[ dotze ]
At Neymar's house that afternoon, the four bestfriends and team mates were sitting around the living room eating all types of junk food and talking about everything that bothered them. It was like a gossip session. Sticking his hand into a bag of potato chips, Marc whined, "Why won't Ashley date me? I did everything I could, and I know she likes me."
"But she hates the team." Lionel pointed out.
"She won't be dating the team," Marc argued, stuffing a handful of chips into his mouth. "She'll be dating me."
Gerard reached over to snatch the chips from his friend as he said, "You should try dating someone else. Then maybe you'll get over her. Antonella's cousin is coming to visit from Rosario this weekend, why don't we set everything up?" He suggested, nudging Leo who was sitting on the couch next to him.
"I don't know..." Marc crinkled up his nose.
"Trust me." Gerard insisted.
"Oh, come on, boludo. We're not asking you to marry her." Lionel pointed out with an amused grin.
The Barcelona footballer thought about it. If Ashley didn't want to date him, he would need to move on. His friends were right. Letting out a sigh, he finally said, "Fine. I'll go on one date with her."
As if just noticing it, Gerard commented on a sound barely noticeable over their conversation. It sounded like music, but he wasn't sure where it was coming from. He could barely understand the lyrics because they were in Portuguese. "What is that sound?" He asked Neymar, who was busy texting away on his cellphone, most likely texting April who was on her way to the United States to see her parents. Gerard's eyes scanned the livingroom until they fell on the stereo. There were little flickering lights which signaled it was on.
"Its April's favorite song." replied the Brazilian. "Its been on repeat since she left the house. She forgot to turn the stereo off and I haven't had the heart to do it."
"You do realize she will come back..." Marc pointed out.
Neymar nodded, "I know. But this is the first time we've been separated ever since we met in person. I don't like spending a single moment away from her."
"Hey," Lionel spoke up, recognizing the song, "Isn't that Un Gato en la Oscuridad?"
"By Roberto Carlos." Neymar nodded once more.
"Why do women get to do these types of things and we don't?" Marc complained.
Lionel replied, "Because people will think we're soft."
"The fact that we had a get together like this must not leave this house." Gerard looked to each of his friends.
"Just like Gerard's secret about reading women's magazines." Lionel laughed.
"I don't read women's magazines!" Gerard swore, his bright eyes widened.
But his friends laughed, they knew better than to believe him.
.
.
.
.
At Ashley and Valerie's house that weekend, the two girls sat in the livingroom. Ashley had been both surprised and a little disappointed that Marc had kept his promise to stop visiting her. Even through her foul mood, Ashley's curiosity was greater. Poking her house mate in the shoulder to get her attention, the dark haired girl began, "So...how did you like Toni? I kind of like the two of you together." She raised an eyebrow at Valerie who was watching some more of her recorded FC Barcelona games. In this particular instance she was watching a clasico in which Real Madrid had lost.
"He came here to meet you." Valerie reminded her.
"But he ignored the hell out of me to talk to you." Ashley said, remembering what had happened a few days prior.
The girl with golden blonde hair and fair skin gave a shrug of her shoulders. She wasn't going to tell her friend she wasn't interested in Toni because he played for Real Madrid. "He was a nice guy, but I honestly only have eyes for Sergi Roberto." Shifting in her seat on the couch to look at her friend, she asked, "Hey, do you think Marc will still help me meet him even after you savagely rejected him?"
"I didn't savagely reject him." Ashley defended. "I let him down nicely. Unlike you. Toni was clearly interested in you while you were mean to him. You rejected a Real Madrid player just like I rejected a Barcelona player. So, you have no room to talk."
Valerie scoffed. "Actually, I have plenty of room to talk because I only met Toni once and he never mentioned anything about being interested in a date with me. So there."
Seeing herself defeated and their argument finished, all Ashley thought to do was to snatch the remote control from her friend. "Ugh. Give me that. I'm tired of watching old clasico games with you." She said, clicking on the exit button to stop watching the football game. She flipped through the channels until she found the sports one. A program about futbol had just ended and next would be starting a football gossip program. The program began just as Ashley was about to flip to another channel.
Her friend stopped her when she saw a familiar face on her television screen. It was footage of Marc, accompanied by a young woman. The two walked the streets of Barcelona hand in hand. The footage had apparently been taken not long after a Barcelona game because the girl was dressed in high waisted jean shorts and a Barcelona jersey with his name on the back. The girl had been identified as Antonella Roccuzzo's cousin from Argentina. Her name was Evangelina, and she had arrived only two days prior.
"What the hell?" Ashley half-shouted before she could stop herself.
"Someone's jealous." Valerie said with a smirk.
"No." Ashley huffed, shaking her head. "He can date whoever he wants, he and I are nothing anyway. I'm just outraged that he moved on so fast when he claimed he liked me so much."
"All that rejection must have helped him move on." Valerie pointed out.
Valerie glanced at her side to see Ashley's hand closing around the remote into a fist, the plastic cracked as she tightened her fist more. Taking a deep breath, she said, "I'm just thankful I didn't decide to date him. Just look at him with that girl. It would have taken him five days to trade me for her." Handing the control back to her friend and crossing her arms over her chest, she added, "She isn't even that pretty anyway." Valerie knew, by that comment, that her friend was jealous but didn't want to admit it.
"It looks like you lost him." Her friend pointed out.
Ashley said nothing, but it hurt.
-
there are one to two more updates for this story. and then it will be over. i hope you all like the update. i should be doing a bunch of other stuff, but i thought this is a little more important to me right now. hopefully i can finish the other stuff later. thank you all so much for reading.
i love you.
-clary xx
