protocol | antoine griezmann ✓

Chapter One.

  «So here's to drinks in the dark at the end of my road. And I'm ready to suffer and I'm ready to hope.»

---  

Her fingers tightened their grip on the small paper with black letters written on it. Was it considered disrespectful to call someone after two years of not talking to that person just to ask for a simple favor? Alexandra was seriously thinking about it; he was the only person who could help her, not only because her friend –as she still considered him to be– was the only one who didn't know about her shit for the past two years and he was clearly the only person from Spain she knew.

This is the story: Alexandra didn't have the amount of friends she was supposed to have so it was a very odd thing that she managed to make a good match with Antonio Montes in Law School, someone who was the opposite of what she was. For some reason their friendship worked out and she was strongly wishing it kept that way.

The plane was thirty minutes away from landing in Madrid's airport. Even though her mind kept replying the same thought of what the hell is going to happen from now on, Alexandra didn't regret her decision. Yes, it was insane and yes, this crazy scape of hers would probably end up in something she would regret, but this needed to be done and God knows how much Alexandra needed this to happen.

Someone from the cabin warned the people in the plane about the landing, Alexandra squeezed. She kept only two secrets about her and one of them was she hated, not only that, Alexandra despised landings. The only thing her mind was able to proceed when those happened was the awful thought of the plane violently crashing. And no, it never happened to someone she knew or something like that, Alexandra just felt that was a thing that would probably happen to her one day and it scared the crap out of her.

She let go the breath she was holding in her mouth when the captain said they were already done. Now for the first time since Alexandra decided to make an impulsive scape, she was kind of regretting it.

Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God.

What the fuck was I thinking?

Her eyes located the zone where all the bags were and she almost –yes, almost– ran towards there. Was it too late to go back to Chicago like a lost puppy and accept the fact that somehow her parents owned her life? Of course it was. By this time, Emiliano and Elizabeth probably took her off the testament.

Don't you fucking panic Alexandra. But how the hell am I not going to panic if I'm in freaking Spain?

This is it, this is where all ends.

With her luggage in hands, Alexandra tried to take her shit together and find a public phone to communicate with Antonio. He was literally her only hope.

After twenty minutes of walking around the big airport searching for a phone because it seemed like a mouse stole her tongue and she couldn't ask anybody to help her, she found a line of five telephones. First, Alexandra let out a relief sigh, second, she searched for the blue paper in her pockets.

Her fingers desperately typed the long number; she squeezed the paper on her hand and bit her lower lip as the tone rang.

Please answer the phone, please answer the phone, please answer the goddamn phone.

"¿Hola?" A strong voice came out of the other side of the line. Alexandra slowly felt how everything in her life suddenly got better.

Thank you Jesus.

"Hi Antonio." She seriously wanted to sound relaxed, but there were ninety percent of probabilities she was internally screaming.

"Who is this?" Antonio furrowed his brows at the other side. He had no idea who was in the other side of the line.