Invisible string (Robin Le Normand)

Chapter 13

Missing the away match against la Real Sociedad was a huge blow for Robin, but he decided to make it a bit better by actually attending the match. He was going to miss the international break because of his injury so that meant he got to spend a few days in San Sebastián. And Robin knew Leire would love to go back home too. And maybe Robin was very interested in doing things for Leire that made her like him again.

"The déjà vu is crazy", said Leire when they sat down in the stands.

"What?"

"Like...it's been so long but being here to see a match feels so familiar and like it brings me back to those times. That's what déjà vu means, right? Isn't it French? You know French".

"Yeah, I speak a little bit of French", he laughed. "And it literally means that you've already seen this. But I think it applies to seeing something similar, not literally doing the same thing. But I don't know. I'm no psychology expert".

"But you're getting better at not cringing when I misspronounce words in French so good for you".

Robin laughed when Leire patted his shoulder. They had joked in the past about that and anytime they went back to how things used to be, he felt so hopeful about what the future held for them.

Both Robin and Leire had a place to go back to after the match, so for the first time in a while, they didn't spend the night in the same place. It was pretty odd for both of them to wake up in a house or apartment alone. But soon, they reunited.

Their friends had been very confused when they found out Leire had forgiven Robin. And not only that, she was moving in with him? It made no sense. She had wanted nothing to do with him. Leire didn't even want to hear his name and now...now it all changed.

"So, be honest. You were talking to each other before you moved to Madrid, right? It can't be that you changed your opinion on Robin overnight", asked one of their friends.

"Yeah...we didn't want to tell you just in case it didn't work out", lied Leire, hating that she couldn't be honest with her friends so she quickly changed the topic.

It was a pretty big group that had gathered to see them and when they took a group photo, Robin stood next to Leire. He put his arm around her shoulders, surprising her slightly but it was all part of the plan, right?

There had been a lot of talk about how they were watching the Real Sociedad-Atleti match together. People overanalysing their every move and assuming they had to be together because of course. God forbid a man and a woman were just friends.

Robin excused himself for a minute to answer a call. He was still standing away from the rest of the group when Robin spotted Ander, one of Leire's friends, who was so clearly interested in her. Everyone could tell but Ander refused to admit Leire only liked him as a friend. There were many reasons why Robin and Ander didn't get on well and Leire was the main one. But he still approached him to talk. Robin wondered what his intentions were but expected them not to be good.

"Hey man. How's the injury?"

"Good. I'll be back soon".

"Nice", said Ander. "It was weird not seeing you on the pitch yesterday".

"I was in the stands...with Leire".

"Of course. You're impossible to get rid of, huh?"

"Why should anyone want to get rid of me?", asked Robin.

"Because you only hurt Leire. When will you accept that? You always end up hurting her!"

Robin was so tired of being reminded of that. And Ander being the one who did it was particularly annoying.

"She'll never like you back, Ander. How about you start facing that reality?"

"Yeah?", Robin didn't like the tone of Ander's voice. "Well, we slept together".

"What?"

"When you humiliated her. Leire talked to me the next day and we slept together".

"You fucking pig!", he said, pushing Ander. "You took advantage of her!"

"What are you on about? She started it! She wanted it. Didn't tell me to stop once".

"She was hurt and vulnerable and probably needed any kind of human interaction so you took advantage. Because she would never do anything like that with you in any other circumstance and you know it".

"Shut up!", screamed Ander, not wanting to accept that truth.

"And you know you took advantage of that. If she showed up completely drunk right now and offered to give you a blowjob would you say yes?"

"It's not the same. She was sober".

"She was equally as vulnerable. Maybe more. And she probably resents you for not stopping her".

Ander was trying to control his anger, because he knew getting into a fight with Robin wouldn't end up well.

"You never deserved her, Robin! You never will. Put that inside your head".

"I don't deserve her. You're right. And yet...she's with me. She always comes back to me".

"You are the one who's a piece of shit. You'll hurt her again".

"Even if I do, she still won't go back to you", told him Robin, smirking at him.

"She already hated you once. I don't know what you did to get Leire to talk to you again...but you'll hurt her again and she'll hate you again. And you'll lose her forever".

"I won't".

"We'll see".

Ander left and Robin took a deep breath. It hurt to accept Ander wasn't fully wrong. Robin had hurt Leire before. He never fully understood how to manage the feelings he had for her. And finding out about the feelings Leire had for him...well, that actually didn't help.

Losing Leire had been painful for many reasons. But the added aspect of how guilty Robin felt about the argument that ended it all probably was had hurt the most. A few of his friends told him that Leire had just overreacted. And perhaps she had a bit...but Robin felt he had done everything wrong. He also knew he couldn't make the same mistakes again but before he had to fix his friendship with Leire. He had to try and get them back to how they used to be two years ago. Not an easy feat but he had always liked a challenge.

"So you're still the same", said a voice followed by a laugh.

Amaia finally made it to the party.