"What?"

"Shhh." Neymar said as quietly as he could.

I was standing behind him but I could still see his face in the moonlight that shined through the windows. He looked frantic, his eyes searching for any sign of movement.

"Let's get out of here and call the police." I whispered and grabbed his arm, trying to get him to come back outside but his feet stood firmly in place.

"No." He said and quietly walked to an adjacent room that I hadn't even noticed in my panic. He came back out carrying a hammer.

"No way." I told him. "It's too dangerous."

"Go back outside, if you hear something call the police."

"Neymar no!" I said and at the same moment a loud crack from somewhere upstairs disrupted the silence.

Neymar turned to look at me.

"If you want to be stupid I'm coming with you." I said firmly. He motioned for me to stay behind him and we silently started walking towards the living room. I looked around, trying to see if anything was moving in the dark, my heart beating frantically in my chest, when I heard a noise behind me.

"Neymar!" I yelled the moment a hooded figure flew off the staircase behind me and landed where I would have been, had Neymar not pushed me out of the way at the last second.

I heard a loud bang as the baseball bat the hooded figure – who seemed to be a man— was carrying clashed with the floor instead of my head with force.

Neymar who had landed next to me didn't waste any time as he grabbed the hammer once again and swung it towards the man. At the exact same moment I heard a woman's voice coming from upstairs as she cried "Neymar?"

But the voice was familiar.

"STOP!" I yelled so hard that I felt my throat burning. "Neymar stop!" I screamed again, the same moment the lights came on and to my relief I saw Neymar looking at me with a surprised look on his face, his hand raised high in the air with the hammer, ready to strike.

"Liv wha—" Neymar started saying when we both turned around towards the staircase at the sound of footsteps.

"RAFAELLA?"

"It's us! It's us!" She said as she got down. "OH MY GOD!" She yelled and run towards the man that was still on the floor and to my horror I saw red liquid spilling. Had Neymar managed to hit him?

I fell to my knees next to Rafaella as she turned him around and with surprise and horror I recognized the man's face. Alex.

"Alex! Alex! Alex are you alright?" Rafaella screamed hysterically. With the corner of my eye I saw Neymar frozen like a statue, the hammer still in his hand.

"I'm fine. The bat ricocheted when I fell. I think I broke my nose."

I took a deep breath in relief.

"Help me get him up." Rafaella told me.

We carefully lifted Alex up and placed him on the couch and Rafaella run to the kitchen to bring back something to wipe the blood away.

"Hi Liv. Neymar." Alex said, forming a half smile, through the blood. He looked really pale.

"Alex what the hell?" I exclaimed. "How are you here?" I asked as Neymar finally let the hammer fall to the floor and took a step towards us.

Rafaella emerged from the kitchen at that moment and started gently whipping the blood away. "We have to go to the emergency room. The have to set your nose back."

"That's gonna hurt right?" Alex asked.

"Neymar will you please drive us?" Rafaella turned to her brother.

"I could have killed you." Neymar spoke for the first time.

"Good thing you didn't." Alex said, trying to smile but instead making a grimace of pain.

"Neymar will you drive us?" Rafaella asked again as she tried to get Alex to stand up again.

"Yeah. Yes." He said and rushed to help her.

We got into one of the cars that Neymar had in his garage, Alex and Rafaella in the back and me in the passenger seat and drove to the hospital in the thankfully empty streets without talking.

When we reached the emergency room they took in Alex right away and we settled down in the waiting room.

"Why were you in my house Rafaella? I was under the impression you were with dad in Rio. "And when did Alex get here?"

"He never left."

"What?"

"We drove to the airport and then we realized he didn't have to leave. And I knew there was no one here so it was perfect."

"And how long were you planning on lying to all of us?" Neymar asked, his voice sounding strained.

"It's none of your business what I do!"

"It's my house!"

"We obviously would have left had we known you were coming."

"Oh I'm sorry I didn't call ahead to let you know I'm going to my house! And besides weren't you pretending to be angry since in your head I'm the reason you had to say goodbye to Alex?"

"You are the reason!"

"Guys..." I said, trying to calm them down but it was to no avail.

"You don't even realize how reckless and childish you're being!" Neymar yelled as he got up and headed for the exit.

Rafaella and I stayed there for a few minutes without talking until she spoke to me. "Do you think he's right?"

"You should have told us Alex was here. For one, I think Neymar would have been happy to know it. And so would I. He really beat himself up over the whole thing and he tried hard to get the coaches to let Alex stay."

"You're right. I was just... so angry with him. I didn't want to talk to him at all."

"I'm just glad no one got seriously hurt today. It could have gone a lot worse." I said, the image of Neymar with the hammer coming to my mind.

"Good as new." Alex said as he came in the waiting room, his nose bandaged.

"Let's head back. We had the game today and even if it feels like lifetimes ago I'm so tired." I said, standing up.

"Right, you guys won!" Alex said. "Congrats. And Liv, sorry for almost cracking your skull open with that bat."

"No worries." I said as we exited the hospital and found Neymar waiting for us by the car.

We didn't say much on the way back to the house either. I was so worn-out and Neymar beside me looked even worse. His eyes were veiny and black circles had started forming under them.

"You guys should take the master bedroom." Rafaella said awkwardly when we got back to the house. "We'll move to a guest one."

"No need." Neymar said quickly, probably not wanting to sleep where his sister was sleeping with her boyfriend. He started going up the stairs when Rafaella cleared her throat.

"Neymar can we talk?" She asked him.

He turned to look at her inquiringly.

"I'm going up." I declared wanting to give them some privacy.

"Yeah I'll show you the rooms." Alex told me and we headed up. "Listen I know what you're going to say..."

"Tonight? Nothing. I'm so tired to even try. But tomorrow... we'll talk."

"I don't like the sound of that."

"You shouldn't. Anyway, goodnight." I told him and got into the first room I came across.

I got out of my clothes, into my pajamas and under the covers in no time. I didn't know how much time had passed when Neymar got inside but I had definitely drifted off at some point.

"Hey." He said sliding next to me and wrapping his arms around me.

"Hi." I whispered back.

"Did it go okay with your sister?"

He nodded. "I think so."

"I'm glad."

"Oh God. What a day. I can't believe we played Cameroon this morning."

"I know. And so much for our undisrupted holiday."

"When people make plans God laughs."

"Yeah. He must have had a really good laugh today."

"I still can't believe Alex and Rafaella hid here!"

"And slept in my bed. Out of all the rooms in this house. How will I ever sleep there again?" he said and I started laughing.

"Let's get some sleep and we'll think about this tomorrow." I said, kissing him lightly.

"You're right. Oh, I'm so glad you're here. Sweet dreams my love."