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ミ☆ chapter ten the art of eye contact
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There were two more days left until the next game. This one was against the US, and while Simone would've loved to see it in person, Saka hadn't gotten them tickets for it in time, meaning they'd have to watch it in their hotel room.
Things between Jude and Simone were. . .complicated. The singer failed to establish that her forgiving him didn't mean she had intentions of becoming his friend. It's not hard to imagine the confusion that was left on his face when he ran into her on their floor and instead of speaking to him, she muttered an apology and walked off like he was a stranger.
Another reason why she didn't want to fully rekindle with Jude is because she still felt like she wasn't over the situation. Jude apologized and got her flowers, which was nice, but she hadn't reacted yet. No anger, sadness, nothing. And that could be a sign of Mona being over everything, but the whole breakup took a toll on her. Simone feared that if she spent too much time with him she'd end up in a state she didn't need him seeing her in.
Her friends also contributed to her hesitance in speaking to the boy. The flowers alone ended in her getting an entire lecture. She couldn't imagine what it'd be like if she entertained any of his attempts at a conversation.
That morning, Bukayo had texted Simone asking if they wanted to come to their evening practice since that session would be one of the rare nights where Qatar was actually somewhat chilly.
"Are we that bored to the point where we'd rather watch a bunch of guys tire themselves out instead of stay here?" Stella asked, plopping down onto the couch in front of the TV and immediately placing her legs over Simone's.
"There's an indoor theme park I wanted us to go to," Simone informed before glancing at Jorja. "But we all know Jorja wants to go see Trent."
Jorja jerked her head back and scrunched her nose up, offended. "Stop reflecting cause you wanna see Jude and refuse to admit it."
Simone mirrored Jorja's face soon after she made that statement. "Girl, who's tryna see Jude?"
Stella smacked her teeth. "Both of you wanna see somebody. Admit it, and let's go."
"Whatever," Simone responded, not bothered enough to defend herself. "Can we go to the theme park after tomorrow, then?"
"Definitely."
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"The whole outfit is just giving me WAG vibes," Stella observed, speaking to Jorja. Since they weren't able to go to the game tomorrow, she chose to wear her jersey today.
"Yeah, you want me to go down there and ask Trent to give you his, or...?" Simone asked, only partially joking. Her comment earned her a funky look.
It was fortunate that this practice wouldn't be as long as the others since the game was tomorrow and everyone needed to be well rested, meaning they'd probably be done within the next thirty minutes.
The girls were sat in the lower middle area, not too close, but not too far either.
Simone hated to say it, but her eyes naturally drifted over to Jude. Maybe it was due to the annoyingly bright orange vest that he wore over his training attire. Thinking about his performance in the game against Iran brought her back to their conversation a day or two ago. He had an undeniable shine to him, which was incredible, especially for his age.
Maybe he wasn't entirely wrong about their breakup being good for the both of them. They were both fairly young and had so much more to experience. Simone would never know for sure if their relationship would've held the other back, but there being the small possibility of his words being true drove her insane. Or maybe his words had gotten into her head and made her believe that.
Either way, she knew it was best not to dwell on the past. What she could dwell on, however, was the way Jude was slacking. Sure, it was practice. But it didn't make it any less noticeable.
Jude placed his hands on his hips and stared up at the sky while catching his breath. It was when he finally looked back down that he realized some new guests had joined their training session.
He made eye contact with Simone but didn't wave, choosing to wait for her to do something. All she did was mouth the word "Slacker" to him. He pointed at her and nodded, a gesture she didn't understand.
"Vests or shirts?" Jorja asked, referring to the game the boys were playing against one another.
"Isn't it shirts and skins?" Stella quirked a brow.
"Do you see skin?" Jorja argued back, though a smile began to wash over her face at how unserious the small argument was.
As the two continued to bicker over something dumb, Simone watched the actual game they were playing. The players wearing the vests were likely to win. She may have been biased, though, since Bukayo was one of the players wearing one.
Her guess was proven to be right when Jude scored just a few seconds after. As he was walking back to his initial position, he looked back to where Simone was seated, glad to see she had seen him score.
In mockery of her previous comment, he pulled a face and raised his eyebrows as if he was taunting her. She rolled her eyes and huffed, an action that only made him laugh.
The entire interaction went unnoticed by her friends, something Simone was beyond grateful for.
