In the spotlight

18

Matteo Rodriguez

The sizzling of a beer bottle was heard across the room as Vinicius disappeared in the fridge behind the kitchen counter and emerged again with the bottle in his hand. He pulled out two, popped the metal lid on both of them, and threw himself down on the couch right next to me.

"Here." He handed me one of the green bottles, which I received with great excitement. I threw my head back as I took a large sip of the pleasantly bitter liquid, enjoying the feeling of it rushing down to my stomach and leaving a warm feeling behind.

I looked around in my living room. The late-afternoon sunlight was flowing into the apartment through the huge floor-to-ceiling windows and the balcony door, neither of them covered with my curtains.

Marco was lying in front of the TV with a couch on his back, holding a similar beer bottle in one of his hands while the other was grabbing his phone above his head. He swiped and clicked on the screen when I saw a smile instantly form on his face, probably talking to his girlfriend.

I looked away to my right, discovering that Federico wasn't doing anything different either. He was sitting on a single couch right next to the triple under us, typing away quickly on his own phone. A very concerned facial expression covered his features, and his eyes were foggy with some kind of emotion I couldn't pinpoint.

"Sorry, but I gotta go; I need to pick up Beni from kindergarten." The moment I was about to ask if everything was okay, he shot up from the couch and hurried over to the door. Before any of us could react to his sudden change of mood, he was already long gone. This left only the three of us alone in the huge apartment.

After our last training session before the holidays, none of us had any actual plans for the day since all three of us will be traveling back home tomorrow. Therefore, we ended up at my place like we usually do, since I was living the closest to the Estadio Santiago Barnebau in the middle of the city.

Still in our training clothes, the white Real Madrid sweatpants and zip-up hoodies looked even whiter bathing in the rays of sunlight in the very quiet room. The quiet and calmness felt great after a long day of cardio training.

I leaned my head back against the backrest of my couch, shutting my eyes softly. For a brief moment, I felt the pleasant burning in my muscles from the training session—the kind of pain you feel ever better from.

This peaceful state was not very long-lived; after a loud chiming from the phone laying on the table struck into my head and mind. I moved quickly and got into the previous position I was in moments before, but it turns out that the chiming wasn't even coming from my device.

Vinicius leaned forward on the couch next to me, picking up his phone from the coffee table in front of us. His screen was still lit as he held it closer to his face, but only the green message icon was visible on it with no name.

"Oh? You might want to listen to this." He spoke up after inspecting the message, instantly drawing my attention. What could be so interesting that even I would want to hear it? He moved in closer so I could hear everything clearly before pressing on the audio recording.

"Hi Vini! Sorry for bothering you at this time of the day, but this is the only time I can finally spare time to message you." A very familiar voice spoke up as the recording started, and as soon as it got to me, I felt goosebumps rising on my skin. While the fact that only her voice possessed such power over me was slightly unsettling, I cursed in my mind that even that was beautiful about her.

"I just wanted to tell you about our annual New Year's Eve party. If you don't have anything planned for the new year, hit me up somewhere. I already told Matteo as well, but he hasn't decided yet." Vini snapped his head back to me at an instant, but I didn't even budge and listened to the remaining audio carefully.