constant conversations // neymar júnior

quatro: the restaurant

Lara looked around Neymar's large house in awe. After running through the rain together, they decided on making a quick pit stop to Neymar's house, which was close to the coffee shop.

"Hey, my sister left some of her clothes here from when she visited last summer. You can borrow her clothes if you want to." Neymar said, dropping a bunch of clothes down onto the couch.

"And if you want to take a shower or anything, there's a bathroom right down the corridor." Neymar added, pointing out the directions.

Lara nodded and picked out some of his sister's clothes, "I'll take a quick shower if you don't mind." she said quietly before scampering down the hall to get to the bathroom.

On the way there, she couldn't help but admire the pictures on the walls. They were framed photographs of Neymar and his family. It looked pretty normal until her eyes landed on one of the biggest pictures.

It was a picture taken from behind. It was basically Neymar wearing an FC Barcelona jersey, his name printed on the back in big block letters while he pointed to the sky with both hands, probably celebrating a goal.

Lara froze as she realized this was why Neymar looked so familiar - he was a professional footballer. She felt her heart drop as she thought about how oblivious she's been.

She scanned the wall again to see a picture of him wearing a Brazil NT jersey as he kissed the Confederations Cup trophy. She looked at another picture-it was one with Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez, the three of them celebrating happily on the pitch.

How could she have been so blind?

Taking a deep breath, Lara quickly walked towards the bathroom and took a fast shower before changing into his sister's clothes. She made sure her hair looked alright before exiting the bathroom.

In the living room, Neymar was sitting on the couch shirtless wearing basketball pants. He was singing a Brazilian song softly as he flipped through Instagram on his phone.

"Neymar?" Lara whispered.

Neymar looked up from his phone and turned towards Lara who was dressed more comfortably in Rafaella's sweater and sweatpants. "Hey, you feel a little better?" he asked.

Lara bit her lip and nodded, "Yeah, I...I think I should go now." She said. Neymar frowned, "But it's still raining, do you want to wait here for a while?"

Lara shook her head, "No, it's alright. I can catch a cab. I have to work tonight anyway."

Neymar raised his eyebrow as he listened to her talk. She sounded panicked and restless and he worried that it had something to do with him.

"Are you sure?" he asked her. She nodded quickly and thanked him for the clothes and told him that she'd return them soon before leaving his house quickly.

-

Rafinha grimaced as he listened to Neymar whine about the girl that he had his eye on-Lara. Apparently she fled from his house almost as quickly as she entered it and now he felt that there was something wrong with him.

"Do you think she thought I was going to attack her or something?" Neymar asked as Rafinha brought his car to a halt, parking it nicely between two other cars.

"Why would she think you would attack her?" Rafinha sighed, glaring at his best friend as they exited the car together.

After Neymar called him almost immediately after Lara left whining about it, Rafinha suggested a night out with a few other friends so that Neymar could maybe get over it. Nobody wanted a cranky striker a few days before an El Clasico.

"I don't know. That's how you get it, when you least expect it!" Neymar exclaimed, leaping a bit as they entered the restaurant.

The waitress at the front smiled at them nicely before leading them to a table in the corner of the restaurant that Rafinha had booked for the night. They were at a restaurant that they went to often, it was a simple restaurant with good food and good service.

"Hey, guys." Dani Alves smiled happily as Rafinha and Neymar settled into their seats. Adriano, Leo Messi, Luis Suarez, Marc Bartra and Sergi Roberto were also sat at the table.

"Hey." Neymar grumbled, resting his head in his hands as he slouched down in his seat.

After a few moments of waiting, a waitress walked over to their table to take their orders.

"Hola, are you ready to order?" a sweet voice said, making Neymar snap up in his seat, nearly falling backwards. "Lara?" he sputtered, staring at her.

Everyone stopped talking to stare at the waitress. She had her hair tied up in a bun atop her head and she was wearing a pale blue shirt with dark skinny jeans.

"Lara?"

"Uh, Neymar...hi." She murmured awkwardly, looking around the table to see world-class professional footballers gaping back at her. "I didn't know you worked here! I love this place." Neymar exclaimed, making all the other footballers "cough" in-sync.

Lara shrugged, "Well, I do."

The table was silent for a while and Lara felt like she would rather gouge her eyes out with a tiny spoon than stand by their table.

"...Do you need a few minutes?" she squeaked out. Luis Suarez shook his head quickly, "No, I'm hungry. Let's order, shall we guys?" he said quickly, receiving a few nods from his teammates.

After they all ordered, Lara sped towards the kitchen and rang up the order.

"Hey, you okay? You look like you've seen a ghost." Phoebe, Lara's best friend commented as she entered the kitchen. Lara shook her head, "Nope, not a ghost. Just a table full of footballers and one of them is sort of my friend and I didn't know he was a footballer until a few hours ago and-"

"Gosh, breathe." Phoebe prompted, flapping her arms around Lara's face to calm her down a bit.

Lara inhaled and exhaled a few times before nodding, "It's Neymar, you know him?"

"NEYMAR?!" Phoebe yelled at the top of her lungs, getting shushes from everyone in the kitchen. "God, Lara. Everyone knows Neymar!" she squealed excitedly, "I wanna see him, where is he?"

"No, you idiot. Then he'll think we're talking about him."

"But we are talking about him."

"Don't start with me right now."

"Lara," she heard the manager call for her. She whirled around quickly (nearly knocking over a pot) and gave him her best fake smile. "Yes?"

"Table 23, Mr. Footballer Junior wants a word with you. And make it snappy."