Somebody to You (Neymar Jr) ✔

#41, Friends and Family

Midnight came and went, and even though Lorelai had been nervous as hell, meeting Neymar's family and other friends had turned out quite all right. Of course, only his closest friend and his sister actually knew about her being his new secret girlfriend — wait, could she even use that word? They hadn't talked about that particular detail yet — but that didn't matter. His mother, Nadine, was really friendly, even courteous, to her. She especially made sure that she always had something to drink or to eat (Lorelai was full by the time Nadine had decided to call it a night). It made Lorelai wonder if the older woman suspected anything; because, really, was this normal behaviour toward a simple »girl« friend of her son's? At least, she didn't see any other girl getting such special treatment.

His father, Neymar Sr, was a different matter. He was nice and friendly, sure, but he also kept eyeing her with a thoughtful expression on his face that quickly vanished whenever Lorelai caught him looking her way. He seemed a bit reserved; which thankfully couldn't be said about Neymar's sister, who was simply a sweetheart, and his friends, who were a crazy bunch but utterly adorable all the same.

Gil in particular was a fun guy, as it turned out. He'd even apologized to her for the weird behaviour he'd shown at the match a while back, explaining to her that it was all in the interest of his best friend. »Checking out the girl of his heart«, he'd called it, which made Lorelai feel embarrassed and smile like an idiot at the same time, overcome by the odd urge to gloat.

»Oh hey, that reminds me!« Lorelai said to Gil. They'd switched to Portuguese during their conversation, since it came easier for Gil and Jô, who didn't use Spanish as much as Neymar. Lorelai didn't mind; it was a great opportunity to polish up her skills anyhow. »That day, apart from you and Jô, I met another one of you. Rafael, was it? I haven't seen him tonight, is he here?«

Gil cleared his throat, exchanging an awkward glance with Jô before he looked back at her. He seemed uncomfortable about her question, which confused Lorelai all the more. »Ah,« he started, »he and Ney aren't buddies anymore.«

»What? Why? What happened?« Lorelai thought back to that day at the stadium, remembering that Rafael had been fun to be around, an all around nice guy. He'd seemed to fit right into Neymar's squad of friends. So why the sudden break?

»Well...,« Gil dragged out the word to the maximum, scratching the back of his neck. Then he sighed, an air of finality surrounding him. »Remember our talk at the stadium? He was pretty smitten with you.«

She did; Rafael had been very forthcoming and nice to her. »So?«

»Well,« he repeated the word. »He said some things about you later on at our poker night. And Ney didn't like 'em so much. So... they're not friends anymore.«

Lorelai blinked. »Hold on, let me get this straight. He broke off a friendship because some guy showed some sort of interest in me,« she tried to sum it up, throwing Gil an incredulous look. Had she really heard him right?