First love (Pedri & Eric García)

Chapter 9

No matter how many times Laia tried to contact Pedri, he just refused to talk to her. But he knew there was someone else he needed to talk to. Ferran had acted as an intermediary and convinced Eric to listen to Pedri. So there they were at Ferran's house, a neutral venue, ready to talk. And ready to fix what had been broken.

"Sorry I was a dick to you", said Eric when he first saw Pedri and they both hugged, apologising to each other with just one gesture.

"I get it. But it hurts to know you'd think I'd do that to you".

"I know...I lost my mind for a second. It's just that Laia is very special to me. I wasn't thinking straight".

"She told me about you two but I would like to hear your version of the story as well, if that's ok".

Eric nodded, getting ready to tell his friends his side of the story. "Laia was my first girlfriend. We had known each other for a while, had fooled around a few times, but when we turned 15, we decided to date. We did for two years and when I moved to Manchester...she hated it there. And the distance was hard to deal with. We were so young too. I didn't want her to destroy her life and career for me. So we broke up. She expected me to come back soon and so we would get back together but then I was seen with another girl soon after we broke up and she misunderstood everything. I didn't do anything with the girl but she wouldn't listen. She just told me she hated me and that was that. I haven't spoken to her ever since".

"But she hates you to the point of using me to try to hurt you".

"That's not who she is", said Eric, feeling a strange urge to defend and protect Laia. "Or not who she used to be. I guess time changes people but it's hard to imagine her changing so much".

"And you still followed her on Instagram?", asked Ferran, who was just sitting down and hoping his friends wouldn't fight. "I remember you talking about her when I got to Manchester. You told me you were trying to forget about her".

"It's easier said than done. I needed to see she was fine. I don't know...Laia is someone who leaves a mark on you".

"Yeah", agreed Pedri.

Pedri could pretend his anger towards Laia had affected him so much, he had forgotten all the good stuff. But that'd be a lie. He had been so happy with her and had made so many beautiful memories. Laia was special, as Eric said. She was the type of woman one fell in love with. Unless she hurt you so badly, you tried your hardest to forget about how you were very close to telling her you loved her. Like Pedri had been.

"What I don't want is for this to affect our friendship, Eric. Please promise me we can go back to normal".

Ferran was staring at them, hopeful. "I would like that too".

"It's hard to accept, you know? That you dated my ex, even if you didn't know who she was. But it's not your fault, Pedri. I know that now. I just don't want to think about how it's hers. I feel I have such an idealised image of her in my brain...I don't know".

"I get that", said Pedri.

"But we're all friends again, right?", asked Ferran, adding the comic relief they all needed at that moment.

"Yes, we are", said Eric, looking at Pedri. "We won't let anyone get in between our friendship".

"We won't".

Since Eric had a day off, he stayed in Barcelona with his friends. They had a lot of catching up to do in general but avoided going back to the topic. To talking about Laia. However, not talking about her didn't mean they didn't think about her.

Pedri felt like something vital had been taken from him. He felt an emptiness he had never experienced before. It was so painful.

The pain wasn't something exclusive to him. Eric felt it too. He had never forgotten about Laia and not just because he saw her often on his Instagram feed. He hadn't because how can you forget your first and only love?

He told Pedri that Laia expected him to come back to Barcelona and for them to date again. To fix everything. And he assumed she probably did. But the truth was the one who hoped for that the most was him. But with everything that happened, by the time he made it back to Barcelona, it was too late for them. Thinking she was using Pedri to get back to Eric actually was the best option for him. Because it meant she didn't just love Pedri like he clearly loved her. Eric could tell the way Pedri talked about Laia was the way he had spoken about her too. It was stupid how jealous he felt.

"Should we order some dinner?", offered Ferran. He was the one who was actually happy after their meeting. The one who had been terrified he was going to lose his friends. The one who wanted to believe that this was it and Laia wasn't going to get in between his friends again.

**

Laia had to go on with her life. What else could she do? But going to work and pretending everything was ok was so hard. Having to smile at all the patients, the same ones who had told her about how happy she looked lately, was painful. Would they be able to tell that happiness was gone now?

She tried to contact Pedri until she realised there was no point. He didn't answer her calls and he wasn't reading her texts. Actually, she was surprised to see he hadn't blocked her number. But he had unfollowed her on Instagram. Eric still followed her, though. He never unfollowed her, even when she unfollowed him. What did that even mean?

Maybe it was time to find out.