More than Friends (Neymar Jr. Fanfic)

Chapter 5: Flashbacks

"Obrigado."

"You mean Obrigada," My father smiled ear-to-ear at a seven year old version of me. "You're a girl, not a boy."

"Obrigad- Dad this is stupid. Why do I have to learn Portuguese?" I whined, playing with the edges of my shirt. Marianna played with her toys on the floor beside me, and fumbled with her words.

"This is Brasil, Rosa. If you want to make friends here, you have to learn how to speak their language." My mother said, coming into the kitchen. Her cropped curly brown hair was pulled into a ponytail behind her head. She was born on the streets of Rio, to a black mother and white father. Her caramel skin and hair was absolutely beautiful, while my fathers features were harder. He had pitch black hair, and dark blue eyes, resembling Adrianno.

"Adrianno! Get in here, we're about to have breakfast!" Mom called.

In came my brother, dressed in nothing but a shirt and and shoes. He had a soccer ball tucked under his arm and dirt covered almost every square inch of his body.

"Jeez, Adri, don't you know we have guests coming over?" She grabbed a kitchen towel and feverishly began wiping his face. He turned his had back and forth in protest, but like Marianna, my mother was strong and wouldn't take no for answer.

I ran my hands along he familiar granite of the kitchen counter and propped myself up. "Whose coming over Mamai?" I asked, calling her the Portuguese word for "mommy."

"My friend Nadine, you remember her right?" I shook my head. All of my mother's friends claimed to know me, but I didn't know who any of them were.

"Well," she said, finally finishing my brother's face. She sent him upstairs to change his clothes and began working on Marianna's silky hair. "Her, her husband, and her kids are coming over for a play date."

"Play dates is for babies!" Mocked a three year-old Marianna. My mom smiled began to braid her hair and tied something to the end to keep it in place.

"But, Mari, you are a baby," my father chuckled. He flipped through the pages of his magazine, and adjusted his glasses. As Adrianno pranced down the steps, the door bell rang and my mother quickly took a few pastries out of the oven. When she turned her back, I grabbed a handful and ran over to Marianna, stuffing the chocolate gooeyness in my mouth. Marianna reached her hands out, and I plopped a few into them.

"Bem-Vindo Nadine!" I heard my mother cheerfully say. A woman with blonde-brown hair walked through, followed by a man and two kids. They both hid behind their parents so it was hard to see them. Adrianno sat next to me and starting eating the remaining pastries from my hand.

"Kids! Come meet our guests!" My father called out for us in English. I picked up Marianna, separating her from her toys and ran towards the front door.

"I smiled and shook the adults hands, just how Mom had taught me. The man grabbed his two kids by their hands and mumbled something to them in Portuguese, too fast for me to understand.

Finally, two of them emerged from behind their parents to reveal a boy and a girl. They had a tan complexion, and the girl appeared to be no older than me. "Sou Rafaella," she smiled Sticking her small hand out for me to take it. We shook hands, then came Adrianno.

"E você," I directed towards the boy struggling with my pronunciation. I knew I sounded stupid, and I didn't want to mess up the first chance I had at making a friend in Brasil.

"Sou Neymar," he smiled.

I violently shook my had, batting away the memory. I stared at the crimson red I had made on my palette, and smiled, satisfied. Picking up a smaller brush, I applied a softer texture to the center of my painting, taking deep breaths with each stroke. It was beautiful outside this morning, the sun beamed down, burning the back of my neck. I took of the sweater I was wearing and threw it down onto the porch chair, and left on a pair of capris and a tank top. I tucked the loose strands of hair that danced in front of my face behind my ear, earning a bit of paint on my cheek.

Painting was my therapy at the moment.

Wasn't perfect at it, but It was better than constantly biting my nails and staring into space. I watered down the brush, balanced it in my mouth, and grabbed a thicker one to apply a dark grey to the outer edges. My hand had a mind of its own as it brushed and stroked, creating the picture I wanted. The brush was like an extension of my arm as I started shading at the edges of the figure I was painting.

I gasped as I felt someone's hands grasp on my shoulders, then relaxed under the gesture as I felt Adrianno's lips kiss the top of my head.

"I think that's the most horrid thing you've ever painted," he said as he rested his chin on my shoulder, wrapping his arms around my waist. Him and Mari were being extra nice the past couple of days after what happened at the party. Not that they shouldn't in the first place, they were the ones that pushed me into this. I never actually told them, but when they could tell that by my tear-stained cheeks that some serious shit had went down. Not even my box of Cheerios could cheer me up. So for now, they were backing off and giving me time to breathe a little.

"It's not that gruesome, Adri," I said, putting the palette down. It honestly wasn't. I painted a heart that was being crushed by a pair of hands. As the blood and tissue were dripping on the floor, they began to take shape of a girl.

It was no biggie, really.

"I think we need to keep you away from horror movies." He replied putting a sheet over my painting. I started to tidy up the porch and put my brushes and paint away, and piled up the stacks of canvas I recently bought from the store.

"You and I both know that it's not the horror movies."

He stopped to look at me. "You're going to have to talk about it sooner or later, Rosa. Out of all three of us, you were the strongest one when mom and dad died. You were there for the both of us, and now we want to be here for you," I sighed, figuring he was right. I hadn't spoken to either of my siblings about what happened between Neymar and I at all, they deserved to know.

I opened the porch door and walked inside, carrying my supplies with me. I washed my hands in the kitchen and paused when I heard the sound of cheers coming from the television in the living room. I tip toed over to where Marianna sat, and regretted it. She was watching the Brazil vs. Mexico game, and Brazil had just scored. My chest tightened as I saw him on the screen, celebrating with the rest of his teammates.

I grabbed the remote from where it lay and shut the tv off.

"I was watching that!" Marianna shouted. Just before we were about to break out into an argument, I heard the doorbell ring. Strange, considering no one normally visited when Brasil was playing.

"Are you expecting anyone?" I asked Mari.

"No. But you do," She ruefully smiled at me, and I got more scared by the second. Anytime she smiled like that I either had to run for my life or make her run for hers.

"Oh dear God, Mari. What did you-" I was interrupted by the doorbell ringing again.

"Why don't you go see who that is," she said, turning on the television. I slowly nodded, and stealthily made my way over to the front door. I had seen this kind of stuff on television, and I didn't like the end result, especially if it was going to happen to me.

Please don't let it be a stripper. Please don't let it be a stripper, please-, I sent a silent prayer above, made the sign of the cross, and opened the door.

Only it wasn't a stripper.

Her Hazel eyes perked up as she saw me, and smiled with those familiar to teeth. Her hair had grown so long since the last time I'd seen her, and she was dressed I white jeans and a Brazil jersey.

"Rafaella?"

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A/N: hey! Hope you all enjoyed.

I decided to bring Rafa in just because... I'm sorry if the chapter was a little slow, but don't lose interest yet, I'm just getting started.

Also, if you don't already, follow me on Instagram @dropthat_neyney

Thanks :*

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