Fever Dream ~ Neymar Jr

Chapter 8

2014

"Wow, I had forgotten what you looked like!" Peter exclaimed when he saw me later that day.

I rolled my eyes at him. "I had not forgotten you have no filter." I commented as I gave him a quick hug. He and I had gone a long way since the World Cup where he gave me the silent treatment for how things went with me and Alex. You could say we were friends now.

That wasn't the case with Marina though. They looked at each other awkwardly for a moment before she too came inside the house. I wasn't really sure what had happened with them. It seemed like their timing was always wrong.

"Liv!" I heard and suddenly brown hair blinded my vision.

"Hey Rafa." I greeted her as she hugged me tightly.

"I can't believe I've been here for more than a week and I only now see you." She told me.

"Your brother is to blame for that." Marina commented.

"I know." I Rafaella laughed. "My mom complains to me that his phone is always busy whenever she calls. She can't get through to him."

"Really?" I asked, mortified.

"Relax Liv. She knows how to text him. She finds a way to let her disapproval be known." Somehow that did not relax me at all.

"Hey girls." Alex said, emerging from the other room.

"Hi Alex." I said, giving him a quick hug too. Things were still a little awkward, but not as much as they'd be if Neymar was here. "You house is awesome." I said looking around the living room.

"C'mon, I'll show you around." Rafaella said, taking the role of hostess.

"I've seen it before." Marina commented, sitting down on one of the couches across from Peter. I caught Rafaella giving Alex a warning look as he moved to join us for the tour and he returned to the living room, to diffuse the tension between Marina and Peter.

"Smooth." I told Rafa. "Have you figured out what's going on there?" I asked her as we went inside the kitchen.

"He's crazy for her. That's for sure. But get this, there's this girl that's been coming over for 'an assignment'", she said, doing air quotes, "an assignment that's never ending. And I'm not sure what's going on there." She added. "Your friend, Marina. I can't figure out if she likes him back."

I shrugged. I didn't know either. "The kitchen looks nice." I said instead and we moved towards the bedrooms.

"I get it. You're so busy with my brother you've no time for anything else. I'd be a little mad at you for ignoring me if it wasn't my brother you're ignoring me for." She commented.

I laughed.

"But to be honest, I think you're being a little too intense about this long-distance thing. There are parts of your lives that will have to be separate from one another." She told me.

"Did Neymar say something?" I asked her.

"No, he didn't. He doesn't have to though. Besides, Alex told me you've skipped some classes. The point of you being here and not there is to do good in school. Not mess both things up." She noted.

I nodded. She was right of course. "Oh, Rafa. You've no idea how much I miss him." I told her, sitting down on the bed of what I assumed was Alex's room.

"I know." She said sitting next to me. "He misses you too, I can hear it in his voice. He doesn't even look happy on the training videos Barcelona posts on Instagram. And he's always happy when he's playing."