Chapter 10: Official Farewell

Axel didn't leave his room until evening after that, Ryan came to his room and tried to coerce him into going outside with him but he refused.

His blonde-haired friend didn't have any choice but to spend time with him inside his room.

They talked for a while and although Axel was contributing to the conversation, he could tell that he was detached the whole time. 

They played a couple of games later and even though he got him to smile a couple of times, he could tell that they were genuine by how they disappeared after just two seconds. 

With the sky getting dark, Ryan had to take his leave and he made sure to pick up his little sister who was still downstairs on his way out. 

The room fell silent once again as the youngster slowly laid down on his bed with his gaze on the ceiling.

"It's not working." He sighed. "I've tried everything to cheer myself up but it's not working."

He slowly closed his eyes to see if sleeping was going to put him out of his misery for a while but after just thirty seconds, he slowly opened them.

He turned his gaze to his phone which was lying beside him and picked it up before slowly getting up from the bed. 

He made his way to the door and opened it to slowly make his way out of the room.

He was about to close the door when he got a notification sound from his phone.

"Huh?" He muttered before bringing the phone up close while slowly closing the door. 

'Jerk.' He read subconsciously.

"I wonder why she took so long." He muttered before he began to make his way downstairs.

He could tell that his sister was downstairs because of the sound of running water and plates and utensils making contact with each other that he could hear coming from the kitchen. 

"I guess it's time for my apology." He muttered before taking a deep breath.

He came to a sudden pause as soon as he got down the last step of the staircase because the kitchen was just a step away from his left.

He took a step to enter the kitchen where he found Ariel washing the dishes just like he expected, she had an apron on and had her hair tied back.

She seemed to have sensed him the moment he walked into the house because she suddenly stopped scrubbing the plate in her hand.

The next moment she turned off the tap and slowly turned to him. 

Axel thought he had it worse but she looked horrible, her bangs were all wet and were covering her face to the extent that he couldn't even see her eyes. 

'She's still crying?'

"Hey." She muttered with a gloomy voice.

"Hey, sis," Axel said before taking a step toward you.

"You're finally out of your room, good thing you didn't decide to stay cooped up in there, that won't do you any good." She remarked, trying to put on a smile for her little brother. 

Axel didn't say anything in response immediately and took a deep breath first.

"Hey, look sis…."

"There's no need to apologize." She interjected before shaking her head.

"Huh?"

"I know you want to apologize but there's no need, I'm not mad at you, this isn't the first time you've called me worthless trash anyway but it doesn't bother me because I know you don't mean them, you tend to always act on your impulses." She expressed.

Axel had his gaze fixated on her now because she had just knocked everything he wanted to say right back.

"Ariel." He muttered.

"I understand what you're going through now, you were looking forward to telling them about your debut, and then all this happened." She sobbed before cleaning her tears with the back of her left hand. "But don't worry, you can tell me all about it, I'll never leave you like they did."

"Sis." He just didn't know the right thing to say in a situation like this.

"I know you don't like hugs, Axel, but I really need someone to hug right now." She sniffled with her tears slowly dropping on the floor.

"Then just go ahead and do it." He muttered with his gaze on the floor where her tears were dropping.

She slowly fell to her knees and wrapped her arms around his body before sinking her face into his body.

"Tell me, Axel, what am I supposed to do?"

"I'll tell you once I figure that out, but everything's going to be okay as long as we still have each other." He replied before placing his hand on her head. 

_______ _______

A couple of days passed and the day for the big game between Manchester City and Juventus was finally here.

The squad had to travel to Turin for the match which was their third group-stage match of the competition and since Axel wasn't registered for the Champions League he had to stay home. 

Watching the match was an option but Axel didn't like watching live matches unless he was live in the stadium, he preferred to watch the highlights after the match was over.

That was the reason why he was outside joggling a ball while the television was on, broadcasting the match. Ariel wasn't even there to watch it because she went grocery shopping. 

The sun was slowly going down now as darkness was slowly covering the area but he kept on joggling the ball with a certain thought running through his mind.

No one was able to retrieve the body of his deceased parents but they still had to give them a proper funeral and that took place the day before yesterday. 

A lot of his teammates showed up and then there were friends of his parents and his sister's friends.

Their only relative came from their father's side because their mother was an only child and his father had just one sister.

She would have been there to pay her respects but she was too far away and busy to do so. However, she still made sure she was there through a video call from Axel's phone.

That was the day he had to officially bid farewell to his parents, a part of him still wanted to believe that this was just a terrible dream but he had already come to accept this sad and harsh reality that was his.

He decided to stop moping about it because he knew that was what his parents would want but that wasn't really going that well for him.

"A hundred and twenty." He muttered before kicking the ball up.

Gravity quickly sent the ball back toward him and with his sight on the basket in front of the house, he got his head on the ball and sent it straight into the target.

"I should go take a shower." He muttered before making his way to the door.

He opened the door to meet the screaming of the fans from the hot match which was still going on.

"I hope we didn't concede a goal." He muttered before getting into the television's view. 

What caught his eyes first was Juventus players celebrating on the sidelines but that wasn't the only reason why he had a shocked expression on his face.

He was looking at the scoreline which revealed that his team was two goals down in thirty-nine minutes.

"Oh, come on."