Mr. Brightside || João Félix

S E V E N T E E N

João's POV continued

8:57PM

I arrive at Cristiano's suite feeling a lot more nervous than I was when I left Sofia's room. I was thinking about retreating and tabling this conversation for another day, but before I could turn around to walk away, my hand went rouge, as it made itself into a fist and knocked on the door.

I thought about leaving, running and pretending this never happened, but I heard footsteps rapidly approaching the door and I knew that wasn't an option; plus,I had to do it, I haven't admitted this to anyone yet, but I'm falling in love with the girl, I want nothing more than to call her mine.

"Hello João," cristiano says with a questioning tone.

"Umm hi," I said even less confident than when I arrived.

"What can I do for you ?" He asks.

"I wanted to talk to you," I tell him, "about Sofia."

"Is she okay ?" He asks worriedly.

"Yeah, yeah, she's fine, she's back at her room with Cris, Cooper and Hugo waiting for the game to begin," I say, "they're all fine."

He opens the door for me to come in and invited me to sit at the table. "What's this about then ?" He asks.

"I like your daughter," I blurt out.

He laughs, "I'm aware."

I sigh, "I like her, like really like her, I want to ask her to be my girlfriend," I pause waiting for a reaction but he just raises his eyebrow. "It might be silly, because it's just boyfriend and girlfriend," I continue, "but that's already commitment, and that's big to me. I want to do it right, she's grown to mean a lot to me in just the short time I've known her, and you mean a lot to me too, you're like my mentor, it'd really mean a lot to me if you gave me your blessing ?" I ask nervously.

"My blessing ?" He asks, "to date my daughter ? The daughter you just met like a week ago ?" Fuck, there goes the ounce of confidence I had.

"Cris," Gio said in a warning tone.

"What ?" He scoffs.

"It's like you're not even hearing him out," she says coming into view.

"By all means Gio, sit, sit and hear the boy out with me," he says gesturing towards the chair next to him.

I feel stupid, someone I look up to has just made me feel like shit. This was a mistake. I think of leaving when once again my traitor body seems to malfunction because words are unintentionally coming out of my mouth, but the more I speak, the more my confidence builds up. This is it, he either tells me to kick rocks and forbids me from seeing Sofia, or I'm one step closer to being her boyfriend.

"Yeah," I laugh, "I've only known her for a little over a week, but it only took me one conversation for me to like her. Just one simple conversation and she blew my mind, with her kindness, her intelligence, her humor, her everything," I begin to ramble. "I told you I liked her, that's putting it lightly, I'm starting to fall in love with the girl, her eyes, her laugh, the way she can't hide what she feels with her facial expressions, the little attitude she picks up when she isn't getting her way, thank you for that by the way," I tell him, "the way she cares for her friends and family and would do anything for them, her essence, the way she carries herself," I sigh. "Everything about her is just so perfect, she's perfect."

"Does she know you're here ?" He asks.

"No, no, uh, she um," I pause, "I didn't do this for her, I did it for me. This was important to me, I know, that it is super important to her as well, and she'd be thrilled if she knew I was doing this, but I'm doing this because I need to do it, because I want to do it, not because I think it'll get me potential boyfriend points."