MISS AMERICANA j,b

one.

"hey, maybe you'll meet jude."

one.

"ok kendall i'll see you in a couple of days. love you" i say down the phone to my sister, hanging up on her. tomorrow my sister is flying down to london to live with me for 6 months. she said she "needed a break from mommy dearest" which i totally get.

although, as much as she loves me, i am not the only reason that kendall was so keen on travelling half way across the world. i am nearly 100% sure she has a thing with my best friend, marcus rashford. they had met multiple times before as marcus usually accompanies me to family dinners etc. but marcus and kendall have always had a rather flirtatious relationship, but it never really evolved into anything because she lived in la and marcus lived in manchester.

marcus is a full time footballer for manchester united and the england national team. which is why he lived in manchester.

the football season finishes after one more game, so my bright idea was for kendall to surprise marcus at the game.

i cant go with her though, i have been asked to attend a football game in dortmund, borussia dortmund vs rb leipzig. and after the game attend the borussia dortund end of season banquet, where they give out awards within their team. for example, 'best tackle of the year' 'best goal of the year' 'player of the year' etc.

i have never been to a borussia dortmund game before and didn't really know much generally about the team. the reason they asked me here today was because starting next football season i'm going to be some kind of social media face of this club. and at the end of season banquet i am going to be presenting an award of 'player of the year'. which is essentially the most important award of the night, if there were to be one.

which is why i am currently packing for a four-day trip to germany. i fly this evening for the game and then spend all of tomorrow spending some time in dortmund cause why the hell not.

i have to leave for the airport in precisely 1 hour, i am very late if you can not tell.

i had finally finished packing when my phone rang, marcus. "what's up mashford?" i answer the phone. "wanted to ask you what time you're coming up for the game tomorrow?" marcus asked me. "for the millionth time, dingus, i'm not going to manchester, i have to go to the dortmund game. " 

"hey maybe you'll meet jude." marcus says. "am i supposed to know who jude is?" "depends how much you paid attention during the euros?" marcus said and i could practically hear the smile on his face making me smile.

"you know i have the memory of a goldfish, mashford" "stop calling me mashford, it's rashford. for the hundredth time" he argued. "i have to go to the airport now mashy. see you later, love you" "safe flight, love you too"

i knew the dortmund colours were yellow and black but i didn't see much black, only a sea of yellow jerseys. this was very different from the games at old trafford supporting marcus playing for united.

i don't know if the bold yellow had much to do with it but everyone seemed louder, more passionate, more in love the sport and their team. don't get me wrong united fans are also like that, but these dortmund fans just seemed so proud of their team, it was admirable.

kick off. my eyes darted around the pitch trying to follow the ball and see if i could recognize any of the players. a couple caught my eye, for example the tall blonde striker. i knew him, erling haaland. i think he is moving to man city next season.

another tall player caught my eye, but in a different way. i couldn't quite see the name on his back only the big '22'.

he was attractive, and very skillful. he was graceful with the football at his feet. dummying the defender contesting him and continuing to run down the pitch at a high speed. he knew exactly what to do, when to do it, who to pass to, the exact moment he should aim for the goal, where to be on the pitch. and how to impress all of the 40,000 people in the stadium.