[ onze ] 

Marc was surprised when she had been able to eat half of the basket of wings, and that had been considering the large baskets held about thirty wings. He almost wanted to offer getting a second basket for her to eat. Valerie felt awkward, being there with them. She thought they needed to be alone. Setting her napkin down on her plate when she finished her sandwich, she looked around the restaurant absently. There was a passageway in the back with a big neon sign over it that read Fun Zonewhich she figured was the perfect excuse to leave the table. She figured it was an arcade and it as the opportunity to leave Marc and Ashley by themselves.

"Oye Toni," She tapped him on the shoulder to get his attention. Since everyone was done eating and Valerie hadn't wanted to talk to him, he went back to texting. "I want to go to the arcade. Will you go with me?" This time her voice was sweet and polite in regards to him.

"Uh," He began, dumbfounded and confused. Still, he nodded. "Yeah. I'll go with you."

"I'll go too." Ashley offered, motioning to get out of her seat to accompany them.

"Not you." Valerie quickly said. Getting up from her chair so abruptly that she almost knocked her plate onto the ground. She pulled Toni along by the hand and she gave her friend a fake apology as they walked away, "Sorry Ash, I want to show Toni how to play some old school arcade games."

Before Ashley could even protest, the two were already on the other side of the restaurant. Marc looked over at the two blondes and caught Valerie shooting him a thumbs up. That was when he caught on that they had left them alone on purpose. Now Marc truly believed Valerie had earned herself that date with Sergi.

"Thanks Valeria." He murmured under his breath.

"What?" Ashley asked, confused.

"Nothing." He shook his head in response. Looking towards her, their eyes meeting, he sighed, "I'm sorry about this disaster. I know I promised to bring Sergio over here, I really tried." Marc would have done anything to make her happy, and all he wanted in return was something she wasn't willing to give him.

"I already told you its fine, Marc. You don't have to keep apologizing." She assured him, biting down on her lip nervously. And she wasn't lying to him. She liked all the players in Real Madrid and she knew he had actually tried to please her.

"All I ask from you is a chance." He insisted.

"Look Marc, you're a nice guy." She began, fidgeting with her hands, unable to look him in the eyes. Before she continued, he already knew he would be getting rejected. "But I just wouldn't be comfortable in a relationship with you. I hate your team. I would never be able to support you at your games like any other girlfriend would, at least not full-heartedly. I would never dare to wear a blaugrana jersey with your name on it, I would never betray Real like that. I was born loving Real Madrid and that is how I will die. If you played in any other team, maybe I could date you. But even then, you'll always be a Barca boy."

"Okay," Marc nodded. He brought his lips to a close, forming a tight line and looked down at the table where he subconsciously started moving things around as he continued to speak. "Are you sure about your decision, Ashley? Because once I drop you off at your house tonight, I won't return. I really like you, but I also won't spend my whole life begging you to date me." He explained to her, determined to keep his word. The next time they would see each other, he thought it would be because she was seeking him out. There would be no more begging on his part. 

Marc awaited her answer, but there was none.

When Valerie and Toni returned from the arcade with handfulls of tickets which they could exchange for prizes, they knew things had gone downhill by their expressions. Neither would look at the other and their lips were turned down into frowns. Marc was on his cellphone, texting his friends from Barcelona. They had been making very elaborate plans to help him win Ashley over, but he was going to call everything off.

As they left the restaurant, they passed the prize center and Valerie insisted they needed to stop and exchange their tickets. "Toni and I spent fifty euros on game tokens." She whined, leaving out the fact that Toni had been the only one to pay for tokens while Valerie eyed the arcade machines. "Don't let it go to waste."

With their game tickets, they had been able to get a small, battery operated dog, which Valerie named Barcelona. It was the only thing they had been able to afford with their tickets and the four left the restaurant soon after. 

On the car ride home, Toni spent it arguing with Valerie over the dog's name and who would get to keep it. He claimed its name was Deutschland. While Ashley and Marc sulked about not being together, Toni and Valerie argued over the custody of their new robotic pet.

When they reached the home of the two girls, Valerie took the dog with her and Ashley got out of the car without saynig a word to any of them. All she wanted was to get in her house before she could change her mind.

.

.

.

.

Toni was packed up and ready to return to Madrid the next day. Marc had made sure to call the Real Madrid footballer a taxi before heading off to practice. Since he wouldn't be seeing Ashley anymore, he decided to take his car. His only reason for walking to the training grounds was so that he could see her anyway.

"Thank you for letting me stay in your house." Toni told Marc in english as he got in the taxi.

"No problem." Marc shook his head. "Thank you for coming. If you ever need anything, don't hesitate to ask. I owe you one." He said. Marc wasn't the type of person who asked people for favors often. He hated owing people things and he hoped that in putting the offer out, he could get it out of the way quicker.

Toni thought about it. "Now that you mention it...would you happen to have Valerie's phone number?" He finally asked.

Marc nodded a response. "Yeah. But don't tell her I gave you her number or she'll kill me." He joked, pulling his cellphone out of his pocket and scrolling through his contact list until he found the number he was looking for. As he went down the list, he saw Ashley's name. He clicked on it, the phone number stared back at him in mock. With a sigh, he did something that would serve to help him begin to move on. He clicked delete contact.

The Barcelona footballer gave Valerie's phone number to Toni and said goodbye, thanking him once more for coming over. As soon as the taxi disappeared down the street, Marc got into his car and left for training.

His presence in the locker room was hardly noticed by his team mates. He walked inside, changed into his uniform, and went out onto the field to practice. It wasn't until they began training that they realized both Marc and Neymar hadn't said a word. By that time, on any other day, they would have been laughing and cracking jokes with the other players.

"What's wrong with you guys?" Lionel asked.

"I told Ashley that if she didn't want to go out with me again, she should just tell me so I don't waste my time." Marc explained, giving the details about his date with Ashley, while Lionel and Gerard listened intently. "She said she would never be able to date me."

"Then she's dead to you." Gerard said. "It's time to move on."

"I guess." Marc shrugged.

Moving onto the next problem, Lionel looked towards Neymar. "And why are you so quiet?"

"April's parents said she's been away from home too long. They haven't seen her since we came to Barcelona.So she went to visit them and she took Azul with her." said the Brazilian footballer. Azul was their months old daughter, who had been born in Brazil while Neymar was recovering from his injury. "They left this morning and I already miss them. Carolina said she'll bring Davi Lucca to visit me for a few days, even though he was spending time with her in Brazil, and I think that's great. But I wish April and Azul were here too."

Gerard grinned as an idea came to him. "Hey, how about we have a guys night at Ney's house?"

"Why my house?" Neymar protested.

Lionel joked. "You're such a woman, Geri."

"I kind of like the idea." Marc said to them. "Who says only women can do that kind of stuff?"

"Have you been reading Chica Moderna too?" The Argentine raised an eyebrow at his team mate.

"Okay." Gerard dropped his hand on Neymar's shoulder heavily. "Its agreed that we're going to Ney's house tonight? I have to let Shak know ahead of time or else I'm in trouble." He said.

"WAG." Lionel coughed, earning a laugh from both Marc and Neymar.

Though Marc was still upset about Ashley, he was grateful to his friends for helping to cheer him up. The only thing he could do now was to distract himself until he could stop thinking of Ashley all on his own. 

-

i should be writing a seven page research paper about don quijote, but i don't know what to write. my teacher wants us to write about a topic that has never been explored before. which makes it all the more difficult because i cant find any info on my topic. mine is the parallels between between romances in the sierra morena spain (where the song cielito lindo takes place) of the 17th century and romances in don quijote. i have nothinggggg.

anyway, here is the update.

thank you for reading. i love you!

-clary xx