Football Short Stories

Tap Dancing On A Landmine - Mattia De Sciglio

This one's for the lovely Claire! So sorry it took me forever to post this, I tried to make it up by making it kind of long, hope it's worth the wait... ;)

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"Oh. My. God... I had to see it to believe it"

Stephan El Shaarawy burst in a loud fit of laughter as he was brought in the room where his two friends were held.

When Mattia had called him from an unknown number asking to bail him and his best friend Claire from jail, he had thought it was some kind of sick joke but Mattia's explanations along with his dead serious tone made the doubt creep in quickly.

How the hell would Mattia de Sciglio and Claire Collini end up in jail anyway? Never in his entire life had he thought his teammate would be in that situation.

I mean, if he had to name a teammate that was more likely to want bailing from jail it would probably be Giorgio... Or Ciro... Maybe even Marco. But Mattia? Along with Claire? Never.

"Good God," Claire rolled her eyes as she made her way toward the metal bars that were separating her and Mattia from Stephan and the police officer that had brought him in "He's practically choking."

This only made Stephan's laugh grow hysterical. At this point even the officer that was guarding the room couldn't help but creep a little smile at the sound of his loud cackles.

"Stephan do you mind calming down for a second?" Mattia said in irritation "Just bail us out please, we've been in here for long enough."

Stephan somehow managed to compose himself, wiping his eyes from the tears that were starting to fill them. He breathed and looked back and forth between Claire and Mattia before a shrewd smirk appeared on his lips.

The two looked at each other feeling slightly ill at ease. They knew that smirk very well and whenever Stephan would flaunt it, it only meant that their friend was planning something that wouldn't be too pleasing, to say the least.

"Oh sure I will bail you two delinquents from prison," he grinned widely "But first..." he grabbed a chair nearby, positioning it right in front of the cell Mattia and Claire were held in "You guys are going to tell me exactly what happened."

Both Mattia and Claire heaved a long sigh "Oh my god, can't we do this after we leave this place?" Claire hissed.

"And where would the fun be in that?" he retorted with that same unwavering smile.

"You're such a dick Shaarawy I swear." Mattia rolled his eyes.

"Come on," Stephan laughed, urging his two friends "I want the full story, without sparing any of the details," he then muttered to himself "So I can tell it to the whole team afterwards..."

"I hear that!" Claire exclaimed "And I swear once I get out of here, you're gonna have to run."

"Well, well" he rubbed his hands together "In the mean time, you two are still in here, and I'm the only one who can free you... So I suggest you be a little friendlier amici."

He was clearly enjoying this.

"Remind me again who thought about asking that jerk for help?" Claire sighed pinching the bridge of her nose.

"It was another one of your genius ideas" Mattia reminded her contemptuously.

"Hey!" Claire snapped at her best friend "Don't give me that look. Do I need to remind you that your last genius idea brought us straight to jail?"