begin again [reus]

sieben: presents

MARCO

"I don't know what to do," I grumbled as Mats and I passed the ball back and forth to each other. He looked at me sympathetically and opened his mouth to say something but then closed it again, knowing damn well he couldn't give me reliable advice.

"Well, what did she say?" he asked me.

"Nothing. She just said good night, kissed me on the cheek and closed the door." 

"That's it? She didn't even invite you in?" Mats asked. I shook my head and Mats scratched his neck awkwardly. "Look, Marco. I wish I could give you advice but I'm terrible at reading women. You wanna ask someone? Go and ask Sven."

Sven was way on the other half of the field and I was in no mood to walk all the way to him just to ask him a simple question. He'd probably end up shrugging his shoulders anyway.

"Or you can just ask her yourself." Mats suggested - to which I frantically shook my head to. 

"No way. We just sort of made up. I don't wanna make things weird again." I said. 

Practice ended soon after that and we all hit the showers. I got changed and then flipped through my phone when a text from Anna came in. I huffed and clicked on the green button atop my screen and it took me to the chat.

ANNA: Hey Marco, tomorrow's Mia's bday. Hope you didn't forget.

I cursed softly as I began walking around the locker room. I completely forgot Mia's birthday and now I had less than 5 hours to go get her something perfect. 

MARCO: nope, didn't forget :) 

ANNA: Good. Did you get her a gift?

MARCO: no, net yet

ANNA: Are you gonna do something special for her?

I rolled my eyes. I didn't even remember her birthday. 

ANNA: Anyway. If you aren't, can you take her to dinner? We're going to surprise her at the restaurant you take her to. Just pretend that you didn't remember her birthday, alright? Then when she's at her lowest, we'll surprise her!

MARCO: why me tho

ANNA: Who else? We'll just tell her that we planned a date so she'll be really pissed that we didn't remember her birthday.

MARCO: oh right ok sounds good

ANNA: Do you have anything you want to add to the surprise?

MARCO: yea a few things actually :-)

//

"I hate you," Mats said for the hundredth time that day. "I hate you so much." he said again.

I ignored him for the hundredth time that day and continued dragging him around. Nobody noticed us so far since we were both using caps and sunglasses. Like that wasn't suspicious at all.

After just sitting down in the locker room thinking about how I messed up not remembering Mia's birthday, I decided to get off my ass and actually do something so I went to go get her a good birthday present. And I decided to take Mats with me.

However, all he could do was complain.

"Mats, just help me out! I helped you pick a ring for Cathy, didn't I?"

He stopped talking and glared at me. I smiled triumphantly and continued walking, looking for stores with things Mia would probably like. Back when we were dating - cue the violins - she would never ask me for things. Whenever I offered to buy her stuff, she would turn it down. I guess that's one of the things I like most about her. 

I absentmindedly continued walking past stores until I felt Mats tug on my jacket hood. After almost choking to death, I moved backwards to see what Mats wanted. He was standing in front of a Tiffany and Co store display with a stupid grin on his face.

"What is it?"

He pointed at one of the necklaces on display and looked back at me.

"If I was a girl, I'd love that." he told me.

I glanced at the necklace briefly and just knew that Mia would like something like that. It was a simple necklace; nothing too big, nothing that attracted too much attention besides the small diamond hanging from the chain. 

I stayed rooted to my spot, just thinking about Mia wearing the necklace that I didn't even realise Mats already went inside and was already talking to one of the workers there. 

I quickly walked inside the store and shook hands with the man Mats was talking to.

"I hear you're interested in the necklace outside?" the man said warmly. I nodded quickly, "Yeah, I am. Can we take a look at it please?" 

He nodded and went to the back to collect the necklace. He came back a few moments later and showed us the necklace. I took it out of the case and inspected it and so did Mats.

"I guess you can say that this is one of a kind. We've only got a handful of these per store and these just came in yesterday, so you better get it now if you want it or it'll go out of stock pretty quick!" the worker told us.

Mats was practically jumping up and down beside me. He shoved me and said 'get it' over and over again. I laughed and nodded, putting the necklace back in the case. 

"I'll take it."

//

ok this is a filler chapter!!!! read the next one