I have been arguing with the girl at the front desk for over ten minutes already.
"I just need Christian Pulisic's room number," I repeat.
"I know miss, but I just can't be giving out that type of information," the lady told me again.
"I'm not some random creep," I groan, "I'm his friend, and he leaves in a couple hours, I just want to see him, please."
"Our policy is our policy, I'm sorry but I can't change the rules for you," she says and I groan.
"Sofia," a voice calls out to me. "You're looking for Christian ?"
"Yeah, umm yeah, have you seen him ?" I ask.
"No, but he should be back soon, would you like to wait for him in his room ?" He asks.
"Uh yes please," I sigh.
"I'm Gio, Giovanni Reyna," he smiles at me holding his hand out for me to shake.
"Sofia, dos Santos, but I get the feeling you already knew that," I laugh shaking his hand.
"Best feminine player in the world, rings a bell," he laughs.
"I wouldn't say I'm the best," I smile.
"Ah, you should rethink that, because many would," he smiles. "Come."
I follow him into the elevator but the desk lady calls out to me again. Ughh I've had enough of her.
"Umm miss, you can't," she begins but Gio cuts her off.
"It's okay, she's with me," he reassures her.
He leads me into the elevator and we take it up to their floor. We begin walking through the hall after we step out of the elevator until we land on a room. He pulls his key card out of his pocket and unlocks the room door.
"We're bunking together," he says as he holds the door open for me to walk in.
"So," I say trying to break the awkward silence as I sit on Christian's bed. "How'd you take the loss ? Wait don't answer that, that was uncalled for, sorry," I say after I processed the question.
"No, no, it's fine," he reassures me. "It sucked, but we'll survive, this was my first World Cup after all. Im proud of myself, I'm proud of my team, we gotta head back, train extra hard, and come back better than ever."
"Yeah, you're hosting next World Cup," I say, "gotta make the most of it."
"Yeah," he smiles. "What about you ? How confident are you ?"
"In Portugal ? Or in myself for my World Cup ?" I ask.
"Both," he shrugs.
"I'm confident in Portugal, we have a good team, we'll see how it goes I suppose," I say and he nods. I don't want to touch up on my rigged tournament theory because I barely met the boy, who knows who he'll tell. "And as for me, we'll have to see how that goes too," I laugh, "I mean I won my sub 20 World Cup trophy, but this is the big leagues, I have faith in myself and my team but I know other teams have trained hard, so we'll see."
Just then Christian walked in.
"Where have you been ?" I ask, "and why haven't you replied to my messages ?"
"I did text back," he says grabbing my phone off the bed, "you just haven't noticed. You have missed calls from your dad," he tells me and I take my phone from him.
"I'll be back," I sigh, "let me call him back," I say exiting the room.
"You called ?" I say into the phone as he picks up.
"Yeah, where are you ?" He asks.
"With Christian," I say, "they leave tonight, so I wanted to spend some time with them."
"Will you be back tonight ?" He asks.
"Yeah, when they start heading out," I tell him.
"Okay, I've left something for you in your room," he says.
"What ?" I ask.
"It's a surprise Sofia," he says.
"Dad," I groan, "you'll see soon, get some sleep okay," he tells me.
"Okay, goodnight dad, I love you," I say.
"Goodnight baby," he says and we hang up.
I walk back into the room to see Christian laying on his bed ready to sleep, and Gio on his.
"Are you really going to sleep ?" I ask.
"Yes, I'm tired and we have a flight soon," Christian says.
"But I wanted to spend time with you," I huff.
"We can spend all the time you want together in England," he says, "it's only a few weeks before you're back there anyway."
"Christian," I groan but he just pats the space in the bed next to him.
"Just go to sleep," he says, "or don't, but wake me up in like two hours because I still have to finish packing," he says and I laugh as I crawl into bed next to him.
"Christian," I say about an hour and a half before his flight.
"Shhhh," he groans.
"Christian," I say again.
"Sofia go bug Giovanni," he mumbled turning away from me.
"You told me to wake you up," I huff.
"Five more minutes," he says and Gio laughs.
"I'm leaving now," I say. To the best of my abilities, I give him an awkward hug and kiss his head. "Bye, have a safe flight home."
"Gio walk her back to her hotel," he mumbles.
"No, I'll be fine," I whisper.
"I'm already ahead of you," Gio said getting out of bed and slipping on a hoodie.
I take my phone out and check some messages.
Francisco <3
Francisco: Where are you ?
Sofía ?!
Hello ?!
Me: Christian's room, going back to mine now 🫶🏼
Francisco: What room ?
Me: 315
I also text someone else asking them to come pick me up, and sending them my exact location.
"You don't have to walk me, someone is coming to pick me up," I whisper to Gio as he approaches me.
"I'll wait with you outside so Christian doesn't get mad at us he says and I laugh.
We hear Christian groan and quickly exit the room.
"How far is," he starts but is cut off by me.
"What the fuck," I say as I notice a few players standing outside of the room. "What are you guys doing here ?"
"Frankie put an amber alert for you out, and someone told me they had seen you asking for Christian with Gio and I figured you were with them," Zendejas says.
"So what ? You guys were gonna knock the door down ?" I ask confused, "I just texted Frankie, relax."
"We just wanted to make sure you were alright, you know Frankie is my boy, so when he asked I had to make sure you were okay," one of them says.
"Yeah, no, I get it Kenneth, thanks, I just wish he had given me a heads up," I laugh. "Okay, I'm fine, you all can go back to your rooms, please report to Francisco that I will be killing him for this," I groan.
"We're just looking out for you Sof," Frankie De Jong says.
"What are you doing here ? You don't even play with him," I laugh.
"Yes, but we're buds," he says.
Both Netherlands players hug me and head back to their rooms.
"Lisandro," I say.
"I'm mad at you," he sighs, "but I was still worried."
"Why ?" I ask.
"You've missed my games," he defends himself.
"Yeah, sorry about that," I laugh, "I'll make it to the next one I swear," I say hugging him.
"With my jersey," he says kissing the top of my head and heading off.
I sigh, "okay," I say "I'm sorry, I don't believe I know you," I say turning to a man standing a bit off to the side.
"Eray, Eray Cömert, I play for Switzerland," he says sticking his hand out for me to shake and I eventually do. "Yeah we've never met before but I uh," he scratched the back of his head, "I heard you were around and wanted to get a chance to meet you."
"Okay," I say awkwardly, "that's sweet of you," I pause.
"Dude get lost, she doesn't even know you, it's weird you're here," Zendejas said.
"I'm sure there was a nicer way we could've worded that, but, it is just a tiny bit odd that everyone here was a friend of mine and I've never met you before in my life," I say.
"You're right, I'll go," he says walking away.
"Well that was weird," I laugh.
"Very, it's not every day you walk out of your room to find a bunch of dudes waiting outside," Giovanni laughs.
"Yeah, we'll it's not every day you have a pretty girl in your room," I say.
"Ready to go ?" A voice asked stepping closer to us.
"Uh yeah," I say, I turn my attention to Gio, "Gio, it was nice to meet you, have a safe flight," I smile at him.
"Hey, por ahí escuché que las cosas no van tan bien entre ustedes dos, ya se que me odias, pero si prefieres que te encamine yo, solo dime," (hey, I've heard things between you two aren't too good, I know you hate me, but if you'd rather have me walk you, just tell me) Alejandro Zendejas tells me.
João laughs, "she texted me."
"I did, I'll be fine," I say pulling Ale into a hug. "Get home safe."
I sigh as I step closer to João, "I'll see you boys around," I smile. "Gio, you have my number, I'm here for you whatever you need, and Alejandro, I'll get it to you, I don't hate you, rivals, not enemies. Just don't score on my Chivas and we're all good," I laugh.
"No promises," he laughs and João and I begin our journey back to our hotel.
"Are you finally gonna talk to me ?" He asks.
"No," I say.
"Sofia, I miss you," he says barely above a whisper.
"And you think I don't miss you ?" I ask. "But it's hard."
"Because you're making it hard," he says.
"You hurt me, and I can't just let that slide," I say.
"And I'm not asking you to, I'm asking you for a chance to explain," he says.
"Explain what ? I saw it, it happened in front of my face," I groan, "no one told me about it, I saw it. I'm tired of everyone telling me 'there's more to the story' or 'it may not have been like that' but I know what I saw."
"If I was guilty of something, of anything at all, I wouldn't be such a fucking mess, how are you so good at staying well put ?" He asks.
"Because I don't want people to think badly of you, you may be a shitty lover but you're not a shitty person," I sigh. "But yeah, you need to work on getting it together, you look like you haven't slept in days, although you don't leave the room, you don't come to the games with us, and you've got facial hair coming in. Do you even go to practice ? Do you even shower ?"
"I don't stink do I ? Yes I shower !" He says and I fight the urge to laugh. "Yes, I go to practice, that's all I leave the room for, I don't go to the games with you guys because I don't like being ignored. I look like I don't sleep because I hardly do, and I've been crying and yeah I've got a beard coming in, you like it ?" He smiles at me.
"No," I say honestly.
"Okay, I'll shave," he pouts.
"You wouldn't be ignored if you came to the games, not by everyone else at least," I sigh.
"I don't want to go anywhere with you if you're ignoring me," he huffs, "I don't care about everyone else." There's a small pause and he continues, "well that's a lie, I do, they're our friends, but if you're ignoring me, it's not worth it, I may as well stay in. How are you and your dad anyway ?"
"Fine, we're on speaking terms, just giving each other space," I say.
"Did you meet him ? Your ex I mean," he says.
"Wouldn't you like to know," I sigh, "no, I didn't."
He was gonna say something but my phone dinged indicating a message. I pulled it out to see if it was Frankie, or my dad, but it wasn't.
Unknown
Unknown: You're being watched.
Me: What the fuck
Who is this ?!
Helloooo ?!
"What the fuck is this ?" I say showing João the messages and we both begin to look around.
"I don't know, but we better go," he says grabbing my hand and we begin walking faster to the hotel. I got another text.
Unknown
Unknown: Don't hold his hand.
"João I'm scared," I show him the messages once again.
"Quickly," he says holding the door open for me and I walk into the hotel.
Unknown
Me: Who the fuck is this ?!
Is this some sort of sick prank ?
It's not funny.
"Sofia stop texting them," João tells me.
We make our way up to the room and he walks in behind me.
"Do you want me to stay with you ?" He asks, "I know you hate me now, but for your safety, it'd give me peace of mind too."
Ding
Another text
Unknown
Unknown: Stay away from João Félix.
"What's the text say ?" He asks.
"It's Frankie," I lie. "No, no, I'll be fine, I just want to be alone," I tell him and he's reluctant but gives me my space.
"I'm right next door if you need anything, goodnight Sofia," he says walking into his room.
"Goodnight João," I say.