Chapter 58 - 56 - Ready If Called

Chapter 58: Chapter 56 - Ready If Called

Sunday afternoon had been quiet enough that Rafael stopped checking the time.

His mother was at work, the television was running in the sitting room and his training bag had stayed upstairs since the previous evening. He had eaten lunch, answered the messages that mattered and spent most of the last hour stretched across one end of the sofa while a programme he was barely following played in the background.

His phone vibrated beside him.

Lucas: You home?

Rafael picked it up.

Yeah.

The reply came almost immediately.

Me and Hugo are nearby. Can we come over?

Yeah, come.

He went into the kitchen before they arrived and found half a bottle of juice in the fridge, a few cans his mother had bought earlier in the week and enough biscuits and crisps that he did not need to go anywhere.

Someone knocked while he was carrying everything into the sitting room.

Lucas and Hugo were waiting outside when Rafael opened the door.

"All right?" Lucas said.

"Yeah. Come in."

Hugo greeted him on the way through and pulled the door closed behind them.

"Your mum at work?"

"Yeah."

They followed Rafael into the sitting room, where Lucas dropped onto the sofa and Hugo took the armchair. They spent a few minutes deciding what to do before Hugo suggested a multiplayer game all three already had on their phones.

Rafael had barely touched it over the last few weeks and needed an update before he could join. Lucas and Hugo started without him, and by the time the download finished they were already arguing over who had won the first two rounds.

Rafael joined the next one.

The afternoon settled from there.

They moved between games, passed a phone around when Hugo’s battery began running low and kept playing long after nobody could remember who had won the most rounds. Rafael was rusty at first, but that stopped bothering him once he began winning often enough to annoy Lucas.

Whenever he lost badly, he wanted another turn immediately.

Lucas noticed after one round and smiled across at him.

"You still hate losing."

Rafael looked at the next game loading on the screen. "You don’t?"

"Not this much."

Hugo laughed and handed Rafael the phone when his turn came.

That was about as seriously as any of them treated it.

The television remained on behind them while conversation wandered through everything they had missed since the last time they were all together.

Maxime came up first.

He had spent most of Saturday helping his uncle and had filled the group chat with complaints by evening. Lucas found one of his voice notes and played it aloud.

Maxime sounded exhausted.

"If he asks me to carry another box upstairs tomorrow, I’m going home."

Hugo smiled. "He said that Friday too."

"Did he go?" Rafael asked.

"No."

Lucas scrolled farther down and showed them a picture Maxime had sent later that afternoon. His uncle had bought him food after work.

Rafael looked at it. "He’s going back."

They moved on before Lucas finished scrolling through the rest of the messages.

A classmate had also posted a short video in the group by mistake the previous night and deleted it almost immediately. Rafael had missed the entire thing, so Hugo had to explain what had happened after Lucas showed him the saved clip.

From there they ended up talking about two other people from their year, somebody’s new haircut and whether Maxime would still be complaining about work when school restarted.

Rafael had missed parts of those conversations in the group chat, but sitting there made it easy to catch up without anyone turning the afternoon into a report on everything he had not seen.

Grenoble came up only once.

Lucas was waiting for Hugo to finish his turn when he glanced across.

"I saw the highlights Friday."

Rafael nodded. "Yeah?"

"My dad thought you’d hurt your ankle when you went down."

"It was sore the next day, but it was fine."

Lucas accepted that and looked back at the game when Hugo handed over the phone.

Within seconds they were talking about something else.

Later, Hugo checked the date and reminded them that school was only a little over two weeks away.

Lucas groaned from the other side of the sofa.

"You’ve done the reading?" Hugo asked him.

"I’ll do it."

"That means no."

Lucas ignored him and looked at Rafael instead. "You’ve started?"

"Mostly finished."

That made Hugo laugh.

Lucas shook his head. "You’re going to miss classes for football and still finish before me."

"I don’t even know what I’m missing yet."

"They’ll sort it with the school, won’t they?" Hugo asked.

"Yeah. Once they know the schedule."

The subject lasted another minute before the next round started and Hugo told Lucas it was his turn.

They stayed until late afternoon, when Hugo checked the time and finally stood because he had told his mother he would be back earlier.

Lucas left with him.

"Message Tuesday if you’re free," he said while putting on his shoes.

"Yeah."

Hugo lifted a hand as he stepped outside. "See you."

"Later."

Rafael closed the door behind them and returned to the sitting room.

One empty can had rolled under the coffee table, and Lucas had left his charger plugged into the wall. Rafael took a picture and sent it to him.

You left this.

The reply arrived while Rafael was clearing the table.

Keep it there. I’ll get it next time.

Rafael put the charger beside the television and carried the empty cans into the kitchen.

Laval took over the week once training resumed.

Renaud was still the striker who had started the opening two league matches, and nothing around Frescaty suggested that one good spell from Rafael at Grenoble had erased what he had already done. Loïc remained involved as well, while Rafael continued with the senior squad and prepared for whatever role came next.

Tuesday also brought the local interview that had been arranged before the trip to Grenoble.

Rafael finished training, showered and followed one of the communications staff into a small meeting room where a reporter was already waiting with an open notebook and a recorder on the table.

The man stood when Rafael entered.

"Afternoon. You all right?"

"Yeah."

"Good. Sit down. I won’t keep you too long."

Rafael took the chair opposite him while the communications employee settled farther along the table.

The reporter switched on the recorder.

"Leg okay after Friday?"

"Yeah. Bit sore Saturday, but it’s fine."

"Good. I wasn’t sure how much of that was the tackle and how much was you making sure the referee saw it."

Rafael smiled slightly. "He didn’t need much help seeing it."

The reporter smiled too and glanced at his notes.

They spent a few minutes on Grenoble without going back through Rafael’s debut or asking him to retell the match. The extra minutes were the obvious difference, and the reporter stayed there.