Chapter Text
CHAPTER 1
September 2025
“Is Ferran Torres single?” Julia asked
“I dunno. Why do you care?” Pedri quickly replied, scrolling through his phone.
“I don’t care, do you?”
“Why would I?”
”Well Ferran is kinda hot,” Julia stated.
“Yes he is.” Pedri muttered too quickly for Julia to actually hear what he said. Or so he thought.
“So you do care” Of course she heard.
“Never said that” He tried to get away with it.
“Oh for sure you didn’t, you coward”
She smirked, turning her face towards the sun.
“Lucky you, your eyes did”
Julia is a friend of Pedri’s, well actually she had become his ex-girlfriend since they broke up about six months ago.
She knows about Pedri; of course she knows. She actually was the first to notice besides Gavi.
One day she sat Pedri down and told him that she understood that the midfielder didn’t like her in that way. Once Pedri came out to her she supported him ever since, and he couldn’t be more grateful that they had transitioned from lovers to this kind of best friends so easily like they were always meant to be this close since their hands had first touched and their souls first connected.
They were calmly yapping in the boy’s backyard, sitting by the pool trying to get a tan when she dropped that bomb.
Pedri felt his cheeks becoming too red for that talk to be just a chat about a friend of theirs.
After all, Ferran was his teammate, one of his first best friends since he signed that contract.
Even though Pedri actually found Ferran hot.
Like, really hot.
“C’mon tío, don’t start overthinking, it’s not something you have to talk about now” Julia tried to reassure him as Pedri stopped arguing and started staring at the sky.
“I’m not overthinking, because there’s nothing to overthink about.” Pedri lied.
“Don’t lie to my face, cariño, I can hear you thinking from here.”
Caught in plain sight.
“Anyways i’m not thinking about Ferran, it would be…weird.”
“What’s exactly weird in liking someone?”
“Nothing except for the fact that this someone I’m supposed to “like” is one of my colleagues.”
“Okay, first of all, don’t air quote me, then, it wouldn’t be so crazy if you two actually liked each other, you’re attached at the hip anyways”
“Let’s put it like this, even if we liked each other, how do you think we would manage to be together? We’re footballers! We simply can’t!”
Now Pedri started to feel a bit nervous and overwhelmed.
“I know what you’re trying to say and I won't pretend I understand how it feels to be in your shoes, I'm just telling you that not everything you feel for someone needs to be put under the public eye. If you want to date someone without every single soul knowing it’s okay and totally normal. Also he is the only one I approve of, so…”
Julia smirked as she put an arm around Pedri’s shoulder
“But now please no more talks about men, I really want to relax”
“Watch it!”
He acted offended.
“Oh but we can talk about you, ‘cause you are my favourite man.”
———————————————————————
February 2026
“Any clues?”
Julia sat at Pedri’s kitchen counter sipping beer.
“On what?”
The fresh smell of basil had invaded the whole house while the midfielder was plating a delicious Italian pasta dish that Julia’s mother taught her, that Julia taught him.
“Is he still single? I heard he’s seeing some influencer. Is that true?”
“Mm, yeah I think I heard that too. Someone had told me, I don’t remember who”
Pedri placed a plate in front of her.
“I’m pretty sure you heard that from me” Gavi appeared from the Canarian’s bathroom opening his arms.
“You need to tell some of this stuff to me too, hermano. I live for the drama “
The woman smirked, crossing her legs.
“Tomorrow night only me and you in front of a glass of wine”
A flirty grin filled the boy’s face.
“Are you asking me out on a date?”
“Can you two stop flirting in my face, por favor?”
Pedri sat down putting his head in his hands.
“Are you having a hard time because your man is hanging out with someone else?” The youngest midfielder took a beer out of the fridge, teasing his best friend.
***
Gavi discovered that presentiment Julia had almost by mistake.
The two boys were hanging out on Gavi’s terrace late at night, after a few drinks when a slightly tipsy Pedri drunkenly asked:
“Do you think I look like I have a crush on Ferran?”
“Sorry? Why are you asking me that? What happened?”
“I had a talk with Julia”
“Of course”
Gavi winked, passing the other boy his beer
“And I realised that maybe people can mistake our friendship for something else.”
“Mistake? Really?”
The older boy got up and started staring at the sky like it had all the answers he needed.
“And how do you feel about that? Like do you actually like him, in any kind of way?”
“I don’t know tío, I don’t want to know”
Pedri started tearing up as he threw himself on Gavi’s couch hoping for some sleep.
***
“Chicos, shut the fuck up and eat your food”
At the end of the dinner they chatted on the deckchairs of Pedri’s pool giggling like always.
The chilly air softly caressed those young faces so full of life but so scared, each one for different reasons.
Pedri felt normal except for the fact that maybe he had too many beers to control what he could confess and, at the same time, too few to be completely black out drunk.
And when Gavi left and he was, again, alone, at his pool, with Julia, well last time it didn’t end in the best way possible. But now the woman was yapping about some romantic stuff, clearly a bit tipsy too.
“Did you ever get that feeling when you aren’t dating someone nor even going out with them but you crave them, for their attention, for their affection, even if…”
He sniffed looking down at his hands.
“Even if you can’t have them?”
She completed
“Even if you can’t have them”
He repeated.
“And you want him? Don’t you dare say I don’t know or I’ll drown you”
“You know what, fuck it, maybe I want him, maybe I’m jealous, or maybe I’m just drunk for this conversation. Can I go to sleep?”
The woman got up and hugged him so tightly that Pedri wanted to sink into her arms and let her cradle him while sobbing, instead he let her go hanging around the pool until he felt his eyelids too heavy to keep them open.