Fever Dream ~ Neymar Jr

Chapter 1

2017

 "Liv, réveille-toi!" Coach Mariano yelled at me to wake up. No, I wasn't sleeping, I had only forgot how to move and even breathe because I had noticed him enter the stadium. What was he doing here? The men and women's stadiums were located across from each other. There was absolutely no reason for him to be here. Somewhere far away, I heard the coach yell at me again and this time it registered.

I ran up to my coach, grabbing the ball I had let fall to the ground, trying to act as if I hadn't noticed him. But coach Mariano had and called up to him, jogging his way.

"Neymar, I'm so happy you're here." He told him in English. Neymar started walking his way, looking between the two of us. This was not the first time I saw him since I had bumped into him on his first practice in the training center, but all the other times I could either disappear before he saw me, or pretend that I hadn't seen him. This was what it had come down to, a game of hide and seek.

"My pleasure." Neymar said when he reached the coach.

"Liv, viens ici!" The coach told me, as I was the one closest to them, without even looking at me.

"Of course you've already learned French." Neymar commented instead of a hi when I approached.

The coach looked confused. "You know each other?" He asked but before either one of us could reply he spoke again: "I had actually asked Neymar to stop by one of the practices to introduce himself to the team if he had the chance. I know you lot want to meet him." He said, pointing at my teammates, most of who had stopped doing drills and had started walking towards us.

"Hi Neymar." I said quietly. I didn't have many occasions to say his name out loud lately, it tasted strange on my lips. Sweet and sour at the same time. He nodded in acknowledgment. The coldness with which he met me on every occasion had not succumbed to the hot pre-season weather. And it looked like it would not anytime soon.

Coach started the introductions then, phones came out for photos and insta stories as my teammates were introduced to him and I found it all too much to bear. I slipped away quietly and the only person that might have noticed I did was him, but he didn't show it. I went back to the bench and was looking for my water bottle when I felt a football hitting my legs gently. I turned around and saw him eyeing me. I don't know if my teammates sensed something, but no one approached the bench and instead they went back to doing drills.

"I had seen photos of you in your kit, but it's still quite a thing to see you here training professionally." He said.

I sighed with relief. I don't know what I was expecting him to say exactly, but it definitely wasn't that. And did that mean he actually kept tabs on me? "I know right? Sometimes I don't believe it myself."

"God knows, you deserve it."

"That's... that's kind of you to say." I replied. I was trying to suppress my "liv-ness" as David called it, my unnatural ability to refuse any and every compliment.

He chuckled. "I'm not being kind Liv. I couldn't even if I wanted to."

"Neymar... this isn't the time and place." I told him. I was once again surprised with how he'd always cut to the chase. There was never going to be any generic chit chat, pretending we hadn't hurt each other in every way imaginable.

"It doesn't seem like there is a time and place. You avoid me every chance you get, you think I haven't noticed?"

"I told you before, I didn't want to make things harder. I know even seeing me gets your blood boiling."

He let out an incoherent sound. "Well, you're not wrong there. I don't know how it's even possible to feel so much anger at the same time as..." He cut his sentence, taking a deep breath. He started kicking the ball that was between us up in the air. "So, are you still afraid to try to dribble past me?"