Virtual Love | Antoine Griezmann

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Carmen was left astonished and infuriated by his response. She cut off their relationship until he would come out and apologize for his foolishness. One thing she couldn't stand with people on this sight was the ones who faked their identity. Carmen had encountered many users before who claimed they were famous footballers, so he wasn't the first. People like that made her sick because she felt that wasn't something to be joked about.

On the other hand, Antoine felt flustered given Carmen's negative reaction. Why couldn't she just believe him or even consider and be open to the idea of it being true?

In the meantime, all Antoine could do was hope for a change of heart from Carmen. He tried to get some happiness back into his life with the idea of reaching out to footballtalk.com again, but somehow landed on the profile of "mrsbartralona" which only lead to a deeper sadness.

Her profile picture made her features so tiny he could hardly observe her face without squinting his eyes and bringing his phone millimetres from his face. He stupidly scrolled through her posts and status updates. Going onto her account was a mistake and Antoine was aware of that, however he remained when he spotted a somewhat old post of hers that had been hidden by his finger covering part of his screen.

In the picture he was surprised to see himself. Standing next to him was a tall boy who most certainly had good looks. He wore an Atletico jersey that matched his and had his light brown hair parted neatly to one side. Reading the caption revealed that the boy in the photo was her younger brother, Marco.

If the two were related, Antoine longed to see Carmen if their looks were similar. She had posted that picture for her brothers birthday, selecting this image because apparently watching an Atletico Madrid match was his early birthday present and meeting Antoine—aka his idol—made that the best day of her brother's life.

Antoine furrowed his brows trying to recall meeting the boy, but he'd met so many fans during his career that made it impossible to remember every single one. His thoughts turned cloudy as he mentally cursed, clearly frustrated with himself. For if he had remembered, there was a slight chance that he could've caught a glance of the person behind the camera, Carmen.

His head hurt from thinking about her the past few days. Even though it was only a short period of time since they disconnected, it felt like an eternity to Antoine. The young Frenchman didn't know what he had done wrong since normally women would come to him, not the opposite. For now, he had settled on giving her the time and space away from him. He'd learned girls could use some space sometimes.

The man behind his username appeared before him, "What's the matter?"

The Spaniard eyed his phone that sat lifeless on the coffee table. He frowned and found it odd since recently it always belonged in the hands of his teammate. Instead of staring down at the screen with a grin plastered on his face, Antoine was seen staring down into his lap while fiddling with his hands. It left Fernando feeling sorry because he knew things had took a turn for the worse, seeing Antoine in his current state.

"Is it about a woman?" With no response, Fernando concluded his suspicions, "Oh my god, Antoine. It is, isn't it?"

"I don't want to talk about it." He turned to face the direction opposite of Fernando. Antoine connected the frustration he felt to the same he experienced when he'd constantly miss shots in one of his less successful matches. No matter how hard he tried, he'd always make the same mistakes and end of missing the goal—this goal being forgetting Carmen.

"Then I'll just find someone who will."

Antoine flinched as Fernando reached over to pick up the device he held so close to him during the past few weeks. He sank back down in his seat, realizing there was nothing left. Besides, if Fernando somehow managed to get into his phone there was no way Carmen would even respond. Just the thought of not speaking to her anymore made his heart ache.