see you later // Pablo Gavi

Chapter 91

~ Author's Note ~

Look at that cutie.

<3

𝑮𝒐𝒐𝒅 𝒎𝒐𝒓𝒏𝒊𝒏𝒈, 𝒃𝒂𝒃𝒚.

𝐈 𝐖𝐀𝐋𝐊 𝐁𝐀𝐂𝐊 𝐎𝐕𝐄𝐑 𝐓𝐎 𝐆𝐀𝐕𝐈 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐃𝐑𝐎𝐏 𝐈𝐍𝐓𝐎 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐇𝐎𝐓 𝐓𝐔𝐁 𝐎𝐍 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐎𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐑 𝐒𝐈𝐃𝐄 𝐎𝐅 𝐇𝐈𝐌, 𝐖𝐇𝐄𝐑𝐄 𝐏𝐄𝐃𝐑𝐈 𝐈𝐒𝐍'𝐓 𝐒𝐈𝐓𝐓𝐈𝐍𝐆. As soon as I sit down, he hands me my drink, saying, "There you go," he studies me a few seconds, his jaw tight, before unclenching it and saying with a softer smile, "Your hair looks nice tied up like that. You don't wear it up very often."

Note to self: start wearing your hair up a lot more often.

"Thanks," I smile at him.

He gently takes my hand in his, rubbing it under the bubbling water around us, and says, "What did Ferran say?"

"Sorry."

"Come again? For what?"

"No, Gavi," I giggle at his confusion face. "Ferran said sorry to me. For what he said. And everything."

"Oh..." he says very simply.

I rub his knuckles gently, saying, "Once you really are sorry, love, can you please tell Ferran that? I know you're sorry to me for punching him. I understand that. But once you're sorry to him, can you tell him that, for me?"

He shifts, glancing away, "Why does it matter so much?"

"I don't know. I just think it would mean a lot to Ferran, okay? So can you do that for me, once you're ready?"

He waits a few seconds, before finally saying, "Anything for you, Ember. I'd do anything for you."

We sit there together, and we talk with Pedri a bit who, despite having to deal with all that drama during his birthday celebration, seems like he's in a generally good mood, which is admirable. It's quite amazing how it seems so hard all the time to break Pedri's stride. That is a good trait in him. A really good trait to have.

After a while, everyone has Pedri blow out candles that are lit on his football/Barcelona themed cake, and I snap a bunch of pictures of it. The cutest one is of him standing, laughing at something Gavi said next to him. Gavi has that little quirked up smile on his face, too. I save it to my phone. And then pieces of cake are cut out, and we all sit together at the tables. At our table is me and Gavi sitting next to each other with Pedri and Pablo Torre across from us.

"Mmmm," I grin. "This cake is good, isn't it, Pedri?" I ask him. "I hope you like it."

"Yeah, you guys got my favorite kind," he grins. "Thanks."

"I guess we have the same favorite kind then, huh?" I grin, licking the frosting off my fingers.

I glance in the corner of my eye and see Gavi staring at me all googly eyed. I look back and stare back at him, eyebrows raised. "What is it?"

"Noth-" he starts to say, but I lean over, licking the frosting on his finger off too with a grin.

"They act like they're always in a movie," Pablo Torre comments to Pedri, who laughs. Surprise, surprise. Pedri is always laughing about one thing or another.

"Hell yeah we do," I say, eyeing Gavi.

He glances away, shifts in his chair, quickly wipes his fingers, and promptly shoves his hands in his pocket, saying, "Just eat your darn cake already, Ember."

I grin, rolling my eyes with a shrug. "Okay, then, weirdo. Don't know what your problem is," I tease. Then I continue happily eating my cake.

"I don't understand them," Pablo Torre says, as if he's commenting on a football game or something.

"That's probably for the best, Pablo," Pedri says, and I think I have to agree with him on that.

If I'm being honest with myself, though, do I really get us?

After cake, we all head out to play a football game in our swimsuits, wet clothes, and bare feet. I go to the ladies' room to just put on my shorts instead of my swim bottom. The two teams are Pedri and Angel playing as forwards, Gavi and Busquets playing in the midfield, me, Kounde, and Sergi playing as defenders, and Arnau as our goalkeeper and Ansu and Dembele playing as forwards, Ferran and Pablo Torre playing as midfielders, Eric, Balde, and Casado playing as defenders, and Inaki as their goalkeeper.

To speak kindly and not exaggerate at all, it is a very chaotic game. With no refs, some of these boys don't even try to pretend there are rules here. It's free-style kindergarten football being played by extremely skilled athletes and one average girl-next-door.

I'm sure you can imagine how that goes.

By the end, the score is 1-4 somehow, and we win, which is insane, but I think it's because Gavi was actually trying. The rest of us were kind of fooling around, but speedy Gavi had to make sure to slaughter even when it was all for fun and got himself a hat-trick. If only it counted for La Liga. Such a shame. The other goal by us is scored by Pedri. The one goal they score belongs to Ansu Fati.

No timer marks the end of the game. It's marked by us all finally panting, not from exercise (well, maybe from exercise for me, but no one else), but because of laughter. I slid on the grass right as Gavi was dribbling the ball, slipped right into him, and we both went to the ground, laughing our heads off because of how much of an idiot I was. At that same time Angel, on the other side of the field, tripped on nothing but air, so it was pretty easy for the game to just naturally end there with laughter and smiles.

I had so much fun, and I wish I could just live like this. That sounds like heaven to me.

The other thing that made it somewhat humorous is that some of us, including myself and Gavi, had previously drank a few alcoholic beverages, so at the beginning of the game, it took a hot second for us to gain back all the stability of someone who is sober.

Most of us had that problem.

In the end, we all walk back to the campsite together, covered in dirt, grass, our damp swimsuits, and the most stupid laughter ever.

I love it.