Wasted (Neymar Fan-Fiction)

Chapter Six

Six

-Neymar-

“Faster,” giggled Gabriela as my feet ran along the empty pavement. The night was silent, filled with only Gabriela and my laughter and the occasional chirping of crickets. The wind blew. Gabriela was snug in my button-up, and with her arms wrapped around my body. She’d change into some sweatpants. I felt warm, even with only a singlet on.

“Where to, passenger?” I asked as I hoisted her higher up my back. That’s right—I was giving her a piggy-back ride to apologize. Gabriela seemed to think about it.

“Hmm,” She began, “How about that ice-cream parlor down the street?”

“Your wish is my command,” I chuckled before I sped off, my sneakers—yes, Messi managed to drag me out of my cleats—padding heavily against the stony pathway. Gabriela let out an excited shriek, her sweet voice echoing throughout the empty place.

Soon, I halted into a stop, in front of the ice-cream parlor, which had a sign-board saying Casa helado de Selmar.  

“Bring me in,” Gabriela requested. I carried her in, careful not to bang her head against the glass doorframe.

“Selmar’s ice-cream house, how may I help you all?” An elderly woman said behind the cashier, looking up. A smile broke out on her face. “Oh, aren’t you two lovely? Darling, Keith, come see!”

A man, possibly the woman’s husband, with a head of white hair, came out from the staff’s room and smiled at the woman before kissing her on the cheeks. “They certainly are. You’re Neymar, that football guy, aye?”

“That’s me,” I chuckled awkwardly, using one arm to support Gabri on my back while my other ran through my hair. Gabriela giggled silently.

“Oh, you two... Young love, so sweet,” The woman said as her lover wrapped his arms around her shoulder adoringly.

“Yes,” he said. “You know what? Have a seat, you two. We’ll give you our specialty.”

Gabriela is good with people, I’d noticed.

“So you guys met right here?” Gabriela asked, licking her spoon clean. They’d given us each a cup of caramel and honeydew ice-cream with a heart-shaped chocolate on it. It was delicious.

“Yes,” The old lady, Eva, mused, looking at the picture that hung on the wall. It was a black-and-white image of Eva and her husband, Leroy, when they were getting married. “This was my mom’s shop—used to sell home-made cookies.”

 “Love at first sight, you say?” She asked as she took another bite of the heavenly ice-cream.

“Indeed it was,” Eva said, a wide smile on her face as she reminisced about the time she met him. “He came in with a goofy smile, asking for some free butter cookies, a football in his hand, his bare feet dirty with mud. It was raining outside, his friends were hungry as they’d just played football out in the rain. My mama chased him out. I brought a fresh batch of cookies and went out from the backdoor, protected the cookies with a cloth and shared it with them. I looked into his eyes… and I just knew. And then when they finished the cookies, Leroy kissed me on the cheeks and ran away with his friends.”

“Wow,” Gabriela said in admiration. “That sounds so amazing…” Eva didn’t catch what she said next, but I did, “if only my love story was as simple.” She mumbled, sighing.

My eyebrows scrunched up in confusion. She loves a person?

Before I could ponder further, Leroy appeared beside me. He dumped another scoop of the delicious caramel-honeydew ice-cream. “Tell me boy. Do you love your girl?” He gestured to Gabriela. “You’re a lucky boy. She’s one in a million.”