Spain's Brightest (Patri Guijarro)

Of Course Not

October 2018

Patri's POV:

"Goodmorning." Mapi smiled.

"Hi." I looked at my phone. 

"What?"

"Huh?" I looked at her. 

"You haven't taken your eyes off that phone since you got here. What's going on?"

"Just waiting for a text."

"If you're still waiting, it's probably not coming."

I sighed. "Yeah, I know." I saw Alexia walk in. "Can you ask Jenni if Jess is ok. I've been texting her but she hasn't answered."

"Yeah, we need to talk about that." She pulled me away. "I don't think you should talk to her anymore."

"What?"

"Hear me out ok? Angela talked to Jenni. Apparently Jessica isn't who you think she is."

"I don't want to hear this from you, Alexia." I pushed her away.

"I'm just trying to protect you. We all are."

"I'm not a child! I can look out for myself!"

"Patri."

"Go away."

"She lied to you!" I stopped. "Hear me out ok. Angela said she hung out with people she shouldn't have. Been that found trouble everywhere. Jess was involved in that."

"That doesn't mean anything." I walked toward her. 

"Patri. This girl is hiding a lot. What do you honestly know about her? What does anyone know about her?" I shook my head. "I don't want you to get hurt."

"If I do that's my own problem. Stay out of it."

Jessica's POV:

I walked around after finishing up the day with Atleti. I don't know what Lola and Angela told them, but the team has been weird around me. 

Carmen still talks to me, when Lola isn't paying attention.

I'm starting to regret coming to Madrid.

I felt my phone buzz and looked.

Patri

I sighed and ignored it once again. Immediately after she called back. I gave up and answered.

"Hello?"

"Jess. I've been trying to reach you all day."

"I'm just not really in a talking mood."

"Are you in a listening mood?"

"What?"

"I don't know what's going on." She said. 

"Neither do I." I said. "Look Patri. I know they're probably telling you to stay away from me. You should listen. Everyone here is ignoring me, which is making my job very difficult."

"Why should I listen?"

"Because you deserve better." I said.

"Than what? What's going on?"

"Don't call me again." I hung up. 

November 2018

Patri's POV:

Today we were playing Atleti. I saw Jessica over on the bench. As we played our game, I was anxious to talk to her after.

The game finished 2-1 to us. After I made my way around to the Atleti players, I headed in her direction. 

"Can we talk?" I said.

"Patri." She sighed.

"You said don't call you again. I didn't. But I want answers."

She nodded. "And I want to give them to you. Because you're the only one who seems to want them."

"You know how I am, Jessica. Unless it comes from your mouth, it means nothing. I don't want to hear about your life from Lola or Alexia. I want to hear it from you."

She nodded. "Fair enough." We walked down the tunnel. I knew my teammates were watching. 

"Alexia said you lied. That you knew those guys before the crash." She nodded. "That they weren't good people."

"Javier wasn't." She looked down. "I first met him when I was 17. He was 22 then. Just ran into him after practice one day. He started talking about Sevilla, how it was his favorite club, all that." She sighed. "I didn't really want anything to do with him. He was older than I was, had a different lifestyle, and I was focused on making it at Sevilla. He didn't like that. For once he met someone who didn't make their life revolve around him. It started with just insults. Then he started to get physical. Angela knew about it. There was no way she didn't know. But she left before things got worse. I tried to avoid him. Stay around my teammates more, but all the girls I was closer too started leaving. Joining new teams. I felt alone so I had no choice but to hang around him."

She shook her head. "All his relationships were based on fear. If someone spoke back to him, he dealt with it. There was no talking it out with him, it was all violence. He had been arrested, I know he had. I met the two guys the night of the crash, Alvaro met them that night too. He tried to tell me that Javier was bad news, but once he saw how far in I was, he gave up. Said I was too far gone, but I knew I wasn't. I wanted out, I wanted to get away from everything. I was going to go to the club the day after the crash and try to get a trade. Leave Sevilla, go far away and be free."

"What was the trouble they said he was in?"

"Drugs mostly. And of course the violence. They say I was involved in all of that because I was around him a lot. Not by choice. I was worried that he'd kill me if I tried to run. I had a plan to get out though. But the crash happened. Lola thinks I'm a drug dealer probably." She scoffed. "Angela probably told them I was Javier's girlfriend or something. Hung around and watched while he did his dirty work. I was none of that."

I turned and saw Lola walking toward us. "Patri."

"Lola stop." I stood in front of Jess. "For once can you people just listen instead of read?"

"I don't trust her." 

Jessica walked toward her. "I was abandoned by my parents when I was 1 month old. I got bounced around from family to family until I was finally adopted at 5, and even they didn't want me. When I was 14, I left home to follow my dream of playing football and 4 years later I was involved in a car crash that almost killed me. It killed everyone else, but not me. I was told I couldn't play football ever again. Javier? That guy Angela told you about?" Angela walked over. "Yeah, he was the worst. But did she tell you that he abused me for a few months before she left Sevilla? Did she tell you that every time I tried to walk away, he'd pull some excuse out of nowhere and guilt me into staying? No? Of course not. Because she wasn't there for all of it. I'm not proud of it. But I wasn't apart of it by choice. I was 17 years old, trapped in whatever that was with a 22-year-old man. A man who hurt me physically and emotionally. A man who made me fear for my life until the day his ended."