Lifeline (Marc Guiu)

Chapter 20

Alicia didn't follow Chelsea on social media but that didn't mean she didn't check their posts a couple of times every day. The admin seemed to be in love with Marc because he kept posting photos of him. Or maybe it was a she...what if it was a she? And she posted about Marc because she liked Marc. Barça had a lot of women working on the social media department so it wouldn't be weird.

"And now I'm jealous of a social media admin I don't even know. Awesome", she muttered, picking up her phone to check flashcores. There were matches that night for the teams that needed to qualify for the Conference League and that was the European competition Chelsea were tying to be a part of. No Champions League like Barça, so Alicia knew there would be no Barça-Chelsea she had to worry about.

"What are you looking at?", asked Fermín when he got back to the living room. Victoria was still in the kitchen trying to finish dinner without burning it.

"The football scores".

"Who's playing?"

"It's Conference League or whatever it's called".

"Oh", exclaimed Fermín, suddenly interested. "How are Betis doing?"

"1-0 up".

"Cool. I think they were showing the match on TV", he said, picking up the remote and turning the TV on. "Who else is playing?"

Alicia pretended to look at the screen to check. "Chelsea...".

"Is Guiu playing?"

"Let me check", as if she didn't know already he was playing... "He is".

"I hope he scores and wins".

Alicia just nodded, not saying anything else. But she hoped Marc scored too. The size of the Chelsea squad worried her so much because he was just a young player who had arrived to the team weeks ago. He wasn't a superstar who was going to get a spot in the starting eleven immediately. But maybe performing well in this match could help...

But it didn't. At all. Alicia was surprised to find Marc's name trending on twitter when he hadn't score but soon she found out the reason. He had missed a sitter. Such an easy goal to score for a striker like him...but also one that big stars could miss as well. Tell that to twitter, though. They loved humiliating people and Marc was their target that night.

"I'll head home now. I'm a bit tired", announced Alicia when her friends suggested watching a movie.

"You can stay here", said Victoria.

"Nah. I rather go home. Mum wants to go shopping tomorrow and we'll leave the house pretty early so...".

"Ok. We'll see you soon".

"You will", she promised, hugging both of her friends before heading out to go to her car.

Marc also wanted to get home as soon as possible. To wallow in his misery some more after the chance he missed. It wasn't as if the team lost and he'd be blamed forever for missing such an easy chance but still. He knew how people reacted to that kind of mistake. And he also knew how managers reacted. The fear of not being picked again for any matches was too overwhelming. He had just gotten there and he was already messing up.

"Home sweet home", he said, voice full of sarcasm as he threw his bag to the floor.

Nothing better than getting back to a big empty house after a moment like that. Marc hadn't felt so homesick before but at that moment, he missed everything about home. His parents, his sister, his friends, ...Alicia. He wished he could talk to her and hear her encouraging words telling him to not worry. But he couldn't call her so he just went to bed and tried to sleep. Checking his phone would have been dangerous because he was sure there were abusive comments all over every social media platform, all of them directed at him. Not to mention all the memes...

Alicia had taken the complete different approach and was looking at all the comments and all the memes. She was either blocking or reporting all the users who had something mean to say about Marc. And what hurt the most was that many were Barça fans who had bought all the lies said about Marc's signing for Chelsea. If only they knew...

However, she also found a few tweets defending Marc and Alicia liked all of them. Her twitter account was just to read and like tweets, not to post anything herself. It didn't have her name in the username unlike her Instagram or TikTok accounts so no one would know it was her liking the posts. Not that anyone would care...

Not that she should care either. They hadn't spoken since the day Marc confirmed to her he was leaving to sign for Chelsea. It was for the best that she tried to forget him. It'd hurt less.

So when she got back to uni, she focused on that. With so many classes to attend, her brain would be so tired by the end of the day that it'd be easier to not overthink about Marc or anything else, really.

"Hey! You're Alicia, right?"

Alicia turned to see who was talking to her and thought the guy looked familiar. "Yes. Sorry, I don't think I know you".

"We're in the same class and I thought I would introduce myself. I'm Mario".

"Nice meeting you".

"Were you going home?", asked Mario, moving to block Alicia's path to the door.

"Yes. But I'm picking up a drink first. I need some caffeine after that class".

Mario chuckled and continued smiling. "I get that. I could go with you to get the drink. So I get one too".

"Sure".

While they walked to the coffee place, Mario wouldn't stop talking and Alicia was trying to be nice but she didn't feel like talking to a stranger. Though she guessed it was also nice. And Mario was quite cute. Not as handsome as Marc but she should probably stop comparing everyone to Marc too so...

"You drink matcha?"

"Have you tried it?", asked Alicia, feeling a déjà vu moment after that question.

"Yeah, it's alright but I prefer coffee".

"I like coffee too. I have both".

"Then we'll need to meet again so I can buy you a coffee".

Smooth, she thought. But Alicia couldn't trust herself to say anything so she just smiled. This could be good, so she shouldn't ruin it just because her heart only could think of a boy that was now living in London. Alicia had failed to fight for that relationship, maybe she should try to fight for a new one.