Dark Moves Of Love ~ Neymar Jr

Before The World Cup: Alex

"What'd you get for question six? I think I messed that one up." Alex asked, briefly looking up at his friend Peter. They were sitting on the floor outside the classroom, 20 minutes before class was supposed to start and they had to turn in their homework. Alex had tried to cram last night but it was much more work than he thought it would be and he did a poor job of it. He was feeling exhausted.

"Zero of course. There's no velocity." Peter said, looking down at Alex incredulously. "Oh come on. The total momentum before the collision is the same as the total momentum after. It's an elastic collision. No net conversion of kinetic energy. Nada."

"Zero it is." Alex said, making a mental note to try to study harder. With a sigh he finished writing, hoping he would at least get a passing grade.

"Hey guys." Charlotte appeared around the corner. "Oh, I'm so hangover." She said as reached them.

"Me too." Peter said quickly even though Alex knew he had stayed in his dorm last night.

Charlotte smiled at them and started telling them all about how she spend last night but Alex stopped listening. He saw Olivia walking up the stairs. He hadn't seen her in a while, though they shared some of the same classes. Peter shot him a pointed look which Charlotte noticed and turned to look at her.

"Olivia! How come you're here?" She said and her voice was strangely high pitched all of a sudden. She walked towards her.

"Hey Lottie. It's Mechanics and Materials II, isn't it?"

"It is. But I didn't think you were enrolled in that. We haven't seen you in weeks."

"Oh, umm, I got distracted and..." She started saying.

"We had homework."

"Yeah I know." She said and fished a few handwritten pages from her bag.

"Cool." Charlotte said and walked back towards them.

Olivia seemed relieved. She leaned on the wall and starred at her shoes like they were the most exciting thing she'd ever seen. Alex got the sense that she was extremely uncomfortable.

"That girl is so weird." Charlotte said quietly as she approached them again. "Like, she dropped out of the earth for a year and a half. How was she not held back a year?"

"She must have passed all her finals." Peter said.

It was true that Olivia had changed a lot. Alex knew because he was one of the few – he suspected – that were actually paying attention. Normally when someone disappears like that people don't even notice. But Alex knew something was wrong. During their first year Olivia had been a completely different person. She was lively, energetic, hilarious. Life of the party. And she was easily at the top of their class without even trying. And then when their second semester started she was just gone.

People wondered if something had happened. Alex knew that friends of hers had reached out, trying to figure out what was going on. But their efforts were to no avail and soon they stopped trying. Olivia started coming back to classes, here and there but it was almost like she wasn't there. She didn't participate. She was a shell of her former self.

"Dude, stop staring." Peter whispered quietly. "This is stupid. It's been two years. Grow a pair. Say something to her or get over it."

Alex chuckled. Peter had said that to him before, numerous times. It wasn't like Alex was stuck. He had gone on dates and even had a girlfriend for a few months. He wasn't hung up on Olivia. But there was something about her that made her interesting to him, like he couldn't get his eyes off her whenever he saw her. But he didn't see her often. The rest of time she rarely crossed his mind. Out of sight is out of mind.

"So did you guys here about Jones' research team?" Charlotte asked pulling Alex out of his daydream.

"What research team?"

"Oh you don't know? Two months this summer with the Brazilian football team. To help prep them for the World Cup."

"You're kidding?" Peter yelled so loudly that even Olivia looked up for a second.

Her eyes locked with Alex's for a brief moment, but Alex couldn't find anything in them at all.