Mr. Brightside || João Félix

F I F T Y - N I N E

My eyes dart open and I look over to my side to find João still asleep. I roll over trying to go back to sleep but I can't. I move around a little more trying to find a good spot, closing my eyes for a few minutes but I couldn't go back to sleep. I groan getting out of bed. I grab my phone off the nightstand and see I've got messages from Gio.

Mother <3

Mother: I'm sorry about Shadow baby, I know how much he means to you
I know you're tired, but we're at the hotel buffet if you wanna come join us

Me: Can't sleep :(
I'll be down in a few <3

I sigh and kiss João on the forehead careful not to wake him. I walk out of the room and head up to my room. I walk inside and put a Portugal jersey on and some jeans, I then walk into the restroom to brush my teeth and my hair. Once I'm presentable, I head down to the buffet.

I grab a plate and head over to Cris and Hugo. They both acknowledge me and Cris subtly looks between me, and my dad and avó who were standing together.

"What is it ?" I ask.

"They're hiding something," Cris says.

"What ?" I ask confused.

"At least I think they are," he says, as he places some food on his plate. "They're being kinda weird and secretive. What do you know ?"

"I just got here," I laugh.

"Yeah, but you picked up avó, she didn't tell you anything ?" He asks.

Internally I'm panicking, I can't tell him about Shadow and ruin the rest of his time here, but on the outside I somehow manage to keep my composure. "About what exactly ?" I ask grabbing some food for myself.

"I don't know," he sighs, "anything."

I Shake my head, "I can try to go figure it out though."

He nods, "don't make it obvious."

I laugh, "I won't."

I walk over to where my avó and my dad are standing looking at the options of food. My dad glances at me giving me a knowing look.

"Stop it," I tell him, "Cris knows you're hiding something, you two have awful poker faces."

"Sorry," my avó says, "this stays between us for now."

"So stop talking about it," I tell her, "you two are making it obvious that something is wrong."

"How are you holding up ?" My dad asks.

"Dad," I groan, "I don't wanna ruin the rest of Cris' time here. I think it's best if we don't talk about this here, I'm fine."

"You're not," he says.

I grab a spoonful of something random and place it on my plate. "I am, It's gonna be tough to process, but I'll be okay. João said something to me this morning that made me feel at peace with it all. Now can we please not talk about this now ?"

He nods, "it's the final that's got us worked up."

I nod in agreement, and walk over to the table to join everyone. "Something about the final being rigged," I tell Cris as I take my seat next to him. "Dad was filling avó in," I lie.

"Where's João ?" Gio asks.

"Sleeping," I shrug, "I didn't wanna wake him, he has a very important game tonight so I didn't wanna disturb him. I couldn't sleep," I sigh.

We continue eating and making small talk with the huge group. It's my family, João's, and then my friends. Most of the conversation revolves around the game tonight. I feel my phone vibrate in my pocket and I pull it out to see it's João.