druga strana

chapter fiftytwo - salvatore ( ; salvatore)

five more days until the champions league finale. it was liverpool against real, of course. i literally thought of brahim everytime i saw a poster or advertisement for the match. i think the actual game was planned to take place in munich, and the thought of going back to germany for a weekend- was just- stupid, cause of course i wouldn't go.i was cleaning up the last couple of glasses in the bar before closing it down at 3:15 am. i have never worked that late, and my sleeping schedule was fucked up because of those weird shifts. when i was locking the door to the staff room i received a message, which i planned to open after i got home to finish off everything perfectly fine, but then my phone wouldn't stop vibrating, and i snatched it out of my pocket, almost furios, cause i was so damn sick of the sound of it, echoeing through the entire kitchen.

missed call from "boo<3"

i tilted my head cause i was so confused about sasha calling me in the middle of the night. without hesitating, i called her back. i took a little to answer.

"hello?", she asked, almost whispering. it seemed very busy around her, people were chatting really loudly, music was playing.

"is everything okay sash?", i held my phone by pressing my ear onto my shoulder and shut the door with my foot.

"oh hold on.", i could hear footsteps on the other side of the phone, and then it was nosier, and sasha spoke up: "yes everything is okay."

she seemed drunk or at least tipsy.

"are you alright?", i giggled.

"you should come over nadi." she had never called me nadi in my entire life and up till that point i was glad she never did.

"come over to where?", i had already taken a step up the stairs to my house, but then turned around, and i kinda was in for a night out, to be really honest.

"we're here with friends and- julian wants me to meet people, nadi- nad, i literally- don't know ANYO-NE" sashas tipsy voice made me laugh. "no, no, come here, stay here.", she whispered to someone.

"where exactly are you sash?", i giggled and closed the backyard door.

"the lapalooza roof top. it's so pretty here. but it's not that much of a rooftop, it's just a mansion and there is a party on the roof."

"okay, sasha", i laughed, "if you want me to join, just send the location. i'll be there if you want. we haven't hung out in a while."

all of the sudden julian took the phone: "she is alright by the way. we are planning to go out to eat in a second and then maybe show up here again, maybe not. but it would be cool if you'd join nada. it's really interesting up here, sasha immediatly said you would love it."

-

just 12 minutes after hanging up the phone, the uber arrived at the location sasha had send me. sasha was walking in my direction and held her arms up. but before i could say hi to julian, she grabbed me by my arm and dragged me to the side."i don't want you to be mad.", sashas voice was normal again, "i'm not drunk, i really needed you to come."

i frowned: "don't you think i would've come if you were-"

"i know, julian told me to not be this stupid, and i had a few drinks, but not that many."

and just then i noticed how gorgeous she was looking, she was wearing this really pretty red dress that perfectly fit to julians dark red shirt.

"i don't want you to be mad and it's a long way to go to describe what went on but i want you to talk to him, please.", she almost begged.

video games from lana del rey was playing in the background when brahim approached julian and gave him a high five that ended up in a really intimate and brotherly hug. i pretty much hit behind the bushes again when i saw him.

"why?", i crossed my arms.

"you need to, i promise you need to."

i shook my head.

"please don't treat him like that when he is explaining to you, okay?"

i still shook my head.

brahim was holding a water bottle. so what the fuck if he was just drunk, and even too drunk, now that he had a water bottle in his hand. i mean, that's the way we met, but still.

"i really don't want to.", i said and watched my uber drive down the empty road.

"i know. but you have to.", sasha promised, and something in her look told me that she was serious.

-

me and sash were scooching over to the boys once we were done talking and discussing. i just waved the both of them as if nothing ever happend, almost as if it was the first time meeting julian and brahim."we are wanting to grab In McDonalds, which is like 5 minutes from here. do you want anything?", julian asked and looked at brahim and me. i shrugged, brahim shook his head."we'll just see what we can find and we'll bring something around.", sasha said, took julians hand and pretty much ran off.

i was crossing my arms and looked back at them, then turned around to glimpse up to brahim, who was staring at his water bottle, and chugged it all the way right after. he placed onto the brick wall and had a hard time swallowing it: "i think it would be better if we just- go a little down the street, instead of talking here."

"um-", i nodded, was still crossing my arms and just followed him.

"is that okay?", he asked.

"yea."

"are you cold?"

"no.", i was, but i didn't want him to think giving me his jacket would make things easier for him, would offer him better chances.

"kay, good.", he mumbled.

"i'm there with the u21, if you were wondering. everyone could bring friends or family."

i nodded, acted interested.

"my family is out of the country."

i nodded.

"okay so. i think there are a lot of things that we misunderstood all this time. but i need you to tell me where all of that started, cause i don't seem to figure out what exactly happend in the first place."

"well.", i started walking at this point, and saw a dark and empty playground. there was a bench right when you walked in, so i figured we could just sit down on that.

"well.", i continued, and sat down, "i do know there was stuff- that there were misunderstandings. like i told you, at the match- i didn't know you wanted me to join the interview. i didn't know that you meant to call me over. it literally looked like you waved, and wanted me to go back. so i did. and then in the tunnel, you said stuff like 'yea you know, the press, they always assume.'"

"yes, nada, cause i thought you didn't wanna come. i tried playing it off, it was embarrasing to think you didn't want it, and me just assuming you would."

"well i wanted to."

brahim shrugged: "i did too."

i shrugged too, and it ended up in silence for a while.

"what about modric?", i asked him.

"what about him?"

"i never talked to him. i said 'thank you' or something - at the bar, and thats the only two words i have ever said to luka. there was- i mean- my friends told me they heard him talking about us, me and my girls, but that's all."

brahim shrugged again: "sorry."

"yup.", i whispered, unintentionally.

brahim looked down to his phone, "they want me to speak out a toast. back at the house- salvatore just messaged me."

"well, i'm not holding you back from that.", i mumbled but i was kinda lying.

"you can come with me if you want. i'll introdu-"

"no, don't worry. especially now - i don't want to force you to do anything when it's about making anything public."

"okay. and how do you want me to take that? like- 'especially now'? what is 'anything' and what do you mean 'now'?"

"well, right now, things are really weird."

"you mean, we are weird?"

i shrugged, and even though he laughed, i didn't: "don't worry. i'll hang with sash."

"julian introduced her to everyone already and julian isn't even in the team, so i just-."

"yea, but sasha is julians girlfriend. pretty much."

brahims look literally broke my heart and i felt guilty for saying that. he cleared his throat and nodded: "well, yea of course, but i was just- everyone was introducing the guests, but what- whatever, whatever honestly. sorry. okay, sorry nad. i'll see you later or anything, sorry.", then he just stood up. and left.