see you later // Pablo Gavi

Chapter 42

𝑯𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒖𝒏, 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑰 𝒔𝒂𝒚, 𝒊𝒕'𝒔 𝒂𝒍𝒓𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕. 𝑳𝒊𝒕𝒕𝒍𝒆 𝒅𝒂𝒓𝒍𝒊𝒏𝒈, 𝒊𝒕'𝒔 𝒃𝒆𝒆𝒏 𝒂 𝒍𝒐𝒏𝒈 𝒄𝒐𝒍𝒅 𝒍𝒐𝒏𝒆𝒍𝒚 𝒘𝒊𝒏𝒕𝒆𝒓.

"𝐆𝐀𝐕𝐈, 𝐈'𝐌 𝐍𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐑 𝐆𝐎𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐓𝐎 𝐓𝐀𝐊𝐄 𝐎𝐅𝐅 𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐒 𝐍𝐄𝐂𝐊𝐋𝐀𝐂𝐄. This is the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. I love it. Thank you so much..." I lean forward, and kiss his cheek again.

He looks so bright, and I love it, because whatever was missing in him when I first saw him sitting here alone on the hood is back in him. And whatever it is, it is something I love. Something that I should never, ever take away from him again. After the perfect amount of moments, he says, "We should get going... The sun is going to start rising soon, and I need at least a little bit of sleep. I was wondering, though, if you wanted to just come with me to my house for the night?"

I feel myself blush right away, and my eyes widen at him as I say, "What do you mean by that-?"

"Oh," he says with a nervous chuckle, "I wasn't... thinking we'd be doing anything... just... nothing weird, I..."

"Okay, okay, that's good," I laugh. "Sorry for even asking that."

"No, no, it's okay. It's okay. But... do you want to come home with me, then?"

I nod, smiling at him. "Sure. But surely you aren't going to drive, right?"

"What do you mean?" he asks, looking at me very slightly confused and surprised.

"Well, you haven't slept at all, Pablo. And I can tell you're tired, besides. I went home and slept before I came here, you know. That's why I came sober... but I guess it might have been hard for you to tell I was sober, eh?" He chuckles at this softly, very slightly shaking his head, rolling his eyes half up. "Either way, you should just give me the address of your home, and I can put it in my GPS, and drive us home, don't you think? You're already a bad driver to begin with," I tease. "So I'm not sure if I want to even see how you drive when you haven't got any sleep all night."

He shrugs, saying, "I guess you're right. I'll drive if you don't want to, but if you feel safer driving, be my guest."

I nod. "I'll drive." Nothing against him, but he's right- I honestly don't feel safe driving with him behind the wheel right now.

He nods back, throwing my the keys. I catch them in the air. It's on a keychain with a small Barcelona crest, a navy blue carabiner, and a broken heart chain that looks gold. with BE on one line, and BU on the next line. I look at it in confusion, then ask him as I get in the driver's seat and he gets in the passenger seat, pointing to the keychain, "What is this, Pablo?"

When he sees what I'm referring to, he starts laughing. He brightens my world when he laughs, so I smile, too. I'm still confused about the keychain, though. Finally he says, rolling his eyes, "That's Pedri."

"What about Pedri?"

He rolls his eyes again, his laughter slowly dying down. "Pedri bought those keychains for us as a joke. His has ST on the first line and DS on the other, to spell BEST BUDS in English. It's so stupid, and he got it as a joke, but to spite him, I put it on my keys. So to spite me spiting him, he put his on his backpack."

I laugh at this story, and say, "Oh my God, Gavi, that's really great. It's adorable, actually. You two are so funny and sweet, God."

"Pedri too?" he asks, looking up, slightly worried.

"Yeah, but I like that about Pedri because he's a good friend. I like things about you because you're my-" I don't know what to call him, so I cut myself off.

"Boyfriend," Gavi grins at me. "You can say that I'm your boyfriend, now. Because I want to be your boyfriend."

This is like the final, last arrow to my heart. I grin at him. "So I'm your girlfriend, you're my boyfriend. I'm yours and you're mine, now."

"Precisely, Ember," he grins. "Now get driving, for goodness sake. The light is already coming."

I nod, turn that key, and get driving.

Gavi says, "Speaking of Pedri, I'm going to call him and apologize to him. I kind of lashed out at him over the phone earlier when I was... Well, you know." I hear his phone ring, and he starts talking, "Hey, Pedri, everything is fine now. Ember... she came, and we... uh... Yeah, well, kind of... We did... Yes... Yeah, I feel great about it. She said sorry and everything, we're on perfect terms. Better terms than we were on before. But do a favor for me, please? Don't tell Ronald or Raphinha or Ferran or anyone, please? I don't want the whole freaking club knowing, because it's not their business... Of course it is! You're my best friend, Pedri... You swear?... Oh, wow, okay, then I think I can trust you... Anyway... so I'm calling to say sorry from before... On the phone, with you... No, it's not. I'm sorry for yelling at you and stuff. I was in a bad place, and I needed someone to blame that wasn't Ember. So I'm sorry. You did nothing wrong. In fact, you did everything right... Well, I would. Anyway, I got to go now, Pedri. Bye. Love you, man."

I glance to him. "Everything resolved?"

"Yeah," I smiles softly, turning to lean against the window, looking out of it.

I say with a soft smile of my own, "You know, Gavi, it really is adorable the way you and Pedri are so close friends. Just saying 'I love you' on the phone before you hang up is adorable. You gotta be, like, pretty much brothers to say that on the phone."

He grins, glancing to me with bright eyes. His eyes are always happy, talking about Pedri. Their friendship is adorable. I really do love it. "You wanna know why we say that, Ember? It's because we are brothers. Brothers from another mother."

His heart is so sweet.