Dark Moves Of Love ~ Neymar Jr

Chapter 95

Neymar's POV.

The noise around me was deafening. The flashing lights, the yelling, the chanting, the restless energy and amidst all this, the words still ringing in my ears.

NO.

 The Atlantic was born today and I'll tell you how...

The clouds above opened up and let it out.  

My mind kept replaying that one single word over and over and it almost felt like it was someone else who got ready and rode the elevator to the hotel lobby, who got in the team bus and rode to the stadium, who wore his football jersey and shorts and cleats and was about to play the most important game of his career. It was someone else who did all those things while I hovered a few meters above the ground, detached not only from my body but also my soul. Neymar walked, spoke when he was spoken to, warmed up for the game, stood in line behind his teammates, with his hand on the shoulder of the one in front of him, he sang the National Anthem with his hand over his heart and then assumed his place at the head of the Brazilian offence. And while all this was happening, I hovered above the ground like a ghost.

It looked like it was working, detached as I was from my emotions I played better than I would have otherwise. Maybe Liv and the coaches and the world are right. Maybe she's no good for me. Maybe I'm all the better without her.

Suddenly the chanting grew louder and I saw my teammates run towards me and realized someone had scored. The crowd chanted Thiago! Thiago! Thiago! and as my teammates engulfed him in hugs and formed a circle I too was part of, something snapped in me.

 I was standing on the surface of a perforated sphere

When the water filled every hole.  

I blinked and I was there. I was there. It was the World Cup and I was playing. The outcome of this game would be defined by me not by her. Win or lose, it would be on me. Like it's supposed to. For the next 80 minutes Liv would not exist for me. For what came after that, I wasn't sure.

Liv's POV.

Sitting in the locker room all by myself I watched the screen as Thiago scored. The goal was what it took for Neymar to come back to himself. Not that he didn't play impeccably before it too – it would be impossible for someone like him not to— but when he snapped back into winning mode he was truly at his best.

That was the difference between champions and the rest. No matter what you threw at them, they would always get themselves back up, they would always fight. Not that that justified what I had done this morning. I was ashamed of myself and how I behaved the past few days. Since we started dating, all I wanted to do was not let our relationship get in the way of the World Cup and in just two days I had managed to fail so, so spectacularly.

It takes a very great person to be able to put all this aside and perform, let alone at Neymar's level. I was so proud of him, even though I had no right to be. I had no right to be in his life anymore and screw it up. I had no right to do anything ever again that involved him.

In my mind I was already planning my great escape out of Brazil and out of his life. Because this morning I realized, that no matter how much I tried to act like I was a different person, a healed person, I was deluding myself and those around me. They loved me under false pretenses and I couldn't allow that anymore.

And thousands upon thousands made an ocean,

Making islands where no island should go.