I watched as Manuel saved yet another goal. It was as if he knew where the ball was going before the striker did. He crouched down then sprung back up, raising his arms and catching the ball in his hands. The force of the ball caused him to fall to the ground.
Sofie smiled proudly and jumped up and down. "That's my boyfriend!" She squeaked. A pang of guilt hit me.
Manuel stood back up and turned to face out seats, blowing a kiss to Sofie. She pretended to catch it and hold it to her cheek in a sickly sweet way. Thankfully she was too busy dong that to notice Manuel catch my eye and hold my gave just a little too long. He only looked away when the referee blew the whistle to start play again.
Sofie and Manuel have been together for over a year. They met at a charity event held by the German National Football Team, which is also where they met me. Sofie and I got on straight away and felt like we'd known each other forever. When she and Mauel got together I was so happy, but after a few weeks I realised I was lying to myself. The truth was that I felt so much jealousy towards her. I wanted to be with him. I wanted to be the one he waved to when he was on the pitch. I wanted to be the one that got photographed with him, but I wasn't. For a while at least.
After the game -it was only a friendly but we were celebrating our win anyway- a few of us went for lunch.
I felt like a fifth wheel. Manuel and Sofie were sitting on one side of the table, and Thomas and Lisa were on the other, I was at the head of the table facing no one, sitting next to nobody, all alone. I had no one but myself to blame for the situation though, I had no right to be angry at Sofie, she had done nothing wrong. I couldn't help it though, it was killing me. As I stood up, my chair scraped across the ground and caught the attention of the talking couples, "I need to go to the bathroom," I said, ignoring Manuels probing blue eyes, instead looking into the worried eyes of my best friend. She raised her eyebrows and I shook my head slightly, I was being selfish and unfair, but I needed a moment to myself.
Splashing my face with cold water and staring at myself in the mirror for a while didn't help. "Get a hold of yourself." I told the redhead staring back at me. "Your acting like a little, immature girl. Grow up." After a few deep breaths I decided that I wasn't going to feel any better and headed back out to the eating area.
Just as I started walking away from the bathroom someone grabbed my wrist and pulled me back. I was pulled round a corner and out of sight of our table before I even knew what was happening.
"What the hell?" I said, looking up to see who it was. "Manuel? What are yo- Sofie is right over there!" I gasped, hushing my tone quite a bit.
"I just wanted to see if you were okay." He smiled, pulling my arms round his waist.
"Manu, stop it seriously. I am fine I just...I'm fine." I pulled my arms away and stuck them in my pockets. I don't know why but I felt I couldn't tell him how guilty I was beginning to feel. "Wait here for a few minutes after I leave, so it doesn't look suspicous." Walking away back to our table I had to fight hard not to just turn back round and run back to him.
"Hey, did you see Manu?" Sofie smiled as I sat back down.
"Uh, no." I lied, trying not to make eye contact with anyone. "Must have just missed him." I looked back to where I had just came from to make sure we had been out of sight but caught Thomas' eye as I turned back. He looked a tiny bit suspicous.
I stuck my tongue out at him and tried to act my usual bubbly self. Manuel came back a few minutes later and the rest of lunch went by un-eventfully.
Manuel and Lisa went to pay the bill after and Sofie went to the bathroom, leaving Thomas and I standing outside together.
"Is everything okay Ally?" he asked, leaning his back against the window. "You seem to be in a really funny mood."
"I'm completely fine, Tommo. I have a deadline for some designs soon and that's stressing me out a bit but apart for that I'm brilliant." I used my job as a fashion designer as a decoy. Thomas always just goes along with anything I say about it because he doesn't know any better. It killed me to lie to him thought. Lieing to my two best friends is never something I wanted to do.
Thomas and Lisa and Sofie, Manuel and I parted ways. The whole ride home was so awkward. Sofie kept trying to have normal conversations but I only gave her one word answers.