🎶 Hundred Miles (Sped Up Version) — Yall, Gabriela Richardson 🎶
Barca had claimed victories at home against Betis and Osasuna and now La Liga was taking a break for the Copa del Rey final between Real and Osasuna. Pedri had been invited to an NBA playoff game in San Francisco and I had accepted the invite on his behalf, with him deciding to bring his brother and Eric along, and to my surprise he had also requested for me to come along. It wasn't a weird thing as we had some appointments with sponsors too, but still. It would be my first time travelling with him and it was going to be to another continent for five full days. To say I was nervous was an understatement.
And so I drove my daughters to nursery on a bright Wednesday morning and kissed them goodbye emotionally. They were going to stay with my parents once again and I was so, so thankful for them. When I was back in my car on my way to Pedri's, I made sure to make a note on my phone to book my parents a holiday somewhere nice to thank them for all their efforts they were making with the kids.
I arrived at Pedri's house and rang the doorbell, which was opened by an excited looking Fernando.
"Good morning!" he said with a bright smile on his face.
"You seem to be happy to soon be on a twelve-hour flight" I commented and tilted my head to the side. "Where is your brother?" I asked when I had come inside.
"Upstairs, packing" he replied and my eyes widened.
"Packing?! We should be going by now!" I exclaimed and ran upstairs, taking two steps at a time.
"Pedri!" I shouted as I stormed inside his room, seeing an empty suitcase on his bed.
"Oh, thank God you're here, I don't know what to bring" he muttered as he paced around his connecting walk-in closet.
"You should have finished packing yesterday! I sent you a list!" I said incredulously.
"Yeah but I was tired after the game and..." he whined but I took matters into my own hands, already stacking up t-shirts from his wardrobe onto my arm.
"You go pack your toiletry bag and I do this for you here" I sighed.
"Thank you" he said and took my head in his hands to plant a kiss onto my hair ecstatically before hurrying to his bathroom.
I was left a bit shocked by this action, but he was probably just being excited about the travels, like his brother. I was done quicker with all his clothing than he was with his toiletries and went to search his office for an adapter when I realised it was my first time in this room. Some football jersey were hanging on his walls, most prominently featured was one from Messi. On a shelf I saw his Kopa trophy and the Golden Boy award perfectly polished and I stepped a bit closer to admire them better.
"You want to hold them?" I heard Pedri's voice suddenly behind me and I startled.
"No, no, I was just... taking a look" I muttered and quickly stepped away, but he was quicker and took the golden ball down from the shelf and placed it in my hands.
"There we go, golden girl" he chuckled and I felt the weight in my hands that was so much more than just a small figure. It was a representation of hard work and sacrifices to get Pedri to be one of the best youngsters in the world.
"Wow" I mumbled, looking down at what was in my hands.
"You look more excited than I did when I got it" he chuckled.
"That's because you're someone special and used to this stuff by now... I'm just a normal girl with an average life and a hard cross to carry" I sighed and put the trophy back on the shelf. I was about to walk out of the room as we really had to get going, but he grabbed my arm and stopped me.
"You're so not average." he said quietly and I gulped as a fuzzy feeling made its way through my body at his words. He let go of me again and walked ahead of me downstairs, his suitcase in his hand.
We loaded everything into his car and I sat down on the backseat, tapping an e-mail on my phone while he was driving the three of us to the airport where we would meet Eric. We parked in a special First Class super fancy parking slot from which we could directly walk to the departure hall where Eric was already waiting at the first class check-ins.
"Ok, you guys go ahead, I'll meet you in a minute" I said, starting to queue for the economy class baggage drop-off.
