Chapter 64

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"I don't want to tell her over the phone." Neymar said, when I said we should call Rafaella again. He was coming up with a new excuse every time, but I suspected he would run out of them soon. I understood why he didn't want to tell her. Alex was already gone and the chances they'd see each other again were slim. So Neymar didn't want to make the situation harder for his sister for no reason.

But there was reason. Rafaella was mad at him and if she found out he didn't tell her the truth she'd be even madder. And also, I wasn't as certain as Neymar that Rafaella and Alex wouldn't see each other again. Sure Alex had college but Rafaella could hop on a plane and join him. Okay, maybe it wasn't as easy as that, but it was doable.

"But she isn't coming tomorrow." I answered him.

"Well then maybe next time I see her..." Neymar said vaguely.

"I have an idea. Rafa is in Sao Paulo. And you wanted to take me to your house didn't you? So after the game, we have two days, we could go..."

"Um, sure." He said but didn't sound sure at all.

I decided not to push it. The game was tomorrow and since we had finally put the whole Alex thing behind us, at least between the two of us, we could focus on it. And I knew we definitely needed to do that.

I got up from his bed and he shifted to look at me. "You are leaving?" He asked sitting up. "We can go to Sao Paulo, fine." He said and it took me a second to realize the connection his mind had made.

I turned around to look at him suddenly feeling horrible. For a second I felt like I couldn't move, that my feet were nailed to the floor. I wondered how our relationship changed so much in a few days. I wished we could go back.

Finally I walked to him and kneeled beside him, taking his hands in mine. "No." I said. "If you don't want to go, we won't go. You don't have to do things or say what you think I want to hear so that I won't be mad. What I liked about us from the beginning was that we said what was on our mind, not feeling like we had to censor ourselves. I like how I feel around you and I thought you did too."

"You're right." He whispered. "I just feel like this is all my fault, this situation and I'm trying to fix it, but I'm failing miserably."

"It's not all your fault, nor your responsibility to fix it." I told him. "But... for us I think the best thing to do would be to just be us again."

He nodded.

"Think about it, what you want to do with Rafaella and everyone else." I told him. "But I'm going to tell Peter."

He nodded again.

"I'm going to find him right now, I thought maybe I should leave you to get a good rest before tomorrow. But if you want I can come back."

"Come back." He said and kissed me lightly on the lips. I smiled thinking that we would be us again soon.

I knocked on Peter's door and a few seconds later he opened it.

"Hey, what's up?" He said casually, letting me come inside but I could tell he was a little surprised to see me. And anxious?

"This isn't about Marina." I said quickly, sitting on a chair. For a second I thought he was disappointed at that but he quickly changed his expression to one of neutral boredom.

"Okay. What is it then?" He asked.

I told him everything, not just what Neymar and David had told me today, but the whole thing. He didn't interrupt me at all when I spoke but listened to me, his attention undivided.

"But Alex wouldn't do that. Maybe they are lying." He said in the end.

"They wouldn't do that. C'mon Peter, you know they wouldn't do that." I said and I felt like he agreed with me. "Besides, Neymar didn't even want to tell me."

"Have you talked to Alex?"

"No, not yet. He hasn't answered any of my previous calls, I thought if you called him..."

"No. Mine neither." Peter cut me.

"Is he mad at us?"

"Or maybe afraid we know the truth?" Peter said. "This whole situation got so fucked up. I'm done." He said, an accusatory tone in his voice.

"What do you mean?" I asked him.

"I'm done with this. I don't want any part in any of this anymore."

"And I do?" I challenged him.

"I think so." He said, calmly.

"Well you think wrong!" I said, standing up. A million things crossed my mind but I decided against speaking. Truth be told, I felt done too. I didn't want to fight anymore, with anyone. Neymar and I were good and Alex was gone, so there was no point in confronting him.

I left Peter's room without either of us saying another word. He was pissed and I was pissed. I took responsibility for my actions but I was tired of getting blamed for shit other people did. It wasn't my fault Alex lied. And yeah, me leaving with him and Rafaella was what set off this chain of events, but it still didn't mean I was responsible of anyone's actions other than my own.

I took a deep breath as I opened the door to Neymar's room, slowly. The room was dark and the only thing I could hear was his steady breathing. I felt my stomach flutter as I joined him on the bed and wrapped my hands around his torso. I wasn't angry anymore.

Waking up in the morning I felt like I had gotten a good night's rest after a long time. I knew there was a connection between the good sleep and the person lying next to me. After all, if things were good between us, it felt like everything else was filtered and what was bad wasn't that bad anymore and what was good only got better. And things were good between Neymar and me now.

I planted a kiss on his neck. "C'mon sleepy head. We'll be late."

"Mmm, it's morning already?"

"Morning, as in THE morning. As in the Mexico morning." I felt his whole body tense up. "It's gonna be great. You have this in the bag."

"I hope so." He said, finally opening his eyes. I liked what I saw. He had his game face on already. I was relieved he looked focused and over the drama of the past few days. I would hate for it to affect his performance and the team's chances of advancing to the next round.

"I'll swing by my room to get ready. See you at breakfast, okay?" I said, kissing him lightly on the lips. He got up and made sure the corridor was clear for me to leave.

I hopped on the shower quickly and then got ready as fast as I could. I put my hair up in a tight ponytail like I always did and put on my CBF clothes. After a quick breakfast we would head to the stadium for a one hour practice before the game.

Heading for the lobby I run to Scolari on the elevator and we got in together. I hadn't talked to him since I yelled at him about Alex and I felt a little embarrassed.

"Ready Liv?" He asked me.

I nodded. "Sir, I wanted to say..."

"Water under the bridge." He cut me. "So what do you think, can we win?"

"I'm certain we can."

"Me too. I hope we will." He said as we headed to the hotel restaurant for breakfast.

I got my tray and headed towards David who was sitting alone at a table.

"So did you and lover boy make up? Was it overly dramatic as per usual with you two?"

"Lover boy?" I made a face at him. "And you know, just because it happened once, it doesn't mean we live our lives to the soundtrack of Titanic!"

"What happened once?" Thiago asked as he sat next to me.

"The... you know." I said evasively.

"The I-just-realized-I-can't-live-without-you epiphany, that had to happen during the match and the subsequent run and midair kiss."

Thiago started laughing so hard I wasn't sure it was because of the joke or the nerves because of the game.

"Maybe we should tie you to a seat this time. You know, in case you have more epiphanies."

"Haha." I snickered. "And no more epiphanies. I've hit my quota."

"Thank God." Thiago said. "Now we just need to win this one and advance to the 16. That's all I want."

"Oh we will. You'll see." David said cheerfully but that made Thiago even more nervous.

After breakfast we headed to the stadium and had our one hour practice. Scolari said a few words of encouragement and we settled in the locker room waiting. I saw Neymar walking towards us but he stopped midway and turned around. He then proceeded to walk towards the coaches where his father already was. He gave me an apologetic look. I thought I was overly optimistic in thinking that we would have no problems now that the Alex thing was resolved. We were us, after all. Problems followed us like bees did beautiful flowers.

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