twisted » á. morata & p. dybala

trece // recovery

It had been two months since I was hospitalised. I had been recovering nicely at home, with a lot of help from Valerie and Paulo. I'd been staying home, doing nothing because I wasn't allowed to by my doctors.

Also, I knew that Álvaro was avoiding me, but for what reason, I didn't know. The only time I ever saw him in those two months was when he picked Valerie up to go on a date. Speaking of them going on dates, they actually hadn't been on another one for at least one and a half month.

"Ha! I won! Again," I shouted into Paulo's left ear and he got flustered out of embarrassment. We were playing fifa in my living room, and I kept winning. Break the stereotype.

"Okay, you must be cheating," he accused me. He earned a pillow to the arm for that. "Ouch, careful. This body is insured," he grimaced.

"My feelings are also insured, and no, I'm not cheating. I'm just better than you," I crossed my arms in front of my chest.

"Yeah, right," despite his sarcasm, he leaned in closer to kiss me, and as soon as he did, I tasted his usual sweet and minty scent.

I was only starting to kiss him back when Valerie walked into the living room, breaking us apart.

"Hey, where's Álvaro?" I asked her, rubbing my lips gently with my thumb.

I could've sworn I saw her getting startled. "I don't know," was all she said.

"Girlfriends are supposed to know where their boyfriends are," Paulo chimed in, raising both eyebrows at Valerie.

"Yeah... That's the thing. It didn't work out. I'm so sorry you guys, I know how much you want me to be with him, but it just didn't work out," she formed a tight lipped smile, which wasn't even a smile, but more like a tight lipped frown.

"What?" Paulo was surprised, and so was I. "Well, it's okay. At least you tried," he sighed, looking a tad bit disappointed.

"Since when?" I spoke up, my eyebrows furrowed and my face horror-struck.

"Well, we already knew it wasn't working out since before you were in the hospital, but we officially ended things last month. No offence or anything, but I actually feel kind of lighter now," she said nonchalantly, and I was still dumbstruck.

Does that mean I won't be seeing Álvaro around anymore? He was barely around when they were still dating, but now that they're not... I really didn't want to think of the words that were supposed to finish that sentence.

"Isabella? Are you okay? You sort of look sad," Valerie moved closer to get a better look at me.

"No, I'm not. I mean yes, I'm okay, and not sad. I'm just really surprised," I stumbled upon my words and Paulo eyed me curiously, but I looked away before he could see the panic rising up on my face.

"Okay kids, what do we do now? I'm bored," Valerie clasped her hands together then crossed her arms in front of her chest.

"Let's go to the movies. Tickets and popcorns are on me," Paulo stood up and held a hand out for me, which I took.

"I want to watch—"

"Star Trek, yeah we know," Valerie cut me off and grabbed her bag.

I started giggling at her remark. "I'll get ready now. Just a minute, okay?" Then I half-ran to my room to get ready, and I did it as quickly as humanly possible. "Okay, let's go," I said in a hurry when I arrived back at the living room. My hair was still cascading down my back, which I didn't like. I was pretty sure that my face looked like I had been sick for the past two months, which I had. The only thing presentable about me at the moment was my outfit.

We got into Paulo's car and he drove us to the movies. The small cinema was on the side of the street, its advertisements blaring at us. We got in line to buy tickets and also three buckets of popcorn, then went into our designated theatre.

The movie soon started, and Paulo was sat sandwiched in-between me and Valerie. I was actually pretty surprised that he was completely comfortable with sitting in that position.

"I don't get it, how can Jim be that attractive?" I said while munching on popcorn shamelessly during the movie.

"The guy's probably on steroids," Paulo replied, his eyes still glued to the screen.

"Hm, touché."

For the rest of the movie, Paulo and Valerie kept talking to each other and I kept shushing them. I hated intruders.

"Well, that was fun," Paulo said as we exited the cinema and walked back to his car.

"That was so cool," Valerie gushed in reply, her eyes filled with dreamy looks.

"Best. Movie. Ever," I then squealed loudly, which made both Paulo and Valerie laugh out loud.

"There would be no point in telling you to calm down, wouldn't there?" Paulo made us all laugh even harder, our voices echoing through the concrete walls of the parking lot.

Paulo drove us back to our house and dropped us off that night. The cinema wasn't far at all from our house, so it was a quick trip back and forth. When we reached the front door, I turned around to face him. He insisted on walking us to the door. "Thanks for today, Dybi. And the past two months basically," I wrapped my arms around him and buried my head on his shoulder.

"What for?" He hugged me back, wrapping his short arms around my waist.

"For taking care of me," I let go of him and flashed a smile.

"It's my pleasure," he made a cheeky bowing gesture and we both laughed lightly for a while until I shut him up by pecking hip on the lips.

"Goodnight, Dybi."

"Goodnight. I'll text you, okay?"

"Okay," I nodded and he went, waving to me one last time.

I went back inside the house to find Valerie standing right in front of me like she had been there the whole time, watching Paulo and I, even though the doors were half-closed.

"I don't get it," she said, her eyebrows furrowed, and she looked annoyed. I was dumbfounded, not knowing what had struck her in the head.

"Don't get what?" I was totally lost, and I eyed her curiously.

"How can you be like that- Uh, never mind," she suddenly stopped talking mid-sentence and shook her head to herself.

"What? Valerie, what is it?" I kept pushing, demanding for an answer.

"I said never mind, okay?" She walked away, leaving me confused and annoyed, but mostly confused.

I went to my room and had this sick feeling in my stomach. The feeling kept haunting me and demanding me to do something about it. I decided to pick my phone up and call someone.

"Hey, I need to talk to you," I said after a lot of rings.

"Then talk," the person said, his tone calm.

"No, it's important. Can you come over here tomorrow morning?"

"I shouldn't," the person sighed heavily, but I ignored what he thought about my request.

"Please, just once," I pleaded again, then silence filled the call. The loud kind of silence. I really hoped he was considering it.

"Okay," he sighed again, finally agreeing.

"Great, I'll see you tomorrow, Álvaro."

a/n: hands down the crappiest chapter i've ever written, but i wrote this in a hurry, so i'm really sorry