Home is Where the Heart is - Pablo Gavi

Chapter 16: Destructive

Pablo's POV:

I saw her about to separate from the group, off to seemingly change and head home. More likely she was sneaking off to do another workout. She's been working herself too hard, I recognize it; I've been there. She needs pace and to steadily incline the amount of weight she's putting on her body. Overloading yourself won't build you up, it'll break you down. In a split second I came up with a quick ruse. She needs rest, I thought on my feet. I've never considered myself good at such a thing, but I came up with an apparently convincing lie---another thing I've never considered myself good at. Now I have to go into the change room and convince my entire team to drop everything now and come to lunch with their new teammate. A lunch she's not aloud to know was an on the fly plan.

I scurry up to Pedri first, knowing he'll have my back. I scratch the back of my neck. "Pepi--"

He turns around, his shirt discarded on his bench. "Why do you sound like your going to ask for a big faovr?"

"Because he looks really nervous." Ansu pops into the conversation, struggling to remove his shorts and hoping around near his bench. Our benches are stationed depending on our number; they begin at the left of the room with Ter Stegen, our number one. Because of this I'm only one bench away from Pedri, and Ozzy is rarely occupying his cubby in between us.

"It's because Pedri looks really good without a shirt on," someone across the changeroom yells. I peer over my shoulder, searching for the culprit of the comment. So much for starting with a small, quiet conversation, getting one person on my side and then working my way up.

I gulp and turn back to face Pedri. "I need you to come to a team lunch."

"We have a team lunch?" Alex asks, yelling from across the giant room.

"Today?" Ferran asks, coming out from his bench and stopping exactly when he's blocking my view of Alex. His features are expanded and his face returns to the scarlet shade it had recovered from after the training session; he's clearly panicking. "I've got a date with Sira!"

Pedri rubs his temple. "Boy do you strike up chaos."

I lean closer to Pedri and begin whispering, "I have twenty minutes to convince the entire locker room to come to a team lunch because I told Isla we were having one and she has to come," I ramble as fast as I can.

Pedri glances away from my face and sweeps his eyes around the changeroom, most likely predicting the actuality of my structureless plan coming to life. His eyes return to mine and his expression does not look promising. "Why would you--"

"I'll explain later," I grummble, pleading with my eyes for him to help me.

Pedri searches my eyes and when he finds what he's looking for he nods. He raises his head and then his voice to the room. "Impromptu team lunch in half an hour to celebrate Isla joining the team!" He looks at Ferran. "You can bring Sira, and anyone else can bring their significant other."

The room starts to echo with excuses. I'm afraid Pedri's also on the fly master plan has yet to fulfill the mission.

"Hey!" Pedri yells, raising his voice even louder. He never yells like this. "This is for Isla, so unless you want to smash her confidence for this game, the game we need her in, you will be there."

The murmurs of excuses transform into questions of where we're going. I forgot Pedri is much better at thinking on his feet than I am.

I lean over to Pedri. "Thank you." One day he'll make a great leader for Barca, that I'm certain of.

He sticks his index finger in my chest. "You owe me."

I nod nonchalantly a few times, I'm always owing him and he's always forgetting about it.