Dark Moves Of Love ~ Neymar Jr

Chapter 22

"The what?"

"The scavengers hunt! You don't know about this?" he eyed me carefully.

"No! There's a scavengers hunt? Why didn't anyone say something to me?"

"I assumed David had filled you in. Anyway, we really need to move!" He said, glancing back at the road.

"What is the first clue?" I asked getting in the game. If anything, I was really competitive.

He took out a piece of paper and gave it to me. The clue was in English.

We looked at each other knowingly and started running towards the base of the statue.

We came at a halt in front of some signs.

"There's more than one escalators!" I exclaimed.

"The clue just says 'Pele's caps.'" Neymar said.

"Maybe we should split!" I said. "Agh! If there were four of us..."

"Wait! There's something in the back!" Neymar cried. "It's the west escalator!"

We started running again.

"Count the steps!" I told him since he was already way ahead of me. With his acceleration and all.

I was sure I was about to pass out from ascending the steps in the hot Brazilian sun, so much physical activity was bad for me.

"Damn it, I lost count!" He yelled.

I didn't bother telling him that I had lost count a while ago. Moving my feet and counting was almost impossible. Pele had 92 caps with the Brazilian national team and there were about 200 steps in this staircase so I imagined the clue would be in the middle. I was about to tell him that I'd stop and wait for him there when he yelled: "I found it!"

Surely there it was, so obvious we didn't need to count steps at all. He took a quick picture of the clue and we started descending, I prayed I wouldn't pass out.

"Wait." He said coming to a halt. "Let's take a picture."

I must have looked really sweaty and gross but I obliged since I really wanted to have a picture of me near the statue.

"I promise I'll bring you here again. I know how much you were looking forward to this." He said as he put his hand on my back, bringing us closer for the photo.

I smiled, not for the photo but because of his words. It felt as if the conversation in the car, just minutes ago, didn't happen. I realized if I thought hard about it, our relationship was hard. But if I didn't think, it was effortless. Things between us, when we were alone, were effortless.

"Let's go." He said.

I started descending after him, but felt the acute pain on my ankle again. I shouldn't have climbed the stairs I realized because I wasn't completely healed.

"Wait Neymar." I said. He turned around concerned. I sat on one of the steps, rubbing my ankle. "You are stuck with the crippled one." I said.

"I am open to carrying you. It would be a great workout. Especially because of the stairs."

"Taking a break losers?" Dani yelled coming up. He was followed  by Hulk.

"Give us the clue!" Hulk said.

"No way!" I shouted. "And we aren't taking a break." I stood up and leaned on Neymar and we started descending again. His hand was around my waist and it burned where it touched me. I tried to forget about how close we were. We descended speedily because he was supporting my weight. We didn't meet anyone else on the way down.