. Definitely not to admire the guy. Okay, now he’s just lying to himself.
He pours the water onto his head, drenching his face and back. Breathing heavily, he takes a seat on the bench.
——-
The next day, when Lamine entered class, he was early. Only six others had taken their seat, the guy not included.
Lamine made his way to the middle of the room and took a seat next to where his target sat yesterday.
Lamine had ten minutes until the class started. He could go on his phone, study his notes, or he could plan out what to say.
Lamine imagines the guy giving Lamine a disgusted look after saying a corny pick-up line; Lamine's face grimaces. He had to be smooth enough for it to count for the dare but not fully ruin his chances with the guy. He also had to figure out this mysterious stranger's name.
While Lamine was in deep thought, twiddling his thumbs, the stranger walked right up to the desk next to him and sat down. Lamine looked over, careful to only move his eyes, not his full head, to get a glimpse.
The boy looked just the same as the other day, only with different clothes and his hair slightly messier. The desks were so close that Lamine could smell the scent of his cologne. It was a very neutral scent, the type of thing that could never be overbearing but still just as addicting as more obvious scents.
The teacher started the day's lesson, or something like that. Lamine didn’t care to listen. Lamine kept his eyes glued to the board so he didn’t make eye contact with his two friends who kept looking over, waiting for him to make a move.
Lamine grabbed his backpack from under the desk, pulling things out, like his notebook and pen.
Lamine opened it, flipped through some pages to make it seem like he’d written notes before today, and started writing a mangled version of whatever the teachers saying. He tries not to think about it too hard, but his handwriting looks atrocious, to the point where it just wouldn’t be usable.
Lamine glances over, the guys distracted. Lamine starts to fight with the pen in his hand, doing those spinning tricks he learned as a kid to impress his friends. In the corner of his eye, he sees the guy glance over for a split second.
He throws the pen right under his desk, not exactly under it, but the perfect distance to ask him to grab it instead of Lamine reaching over awkwardly.
Lamine acts embarrassed, partly because he slightly is. He’s never had to hit on someone with such a stupid method before.
“Um, excuse me?” Lamine whispers; the boy looks over with one eyebrow slightly raised. “Would you mind grabbing my pencil? It fell out of my hand, and It’s under your desk.”
Lamine prayed his delivery was smooth; he knew some parts were rough, but it would be weird if he acted all charismatic over an embarrassing mistake. The guy's face is more understanding now as Lamine points to the pencil.
The guy nods at him before bending over to grab it. Lamine expected him to stand up or kick it over. The bend shows off all his arm muscles in the short-sleeve shirt, and a small view of his back.
This was the best idea Lamine has had all year.
He hands the pencil over to Lamine, lamine dosent stare when he licks his dry lips. “What’s your name?” Lamine asks before the conversation is forced to end.
“My name is Pau. What about you?” Pau was looking forward at Lamine, his gorgeous eyes, face, bone structure, mouth- his everything distracting Lamine.
Lamine was so distracted he didn’t hear Pau’s name right.
“My name is Lamine, nice to meet you,” Lamine returns, almost giggling when Pau sends a small smile his way. Lamine turns back to the teacher, realizing he’s probably missed the important part of the lesson, knowing his luck, but it doesn't matter; someone else has taken his attention away.
——
Adrenaline pulses throughout his head as he runs across the field; Fermin passes to him, and Lamine shoots the ball into the goal.
Lamine runs across the grass, his teammates yelling behind him. Lamine watches the people in the stands celebrate; he turns around and hugs Fermin.
The game ends shortly after that; the fans chant as they slowly exit the stadium.
Lamine hugs his teammates, making a mental reminder to treat Fermin to something of his choosing.
The mascot gets down on one knee; Lamine can feel the gears in his head actively turning as each second passes. From behind his back, the mascot pulls out a single rose. It was a deep red wrapped in blue paper. They hold it out on one hand, looking up at the standing Lamine.
As Lamine reaches out to grab it, he prepares for the familiar feeling of plastic in his palm, only to be met with a real stem.
Lamine reaches out for it, accepting the rose. With close examination, the rose is real; it’s just so beautiful it’s hard to believe. Instead of a plastic beauty, he received a real flower, but why?
Lamine looks at the mascot who’s now getting back into a standing position. “Why did you give me this?” Lamine asks, watching the mascot reply by using charades.
The mascot pointed to their chest, right where the heart is. They then made a heart motion, putting both hands together; they pointed back at Lamine before walking away.
Lamine looked around at the other players; he was the only one gifted a rose.
——
When Lamine gets back to his dorm that night, he gets ready for bed instead of staying up late. He places the rose down on his nightstand. He’ll have to find a vase or glass to put it in so it can live.
After his good performance in this game, a weight has been lifted off his shoulders. Less pressure in his thoughts, head finally clear.
When he lies in bed, his muscles aren't tense. His eyes feel droopy, but he sits up in his bed to grab the rose off his nightstand.
Lamine clutches the rose, bringing it to his chest. He falls asleep like that. He falls asleep feeling appreciated.