One Chain, Two Wrongs • Neymar

Chapter 12 - Cumpleaños

"What the hell, Mariana?" I whisper to her as I press her against a wall.

Hours ago I was just arriving at Gerard's house for his birthday party that Shakira and Mariana so kindly planned and invited me to.

"Shak," I smile as she opens up the door for me.

"Ney," she smiled and gave me a hug and kiss on the cheek.

The place was packed and the music was flowing at a calm volume, a birthday party not a house party like the last one I was invited to.

"So where's the birthday boy?" I ask as I step into the house.

"Good luck finding him," Shakira says. "I was just looking for him myself."

After Shakira excuses herself I find myself walking around the first floor greeting some of my teammates as I tap the card I got Gerard for his birthday on the palm of my opposite hand. I spot Sergi who brought his girlfriend Coral as his date and I just give him a nod from across the room.

It's been a week since the incident he had with Mariana, a week since I've last spoken to her, or seen her for that matter. I also have my eyes peeled out for this girl, I need to talk to her. I didn't bother Sergi much on the fact that he cheated on Coral. I know him, I know he's a good guy and he was just having a rough time and I know him well enough to see that he will never do such a thing again because he was so angry with himself the morning after and I can tell he doesn't feel like he deserves Coral. The poor girl is still out of the loop and to Sergi's requests, it's going to stay that way indefinitely.

I pace the whole first floor and backyard and find no one that I'm looking for. Second floor it is.

I run into Camila who's with Milan taking care of him for a while and I ask her if she knows where I can find either of them.

"No idea," she says. "Sorry."

"It's alright," I offer her a smile.

"Is that your gift?" She asks as I walk into Milan's room to answer her.

"Yeah, a card," I point out. "Not very creative."

"Oh, believe me, it can't be worse than my lack of a gift. I only gave him a bracelet."

I let out a chuckle and Milan begins to laugh with me. I spend a couple of minutes with the two of them until I decide to keep searching for them. I had a nice time with Camila and I made a note to talk to her more often when she's around and not off babysitting the poor kid when there's a party going on.

Just as I begin heading back downstairs I hear someone call my name.

"Gerard," I smile as I turn around. "I've been looking everywhere for you."

"Yeah, well," he buttons up his shirt. "Shakira sent me upstairs to get changed."

"Ah," I let out. "Happy birthday, man!"

"Thank you," he gives me a hug.

"This is for you," I smile at him and hand him the envelope.

"You didn't have to," Gerard smiles. "Your friendship is enough."

"You're making me emotional," I join.

"I'd read it right now, but I don't want to cry," he smiles. "Let's head back to the party."

I share a couple of drinks with him and Jordi, Leo comes along and Antonella joins too. I talk to Marc for a bit then to Rafinha for quite a while before I remember Mariana still hasn't shown up anywhere.

I head back upstairs a couple of minutes later and find myself knocking at her door how I was supposed to before I ran into Camila and Gerard.

The knob turns slowly and a damp haired Mariana looks up at me in her white robe.

"Neymar," she says and lets me in.

"We should talk," I say. "You never called me back."

"Oh, well," she starts. "I just assumed you found out about Sergi and I."

Mariana walks into her bathroom after she takes a hanger with a dress in hand and I hear her robe drop after she turns on the light. Her room was dark and the only light was coming in from the bathroom since she left the door open and I tried not to look in that direction since I could catch a glimpse of her getting ready.

"That's what I wanted to talk about," I said. "First, you tell me that you like me and agree to go on a date with me, then, we go on another date and you ditch me for my friend who has a girlfriend and you have sex with him that same night?"

Mariana comes to the door frame, fully clothed now and looks at me.

"Since when does liking you constitute me to be tied down and your girlfriend?" She asks.

"It doesn't," I state.

"Then?" she starts as she heads back in to finish her hair. "What are you going on about?"

"What you did was wrong," I tell her before she turns on her blow dryer.

I walk into the bathroom and stand behind her until she shuts the device off.

"My feelings aside, since they don't seem to care anyway, Sergi has a girlfriend and you know that."

"So I've heard," she simply states. "What do you want from me?"

"Just admit that what you did was wrong, maybe even apologize to me," I say over the hair dryer.

She doesn't even turn to face me, just looks at me through the mirror.

"I'm sorry I hurt your feelings, Neymar. I'm also sorry that you care about whom I sleep with as if it's any of your business. I'm sorry you don't get the fact that I'm not dating you, nor will I ever."

"This has nothing to do-"

"Clearly, it does," she turns to face me. "Now, since I did such an awful thing, maybe I should go fix it."

Mari switches off the light in her bathroom and puts on her heels then walks out of her room. I follow her, not knowing what is going on and what she's about to do, but I catch up to her right on time. She was approaching Sergi and Coral in an effort to ruin everyone's lives. I take a hold of her hand and pull her back towards me, I catch Sergi's eyes and I see his face wash with fear as he spots Mariana and Coral looks back at us.

"What the hell, Mariana?" I whisper to her as I press her against a wall.

"What?" She asks. "Keeping secrets is a poison."

"You keep them in an effort to spare someone's feelings," I tell her and let go of her.

"Glad to see we're on the same page," she says and leaves.