Never Let Go (Of Me) • Ferran Torres

Chapter 59: Family Issues

🎶 Alone, Pt. II — Alan Walker, Ava Max 🎶

My eyes fluttered open when the first rays of sunlight streamed into Ferran's bedroom. I shuffled around, turning to him, but he was already awake, staring up blankly at the ceiling.
"Morning" I groaned, cuddling closer to him.
"Good morning" he replied after planting a soft kiss on my head.

"When do you have to be at the training centre?" I asked.
"At 10.30, we have some time" he replied and I nodded. "Want to call your mum?" he asked and I covered my eyes with my hand.
"What a great way to wake up" I mumbled as I stretched over to the nightstand to reach my phone. I hesitantly tapped on her contact, putting the call on speaker, knowing that I had to get this over with.

"Oh, how nice of you to reach out twelve hours after my message" my mother answered after only a few rings.
"Sorry that I was busy living the life I had to build for myself since you kicked me out" I snarled, in absolutely no mood to try and be calm.
"Listen, Lorenzo... and I messed up. We're in trouble, we have... debts" she said with a shaky voice. Lorenzo was her pathetic drug-dealer boyfriend who was basically my age.
"Well, not my problem, I surely don't have the money to help you since both you and Dad cut me off" I replied, praying that she wasn't about to ask what I feared she would ask.

Ferran behind me stared blankly at the phone, probably dreading the same as me.
"Yeah, well, kinda your problem... We went to the bank to get a credit and I put your name as a pledger..." she admitted and my body jolted up to sit upright.
"You did WHAT?! How?!" I shouted into the phone as Ferran's jaw dropped.
"The bank employee said that he could see a regular income on your account and... well it was your classmate Julio, so he let it pass without needing a signature from you..." she replied, as if this was the simplest thing in the world.

"YOU FUCKING PUT ME IN DEBT?! HOW MUCH?!" I shouted and Ferran covered his mouth in shock.
"50.000€" she replied quietly.
"THAT'S MORE THAN DOUBLE OF WHAT I MAKE IN A YEAR! FUCKING HELL, MUM! IT'S NOT ENOUGH THAT YOU ABANDONED ME, NO, YOU KEEP MAKING THINGS WORSE!" I now 50%-shouted and 50%-sobbed into my phone.
"Lina, we're family, and-" she started, but I cut her off.
"NO! Don't you fucking dare say we're a family! I'll be coming down this weekend and fix this" I replied, before hanging up.

"Cata- I- I'm so sorry" Ferran said, in shock himself, and put his hand on my shoulder, softly rubbing it.
"I don't even know what to say" I mumbled defeatedly, letting my head hang low.
"I'll call my lawyer and we'll sue you out of this. What your mum and that bank employee did is illegal on so many levels, I-" he started, but I cut him off.
"You want me to sue my own mother?" I asked, still upset from the call.
"Well, you can't be serious about considering to take on that debt from your mother!" he argued back.

"No, I..." I mumbled, not really knowing what to think or do myself.
"No! Uh-uh! You know I'd take on every financial threat for you, but this- this, I won't! Not if you can sue your way out!" he exclaimed angrily and my jaw dropped at what he had just implied.
"YOU THINK I WANTED TO ASK YOU TO DO THAT? DO YOU EVEN KNOW ME?" I shouted irritatedly at him.
"No- Cata, I'm sorry, I just-" he stammered, but I wasn't having it.

"Get fucking dressed, I'm driving you to your damn training centre" I hissed as I stood up to lock myself into the bathroom for five minutes of peace to gather my thoughts.
"Yeah, damn right. I need to focus on my injury instead of your family delusions" he muttered to himself, but I damn well heard him, so I angrily slammed the door behind me. After taking a cold shower and dressing myself in yesterday's clothes, I walked downstairs to find Ferran in the kitchen, eating some oats.

We both didn't acknowledge each other and communicated silently to leave the house. Also the drive to the training centre was tense, with no one wanting to speak up first. I was hurt that Ferran thought I'd see him as an ATM machine for every problem coming my way and he was probably hurt by my hesitance to accept his help with a lawyer. But neither of us wanted to apologise first and on top of that we had no idea of the extent of his injury, this looming over us on top of all that.

"My shift starts at 1. I can be here if you finish earlier than-" I started, but he cut me off.
"I'll get someone to drive me home, thanks" he huffed before climbing out of the car as we had arrived.
"Asshole" I muttered to myself after he had closed the door and reversed out of the parking spot to drive to my place and get some fresh clothes for work.

Work was tense, I wasn't in a good mood and that's the worst when you have a job with customer contact - I had to pull so many fake smiles that I should have gotten an Oscar. Late shifts were the worst, because they just dragged on and on. On top of that, I hadn't heard from Ferran at all and not knowing about the results of his medical tests was eating me up from the inside.

"Last half hour" my colleague Emma sighed as she walked up to me behind the cash desk.
"It's been a fucking long day" I groaned and leaned onto the desk.
"How's your boyfriend... after yesterday?" she asked cautiously. She knew that I didn't like talking about my relationship here and everyone who had ever asked me or commented something about it, had gotten a very snarky remark back from me. But her concern sounded genuine, so I just sighed, deciding to not push her away too.

"I drove him to his medicals this morning but haven't heard anything yet" I replied curtly and she just nodded, thankfully not asking any more questions. At 9.05pm, I finally left the store and walked out, when I saw a hooded figure across the street. I sighed and pressed my lips into a smile before walking over.
"You look like a creep" I chuckled as I pulled down Ferran's good to reveal his beautiful face.
"But a love-sick creep" he replied and pulled out a bouquet of roses from behind his back, making me gasp.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said what I said and not even have thought of it" he mumbled as he held me close in an embrace.
"I'm sorry too. I know you just want the best for me - you probably know about what that is better than me" I chuckled and he cracked a smile too. "What's up with your injury?" I quickly asked as I pulled away.
"Hamstring, I will return when I'm ready, probably in around a month" he replied and I nodded. Well, it could have been worse.

He took my hand and we walked to his second car around the corner, as his Audi was still parked at my apartment.
"Sorry that I didn't text earlier, I... went to see my therapist this afternoon" he said after we had sat down and I had placed the flowers on my lap.
"That's good. How are you feeling?" I asked, squeezing his hand as he was reversing out of the parking spot.
"The same. I'll return even more eager to prove myself" he replied and I smiled, proud of him.

"We're driving down to your mother's this week-end, no way you're going there alone. And I also want to pay a visit to your father." he said and I sighed, leaning back into my passenger seat. Well, this was going to be eventful.