see you later // Pablo Gavi

Chapter 107

𝑰'𝒅 𝒃𝒆 𝒊𝒏𝒔𝒂𝒏𝒆 𝒏𝒐𝒕 𝒕𝒐 𝒍𝒐𝒗𝒆 𝒚𝒐𝒖.

𝐎𝐍 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐌𝐎𝐑𝐍𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐎𝐅 𝐓𝐇𝐄 20𝐓𝐇 𝐎𝐅 𝐃𝐄𝐂𝐄𝐌𝐁𝐄𝐑, 𝐌𝐄, 𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐑𝐋𝐈, 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐀𝐆𝐆𝐈𝐄 𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐑𝐓 𝐀𝐓 𝐃𝐄𝐂𝐎𝐑𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐎𝐔𝐑 𝐏𝐀𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐓𝐈𝐂 𝐏𝐋𝐀𝐒𝐓𝐈𝐂 𝐓𝐑𝐄𝐄. I remember when I was a kid, in Bilbao, our house had a tall, tall ceiling in the living room, and me, my father, and my mother would always drive there, and my dad would saw down our, like, nine foot tall tree. My father has always been a very strong, reliable, protective man, of his family. A good father. I still remember the Christmas when I cut it down myself. I was standing there wrapped in my Athletic Club scarf, wearing a blue striped turtle neck and pink jeans. By the end of that day, I went home crying because of a blister I got in my hand.

I smile at that memory, shaking my head. That was ages ago. Before I had ever been out of the country of Spain. Before I had ever even met Aggie and Charli. Before Germany won the World Cup in 2014 and before France won in 2018 and now way before Argentina just won the World Cup this year. Before I had ever liked a boy. Or worried about being successful. Before I was a devoted Barcelona fan. Before I moved to Montpellier. Before I moved back to Spain, to Barcelona, and met the famous footballer Gavi, who at that time was an eight-year-old kid, too, somewhere else, living his own life. Before fate let our paths cross. Before I fell in love with the love of my life.

"The gears in your mind are turning," Aggie states as she finally tops off our plastic tree with the sparkly golden star.

"Yeah, I guess they are," I smile. I think the feeling of remembering. Thinking back. I like it when my mind leads me into timeless ages.

"So, what stupid Christmas movie do we want to watch?" Charli asks.

We all discuss this topic over, but in the end, Charli ends up getting her way, but I don't care. Whatever movie would have been fine with me. She chooses a movie about like two French lovers or something.

Charli is wearing her makeup all rosy red and her hair in a messy bun. Her outfit consists of an ugly Christmas sweater, a red zip-up hoodie on top of it upzipped, and dark blue and black plaid pajama pants. It's clear she's not trying to look good, but she looks kind of cute, honestly, in her ugly Christmas attire. At least in my stupid opinion.

Aggie is wearing a black hoodie over a red nightdress, bright yellow fuzzy socks, and her yellow sports watch.

My outfit consists of a plain black lone sleeve shirt, black sweatpants, and a pair of red furry slippers.

"Can you pause it?" Aggie asks Charli right in the middle of a scene where the hot brown-haired, tan-skinned, large-muscled man is making out with the black-haired, shorter, absolutely gorgeous woman. In the movie, the man is supposed to be like some like weird Spanish dream lover who falls in love with the main girl, the black-haired one, a poor Parisian woman named Elea. I guess it's a nice story, but it's pretty boring, honestly. Maybe it would be better if it was done by some better producers or something. It's kind of repetitive, and has such a basic story line, it's kind of driving me crazy. But oh well. Aggie, and especially Charli, are enjoying it.

"Sure, why?"

Aggie leaves the room and comes back with some homemade Christmas cookies, which I grin at and Charli squeals over. We both thank her and dig in. They're still warm, and just the right about of sweetness. I love them.

Soon, the movie finishes, and we all cuddle up together on the couch, eating cookies and drinking cocoa. Charli says in a teasing tone, although I can hear the honesty in it, "So, Em, I'm surprised you're not too busy with Cris to hang out with us!"

I shrug, saying simply, "Tomorrow I'm leaving with Cris and his friends and going to Madrid. We're going to celebrate Christmas there together. Madrid is a really nice city; I really like it. We all do."

Charli's eyebrows shoot up. "You know Barcelona has a match in Madrid tomorrow, right?"

I pretend to be surprised. "Wait, seriously?"

"Yeah! You should totally convince Cris to go, girl, since you'll be there!"

I laugh a bit, thinking about how ironic this whole conversation is as I respond with, "Sure, sounds like a plan. I'm sure I can convince him. He loves me too much to deny." I hate lying, because I know that sooner rather than later, I'm going to have to fess up to her about my lies. The more I have to lie, the more lies I have to fess up to. My guilty conscience keeps bothering me. Stupid conscience.

"Tomorrow, me and Jesus are going out together. It's going to be really fu-"

"Jesus?" I ask in interest.

Charli says, suddenly her voice getting bratty, "Yeah, she has a boyfriend, and you'd have no idea, because lately you haven't been a good friend to even care. Things are going great with him, but she actually still talks to her friends, because unlike you, she's not addicted to and idolizing her boyfriend. She actually still has a job, because she can live without constantly having to see him, Em!"

I stare at her in awe. She was so glad, and all the sudden, she shows the annoyed, unimpressed, bitter, true side of what her emotions right now towards me are like.

"Yeah, look at me so surprised!" she says, her lip curling up in disgust. This tears my heart in two. It's beating so fast. "You've been so selfish lately. You just dropped your friends. You think you're doing so good at trying to hide the fact that you can't hold down a job and you're out of school. I think you wanted success, Em. I thought you wanted to do it alone. Not rely on other people. This isn't the Em I know. I don't know you anymore. I don't know who the heck this Cris guy is, if his real name even is Cris, but I'm glad you love him so much. I'm glad you love him enough to ditch your friends and stop caring about us as you have. I'm f***ing glad. And, you know what, Ember, I'd f***ing love it if you took yourself out of this apartment right now and go cry on f***ing Cris's shoulder. Go ahead and do that. If you never want to be with us, unless it works for you, I don't want you here! Me and Aggie are fine without you. So get the f*** out of here. You f***ing faker."

I can't believe this. I stand up slowly, staring at her, not knowing what to do. I'm frozen. I can't do anything. She suddenly throws the telly remote at me, screaming, "What did I say, Ember?! Get the f*** out of here!"

This sets me into action. I run to the door, slip on my slides, and run out the door, holding back tears.