"And here's another shot of Sem manslutting." 

Sophie held up her phone for Sem's entire football team to see, and Sem glanced at the picture himself with mild interest. There he was, on her screen, along with some girl whose face he didn't even recognise anymore. He had his arms around her, and they both smiled at the camera. Damn, Blake's cocktail had sure done a number on him; he couldn't even remember posing for that one. He only vaguely recalled a group picture that some promotional photographer guy took way at the beginning of the night. 

"And, another one with a different girl!" Leanne piped up next to Sophie. 

Most heads turned in Sem's direction, and he suddenly found himself surrounded by grinning and expectant faces. The guys obviously hoped for a snide retort, maybe some fighting to liven up the gym cafeteria and the boring strategy meeting Nick had insisted on after training. 

"Okay." Sem raised his shoulders indifferently. 

Maybe his memories were blurry, but he was damn sure he hadn't done any real 'manslutting.' He had less than zero desire to do so now that he had Connor, even when drunk. Sophie and Leanne were just full of shit, clearly only trying to pick fights with him because of Emma. 

Luckily for the football team, Ethan was all about picking fights. 

"Good one girls. Hit him where it hurts: his ability to pick up chicks!" Ethan said, giving Sophie and Leanne two thumbs up and a broad smile. It earned him a couple of snickers from Matthew and the rest of the team. 

Well, the team except for Nick. 

"Guys. Focus. We're here to talk about our passing techniques and mistakes. Judging from our training today, we have a lot to talk about. Football. Not club photos." Nick frowned, clearly unhappy with the distractions. "Can the photos please wait for a moment, yes? Thank you." 

Sophie just rolled her eyes. She and Leanne continued looking at their phones, probably selecting and tagging the more flattering pictures of themselves.    

This was so typical, how both his and Emma's friends had completely taken over the entire him/Emma club thing and ran with it. 

Much as Sem had tried to shut Ethan and Matthew up, of course word about the club fiasco had spread to the football team and to Emma's other friends. Who was going to let it pass quietly when someone got soda thrown in their face by two girls in one evening, and rejected Emma, the girl pretty much everyone on the team would bone if they had the chance? Nobody, that's who. 

It's not like they talked about him and Emma all the time, but it was definitely there playing in the background. Every now and then it came to the foreground in the shape of sharp remarks and bickering during which the boys took Sem's side, and the girls took Emma's. 

Somehow, he hadn't been the recipient of Emma's glares though. At school she avoided him, and she hadn't even shown up to watch the training. It was just Sophie and Leanne today. 

They'd been on the sidelines, whispering and glaring at him every so often. But just when it started to feel real awkward, Connor had jogged by, like he still did every Tuesday during football practice. He'd briefly smiled at him, and that was enough to suddenly make Sem feel like he could handle everything again. Screw Sophie and Leanne and their glaring. God, no matter how many difficult situations he got in, Connor was so worth it. 

"Sem, you're listening right?  That teamwork remark counts especially for you. We're not winning if people are too busy showing off rather than working together and passing in time." 

Nick shot him a stern look. As the captain of the team, and definitely the one with the most insight in football, Nick always got very try-hard mode, really wanted to win. But he was definitely being more harsh with Sem than he would've been if he wasn't, you know, thrust in this weird position where everyone around him pointlessly bickered about his best friend and the girl he liked. 

Letting it slide for now, Sem nodded. "Yeah. Sure, got it. Go on." He stared down at the scribbly, completely uninterpretable football related diagrams Nick had drawn (because he wasn't listening, shh), attempting to understand them. 

Then Ethan elbowed him in the side. "Sem, crazy ex alert. Again." 

"And she's with Emma," Charlie the striker grinned. 

"You dead man, they're teaming up on you," Tom the goalie added.

"What?" Sem looked up, and so did the rest of their table. They were right; Emma was shrugging off her coat at the entrance, and Shannon was standing next to her. Shit, that wasn't good, was it? He couldn't exactly tell why seeing them together bothered him as much as it did, but it just couldn't be good news. Sem looked back at the faces of his team, trying his damn hardest to not show any trace of anxiousness.

"You're all getting way too much sick enjoyment out of this. And quit staring at them. Assholes." Sem let out a short laugh, trying to play it off as casual. 

Nick let out an exasperated sigh. "Guys, focus." He tapped the paper with the football diagrams.

"Shannon's gonna give Emma the cray-cray too," Ethan teased Sem, ignoring Nick.  

"Excuse me?" Sophie got up from her seat. If glares could actually burn, Ethan would've been a pile of ash on his seat. "She's not the crazy ex. Sem was a total dick to her, and Shannon has every right to be mad." 

Sophie and Leanne both promptly left and joined Shannon and Emma at their table. 

Ethan was the first to respond to it. He glanced at Sem and snorted. "You're screwed." 

"Really? What are they gonna do, get together and trash talk me? Boo hoo," Sem replied, leaning back in his chair.

"Great, so that's settled," Nick quickly said, before anyone else could react,  "Let's get back to football now."

 The irritation in Nick's voice was clear as day, and although there were of course a few more remarks about Sem and Shannon, eventually the guys settled down and looked down at the diagram again. 

Sem laughed it off, acted tough, but unwillingly his eyes kept darting to girls' table. Ugh, he shouldn't worry. Granted, them talking was rather uncomfortable. But he was right with what he said: what were they going to do? Get together, and listen to Shannon talk about how much he sucks in bed? 

He did suck something in bed last weekend, but not in the way they meant. Smiling to himself at his own joke, Sem took a deep breath and focused on Nick's strategy speech for the last part of it. 

He decided not to stick around after Nick was done talking, instead heading straight outside to walk home. 

It was clear to see his friend was stressed about the upcoming football competitions, and probably about the Sem Emma deal too. It was better not to bother him when he was like this. He could give Nick some space, and with a quick glance at his watch, Sem noted he could even make it home for dinner if he walked fast. And if he ate fast, he could see Connor longer tonight. 

"Hey Sem, wait up!" 

Sem glanced over his shoulder and saw Emma jogging after him. Since when was Emma talking to him again? Sure, he'd wanted to talk to her at school, but she avoided him there. And after seeing her with Shannon, he didn't know what to think about this either. 

He stopped walking regardless, and Emma reached his side. 

"Hey," he greeted her, although it came out sounding more like a guarded sort of question. 

"Uhm..." Emma looked at the ground, rather than at him. "I asked them not to do that you know. Be mean to you. I asked Sophie not to tell the other girls what I told her as well, but she didn't really listen." 

Sem snorted. "Same. Great friends we have huh?" 

Emma smiled awkwardly. "Oh yeah, the best friends." 

She took a deep breath, averting her gaze again. "I know I did a dumb thing, and I'm sorry. But you didn't have to call me those bad names either."  

Holy shit, she was trying to fix things. 

"Uh," Sem scratched his chin, struggling to find the right words. Don't mess it up. "You're right. Em, you're not a bitc-... that thing I said you were. I just don't like you like that." 

"I get that now. But I wish you would've been clearer." Emma crossed her arms in front of her chest. "I do think you kinda lead me on in London, you know. With the whole hot-cold. First you act distant, call me buddy, then you're suddenly all over me when we get there." 

Sem let out a sigh, running a hand through his hair. "I know." 

"I always thought guys had no issues with saying a blunt no. I would've understood."

She wouldn't have understood. She thought she did, but she didn't. She definitely didn't know the situation Sem had really been in while in London, and he wasn't about to tell her anything about Connor. Not yet. 

"Then I'll say it now: I don't like you that way."

"There you go, that's crystal clear," Emma smiled at him albeit a bit sadly, "We're still friends though, right?"  

"You sure about that? I think the newest addition to your group of friends won't be happy with that." 

Emma's smile fell a little. "Shannon doesn't like you very much, no." 

"So how did you get to talking?" Sem asked, nudging Emma gently, "Got together after club night and trash talked me or something? I'm glad I could offer you girls some bonding material." 

Emma didn't laugh at his joke as Sem had expected her to do. Instead, she was looking down again, didn't reply. 

"Hey, I don't care," Sem offered, "It'll pass right? There'll be a new scandal next week, probably involving Ethan in some way. He gets around more than I do nowadays, and everyone will forget about our thing." 

"Yes," Emma replied softly. "You're probably right." 

"Good. Well, friends then?" Sem asked, holding his arms open for a hug. 

There was still a hint of sadness in her expression, but Emma leaned in and hugged him. "I'd like that." 

Sem gave her back one last pat before releasing her. "Awesome. Alright, if you don't mind, I gotta dash now if I still want to make it in time for dinner home." 

Emma bit her lip. "Oh. Uh. Just..." She trailed off.

"Is there something else you want to say?" 

Emma's eyebrows knitted. "Well..." 

"Emma!" 

They both turned to the shapely figure that came striding out of the sport centre cafeteria, and approached them with big steps; Shannon. 

Shannon gave Sem a dirty look, top to bottom, like he was a cockroach, and then focused on Emma. "He's not bothering you is he?" 

"I'm not jumping her and taking her virginity in the bushes if that's what you're worried about," Sem replied instead of Emma. It got him another dirty look.  

"Shocker. Figured you must have a screwing people over schedule to keep." 

"I sure do. I'll screw everyone except for you. Stings, huh?" Sem shot back.  

"Guys, stop," Emma interjected, placing one hand on both their arms, gently trying to get them apart. "Shannon, let's just go back inside and let Sem go home," she pleaded.

Shannon gave Sem a long hard stare, but then suddenly smiled. "Going home early today. Well, enjoy your evening at home Sem." 

That was one hell of a fake smile. The creepy kind where her eyes stayed dead but her lips tugged up, yergh. Sem didn't even feel the need to respond to Shannon.

"Good night Emma," he said, only greeting Emma.

Her eyes were still a bit wide with worry as she nodded at him. "Good night Sem."