Firstly,I would like to apologize for going MIA. I had a lot on my plate at the moment via life crisis, still do. But I've decided to put my issues on hold for a bit. So I've decided to focus on my novels monthly, meaning this month I'll only focus on this one and next month another one.
A week had passed since Leon's devastating injury in the North London Derby, and the focus of Tottenham Hotspur had shifted from domestic rivalry to European duty. The team was set to face Ajax in the UEFA Europa Cup. The absence of Leon Blake hung heavy over the squad, but the fire he and Alex Owen had reignited was still burning. The upcoming European fixture was not just another game; it was their first true test without their main playmaker and a chance for Alex Owen to step fully into the spotlight and lead the team.
The air in the visitors' locker room was thick with the scent of liniment and pre-match anxiety. Alex Owen sat staring at his boots, tapping his left knee repeatedly. He was due to lead the charge in Leon's absence, and the pressure was immense. A slight crutch-clatter announced a visitor. Leon Blake, his leg heavily braced, hobbled over and leaned against the adjacent locker.
"Don't overthink it," Leon said simply, his voice calm despite his own discomfort. "Go out there and show 'em what you're made of."
Alex immediately stopped tapping his knee. "Wasn't overthinking it," he mumbled, glancing away. "Just... catching my breath." He paused, chewing on his lip before admitting, "The comments on the internet are wild, man. People are saying without you, we're going to lose. Saying the 'Phoenix' only had one wing left."
Leon chuckled, a short, dry sound. "Doesn't matter what people say, Alex. Never has. All that matters is what you do. Are you going to prove them right, or are you going to prove them wrong? That's your choice. Besides, I'lle back next week, so you dont have to miss me that bad.(laughs)"
Coach John strode into the locker room, his face a blend of intensity and calm focus. He clapped his hands together, the sharp sound demanding immediate attention. "Right, lads. Time to head out," he announced. "Ajax is waiting. Let's show them what Tottenham is made of."
As the rest of the squad stood up, Alex hesitated, pulling his shirt straight. Leon hobbled closer, placing a hand on Alex's shoulder. "I won't be in the stands with the rest of the team," Leon murmured to him. "I'll be watching from the VIP box today. Don't worry about me. Go out there and make them forget what the score was last week."
Alex nodded, squaring his shoulders. He finally looked Leon in the eye, the anxiety gone, replaced by determination. "I got this. I'll see you after the win."
As the team made their way to the locker room, Leon made his way to the Vip area to watch the match. His parents couldn't attend the match, so he stood there alone. As the team made their way out a light voice grabbed his attention.
"Excuse me, Leon...mind if I sit here?"
The voice said. Leon slowly turned his head to see who was the person calling out. Their eyes met and there he saw her, a young lady roughly 21, wearing a son heung-min T-shirt. She had long blonde hair, blue eyes and glowing white skin.
"Nice T-shirt...sure. I don't see why you can't." Leon responded.
"Thanks a lot. I'm Maya, by the way."(chapter 24)
"Leon Blake." He responded reaching out a hand. The two spoke hands and set down. Maya still smiling asked.
"You must be missing the action, huh?"
Leon smiled and responded. "Yeah. I miss it. Ever since I was a kid, this is what I wnat4d to do."
"Well, I hope you won't be out for long. We miss you in that white & blue kit." Maya said
Leon smiled and asked. "Oh, you're a fan? Here I thought you just wore the t-shirt for fashion. I've been seeing the trabd lately. The '#Look_What_i_found_in_my_dads_closet' thing.
Maya cracks a smile before responding. "LOL, nah. I'm a fan. I've been one since I was as little as 5. I can't remember the details per say, but I do have pictures of my young days in a Spurs kit."
"Mhhm. That's nice, honestly."
The two of them continued taking and their talk was interrupted by the cheers of the Spurs fans. As they look at the reply, it shows that Owen received a marvelous through ball from Edwardo in the 4th minute after beating the defenders, he was one on one with the keeper and unleashed a Hellish powershot in the penalty area. And for his celebration, he ran towards the Spurs fans and did a shadow puppet silhouette of a bird and placed it at his chest.
"Oh man, that was one hell of a goal." Leon shouted.
"Yeah, I know, right? But honestly, Alex has a bad habit of always putting in too much power in his shots. I think.he should learn to be morr classy like you, wouldn't you agree?
Leon looked at Maya and smiled."Nah, that's what makes him unique. If we were playing the same style it wouldn't be fun. I like when he does hos thing, sure it's rough, but it gets the job done when my 'classiness' can't. "
"I guess you're right. Silly me."
Back to field.
On the 20th minutes, Ricky Van Den Berg a striker from Ajex managed to slide in a tap-in goal, equalizing the score to make it 1:1. The Ajex crowd lost their mind in the star of bliss. The natch continued to go back and forth up until the 65th minute, Alex managed cross the ball to Patel, who successfully dribbled past the keeper and inserted the ball to the back of the net. It was a play Noone thought they would see, the lockeroom already knew that Patel didn't like Alex and Leon,but yet here he was taking one for the team.
After the goal, he went to the left conner and did a crowing celebration, showing everyone that he is still in his mind the "king" of Spurs. As the final whistle blows, Leon was thrilled by his team's victory. A 2-1, but he could see that someone down there wasn't. Although he had led his team to victory with a Goal and assist,Alex was not happy with the results.
"Damn it, is this really the best I can do without Leon by my side? What a joke. I guess those comments were right. Leon is the real Phoenix here...I'm just a shadow."
Leon seeing this quickly excused himself from Maya, but little did he know that those 90 minutes he spent there with her where going to start up a new form of attention in his personal life.
As he reaches the locker room, Leon finds the coach wrapping up his victory speech.
"...and while it wasn't the prettiest 90 minutes of football we've ever played, a win in Europe is a win! Patel, great finish. Alex, way to lead. Now get showered, get recovery started, and let's keep this momentum! Great job, lads!"
The players erupted in a final cheer as the coach headed toward his office. Leon hobbled into the room, his crutches clicking rhythmically. He spotted Alex sitting on the bench, his head buried in a towel. Despite the goal and the crucial assist, the air around Alex was heavy.
"Hey," Leon said, leaning his crutches against the locker next to Alex. "You trying to set a world record for the most miserable looking winner?"
Alex pulled the towel down, his eyes bloodshot from the intensity of the game. "I played like trash, Leon. My touches were heavy, I nearly blew that cross to Patel, and I felt... slow. Every time I looked for you in the pocket, you weren't there. If you were on the pitch, that game is 4-0, not a lucky 2-1."
Leon sighed, sitting down heavily next to him. "Alex, look at me. You got a goal and an assist. In the Europa Cup. Without your usual partner. You carried the weight today, and yeah, it was heavy because you're not used to carrying it alone yet. But don't you dare disrespect that performance. You qon MOTM, thats something to be happy about. Besides, you could'veplayed way worse. Don't be hard on yourself, ayt?"
Alex, hearing his friends words of encouragement took a deep sigh. "Yeah. Thanks, I needed that... man, I swear you sound like an old man sometimes."
Leon laughed before responding. "Well, truth is I'm actually a super Oldman who reverted back to his youth."
The two looked at each other in awkward silence before breaking down in tears and laughter.
"Yeah right. If that's the case, I guess I'm Landon Ashers long lost son( MC of my other novel...damn gotta get back to writing it too.)
Later.
Maya makes her way back to her penthouses.
"Mariah. Be a dear and-"
"Your bath water is ready, Maya. I've also put your favorite robe on your bed."
Her maid cut her off as she had already prepared everything.
"Thanks, M. You're such a darling."
"So, how did it go with Leon?"
Mariah shouted from the other room. Maya blushed a bit before responding.
"Oh, it wasn't all that good. But not that bad. We spoke a bit, yeah. And he is a fine lad. It was definitely worth learning of off Spurs history over the last few days."
Mariah stepped into the room and looked at her. "To think you spent hours, upon hours learning about a team just to impress a boy younger than you. Oh, how the mighty have fallen."
She said teasingly. Maya let out a melodious laugh, pulling off her Son Heung-min shirt to reveal the high-end camisole underneath. She caught her reflection in the floor-to-ceiling gold-trimmed mirror.
"It wasn't just to 'impress' him, Mariah," Maya said, her tone shifting from playful to slightly more calculated. "Leon Blake is the fastest-rising star in the Premier League. He's the 'Phoenix.' If you're going to step into his world, you can't look like a tourist. You have to look like you belong there."
Mariah leaned against the doorframe, crossing her arms with a knowing smirk. "And the fact that he's got that brooding, athletic charm had nothing to do with it? You've had your pick of billionaire heirs and models, Maya. Why a eighteen-year-old footballer?"
Maya stepped into the warm, scented bathwater, letting out a long sigh of relief as the heat hit her muscles. "Because the heirs are boring, and the models are vapid. Leon... he has this fire in him. Did you see his face when Owen scored? He wasn't just happy; he was analyzing. He lives and breathes that game. There's something magnetic about that kind of passion."
She reached for her phone, which was resting on a marble tray beside the tub. The screen was already glowing with a barrage of notifications. "Oh, it started," Maya murmured, a small, satisfied smile playing on her lips.
"What started?" Mariah asked, walking over to check the vanity.
"The internet," Maya replied, turning the screen so Mariah could see the grainy photo of her and Leon in the VIP box. "I'm officially the 'Mystery Girl.' The fans are already digging into my Instagram. Ive already been tagged in a thousand posts in the last twenty minutes."
Mariah whistled softly. "You know the paparazzi are going to be camped outside the building by morning, right? If the Spurs fans think you're the reason their star player is distracted, they'll turn on you fast."
Maya tilted her head back, closing her eyes as she let the steam soak into her skin. "Let them look. A little mystery is good for the brand. Besides," she opened one eye, looking at the photo of Leon's intense gaze, "I think Leon can handle a little distraction. He looked like he needed a reason to smile today."
She scrolled through the comments, her eyes lingering on one that said: 'They look like a power couple already.'
"He's younger, yes," Maya whispered to herself, "but he's got the weight of the world on his shoulders. He needs someone who understands how to navigate the spotlight."
Next morning.
The sun had barely cleared the London skyline when Leon's phone began vibrating violently on his nightstand. He groaned, reaching out with a tired arm and squinting at the caller ID.
"lex" was flashing across the screen.
"It's seven in the morning, Alex," Leon rasped into the phone, his voice thick with sleep. "Unless the stadium is on fire, this better be good."
"The stadium isn't on fire, but the internet is!" Alex's voice boomed through the speaker, sounding way too energetic for someone who had played ninety minutes of European football less than twelve hours ago. "Have you seen the news? Or the blogs? Or literally any Spurs fan page?"
Leon rubbed his eyes, sitting up and being careful with his braced leg. "I saw a notification last night. It's just a photo, Alex. Some girl named Maya sat next to me in the VIP box. We just talked about the game, why is everyone acting like it'sthe end of the world?"
There was a dead silence on the other end of the line. Then, Alex let out a sharp, disbelief-filled laugh.
"Wait... you have no idea who that is, do you?"
Leon frowned, leaning back against his headboard. "Do I have to? She said she's been a fan since she was five. She seemed nice enough."
"You idiot!" Alex shouted, half-laughing. "That is Amaya Starling. Aka 'Maya.' She's the biggest-selling artist under Landon Asher's UK variant of EchoWaves. She is literally the queen of London music right now. Name the genre,pop, R&B, soul, and she will kill it for you. She's global, Leon!"
Leon pulled the phone away from his ear for a second, staring at the screen in realization. The "Mystery Girl" wasn't just a fan with a nice Son shirt; she was a superstar.
"Oh," Leon responded, his voice dropping an octave as the weight of the situation hit him. "She's 'THAT' big, huh?"
"Big? Leon, she's massive!" Alex continued, sounding both impressed and worried. "Every paparazzi in the city is going to be looking for 'The Phoenix and the Star.' You aren't just a footballer anymore, man. You've been catapulted into the A-list gossip columns overnight."
Leon looked at his braced leg, then at the photo of them together that was now plastered all over social media. "I just thought she was a girl who liked Spurs and had a thing against your shooting style."
"She can hate my shooting all she wants if she's Amaya Starling," Alex muttered. "But seriously, get your head in the game. You've got PT in an hour. Don't let the 'Queen of London' distract you from getting back on that pitch."
"Don't worry," Leon said, his eyes narrowing with a familiar focus. "Nothing distracts me from the pitch. Not even a superstar."