Dark Moves Of Love ~ Neymar Jr

Chapter 33

"For someone who is so hell-bent on avoiding me, you are doing a very poor job." I heard from behind me.

It was 5 in the afternoon and I was waiting in the football field for my first practice with Neymar and coach Coto.

"Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining." Neymar continued.

"It wasn't exactly my decision." I said, ignoring his remark. "But we are here to help you in any way we can so..."

"Okay then, I have some laundry..."

I smacked him hard on the shoulder. "I am never touching your dirty laundry."

We both laughed.

"To be honest I have no clue how I can help you with your game. You are Neymar Jr. after all."

"And you're Olivia. What's your point?" He asked.

"You know what I mean... You've been playing since you were a kid."

"So have you, from what I'm hearing." He said.

"Don't believe everything you hear. Besides, you've been playing professionally."

He shrugged and headed for the bench. He sat down and I quickly joined him under the shade, the sun was too hot even in the afternoon.

"Where's Coto?" I asked, mostly to make conversation. The silence felt awkward.

"He should be here any second. Livvie, listen, now that we are alone..." He started but I cut him.

"Don't. I patched things up with Alex and I hope you did the same with Bruna." I said. "All I want from you is to make sure me and her never meet again." I knew that was a long shot. Bruna was his girlfriend, she'd want to come watch him at the practices and the games. But I would do my best to avoid her. Before he could answer, coach Coto appeared. He was carrying some equipment with him and we went to help him.

"Hey guys." He said when he saw us. "Mind grabbing the opponent mannequins? The cones too."

I took the cones and set them out on the grass, my anxiety building up every second.

"So first of all, thank you Olivia for agreeing to practice with us." Coach said.

"No problem at all." I answered.

"Neymar, Olivia and I were talking yesterday and through the numbers we got from your sensor and the simulations Olivia ran we figured out that your brain works a little differently than everyone else's when you are playing."

"My brain?" Neymar asked in disbelief.

Coach looked at me so I took over the explanation. "Basically we monitored the electromagnetic waves from your brain and what we saw was that when you are playing your brain activity is much lower than usual and much lower than other players'."

"Are you trying to say I'm stupid?" Neymar asked, sounding almost offended.

"No! No!" I said quickly. "Your brain is fine. I'm only talking about when you are playing."

"And what does it mean?"

"It means that you are doing everything on instinct rather than having thought of it first. And I believe that is what sets you apart from other players, that your movement is intuitive."

"That sounds good." He said and finally cracked a smile.

"Yeah it's a measure of talent." Coach Coto said. "But we want to use it and to expand it."

"How are we going to do that?" Neymar asked. I had the exact same question.

"By going against it." Coach said.