see you later // Pablo Gavi

Chapter 22

𝒀𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒃𝒓𝒐𝒘𝒏 𝒆𝒚𝒆𝒔 𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒅𝒓𝒊𝒗𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒎𝒆 𝒊𝒏𝒔𝒂𝒏𝒆.

𝐖𝐄 𝐇𝐀𝐕𝐄 𝐁𝐄𝐄𝐍 𝐃𝐑𝐈𝐕𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐅𝐎𝐑 𝐀𝐁𝐎𝐔𝐓 𝐓𝐇𝐑𝐄𝐄 𝐇𝐎𝐔𝐑𝐒, 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐒𝐎𝐌𝐄𝐎𝐍𝐄 𝐃𝐄𝐂𝐈𝐃𝐄𝐒 𝐖𝐄 𝐒𝐇𝐎𝐔𝐋𝐃 𝐀𝐋𝐋 𝐒𝐓𝐎𝐏 𝐅𝐎𝐑 𝐀 𝐋𝐔𝐍𝐂𝐇 𝐁𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐊 𝐈𝐍 𝐙𝐀𝐑𝐀𝐆𝐎𝐙𝐀, 𝐖𝐇𝐄𝐑𝐄 𝐖𝐄 𝐀𝐑𝐄 𝐍𝐎𝐖, 𝐒𝐈𝐍𝐂𝐄 𝐈𝐓 𝐈𝐒 𝐏𝐑𝐄𝐓𝐓𝐘 𝐌𝐔𝐂𝐇 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐇𝐀𝐋𝐅𝐖𝐀𝐘 𝐏𝐎𝐈𝐍𝐓, 𝐆𝐎𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐓𝐎 𝐌𝐀𝐃𝐑𝐈𝐃.

Most of us stay on the bus. Because, you know, if twenty-something Barcelona players just casually strutted up into a local restaurant, I feel like we wouldn't be making it to Madrid on time.

Poor Xavi, Raphinha, De Jong, Araujo, and Kessie get the short end of the stick and have to go in and get everyone's food. They decide it would take way too long to write down what everyone wants, so they'll just get a bunch of food, and hope that there will be at least something everyone wants. If not, then tough for them. Either way, they will get enough food for all of us.

I take out my phone, not really knowing what I'm doing. I just kind of scroll.

Suddenly, I see a post from Pablo Torre. I follow basically every Barca player. It is a picture of me, leaned up, kissing Gavi's cheek. He is grinning, and obviously blushing. The views are insane. My stomach lurches. You can't really tell it is me, but... The caption on it says, Heading to Madrid. Gavi brought along a friend.

I turn suddenly, looking around, snapping, "Where is Torre?"

"You mean Ferran? He's right here," Sergio says, sounding to me pretty stupid.

"No! Not Ferran! Pablo Torre! I haven't even seen him."

"I don't know. I think he's sitting in the back with Jordi or something, why?" Ter Stegen asks.

I glare, standing up. Gavi glances up, taking his air pod out in confusion, saying simply, "You look mad."

Fricking Torre.

I storm to the back of the bus, and I spot Torre, sitting next to Christensen, actually. I glare at him, saying, "Torre, you know what you did!"

He glances up, chuckling evilly. "It's funny!"

"Take that down! Right now!"

A few of the guys sitting more towards the front of the bus, by Pedri and Gavi, are looking back at me.

"How come? You guys are just friends."

"Yeah, but no one can know that! Take it down, Torre! I'm being actually really honest here!"

He looks at me a few seconds, before sighing, shaking his head, and takes out his phone, taking it down. "There are already enough views anyway."

"Yeah, I know! That is the worst part of all!"

Gavi calls, "Hey, Ember, come back over here! What happened?"

I sigh, walking back over to him, showing the post, which is deleted now, but I screenshoted. I'm sure there are plenty of fans that screenshoted it too. What I am really worried about, though, is that Charli may have seen it. I doubt she follows Pablo Torre. I mean, it's not like he's a super famous player or anything. But still... It could have still shown up on her feed. I don't think she'd recognize it as me, but what if she does?

I plop back down next to Gavi in defeat, whose eyes are wide at what Torre did. He turns around, yelling across the bus, "What the hell, Pablo?"

"Calm down, Gavi. What happened?" says Lewandowski. I sigh, showing my screenshot around to all the guys sitting near enough to me- Lewandowski, Ter Stegen, Pedri, Dembele, Ansu, Ferran, and Sergio. They all show their own types of sympathy and cringing in behalf of me and Gavi.

"Gavi, calm down, though. He took it down. I'm sure it is fine. People forget anyway," Pedri says, trying to encourage his friend.

"No, they really don't," he says, but he sits back down forward on his chair. He stares out the window, refusing to do or say anything else.

In a bit, our food comes, and we start driving again, but there is tension. Probably because Gavi is honestly more upset than me, and he is just kind of radiating his bad mood to the rest of us. I'm sure it is completely on accident. Still, though.

But the time we are nearing Madrid, everyone seems back in good spirits. After some convincing from Pedri, Gavi's annoyance and anger finally cooled. Which is good. I like him better when he is in a good mood. I like him  a lot either way, though, honestly. It is hard for me not to like Pablo Gavi.

We make it to Madrid at about 1:00 P.M. It is Saturday. Tomorrow, at 9:00 P.M., is when Barcelona will play Atletico de Madrid. Or, no, correction: it is when Barcelona will beat Atletico de Madrid. I already know they're going to win. Especially with me there supporting them.

We are talking about the game on the bus, and I lean over Gavi's shoulder to see what he's doing on his phone, asking, "What'cha up to?"

"Ticket website."

"For what reason?" I ask suspiciously. "Because you know I'm payin' for my own seat tomorrow at the game, right?"

"You are?" he smirks. "I'm sorry. I already bought you a ticket."

"Gavi," I grin, rolling my eyes at him. "You have bought me a whole pile of clothes, a hugely expensive bracelet, which I still wear all the time, by the way, and three tickets to football games so far. You need to stop with all this."

"Who says?"

"Me!"

"Yeah, well, I'm not going to listen to you. I like you, as a friend, and I'm rich, so why wouldn't I buy you a bunch of stuff, huh?" I know he simply says the 'as a friend' part to avoid teasing from the others, and the any other time, he wouldn't feel the need to add that in there, but I still can't deny that it hurts, either way.

I sigh, unable to find a way to fight with him. He is right... He is just so sweet. He shouldn't be so sweet all the time... I smile, deciding the best thing to say is something lighthearted. "Well, alright, Gavi. But this is the last time you'll be doing something like that for me. To pay you back, though, I'll just cheer your name louder when you score than all the Atleti fans combined."

He grins down at me with those brown eyes, looking drier, and more grey looking now than they looked before.

Those eyes. They always have this way of captivating me. They change with his feelings and the lighting. Somehow, they always astonish and enchant me. No matter the color or emotion they give off.