𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐨𝐧𝐥𝐲 𝐞𝐱𝐜𝐞𝐩𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 ★ alexia putellas

THE ONLY EXCEPTION

⎯ and up until now, i had sworn to myself that 

i'm content with loneliness, because none of it was ever worth the risk

Mollet del Vallés was not a beautiful place by any means. The buildings were old and run-down, brick on brick, creating a labyrinth of stone and gravel, just a few kilometers away from what had been deemed Spain's most beautiful city. Barcelona was a dream Luisa Fregozo Fernandez had never quite grasped- it wasn't exactly out of her reach, but she had never been close enough to get a hold of the city that she seemed to gravitate towards.

Luisa came from a simple family, brought up in a home towards the outskirts of the city, with countless miles of grass hiding behind her backyard, with a mother who worked nightshifts at El Hospital Universitari Mollets, and a father who worked an office job that could afford the odd trip to Barcelona, but the money only sufficed to buy a singular key chain. The rusty medal received a space on her wooden drawer, which soon became its shrine. It gathered dust for years before Luisa was trusted enough to carry around house keys.

She spent her childhood torn between her parents, with her older brother, Thiago, taunting her more than any mean children in school, and Esmeralda, her younger sister, clawing at her feet, body wrapped around one of her legs whenever the child could get a grasp of her.

Their house was filled with sunshine and loud voices. Between the dust lingering in between old furniture and on ornaments her mother had been too drawn to to get rid of, her parents spoke, or well, yelled, harsh words at each other. It was uncomfortable, to say the least. Luisa had known it was not normal from a young age, she had known that at one point, her parents must have loved each other. At one point, it must not have been like this. But love was merely a construct to her, and the marriage of her parents was glued together by the laughter of their children, blown kisses at scraped knees and every attempt to function as guardians for the Fregozo kids.

When the arguments at home had gotten too much, she had escaped. Lost her thoughts near Besós river, the Parc de Can Mulà or any playground she could find. Thiago refused to take her, embarrassed by his younger sister, whenever he went to meet his friends, and with Esmeralda barely being able to walk on her own, Luisa had been left to her own accords. Until she had gathered up the courage to walk up to the red-bricked house closest to her own home, and knocked on the door with childish expectation. Perhaps, her neighbors had children in similar age to her. Perhaps, one of them would like to play with her. Luisa hoped and hoped and hoped that it wasn't a boy like Thiago.

A girl in her age opened the door, though she was a lot taller than Luisa, giving her a toothy smile, her body hidden half behind the wood, the other half dressed in football gear. Luisa furrowed her eyebrows.

"Bon dia."

She spoke Catalan better than she spoke Spanish.

"Bon dia. Sóc Alexia", the girl replied, running a hand through her ponytail.

"Sóc Luisa", Luisa smiled, stepping from one foot to the other cautiously.

"Do you want to play?", she asked, hopeful that Alexia would be willing to spend a bit of time with her on the last day of summer, which Luisa had spent on her own or with Thiago's friends, who had been forced to take her along by their mother.

"Sí", Alexia grinned again, despite the fact that she had intended to go to the local football pitch, and Luisa's heart fluttered. She should've worked up the courage to knock onto the door she had walked past almost every day earlier, perhaps she could've spent her whole summer with Alexia.