Back to us | Alexia Putellas

Tantrums.

I woke up to the sound of Ale fumbling around my childhood bedroom. I slowly rolled over in the direction the noise was coming from and opened my eyes, being met by the sight of Ale stood in gym shorts and a sports bra. A sight that would normally drive me crazy and have me dragging her back into bed, but being at my parents house and having Jordi sleeping a few feet away from us put a stop to that immediately.

"Is he up? What time is it?" I asked sleepily, disorientated by the new surroundings even though I had spend my whole childhood in this room.

"No, he's still asleep" she whispered as she pulled on a training top and obscured my view of her.

"Where are you going?" I asked, finally noticing that she was dressed in her training gear.

"I'm going to go the gym that your dad mentioned last night and get my rehab done, then we can all go and do something later"

"What time is it?"

"It's just after six"

"It's our day off come back to bed" I pleaded, trying to reach for her hand.

"I can't sleep carino" She said quietly, leaning down and placing a kiss on my forehead.
"I'll only be an hour or so and then we can spend the whole day together"

"Ok" I nodded sleepily, finally reaching her hand and squeezing it tightly before burying my head back onto the pillow.

Ale quietly left the house, not wanting to wake my parents and went to the the gym that was near their house. She'd always been committed to her rehab, but recently it felt like she was using it as a bit of an escape from what was circling around in her head and I didn't mind, if that is when she needed to do to keep her thoughts under control and be there for Jordi and I then that's what I'd let her do. Everyone has their own ways of coping and at the moment this seemed to be hers.

Jordi woke up at about seven, which was quite early for him recently, I knew my parents wouldn't mind being woken up by him babbling away as I carried him downstairs or the sound of me making him his breakfast, but I still tried to be as quiet as I could. I set him down in the highchair that they had brought for him and headed towards the fridge to get him some fruit when my Dad's voice sounded from behind me.

"Morning sweetheart" He smiled, kissing the top of Jordi's head as he walked past him on his way to the coffee machine that sat on the counter.
"Coffee?" He asked as he flicked the power on and took two cups from the shelf.

"Mmm definitely"
"Sorry if we woke you" I said as I placed some berries into a bowl and set it down in front of Jordi who quickly dived in.

"You didn't, I've been awake for a while"
"Did I hear Ale leave earlier?" He asked, turning towards me.

"Yeah, she went to the gym to get her rehab done"

"At 6am?"

"She couldn't sleep and she wanted to get it done early so that we could all spend the day together. I thought that maybe we could take Jordi to the Zoo? He hasn't been to one yet and I always loved it when you took me..."

"That sounds like a great idea" He smiled as he handed me my coffee.

Ale walked through the front door just as I took my first sip, her face glistening with sweat and her bag slung over her shoulder as she quietly crept in, before noticing that we were awake.
"Morning" She smiled at Dad and I as we leant against the kitchen counter watching Jordi smush blueberries into his mouth.