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“Come on, we’ll be late to the game if you don’t get up!” Gavi playfully yelled while he pulled the sheets off the bed, Pedri rolling off with them. Gavi had been up the whole day, while Pedri was getting his beauty rest.
“Gavi what the hell?” Pedri laughed, getting up and throwing a pillow at him, but missed.
“I even made us lunch,” Gavi walked into the kitchen watching as Pedri followed him in. It wasn’t even much, Gavi had just thrown some waffles into the toaster and put Nutella on them.
Gavi sat at the table, waiting for Pedri and once he arrived, he started eating.
“I hope I didn’t put too much Nutella on yours,” Gavi said noticing Pedri didn’t pick his waffles up and eat them.
“No, it’s fine, I’m just not that hungry right now.” Pedri said. “I’ll eat them after practice, I promise.”
“Oh, ok that’s fine,” Gavi replied with a smile on his face, even though he was slightly disappointed. Once Gavi was finished eating he moved the plates to the back of the counter.
“Go change, we should be leaving in ten minutes,” Gavi said dangling his car keys for Pedri to see.
About a year ago Gavi had gotten his license and became the one to drive Pedri around, and he was proud of it.
Gavi waited in his living room and contemplated and thought about how perfect Pedri was in every way. He was a perfect boyfriend.
“I’m ready, amor,” Pedri said with the biggest smile on his face. “You’re 19 and already acting like you’re older than me.”
“It’s called maturity, Pedri. I had to learn faster than most people and you know why.” Gavi and Pedri both walked down outside and got into Gavi’s car. It was a light blue BMW that he bought with his own money the day after he learned to drive officially. Gavi wondered if Pedri liked it, he never really asked him.
The entire ride to Camp Nou was a peaceful silence where none of them said anything to each other, but Gavi felt that Pedri’s presence was enough for him.
Soon enough they were in the locker room, ready for the big game ahead of them. Gavi went to his locker area and started changing when he noticed Pedri was just staring at an empty space where his locker was.
“Pedri where the fuck did all your things go?” Gavi asked. Everyone else had already gone into the tunnel to wait for the game to start. “This is why I always bring you extra things.” Gavi opened his bag and tossed Pedri his own jersey but watched as it hit the floor.
“Pedri come on.” Gavi’s eyes were welling up with tears for no apparent reason and he just walked out to the tunnel as well. He assumed Pedri would just come on time.
“Gavi, are you okay?” Frenkie asked as he noticed Gavi’s eyes. Frenkie’s good mood was always a good thing but sometimes it bothered Gavi.
“Yes, just nervous about the game.” Gavi said rudely which he regretted because Frenkie was being so nice.
“Well, I’m just asking because you know-.” Frenkie started.
“I don’t know anything,” Gavi retorted. “Good luck.” He walked ahead of the team and did the usual ritual.
They all posed for the photo and shook the hands of the opponents.
Everyone was asking Gavi how he was and it was getting annoying. Even some people from the other team. They acted like he was going to have an outburst on the field.
About halfway through the game, when it was getting boring Gavi started counting all the players on the field and realized they were playing with 12 people.
“Pedri,” Gavi ran over to him. “There’s an extra player on the field, why has nobody else noticed?”
“I don’t quite know,” Pedri looked around, just as confused as Gavi. Gavi shrugged it off and continued to play. He missed passes aiming for Pedri, instead resulting in the other team’s possession, but in the end, Barcelona pulled through and they won 2-0.
“Vamos!” Gavi shouted running through the tunnel back to the locker room.
The whole team was in a happy mood and Lewandowski shouted that they should all go to a celebratory dinner.
Everyone was in agreement and Gavi winked at Pedri across the room. Pedri winked back. Gavi got back in his car, with Pedri in the passenger seat and mapped out the place they were all going to meet up at.
“That was a great game today, wasn’t it?” Gavi said smiling. “I love playing with you, I want to just kiss you so badly right now, but I’m driving.”
“Tonight, promise,” Pedri replied giving Gavi a smirk. Gavi almost crashed his car at the thought.
Eventually he made it to the restaurant and parked, waiting in there though because he made it much earlier than the rest of the team and he didn’t want to be the first person in there.
“Do you think ghosts are real?” Gavi asked, trying to break his awkward silence and thoughts.
“Why do you say that?” Pedri asked. “I think people just imagine them, they don’t scientifically exist.”
“Ok, well,” Gavi laughed. “Just wondering.”
After 10 minutes of back and forth conversation Gavi got out of the car with Pedri and started greeting his teammates he had just seen. After sitting down at the table, he motioned for Pedri to join him next to him, but Pedri told Gavi to save a seat, he was going to just run to the bathroom real quick. Everyone ordered drinks because their coach nor dieticians were there to scold them. And the team all deserved a reward. Gavi lost track of time after his second drink was gulped down. Honeslty his tolerance wasn’t that good.
Gavi had forgotten about Pedri and wondered if it was the effects of the alcohol. Pedri might have just taken a phone call or something. Gavi wanted to look for him though, so he walked out to look around but then came back into the restaurant and went back.
“Pedri where are you?” Gavi said peering into the bathroom.
Gavi walked in and saw Frenkie.
“Oh, hey Gavi? What’s up?”
“Nothing, I just can’t find Pedri, I thought he said he was going to the bathroom.”
“Pedri?” Frenkie looked at him weirdly.
“Yeah you know, my height, brown hair, brown eyes? My Pedri?” Gavi joked thinking it was funny but in reality, he didn't know.
“Are you drunk?” Frenkie said.
“No, I need to find him, seriously,” Gavi laughed again feeling dizzy. He would definitely not drink more tonight.
“Gavi let’s go back to the table.” Frenkie held onto Gavi and guided him back to his seat. What Gavi didn’t see was Frenkie give the table a death stare and mouth something which resulted in the entire team going silent.
“What, did I do something wrong?” Gavi asked. “We won the game today! In fact it was really weird because there were 12 players from our team on the field, I don’t know why nobody else noticed.”
It wasn’t just the alcohol talking but Gavi’s mind spitting out whatever he could think of.
“Gavi what date is it today?” Ferran said out loud.
“April 29th.” Gavi replied.
“Gavi, you understand why we’re all gathered together celebrating today right.” Ferran said annoyed.
“The game, duh? and what else do you want to ask me about? You guys are being ridiculous I am going home.”
“You’re drunk, I’m not letting you drive.”
“You can’t tell me what to do!” Gavi got loud and stormed out of the restaurant and dialed Pedri’s number. It kept ringing and ringing until it hit voicemail.
Gavi screamed out loud and just sat down on the curb outside and started crying. He didn’t know why. He truly didn’t.
He didn’t know how long he had been there until he felt a hand on his shoulder and looked up to see Lewandowski.
“Hey kid,” he sat down next to him. “Want to come back inside. The banana bread for dessert looks real good.”
Gavi burst into another round of tears when he heard the words being spoken. That is Pedri’s favorite dessert and he wasn’t there.
“Where is he?” Gavi cried. “He should be here.”
“Shh, it’s okay,” Lewandowski wiped Gavi’s tears. “I’ve got you son.”
Gavi cried and cried.
He knew why. He just was in denial.
Gavi sat there some more, crying his feelings out and he realized all his team all walk out later and they were giving him empathetic looks. They were all sad too, but Gavi took it the worst.
“Gavi it’s been one year.” Frenkie softly said, careful not to hurt his feelings. “I’m sure Pedri still loves you and he’s proud of you.”
Gavi looked to the sky and focused on Pedri. “That one is you.” Gavi whispered and pointed.
“I miss you.”