The beautiful game - Remastered 03

Chapter 3 – A promise broken

As he answered his phone, seeing the words caller unknown, Dejan hadn’t expected anything good to come from the call, but the news he received from the nurse he spoke to, made him feel weak in the knees and want to throw up.

The details were vague, not helped by Dejan struggling to listen in his state of shock, but one thing was clear, a number of his players had been involved in a car accident and Sonja was one of them.

Faster than he had moved in years, he almost ran to his beat-up old car and raced to the hospital, breaking the speed limit almost all the way there and completing the usual 20-minute journey in half that time.

On arrival, he found the nurse who he had spoken to earlier on the phone and listened once more as she listed off the players involved in the accident and what injuries they had suffered. 

Katarina, his captain had broken her arm and his central midfielder Jana was in with a suspected concussion and broken ribs. 

Dejan nodded as the nurse spoke, trying to take in the information as she rattled it off quickly before she started talking about Sonja, the news he had been waiting for but dreading.

It was worse than he feared, her injuries were not life-threatening but it sounded as though she was in a lot of pain, the doctor suspected ligament damage, which if true would end her season.

Dejan asked if he could see his players but was told they were either in with the doctor or family members, so not knowing what else to do, he found an empty seat in the waiting room and sat with his head in his hands, feeling lost and confused.

He waited for what seemed like hours, his mind imagining the worst, until finally, the nurse returned and told him he could speak to Milos if he wanted.

“Milos”? Dejan announced in shock, “Milos is here”?

“Yes, replied the nurse, I said his name earlier, he was driving the car”.

“Please, show me where he is”, Dejan announced, he couldn't believe he’d missed the information earlier but now he knew, he needed to know if he was alright and perhaps get some answers about what had happened.

Dejan followed the nurse down a long corridor before entering a crowded ward. She led him over to a corner bed separated from the rest of the room by a thin curtain.

Pulling back the curtain, Dejan winced as he saw Milos propped up in bed, he looked terrible. A huge bandage covered most of his face and his eyes looked glazed over and distant.

“My god, Milos, are you ok? what the hell happened”? Dejan asked in a concerned voice while moving towards the foot of the bed.

Milos slowly looked over, his eyes trying to focus. “Coach, you are here, I… I’m so happy to see you”, Milos announced in a spaced-out voice”, there was a bright light, a bang a huge bang, where am I? Am I going to be ok”? he added clearly confused and groggy from the medication.

(See image 3.1)

“You are in the hospital Milos, and yes you are going to be ok”, Dejan replied calmly, “can you remember anything else about what happened”?

Milos looked around in a daze, “bang, it was so loud", he said shaking, "Coach, my head feels funny, I feel so sleepy”.

“Perhaps it was too soon to visit, we should let him rest now”, the nurse said intervening, “Milos has had quite the traumatic experience”.

Realising he wasn’t going to get much sense from the boy in his current state, Dejan decided to take the nurse’ advice, “ok, try to get some rest now, Milos, close your eyes and go to sleep”. 

He watched as Milos closed his eyes and quickly fell into a gentle slumber.

As Dejan left the ward, returning to the waiting room, he did something he hadn't done since he was a child, he prayed, wishing Milos and the girls a speedy recovery, that is until he was invited in to speak to Katerina where he heard the full details about the accident.

Hearing about what really happened, Dejan's calm concerned demeanour sudden did a180 as a rage like he hadn't felt in years engulfed him.

Katerina’s explained how in an attempt to impress her, Milos had, after drinking half a bottle of vodka, stolen a car, and convinced them all to go for a joyride. Drunk and inexperienced behind the wheel, Milos had lost control of the vehicle after taking a corner too quickly, veered onto the wrong side of the road, swerved to miss an oncoming car, and slammed into a tree.

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Over the next few months, the Tigers' form nosedived as the Wolves week by week closed the gap at the top of the table before eventually passing them. After the shock of the accident and without Sonja’s goals, the team were a shell of their former selves, having lost all but one game in her absence, claiming a solitary point in an uneventful 0-0 draw against the team rock bottom of the league.

Having ruptured a ligament in her leg and undergone surgery to repair it, Sonja was now in physiotherapy regaining her strength. She was recovering well and was already walking, but the doctors had warned she was very unlikely to play football again that season.

The other two girls involved in the crash, Katarina, and Jana, were in a better place, now back in the training and slowly being reintegrated into the first team. But things were looking grim for Dejan with the Tigers, now fourth in the league table and dropping like a lead balloon.

Depressed and angry, Dejan fell victim to the voices in his head and after another low energy training session, he retreated to his office where he opened a bottle of vodka, he had been staring at for the past few days, before ripping off the lid and drowning his sorrows. After all his years of struggling to stay sober, he had finally given in.

As he swigged from the bottle, part of him felt guilty but that feeling was quickly overwhelmed by a feeling of pleasure. Every swig felt as though he was being reacquainted with an old friend, a friend that didn’t treat him very nicely, but one he loved nonetheless.

The drinking inevitably became a daily occurrence as Dejan’s world came crashing down around him. Without Sonja it all felt so hopeless, there was no way his team could defeat the Wolves, he would lose the bet, have to quit football, and need to magic up 10,000,000 dinars or risk ending up like one of the victims in the gruesome tales people in the city told involving Marko.

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A few weeks later on a typical midweek evening with Dejan already halfway through a bottle of vodka, he was slumped in his chair when he heard the little knock on his office door.

Not wanting to talk to anyone, he tried to ignore it, but the visitor was persistent, knocking again, this time much louder, and upon receiving no reply, they tried the handle to find the door unlocked.

“Get the hell out of here, I don’t want to see anyone, especially you”, Dejan screamed, seeing Milos standing in the doorway.

It had been two months since Dejan last laid eyes on him, and he couldn’t help but notice how different he looked. After the accident, where Milos had collided heavily, face first with the car steering wheel, he had needed surgery to rebuild his shattered nose and broken cheekbones.

"Are you deaf? I said get out", Dejan screamed, wanting the boy out of his sight. After discovering the truth about the accident, Dejan was so angry, he had banished him from the club, telling him to leave and never show his face again.

Milos ignoring the request and walked into the dimly lit room, trying not to breathe in the stench of mould and sweat that made him want to retch. He had expected the hostile reception, but what Milos hadn’t expected was to find Coach, 30 pounds lighter, and knocking back a bottle of Vodka like it was water.

“Coach what are you doing? No please, you can’t be drinking again", Milos said panicked, "what about all those stories you told me? you said the drink destroyed you, don't you remember all the struggles you went through to put your life back together”.

“It’s too late for that Milos and this time it’s you who have destroyed my life, you and your stupidity," Dejan announced loudly, slurring his words.", do you even realise what you have done? I warned you about this, now I’m going to lose everything, my team, my career, perhaps even my life”. 

“Coach please, I know I was stupid, I'm so sorry, but I don’t understand, why do you have to quit the team? What do you mean lose your life”? Milos replied confused.

“Ha”, Dejan said taking another large swig from the bottle, “well if you must know, take a seat, here have some vodka”, he added passing over the bottle.

Milos grabbed the bottle and took a mouthful, and after hearing about the bet with Marko and what was at stake, he needed another, “oh my god, I had no idea, why didn't you tell me"? He asked shaking his head.

Dejan snorted, "I guess, we both have regrets, huh", he said taking the bottle back.

"This is my fault, there must be something I can do to make this right, please Coach, I’ll do anything”, Milos pleaded.

“There is nothing you can do, Milos, not unless you can find me another Sonja”, Dejan said placing the bottle back to his lips but spilling most of the liquid down his stubbly face and filthy shirt, “you can leave now; you know where the door is”.

“Please Coach, I feel terrible, I should have been the one injured that night, not Sonja, If I could change places with her I would”, Milos whined, "please just tell me what I can do".

Putting down the bottle, Dejan looked over at Milos studying his new face carefully, with his altered nose and rounded face he looked a little effeminate. 

Perhaps it was the vodka coursing through his veins or perhaps it was due to not sleeping more than a few hours a night for the past month, but in that moment Dejan had an idea, a crazy idea of a desperate man but one that just might work, “you know Milos perhaps there is something you can do”, he said with a smile.

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The team had watched Dejan deteriorating over the last few months, his behaviour becoming more and more erratic, so, when he turned up to training one evening, announcing that Milos was joining the team and everyone was to call him Milena from then on, they thought he'd finally lost his mind. But after three wins from the next three games where Milos tore apart the opposition teams, scoring 14 goals in the process, they started to come around to the idea.

Not wanting to get caught and thrown out of the league, Milos was even looking the part after Dejan had arranged for him to move in with Sonja and her housemates, who had helped transform him into a fairly convincing woman.

Sonja, understandably, wasn’t too happy about the arrangement with Milos having driven her into a tree and left her with a horrible unattractive scar on her leg. In fact, she couldn’t stand the sight of him but with the promise of a hefty sum of money, if the Tigers won the league, she had reluctantly agreed to help out.

Dejan had picked Sonja, thinking she would be the perfect person to help Milos adapt to his new role as Milena. In his mind, everything fit just right. Sonja, along with her housemates, had studied a cosmetology course at a local college a few years back and with their fourth housemate having just moved out, there was even a spare room available.

The day Milos turned up at the apartment with his small solitary bag, containing everything he owned in the world, he was blown away by his new spacious home, barely believing his eyes as he was given a quick tour of the place.

Having grown up in the orphanage and spending the last few years either on the street or on a tatty old sofa at the Tiger’s training ground, Milos had never had a room of his own before and was overwhelmed with excitement even if it was decorated a little effeminate for his taste.

But his excitement didn’t last long as he soon discovered this new luxury way of living came at a price as his new housemates and former beauty students wasted no time at all getting to work on his makeover.

He had been in the apartment barely five minutes before he was practically dragged into the bathroom and told to take a long soak in the bathtub, already filled and almost overflowing with bubbles.

The strong flowery scent from the water invaded his nostrils, making him sneeze as he nervously climbed into the tub with all three girls watching. Sonja then handed him a pack of disposable razors and told him to shave off every hair below his eyebrow, only leaving after showing him her shaving technique and telling him to go slow to avoid cuts.

Out of the bathroom, wearing the robe left for him, Milos felt odd as he was given a more in-depth look around his new bedroom, his body felt so different without hair and he didn't like it.

Opening the wardrobes and then the chests of draws, the girl took delight in showing Milos what was inside, they had been filled full of women’s clothing and undergarments, some left by the girl who used to live there, the rest having been donated by his three new housemates.

Alongside the wardrobes that covered the entirety of one wall, his eyes were drawn to the comfortable looking bed, noticing that his bag had mysteriously vanished from where he had placed it earlier, but before he had a chance to ask about it, he turned to look over at Sonja who was clicking her fingers and telling him to focus. 

She was standing by a vanity, covered in unfamiliar bottles and powders, and telling him he would soon know the name of each on every one of the foreign items as they would teach him how to apply them to his face like a pro.

Picking up a bottle of moisturiser, Sonja handed it to Milos, “rub this all over your body twice a day, once in the morning, and once before bed”, she commanded, “you can start right now, but first put these on", she added handing him a pair of pink panties and a matching bra that felt slippery to the touch.

Refusing once again to give him any privacy, the girls watched giggling as an embarrassed Milos, disrobed, and slipped on the panties as fast as he could. But little did he know, his embarrassment had only just begun as one of the girls, reached into his new pink underwear, grabbing his manhood before roughly tugging it back between his legs, leaving him shocked, uncomfortable, and completely flat in the front of his new pink panties.

Next came the bra, and once fastened tightly around his chest, two fleshy mounds were added to the cups, slightly sticky on one side, helping them to stay in place. 

The overall result was messing with Milos’ mind as he stared at his reflection in the full-length mirror. With his shaved body and feminine underwear, he looked freaky, a man’s head on a scarily realistic looking woman’s body.

Sonja snapped him out of his daze by telling the girls to help him get dressed while she went to the living room to finish setting everything up.

The outfit he was given consisted of a pink vest top with a round neck, a denim miniskirt, that exposed most of his newly shaved legs, and a knitted jacket that ended around mid-thigh. 

Reluctantly Milos got dressed as the girls helped him with his new feminine outfit before handing him a pair of 3-inch cork wedge sandals and told him to put them on.

"Why do I have to wear heels, when you three are all wearing flats"? Milos asked, staring down at the alien shoes in his hands like they were about to bite.

“Sonja said you need the practice, take it up with her if you’re not happy”, replied Katya, one of his new housemates, before she took the scary-looking sandals from his grasp and slipped them on his feet. Milos didn't fight her and just watched in amazement as his feet settled into an unfamiliar arched position.

Heaved up onto his wobbly legs, he was led out of the room and towards the living room, swaying, and stumbling the whole way, trying desperately to balance on his new ramped shoes. 

As he tottered into the room on his unfamiliar footwear, Milos gulped, stopping dead in his track seeing the makeshift salon laid out around a bright pink sofa. The table next to the sofa was covered with enough brushes, tools, and cosmetics to open a small shop, and across the cushions lay strands of long realistic looking hair.

In the centre of all the terrifyingly girly items sat Sonja who was looking up at him from the sofa with a sadistic look on her face, “make yourself comfortable, Milena”, she announced, “we have a lot of work ahead of us”.

(See image 3.2)