Off the Deep End (Cristiano Ronaldo / Lionel Messi)

Chapter 12: Mate and FIFA

The car ride to Leo's home seemed to take forever. Neymar wasn't talking much, he just looked out of the window deeply in thought. It was already pitch dark outside, so there wasn't much to see, though. The radio was on, playing some song by Scorpions. Leo nodded his head to the music. It was a good song, familiar too, but he couldn't recall its name.

"Wind of Change, huh?" Neymar stated, suddenly coming back to life.

"Ah, that's what it is. Do you know the lyrics?"­

Neymar let out a dry laughter.

"No."

Leo pursed his lips. Sometimes he wished he could understand English better. Neymar shifted in his seat and run a hand through his beautiful brown hair. He took good care of it and it showed.

"About Cristiano though..." he started and Leo furrowed his brow. He knew this was coming.

"What about him?"

"I was just thinking, he invited us to his birthday party and I thought you were friends and all... and now this. Something just doesn't click."

"Don't think too much into it, Ney, it's just a rivalry thing. Besides, he apologized to me already so everything is fine."

"Right."

Neymar didn't look convinced though. He squinted his eyes and absent-mindedly started to fiddle with a pen he found in the glove compartment.

"By the way, I have been wanting you ask you this, Leo, but... Remember in Zalacaín, when I found you in that bathroom? Did something happen there, before I came?"

The car swerved sharply to the right and Neymar dropped his pen. Leo grimaced and a bead of sweat rolled down his forehead. He swiped it off.

"It was a cat."

Neymar rolled his eyes and picked up the pen from his feet.

"Did you hear what I just said?"

"Yes I did, what is this, an interrogation? Nothing happened, Ney, it was just a bad moment, that's all."

"Okay, fine, let's drop it then. I just wanted to ask."

To Leo's relief, he could finally see the gate to his house and asked Neymar to hand over the key. He drove in and parked the car in the garage.

"I go make us some mate", Leo muttered as soon as they got inside and headed straight into the kitchen, flicking on the lights on his way. Neymar slumped on the sofa and turned on the playstation. Soon Leo brought the mate along with a tray of biscuits, sat down next to him and grabbed the controller to choose the team for himself. Neymar started to joke about how Leo always picked either Barcelona or Argentina.

"Why not Santos?" Neymar giggled and was more like himself again, curling into a comfortable ball in the corner of the couch and ruffling his hair. "It's a great team after all."

"Okay, you can take Santos if you want, here we go", Leo teased and pretended to press the button to choose Santos for Neymar. Neymar laughed and slapped the controller out of his hands. So it was Barcelona vs. Barcelona, as usual.

"This is so boring", Neymar complained after a while and jumped up to pour more hot water into the mate, after another lost game to Leo. "Can you just give me some handicap, like get a straight red card or something?"

"No I won't! You'll get a hang of this, I was lucky this time."

"Can we play Brazil vs. Argentina?"

"Why not. Let's do that next."

Before the game, Neymar took an obligatory bathroom break. Leo checked his phone. There was a couple of new messages from HASTALAVISTA and one from Antonella, who congratulated him on the game and asked, when he could call her. He messaged her back that he was busy now and would call her later. He pressed the send button and laid the phone back on the table, where it beeped immediately. 'That's quick', he thought amused and picked the phone up again. Except the message wasn't from Antonella.