Home is Where the Heart is - Pablo Gavi

Chapter 17: Strongest Together

I wake up: one day until Madrid. It's approaching fast.

I have a crick in my neck from sleeping on the couch. I sit up with a groan, my eyes are being pierced by the sunlight entering through the enlarged living room windows. My throat feels dry and sore from my sobbing the previous night. I stagger to my feet in search of some water. All my muscles burn with a new fiery intensity and I whimper.

I hobble over to the kitchen as Xavi comes joyfully skipping down the stairs. "I see you're awake."

I grumble some incoherent set of attempted syllables at him as I pull a glass out of the cupboard.

"And cheery," he adds sarcastically, grabbing his own glass before I get the chance to close the cupboard on his hand.

"I slept horribly," I explain, filling my glass with water from the dispenser in the fridge. Regularly I would put ice in first, but I can only imagine the pounding headache the machine would seed.

"I can see that," my uncle says, coming up from behind me. He shuffles in between me and the fridge to fill his own glass of water.

"Thanks," I mumble sarcastically, carrying my glass over to the island where I slide onto one of the stools.

He activates the ice machine and the shards ricochet into his glass. I make a whining noise as he pulls his glass away. I glare daggers across the island and into the back of his head as he moves over and fills the remainder of his cup with water. "Are you driving in with me today?" he asks. He pivots so that he's facing me and takes a gulp of his water. He doesn't notice my consistent glare.

I drop my glare seeing as he's not reacting to it. "Yeah. And after practice I'm going to go with Gavi to the Barca B game."

He sets down his glass, producing a small clink. "You are?"

"Yeah," I say, taking a swing of my own beverage. Hopefully it will help my throat make a speedy recovery.

"Okay, have fun. It'll be good for you." He walks out of the room, abandoning his half full glass.

I blink a few times, trying to get my eyes to stay open uniformly. Eventually, after downing my glass of water, I make my way up the stairs. I change into a simplistic training uniform, wash my face, grab my training bag and shove an extra set of clothes to change into for the Barca B game afterwards. My bag thrown over my shoulder, I jog downstairs and out to Xavi's car.

We arrive at the facility and since I've already changed into my gear I go straight out onto the field. The hour and a half of field time we have today consists of stretching, muscle memory ball movements, and a light jog, mostly to warm up our muscles.

Near the end of the session Gavi and I agree to meet in the hallway after we change and shower. When I'm done and changed into my spare outfit, I make my way down the hall until I see him wandering in circles outside of the changeroom door.

He spots me coming towards him and pauses his pacing, waiting for me to approach him. "Ready?" he asks. He's wearing a dark shirt with a white jacket overtop of it and some skinny jeans. I debate asking him if he went through Pedri's closet this morning but decide against it. He looks good in them.

"Yep," I say. We walk down the hallway into the conference room where we have a 'short' meeting. The meeting is being led by my uncle so it is highly unlikely it will actually be what everyone else considers short. Gavi leads me inside and we look around the room. Pretty much everybody is already inside lounging about; including Pedri who waves at Gavi, a vacant seat beside him. Gavi glances back at me, his features torn. "You can sit with him," I tell him. Him and Pedri have been best friends since long before I arrived and I understand that. I have no intention of ever coming in between them.