Chapter Six

The game had been brilliant, and Ana was quick to congratulate Leo and Cesc on their win. Both boys looked embarrassed at her praise, but accepted it nonetheless.

“Thanks for showing me around. I’ve got to get home now though. I promised my parents I’d be home to babysit tonight,” she said, wishing for once that she could stay longer. It wasn’t often that she enjoyed herself enough to try and avoid going home. “I’ll walk you,” Leo volunteered.

Her eyes widened, “You just played an entire match! You don’t have to.” He just smiled, and started walking in the direction of her house. “Bye Cesc,” she called over her shoulder, waving. He smiled and waved back before turning to go back to his room. She jogged several paces forward to catch up then fell into step beside him.

“You were really good,” she said, disliking the silence that’d overcome them. He looked at her in surprise, “Really?” “Best player on the pitch in my opinion,” she confirmed.

“So…do you like football?” Leo questioned.

Ana smiled, “Yeah, my brother and I both used to play. It was his dream to train at La Masia…before his accident, anyway.” “And you?” he asked. She chewed on her lip, “I stopped playing originally because I wanted to be there for my brother, and I didn’t have time to go to practice or games. But then I realized what it would do to him to see me play, and for him to be stuck on the sidelines. I couldn’t bear it, so I never started again.”

“I’m sure he’d forgive you,” Leo said. “But I would never forgive myself,” she answered softly, nails digging into her palm.

“What happened, if you don’t mind telling me?” the boy asked.

“My family and I used to live in Granada. My mom was born there, and my dad moved there from Barcelona due to work. Andreu was pretty young, about to turn seven, when it happened. I was still at school working on an art project, and my dad had gone to pick Andreu up from soccer practice. The car was hit on the way back, but it was the rear end. My dad was relatively unscathed, but my brother was paralyzed from the waist down,” she recounted. Familiar tears welled in her eyes, but she fought them down.

As she was attempting to quickly wipe tears from her eyes a force knocked into her shoulder, and he toppled over. She felt her palm and elbow scrape on the ground, causing her to wince.

“Watch where you’re going!” the man barked, glaring down at her. She scrambled back to give him room, but Leo suddenly was in front of her, “You ran into her.” She was stunned to see the quiet boy suddenly assertive, and not even for himself. She got up as quickly as she could, seeing that the much larger man was becoming enraged.

“I’m ok Leo,” she assured him, grabbing his hand and tugging. He glanced at her, and nodded. His muscles relaxed as she practically pulled him away.

His fingers tightened around her own as they continued down the street.

Once they were a reasonable distance away, he stopped, examining her closely. “I’m fine, Leo,” she tried to assure him, but his eyes narrowed. “Your hand is bleeding,” he interjected.

She glanced down, and saw the skin was indeed scraped enough to have drawn blood. The stinging still lingered, but it hadn’t been enough to bring tears to her eyes. “I’ve had worse,” she said dismissively. He shook his head, and continued on, occasionally glancing at the minor wound.

By the time they reached her house it had stopped bleeding, so she said her goodbyes.

He shot her a worried look as she went through the door, but she ignored it and sent him a smile. She was still stunned at his rapid defense of her. She hadn’t even imagined Leo being that loud or forward since he always was shy.

“Ana!” Andreu called as she kicked off her shoes. “Hold on a second,” she called back, heading into the bathroom. She washed the injury and disinfected it before wrapping it in gauze since the band aids weren’t large enough. She also found her elbow had bled a bit, and repeated the process, but managed to fit band aids on the wound. After finishing up, she went to find her brother, ready to spend a relaxing evening with him.

“Ana, we need to talk,” her dad said as she entered the living room.


~~

Dani groaned as she woke up the next morning feeling cranky and confused.

Rolling out of bed she stumbled to the shower, blindly grabbing clothes as she went. She dressed lazily in shorts and a tee since it was Sunday, and slumped downstairs to grab breakfast. She found her parents were out, so she dumped fruit into a bowl and headed into the living room to watch television.

After watching cartoons for the better part of the morning, she forced herself to do homework. That was enough to keep her distracted for a while, but soon her thoughts were roaming, and she was forced to shut her books.

She texted Ana, but found her friend was busy, and wasn’t able to hang out. Still, she wanted to do something. So, she left a note for her parents and left home to wander the familiar streets of Barcelona. She had no intended destination in mind, only that she needed some fresh air. She stopped to get churros for a snack, and later stopped again to get some coffee. She had walked around for hours when she heard her name being called.

She turned, and was relieved to see it was Cesc, and that he was alone. She waited for him to catch up.

Together they found a park bench to sit on as she drank her coffee. At first silence loomed over them, but the boy at last cut it, “So what happened with Geri?”

She blushed, “We got into a fight.” He nodded, “I know that. Believe me, it was all he would talk about.” She groaned, but said nothing. “Well, if it means anything, I think both of you were being immature,” Cesc said with a small smile. She sighed, “Not really.”

He chuckled, “Well, he’ll have to mature eventually, and I’m sure you will too. But he’ll be out of your hair pretty soon.”
She frowned, “What do you mean?”

“Well, he got an offer to play for Manchester United, so he’ll be transferring there at the end of the month,” Cesc said, calculated her reaction. She was too blindsided to care about his scrutiny. Gerard was leaving? He was going to England? So many questions were running through her mind, the foremost of all being why it hit her so hard? She found that she really didn’t want him gone.

Matured – she would like that. But then again, she would need that too. But him to be gone entirely – no, she didn’t want that, for whatever reason.

“Thanks for telling me…” she murmured, still feeling shocked.

She knew she would have a lot to tell Ana when she saw her at school on Monday. First the fight, and then the startling news that Gerard was leaving for a different country to play for a different club – it was all happening so fast, and she knew she shouldn’t care.

But she did. And it sucked.

Heaving a sigh, she said goodbye to Cesc, wanting to be alone to mull over the sudden curveball that’d been thrown her way.
She trudged back home feeling drained and upset even though she had absolutely no reason to be.

Flopping on her bed she let out a loud groan. She had no motivation to finish her homework or even paint. So instead, she crawled under the covers and read whatever books were in reach, hoping to pass the time until she could talk to Ana and hopefully sort out her feelings.