Chains

Chapter 25

There were some things in life that you have no control over. No matter how much you try to prevent yourself from getting into certain situations, life has a funny way of doing the opposite. Take for instance today.It was a cool Sunday with minimal heat,perfect for experiencing the outside world after spending four consecutive days in the comfort of my air conditioned apartment. My plan was to take an impromptu road trip with Zayn to Valencia as his artwork was to be featured in one of the museums there. But apparently I had other plans.

It was no surprise that Shakira had made plans involving me as she had a habit of doing so. What irked was that she forgot to tell me. So instead of going to Valencia with Zayn, I was stuck at Neymar's house. Don't get me wrong, I was surprisingly doing better at the whole forgive and forget thing but I couldn't help but to get annoyed at what was stopping me from a trip to Valencia. Apparently Neymar felt bad about not inviting me to his recent event that he asked me to cater to and he wanted to make it up to me. If only Shakira had told me about this I could've possibly talked my way out of the pool party I was currently wishing would end soon. 

To be honest, I possibly wouldn't have been such a prude if I wasn't giving up a road trip. It had been almost 6 months since I've arrived in Spain and Barcelona was the only city I had experienced.

"So are you going to go into the pool willing or am I gonna have to carry you?" My thoughts were interrupted by a masculine figure towering over me.I slid my sunglasses down to my nose as I raised my head up from the lounge chair I was sitting on.

"Oh come on, I just took a seat" I said to the footballer before me. For the past half hour I was in the kitchen with Rafaela helping her with some finger sandwiches she was preparing. I heard him chuckle as he sat in the chair beside me.

"I'm just messing with ya" Neymar said looking over at me.He was about to say something else when his eyes caught something. "You have a tattoo?" he exclaimed,surprise written all over his face.I nodded my head proudly and ran my fingers across it.

"What happened to I'm never getting one of those?" he asked,obviously amused ah my past declaration. Back then I was completely against the idea of getting a tattoo I was so against it that I even got a bit angry at Neymar when he got his first tattoo. It was a ridiculous reason to get mad at someone for but I was young and completely stupid back then.

"It was an impulse thing,ok" I said to him, remembering the day I dragged Zayn to a random tattoo parlour while recovering from my fight with Maluma. He looked at me and smiled obviously impressed with my decision.

"Welcome to the club " he said,raising his hand for me to high-five him. I complied with his wishes and immediately clapped myself for being genuinely friendly with. This had to be the most decent conversation I had with him of recent and I was happy that I no longer had to force myself to talk to him.

We chatted non-stop for the next few minutes which earned varying reactions from the people around us. Shakira gave me a thumbs up accompanied by a huge smile while Rafaela let out a small squeal when she finally saw us together.

"So,are you seeing anyone?" he finally asked,his smooth demeanour  now showing a hint of nervousness. My mind immediately went to Maluma but 'yes' wouldn't be a fitting answer to his question. He had stayed true to his word by ending his relationship with Belinda which sent their fandom into utter devastation. It was impossible to go on any social media account without seeing people talking about the breakup. 

"Its complicated" I said,settling on that instead of downright saying no. His face fell a bit but a small smile soon  appeared on his face.

"I understand" he said,nodding his head. We sat in a comfortable silence which was later broken by familiar voice. I turned my head to see none other than Maluma talking with Gerard and Shakira. I quickly turned the other way,hoping that he wouldn't see me. We haven't talked to each other since that whole ordeal involving Zayn and frankly I just didn't know what I would actually say to him after he did in fact break up with Belinda. My mind still ran wild with the thought that he did this just because I urged him to and not because he wanted to,not to mention the whole 'love' fiasco which happened earlier. But to be fair, I would've had a similar reaction if someone I didn't even have a relationship with said that to me.

My position proved to be the most useless thing in the world as I heard Neymar greet the latino I was avoiding. The sound of his voice became louder as he neared us, the slap of their hands during their handshake signaled his arrival. It still baffled me that they had become friends in the first place.

"Lou look who's here" Neymar said,tapping me on the shoulder. I inwardly groaned at him as I mentally slapped him on the head. I slowly turned towards them,shooting them a fake smile in the process.I muttered a short 'hey' which was accompanied by an awkward wave. He gave me a small smile and motioned me to scoot over so he could sit beside me on my chair. I reluctantly did what I was told. I couldn't help but to feel a bit awkward as memories of our last encounter flashed in my head as well as the fact that we haven't talked since. To my relief, the very pregnant Shakira asked for all of our attention. We turned her heads to see her standing with Gerard right by her side. We waited for the place to settle down and for complete silence to greet us.

"Ok,so,Gerard and I have something to tell you guys" I squinted my eyes questioningly at the couple as thousands of possible revelations floated around in my mind.They looked at each other then back  at us, the smile on Shakira's face growing wider than is humanly possible.

"We're getting married"