Fermín and Clara have known each other since the day they were born.
He is her twin brother's best friend and has come back home to Andalusia after the 2022/23 season.
They meet again... and what will happen?
It took me more or less the whole weekend to unpack and put away all of my belongings into their new spaces. I had also checked out my commutes to work and university - the flat was close to the faculty, maybe a ten-minute-walk, and close to a metro station, at which I could take a train that would take me to the city center in around 10-15 minutes. It was perfect and I already loved Barcelona.
Neither Isa, nor Carlos and Fati had come back to Barcelona yet, and it felt lonely not knowing anyone. And even though Fermín and I had agreed on meeting up for furniture shopping, I didn't feel like bothering him about it, he surely had enough on his plate with football and his uni starting soon too. But thankfully, it was him that took the initiative, calling me on a sunny day, around lunchtime.
"Hi Fermín!" I said cheerily as I picked up. "Hi Clara, how are you?" he asked. "Good, good, I already love the city" I swooned. "Yeah, it's great, right? Have you been to the beach yet?" he asked. "No, unfortunately not..." I replied. "You want to go this afternoon? I could pick you up in an hour or so and after a swim we could do that IKEA thing... I mean, only if you want, it's ok if you just..." he stammered and I cut him off. "Yeah, sounds great, can't wait, see you" I said nervously and hung up quickly.
I didn't know why I was so nervous, I mean we had hung out just a few nights ago, but that had been just a kind of necessity, and we had been out in Dallas alone but that was at night and a spur of a moment thing. Now we were hanging out for hours and had planned to do something on our own that would last... like hours. Chill, Clara, it's what normal friends do, I shouldn't be nervous at all. However, I took my sweet time choosing something to wear and ultimately even decided to wear a bathing suit to cover more than a simple bikini would. I packed my beach bag with fresh underwear and the usual swimming stuff.
Just a few minutes later, the downstairs bell rang and I quickly picked it up shouting "Coming!" before sprinting downstairs to meet my friend. "Hey!" I greeted him happily and he hugged be back before we got into his car and drove to the beach. "This was one of our favourite places back when we were in La Masía. We used to come here when we just needed to get our minds off the pressure we were facing." he explained as we laid out our towels. I pulled my dress over my head and of course, a comment from Fermín already left his lips: "Wow, you're actually able to cover yourself!" "And I bet you'll still get a boner when I'll hug you in the water" I teased him and traced a finger over his sculpted abs.
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📍 Playa De La Barceloneta, Barcelona clara_1106 Summer girl ☀️
carlos_1106 That's an unusual amount of fabric on your body isa_bragas_ Already found some friends? 😊 cristoml10 😍
After a swim and enjoying the warmest hours, we took Fermin's car again to drive to IKEA. I went completely bananas already at the entrance and walked ahead as I let the poor guy manoeuvre the cart through the whole store. "Are you sure you need 28 candles?" he asked as I continued loading stuff into the cart. "It's romantic when you have sex" I just shrugged, not really knowing if that was true because except for that night with him, I had absolutely no experience. But still, in all the midst of that nervousness, I remembered him lighting a small candle he had taken from their dining room and setting it next to his bed to ease the tension. I smiled at the memory.
We spent the whole evening wandering around the store and I also managed to find a nice picture frame which I was going to fill with pictures to gift to Fermín as a thank you for helping me out in my first days in the city. His car was full of stuff when we left again and he helped me unload it all in my apartment. Thankfully, I had taken over a furnished one but still had bought one or two small cupboards for extra storage, which Fermín offered to help me build up. "You know that girls can do it all and don't need a man swooping in to save the day?" I teased him as we were assembling the pieces. "And you know that sometimes guys just appreciate showing girls a nice gesture?" he huffed. "Thanks, really. I mean it. Your future girlfriend will be really lucky" I replied and managed to form a smile, which hurt innerly for some reason though.
When we were done, he spoke up: "Well, I better get going but y'all are coming on Sunday, right?" he asked. "Yup. I told you I'd do a one-hour-drive" I replied and winked. We said goodbye at my door and when he was gone, I got myself ready for bed where I watched some episodes of Grey's Anatomy before falling asleep.
On Sunday, it was finally game day. Carlos and Fati had arrived back in Barcelona yesterday as we were set to drive to Tarragona, where Barca's B-team was playing Gimnastic today. We were pretty excited as it was Fermin's first game with them and he would be starting too. Cristo had asked to come with us and we all teased him about his platonic crush on me on our car ride. Obviously, I had put on my blaugrana Barca kit from the US tour, even though Fermín was playing with the number 11 now and the team would be dressed in their light blue away kits today, but I just wanted to show some support. When we arrived at the stadium, we took our seats as the players were warming up and cheered on our friend when we saw him. He first smiled and waved at us, but his expression quickly changed to a sour one and I didn't know why.
The first half ended goalless and with a yellow card for Fermín. The second half started and just two minutes in, he was given another yellow for a tackle just on the border of the penalty area. We groaned as he had to leave the field and walked straight into the tunnel, probably hoping to hide his emotions. To make everything worse, we lost after a goal during injury time and the game ended with gloomy looks on our faces. Fermín was travelling back with the team bus and we wouldn't have the chance to see him and cheer him up, so we just walked back to our car and drove up to Barcelona.
Clara Hey, I'm sorry about today... There's not really much I can do or say, but I'm here for you
Fermín ⚽️ Did you have a nice time at least? With Cristo?
Clara What kind of question is this?!
Fermín ⚽️ Sorry I'm just in a bad mood See you soon
