autograph | Richarlison / Neymar jr

23

"Morning" I said greeting richarlison who was sitting in the living room in the morning, Alma was in the kitchen getting herself a coffee. "aren't you going to see your dad today ?" Alma asked, my father has been feeling unwell according to my mother and I haven't had the chance to go check up on him.

"Yeah I was going to, rich you coming?" I asked and he said yep. I looked at my watch to check the time and ideally I would leave right about now. "Let's go" I said taking my car keys and going outside as richarlison came with me. "Bye guys! Oh yeah also next time go to Richarlison's place because I heard shit I didn't want to hear last night" Alma said and my cheeks rushed with blood. Richarlison let out a laugh.

Getting into the vehicle, I turned the ignition on and managed to look at Richarlison who fastened his seatbelt. "my parents are going to be stoked to see that I found a guy" I said as we made our way to my childhood home.

We knocked on the door as my mom opened it and her eyes glittered "Gabriela!" She cheered giving me a hug. "Olá mama" I smiled. She looked behind me to see Richarlison, "¿Quién es ese?" (Who's that?) She asked curiously.  I looked at him and he walked into the house, "mi novio" (my boyfriend) and as soon as she heard it she went absolutely nuts

"Oh my! Come on in" she said as she tried her best to make him feel at home. "You look so familiar but I can't put a finger on it" mama said to him and he looked at me as if he was a shy kid afraid to talk to their doctor. "He plays football mama, maybe on tv" I said and she took a few seconds registering it. "Yes! I think so your papa watches the matches all the time" she said  cooking food and arranging them on the table for lunch.

"Speaking of papa, how's he doing?" Her face immediately dropped as soon as she understood that I needed to know why papa had been so sick recently. I was at home so she knew she couldn't hide it from me now.

"Well we took him to The doctor last week" she said and didn't add up on until she deeply sighed. She didn't want to say whatever she was going to say. "Mama what is it?" I asked moving up to her genuinely concerned. "Las noticias no eran buenas" (the news wasn't good) she said and Richarlison looked at me, he motioned to leave because it seemed to be a family thing but I signed him to stay.

I could use someone to be there for me because I knew whatever I was going to hear would hurt a lot. "Papa has early stages of Alzheimers" mama said almost crying, "he can't remember things and as time goes by if not treated it's going to get worse, Alzheimer's is tough to handle gabi" she teared up and I held mine as much as I could because I needed to be strong for her. "Why didn't you tell me?" I asked her with my eyes glossing up. "I didn't want you to worry" she said hugging me and I did her. She told me that for awhile it started small like him forgetting to lock the car or forgetting to throw away expired things. But it just got worse.

Richarlison didn't know what to say, he stood there defeated watching the two of us have a hard time. I asked mama if I can go see my father and she nodded wiping off the tears that involuntarily fell. Richarlison followed behind me "you okay?" He whispered comfortingly and I nodded. Papa was watching tv when I walked in "papa?" I made sound and he looked behind me "Gabriela!" He remembered me and that for now made me sadder knowing when it gets worse and we don't know what will happen.

"Who's that behind you?" He asked as he saw Richarlison. "He looks like he's been on tv before" papa said examining him. "I have mr. Baptista. Gabi tells me you watch football so you might've seen me" Richarlison said. "ele marcou tantos gols pelo brasil"( he scored so many goals for Brazil papá) I showed off a bit. "Ah you should see Gabriela's boyfriend, he is an amazing football player. Where's neymar filha?" my father knew about our breakup but the doctors diagnosis about his sickness proved a point here where he can't remember me not being with neymar.

"Papa, Ney and I broke up" I told him, "oh when?!" My father asked, "quite awhile back" telli him dates would only make him confused about how he didn't know. "This is Richarlison, mi novio" (my boyfriend) I introduced. "Oh I'm sorry. come here son, my daughter found another footballer. I'm happy this one can challenge your ex to a who has the better haircut" my father laughed. I was happy to watch him be smiling and glad to be there.

"Lunch is ready!" Mama yelled from the kitchen. A few moments later all four of us sat around in a table passing around some food which I would have to say was amazing. My mama seemed to like Richarlison a lot because she was fascinated by how nice he was, they spoke about the most random things too. "Who are you again?" My dad asked Richarlison.

He was confused by the question but knowing my fathers condition he replied, "I'm Richarlison" my father smiled and ate a bit of his food. "What do you do for a living?" He asked and patiently Richarlison answered "I play football"
"That's amazing! Gabriela's boyfriend is a football player too" he said and everyone was quiet. I looked at Richarlison not sure of whether I should tell my father I broke up with neymar again or not because it seems as if he wouldn't remember anyway. "Yeah yeah I know him" Richarlison answered again.

Gabriela's mom looked at gabi and then rich "oh that's cool" papa said before deciding he ate way too much. "Hey" I said to Richarlison but I wasn't sure what to follow up with. "It's okay" he said pecking my lips. Helping mama arranged the two of us sat down in the living room while mama went back to my father. She came up to me and Richarlison and kissed my forehead saying she was going to take a nap so she might wake up to us being gone.

"Thank you for being so understanding Richarlison, I'm glad my daughter met you" she said her goodbyes to him and left. "Whenever you're okay we can leave" I said to him. "I'll leave when you're good" he kissed my forehead as I lied on the couch placing my head on his lap. "5 minute power nap and we are out"

"No! Wait how the heck am I supposed to wake you up?" He asked and I rolled my eyes, "5 minutes im good"