Find me

3.

The bone was completely healed. But the muscles were not yet back to their best form. I attached the scan report to the file and checked it once to see if everything had been done properly.

Neymar had walked in late, but his excuse was that he was getting the scan done.

"Is everything okay?" I asked Eric who was busy testing Neymar's foot and ankles. Neymar was lying on his stomach, trying his best to somehow adjust an angle to see his phone screen.

"Everything looks great so far." He said to me.

"Great. So can I go train with my friends?" Neymar craned his neck and looked at us, his eyes hopeful.

"I'll go get the 'yes' from Dr. Rodriguez." I said and left the room.

After finally getting the green sign, I sighed in relief that I didn't have to say no to Neymar once more.

I went back to where Neymar and Eric were.

"You can start training, Mr. Neymar." I told him. A ghost of a smile appeared on his face and he shot out of the room like a firecracker towards the locker room.

***

If the seventeen-year old me was told that I'd be attending Barça training at front row level seats, I would have practically fainted.

The pressure of life on all these athletes was gut-wrenching. They were all top-level and represented one of the best clubs in the world. Then the icing of media and paparazzi. I could only imagine how difficult life would be for them.

But the glow on their faces when they practiced was golden. It was like a little football party. Laughing, joking, playing , kicking together seemed to veil any kind of worry in their eyes. It felt like they were truly enjoying themselves. No wonder Neymar was so desperate to get back out there.

After a bit of time, I saw them dividing themselves into two teams. A nice little game would definitely be fun to watch. Ten minutes into the game with nil-nil, the ball landed in Neymar's feet while he was wandering in the mid-field. The second he got the ball, he ran as fast as he could with it but he had to pass after being trapped.

Before the match could chamge scenarios, the ball came back to Neymar. But it was too fast for him to get a hold of it and net it. Instead, he chased the ball and crashed onto the boundary wall tumbling over to the other side.

I was quick to reach him. He was sitting up by then. Dani and Marc were running to him with a similar worry that I wore in my eyes.

"Neymar, are you okay?" I was about to panic as I could lose my job if anything happened to him.

"I'm fine." He rubbed the back of his head and giggled. It was a pretty funny situation if Neymar wasn't in recovery from a serious injury.
I attempted to help him up but he insisted that he was okay and I eventually went back.

About an hour after Neymar started training, he looked at the bench where I had been sitting and started walking towards me. His gait was slightly different.

He sat down a little away from me and drank down a whole bottle of water whilst spilling some of it down his shirt.

"Hey." He said to me. "Hi" I said back.

"What are you doing tonight?" He turned towards me expectantly. Such casual words coming out of a new person's mouth seemed unusual. We hadn't even had the where are you from? And how did you end up here? conversations.

Straight from hi to What are you doing tonight?

"Nothing planned."

"Would you say yes to a party invitation?" I was very much surprised at his guts. He would ask someone he doesn't even know to a party. Either he was too nice or too confident.