[ nine ] 

April gasped. "I saw him at the stadium."

Giovani nodded, "He was on the field." He pointed out.

"No," She shook her head. "I mean I bumped into him when I was going to find my seat. He saw me, he knew it was me. And he kept quiet."

"Maybe he didn't recognize you." The half-Brazilian suggested with a shrug of his shoulders.

"I doubt that." She bit her lip.

Just then, another young man dressed in the same type of suit Giovani was wearing came jogging up from the opposite corner. When he saw the tanned skinned footballed, he called out in Spanish, "Hey Gio! We've been looking everywhere for you." Tugging on his arm, he added, "Hurry up or they're gonna leave without us." This young man was tall, a couple of inches taller than Giovani, had brown eyes, dark hair and fair colored skin. Like Giovani, April noticed he was very handsome.

Giovani shot her an apologetic look. "I have to go. But I'm glad I was able to help you." When he noticed his team mate looking from him to April, he added, "Ah, April, this is one of my team mates-"

"Isaac Brizuela." He said with a grin, pushing past Giovani to get to her.

"April Estiano." She replied with a forced smile. She was in no mood to do anything, much less meet guys, no matter how handsome they would be.

"They call him the bunny." Giovani added in amusement, his english coming out with a strong Mexican accent.

Isaac crinkled up his nose. "It sounds so ugly in English. They call me el conejito Brizuela." He repeated the nickname in Spanish, and she thought that he was right. It did sound better in his native language. 

When it finally sunk in that he spoke English, April's eyebrows raised in amazement, though she was immediately embarrassed by her reaction. Still, the fact that he had just spoken perfectly fluent English to her was interesting to her. Isaac noticed this and smiled at the look on her face. "You're probably wondering why I speak English so fluidly when I'm Mexican." He said.

She nodded slowly. "To be honest...yes." All the while, Nev and Max watched them silently.

"I was actually born in America and I spent time moving back and forth between both countries because my parents wanted me to speak English and Spanish. I finally decided to stay in Mexico when I started my football career." He explained to her. "And when both national teams called me to represent them, I had to go with the one I truly consider my home." 

"Well," Giovani interrupted, feeling like he was being cut out of the conversation. "Isaac and I should go before the team bus leaves us. Come on, Brizuela." He grabbed onto his mate and shoved him forward playfully. He followed behind Isaac, but turned one last time towards April. "Let me know how everything with Ney turns out. And call if you need anything. I wouldn't want a beautiful girl like you to be upset."

"Thanks." April shot him a small smile and waved goodbye.

When Giovani was finally gone, Nev nudged her with a grin. "He's a nice guy."

Max agreed. "Maybe you'll get to know each other."

But she shook her head. "I don't think so. After this, I think I'll have a very hard time believing in men."

"So..." Nev began, trying to sound casual. "What do you want to do next? What should we do about our real Lucas?"

"He might still be inside. We can go find him." Max suggested.

April shrugged her shoulders and they noticed how upset she looked. It was obvious she was trying very hard to hold her tears in. "He didn't want to meet me or else he would have said something." She said in a voice barely above a whisper. Sucking in a deep breath to steel herself, she told them, "I'm going back to my hotel and decide if I really want to meet him after this. And when I have made my decision, I'll let you guys know."

"Okay." Nev nodded his head understandingly. "We'll see you later then."

They each gave her a hug before heading back to their car in the parking lot. 

It was only after they left that it all hit her and it was as if a dam had broken and her eyes became waterfalls. Her heart hurt because he had lied to her and she didn't know why.

And she wondered if he was just playing with her feelings the entire time.

.

.

.

.

It was a long twenty minutes of crying on the front steps of the stadium before her heat break was replaced by anger and she dried her tears. Her eyes were red and puffy, her sisters would know she had been crying, but she didn't care. She had done nothing wrong; it was he who lied. 

And surely enough, when she returned to the car, her sisters asked if something was wrong.

She spent the entire car ride telling them everything about Lucas and how he was actually Neymar. At one point, she had to switch seats with her older sister because her tears were making her eyes blur and she didn't want to put them in danger.

Back at their hotel room, she plopped herself down in her bed face down and continued crying.

She wondered if he really meant his words each time he told her he loved her.

April wanted to yell at him, she wanted to hate him, she wanted him to feel the same amount of pain she was feeling in her heart or maybe something worse. At that moment, she certainly felt he deserved it.

It was a few hours before there were no more tears in her to cry for him. 

She had also spent that time thinking about her options. When she finally made her decision, she grabbed her phone out of her jeans pocket.

'i know who you are.'

'april?'

'what's wrong?' 

'when you said you wanted to talk to me, was it because you wanted to come clean, coward?'

'what are you talking about?' 

'stop playing dumb.'

'april. what's going on?' 

'you thought you could play with my feelings?'

'was this all just some game to you cause you're rich and famous?'

'i know you've been lying.'

'neymar.'

'...'

'let me explain.' 

'oh, you'll explain. but i don't want it by text.'

'i want you to explain everything to my face.'

'in person, where you can't hide from me.'

'yes.'

'we'll meet in person.'

'when?'

'the game against cameroon next week. after the game i'll be free. we can talk then. i can get you some tickets.'

'i don't want anything from you. i have my own tickets.'

'okay.'

'i'm so sorry april.'

'i never wanted the lie to go this far. you need to believe me.'

'we'll talk when we meet. adeus neymar.'

To April, that had been the most difficult conversation she ever had. She knew she had probably been a bit harsh with him without even knowing why he did what he did, but she felt betrayed. She was angry, upset. And she took it out on him because he was the one who made her feel that way. But even so, she couldn't hate him. 

Sure she had fallen in love with Giovani's face.

But it was also the personality of Lucas that she loved so much. If personality didn't matter to her at all, she would have immediately jumped at the chance of dating the boy who's face she loved.

Her thumb swiped over the screen once again. This time she opened a conversation with someone she had just met, the half-Brazilian named Giovani dos Santos.

'hey gio, its april.'

'hi april ^.^ what do you need?'

'i'm going to meet neymar next week, after the brazil vs. cameroon game. i'm so nervous. and i was wondering if you would come with me :$'

'i wish i could.'

'but that's the same day of my team's game against croatia and we'll be in recife :D'

'aww well then, i'll let you know how it all goes down.'

'thank you for being so nice to me :)'

'no problem :)'

When the conversation ended, she set her phone on her nightstand and got under the covers. Her sister went down to the hotel shop and got all kinds of snacks for them. The three spent the rest of their night eating junk food and watching movies in an attempt to help April feel better.

-

new update.

now a date is set for them to meet face to face.

so thank you for reading and voting.

lets hope ney doesn't try to dodge his meeting with her just like the way he pretended not to know her in fortaleza before the mexico game :$

anyway, thank you for everything.

i love you.

-clary xx