Bleeding Love [Antoine Griezmann & Neymar]

Chapter XLVI

The last few weeks hadn't been easy for Antoine. Before the World Cup he knew he wasn't going to play for France, he was young and not as skilled as others but by pure luck, Franck Ribery got injured and he was chosen instead of him. Of course it wasn't luck for Franck.

But Antoine was thrilled, he was so excited but really nervous. Ribery was an extraordinary player and he didn't know if he could do a good job, especially on a tournament as important as the World Cup. So he trained even harder and tried his best to not disappoint his teammates, his coach, his family, his country and his girlfriend.

France was doing a good job in the World Cup, they hadn't lost a single match and they scored five goals against Switzerland, they were doing pretty good so far. He hadn't scored a goal but he had helped France a lot and lots of people realized how good he actually was.

But his worries weren't all about football and the World Cup. He started to worry about his former girlfriend, Margie, when she started to act weird and a bit distant. He didn't know what was wrong but he knew something wasn't right.

He didn't push it out of her, he knew she would tell him eventually. But in the meantime he tried to be as patient and as understanding as he could, Margie was the type that often kept things inside, hurting her.

And whatever it was, Antoine would support her, he was sure of it but he never expected to hear what she told him. He was devastated, heartbroken, hurt, damaged. He felt like part of his heart had stopped working altogether and was slowly dying. He felt like his world had ended.

She had run away that same day and he couldn't help but think about the dangers in Brazil and if something had happened to her. He was scared about her even when he desperately tried to get her out of his mind.

He called Gianluigi Buffon the next day. He wasn't sure why he had done that, it was just an impulse. Gianluigi was pretty surprised by the call and asked the young man what was wrong, Antoine couldn't tell him, he broke down crying. Gianluigi tried to get him to calm down but he couldn't do much over the phone, could he?

When he finally calmed down a bit he told Gianluigi everything that had happened. He needed to get it out of his chest and he couldn't think of anyone else he could trust. His parents wouldn't understand, his teammates wouldn't understand either and it wasn't like he wanted to talk to them at the moment, he knew Gianluigi was the only option he had.

It wasn't until he got back to Spain that he heard of Margie again. He kept wondering where she had gone to, nobody had seen her since she ran away. But she was spotted in the stadium next to James Rodriguez's wife the day Colombia played against Brazil and she also posted a photo of her and James' daughter on Instagram. He felt a bit relieved to know she was alright.

He tried desperately to stop thinking about her but it was impossible, everything remembered him of Margie. He looked around his flat and her things were all around the place, even the flat smelt like her, so he tried to be out of the flat as much as he could.

He would turn around in his bed in the middle of the night and see her side of the bed empty, loneliness overwhelmed him and his cat, Belle, didn't help because she cried at night, she missed her too. Every night and day were the same, not even training helped him to forget her, at least for a bit.