Settling of scores (2)

Waking up again in the desert, Denver, out of breath, as if he had just walked miles, his breathing was getting heavier and heavier, starting to wonder how come he was still alive?

Was it due to an unknown power that had never revealed itself before?

Was it due to the power of this so-called football god?

Questions kept coming one after another in his mind.

Despite everything that had happened to him, he did not give in to answering the football god's question. By enduring the cold of winter until he died, even being drowned in the mother many times. When he was devoured by carnivores, such as lions and tigers, he did not succumb.

The football god also began to ask himself questions like: where does this iron tenacity come from? Can one hate something to this extent?

He then sent him into a forest, where he threw Denver into a firestorm, screaming in pain, suffering martyrdom, screaming with all his might, Denver still did not succumb.

The frustrated football god, because of not having made him succumb, left Denver in a charred state.

***

"Doctor, take him to intensive care!"

"Faster, faster, he is between life and death!"

"Where did you find him?"

"On a football field near the chut de cocody where we are now, there was a backpack and a guitar next to him."

"Very well, search the bag and see if you find the coordinates of one of his relatives."

"Very well, doctor."

In the middle of a football field, near the chut de cocody, Denver was found by passersby, in a charred state, who then took him to the nearest hospital.

Meanwhile, in a state of unconsciousness, Denver remembered the past.

When he was little, Denver was an anti-social child, he didn't talk to anyone in his class, didn't get involved in other people's problems, in other words, he was indifferent to what happened to those around him. But he didn't play with his studies, since he was little, Denver always occupied the first place in exams as in class.

A day like any other arrived, it was the end of classes, each student was going out to head to their respective homes. On the way back, Denver faced a situation and for some reason, he decided to stop and watch, being surprised himself by the fact that he was concerned about this situation, he who never cared about what others endured, for a reason unknown to him, could not help but want to act.

Some girls were harassing one of their classmates.

"Please stop. ", said the girl who was being bullied in tears.

"It's because you whine all the time that your father died.", replied one of the bullying girls while the others snickered.

"That's stupid reasoning, but it doesn't surprise me coming from someone like you.", Denver who was watching from afar spoke as he approached and placed himself in the middle of the two camps.

"Huh! Who called you, mister loner of the class?"

"Is this the kind of behavior you were hiding before coming to make your declaration of love to me? It's disgusting.", Denver retorted.

"Huh! What! Is what he said true Vanessa?!", The other girls who were there were stunned because she didn't know.

"No...he's lying.", she replied embarrassed, because her secret had been revealed.

"If it's true, like all of you here. ", Denver replied.

"Huh! Girls, you too? Tell me he's lying.", Vanessa, the leader of this girl group, said.

''!!''

"Wait, seriously?", Vanessa said, not getting a response from her friends.

"But...but you said you hated him too.", One of the girls replied.

By the way, each of them had made their declaration to Denver, they all sincerely loved him, but during their group discussions, they all called him a loner and a loser.

Confused and frustrated, they argued as they walked away, leaving Denver and the girl she was harassing behind.

"Mia, right?", Denver asked the girl.

"..."

With no answer, Denver continued.

"It's pathetic to cry every time you're told your father is dead."

"But... it's not my fault.", she said, wiping away her tears.

"Your father didn't choose to die, just like mine did, when death comes, no one can say, no I'm not dying."

"Your dad is dead too?... sorry."

"All I want to tell you is that we have to live our lives with a smile on our faces, so they don't suffer when they see us from up there."

"Am I making my dad suffer?", she said with a panicked look.

"Yes, you're making your dad suffer."

"I don't want my dad to suffer because of me."

"So stop crying and make him proud of you.", Denver said, placing a can of orange juice on Mia's head.

She grabbed it with both hesitant hands. "It's a gift," Denver said as he walked away.

The girl looked at his back until she disappeared into the distance. She didn't understand why he helped her, since they were in the same class, she knew him as someone indifferent. Denver himself didn't know why he couldn't help but help her.

That was the first discussion between Denver and Mia.

Waking up with a start, Denver was panicked, his temperature kept rising, his breathing was getting denser and denser.

After calming down, he realized that he was in a hospital room, IVs all over his body and a breathing tube going from his nostrils to his mouth.

Trying to get rid of it using his right hand, but there was a problem, Denver felt something under his hand, and when he tried to check what was under his hand.

''Ah! ''

Denver was panicking, what did he see? The football god was standing under his hand.

"Hello." With a smile of amusement, the football god spoke to him.

Denver rushed out of bed at full speed, even when he stumbled, Denver still continued to run until he threw himself at the hospital window, but his room was on the second floor, in his fall, he broke a few bones and lost consciousness again.

A month later, Denver opened his eyes. Still in the hospital.

"Honey? Are you awake?", his mother said in tears. She had been sleeping at his bedside in the hospital every night since he became unconscious.

"Ma…man?"

"Yes it's me."

Realizing that he was still alive after everything that had happened to him, Denver was relieved. Seeing his mother's tears that kept flowing, he leaned over and picked up his guitar that he had noticed next to him.

Seeing what he was about to do, his mother stopped him.

"No, don't play, you're not in a state."

"It's nothing compared to what you've endured because of me.", Denver said with a smile on her lips.

"No, it's nothing compared to what you've suffered.", Not wanting him to worry about her, his mother replied.

"Foolish, insensitive, you love her but yet you run away from her,

you love her but yet you run away from her_", Not caring about her condition, Denver began to sing and play with his guitar.

"No...stop_", His mother assailing him stopped but in vain.

"And even when everyone is against you, she is still your best friend, you would like to tell her what she means to you, before she loses her life, but you don't dare, you don't dare, you don't dare to tell her, and you don't dare, you don't dare, you don't dare to tell her, I'm sure she would just like to hear a "Mom I love you". »

« Instead of the screams of the old man who threatens to throw you out, I'm sure she'd crack after a week without you, and that your absence would hurt her more than a fall from the top of her roof, I'm sure she'd like you to hold her in your arms, exactly like she did during your first twelve months, I'm sure that love has made you short-sighted, instead of taking it to your mother, you take it to an idiot… »

When he finished singing, almost all of his mother's worries disappeared, after that, they talked about everything and nothing, and when the fundamental subject of knowing what had happened to him was brought up, he told his mother that he didn't remember anything.