[ one ]

As an American teenager with too much time on her hands, April Estiano spent a lot of her time on social media sites like youtube, instagram, and twitter. But she was more commonly known on youtube, where she was a beauty guru and had wracked up over a five hundred thousand subscribers in the span of two years.

Sure she hadn't made it as big as some of her idols, but that didn't bother her. She was doing what she loved.

aprilestiano: ready to film a new video #superexcited

Minutes after, she scrolled through her instagram news feed as she often did, replying to some of the comments she received.

She was several comments down when she spotted one that caught her eye.

lucas_2_santos: beautiful ;)

It was a handsome young man with mahogany skin and dark wavy hair. He wore a smile on his face in his profile picture and as April clicked on his profile and scrolled down, she saw pictures of him on a football pitch. He was a football player, and it seemed like maybe he was somewhat professional too.

This added so much more to his appeal to him,  as she was an avid football fan, and April found herself clicking the follow button on his page.

It wasn't even two minutes before she received something in her private messages from the handsome footballer she had been looking at just moments earlier.

Instagram DMs
lucas_2_santos: hello beautiful, thank u for following me back.
aprilestiano: no problem 
lucas_2_santos: can i just warn right now that my english is so bad? i am brazilian lol
aprilestiano: no way! my parents are brazilian too so we can speak portugese to each other if you want !
lucas_2_santos: no if u dont mind i can practice english.
aprilestiano: fine by me 

-

As he got ready to exit the locker room for the day's practice session, Lionel watched the young Brazilian footballer with his eyes glued to his cellphone, a goofy smile on his face. His fingers typed away with excitement and Leo thought he was probably talking to a girl.

The locker room was almost empty by this time, the rest of the team was already on the field and ready for practice.

Leo walked past him, tapping him on the shoulder to get his attention. Neymar, who had been distracted the entire time, nearly jumped ten feet off the bench he was sat on in surprise. Finally noticing his surroundings, he furrowed his eyebrows, confused. "Where is everyone?" He asked the only other person in the room. He hadn't noticed when the other twenty members of the team left the locker room.

"They're all out on the pitch." He informed his younger team mate with an amused smile on his face. "I stayed behind to make sure you got out in time." The way he said it was like he was doing a community service by staying behind and waiting for Neymar.

Setting his phone down on the bench next to him, he hurried to tie the laces of his cleats. "I'm always on time." Neymar announced rather proudly. He was back on his feet in no time and picked up his cellphone.

Instagram DMs
lucas_2_santos: i have to go to practice. can we talk later, beautiful? 
aprilestiano: goodluck m8 

Dropping his cellphone into his locker and letting the small metal door shut with a clank, he followed the football legend of the team out onto the field.

-

By the time they reached the field, they spotted the rest of their mates huddled in a group, getting their stretches done before getting started on their practice for the day. A tall one with ivory skin and bright blue eyes jogged over to meet up with them. "What took you two so long?" He asked, looking from Lionel to Neymar. "I thought you fainted in there and we'd have to go save you." He said to them, and then smiled at his own joke.

Lionel Messi let a smile form on his lips knowingly, looking like a proud older brother as he made the announcement to their group of friends. "I was just shaking Ney out of his daydreams." His Argentine accent making his Spanish sound much different from Neymar's and Gerard's. Lionel was from Argentina, Neymar was from Brazil, and Gerard was from Spain.

Even though Neymar had joined the team almost a year prior, everyone on the team already loved him. They all saw him as the little brother of the team. Especially considering since he was one of the youngest members on the team.

Gerard grinned. "Was he talking to a girl?"

"Ney is in love." Leo announced.

"No I'm not." The Brazilian shook his head, his cheeks burned red in embarrassment. Those two were truly like older brothers, always teasing him about everything.

"What's her name?" Gerard asked, ignoring Neymar's words completely. "If you tell me, I'll let you meet Shakira." He wiggled his eyebrows at the younger of the three.

Neymar argued. "I don't want to meet Shakira."

"Oooh." Lionel laughed. 

Gerard gasped as though he had been majorly offended. "You don't want to meet Shakira?" He feigned being heartbroken. With a shrug, he recovered rather quickly and added, "More Shakira for me."

"She is your girlfriend, Geri." Messi pointed out.

When he heard the cheers and laughs coming from the older Barca players who stood with Neymar on the far end of the pitch, Jonathan dos Santos jogged over to them. Jonathan had recently been moved up from Barcelona B, but had already made friends with most of the team quickly. He was friendly and likable, and he had the advantage that his brother Giovani had played on the team, so he knew all of the players previously. Leaning an arm on Gerard's shoulder, he smiled, looking from one of his mates to another, "What's up, guys?"

"Ney has a girlfriend." Lionel told Jonathan.

Neymar could feel the color drain from his face. "How many more people do you plan to tell, Leo?"

"So its true?" Jonathan wiggled his eyebrows at him.

"No!" The Brazilian exclaimed, horrified. That was how rumors started and he didn't want anyone to know yet, in case things didn't end up working out in the end. "I wasn't talking to a woman. Well, I was, but..." He wracked his brain for any excuses. For the time being, he didn't want his mates to know he was talking to a girl. The very thought of them seeking her out could ruin everything. Especially when he was hiding things from her from the very start. "I was talking to...my mum. Yes. My mum."

Lionel laughed. "Do you think I was born yesterday, my Brasileiro friend? I know that smile is exclusively for pretty women."

"Are you saying my mum isn't pretty?" Neymar argued, trying to steer the conversation in a different direction.

Before his mates could say more, the coach clapped his hands together to get their attention. "Alright ladies, enough gossiping." He scolded them. "Get over there with the rest of the team and give me four laps around the pitch."

The four men nodded and jogged over with their other team mates. 

Neymar thought about the girl he had just met.

Was he doing the right thing by hiding his true identity from her?

He knew that if she could know who he really was, then there was a slight chance that she would only like him because he was a footballer. He also knew that using someone else's picture online was probably not the best idea. He had started out with a generic picture of the Brazil NT logo, but no girls would talk to him. So he decided to do the next easiest thing. He looked through his friend list on instagram and picked someone, Jonathan dos Santos. From there, he had gone into his friend list and picked someone else. He thought it was harmless, and it was a means to ensure that he could find someone who would like him for who he was, and not for his fame.

For the time being, he decided it was best to let her think he was someone else. Then maybe later on, if things amounted to more, he would tell her the truth. But he couldn't tell her, not now. He wanted someone to like him for him, not for the sole reason that he was Neymar Da Silva Santos Jr.

-

i'm so angry, guys.

i had this all typed up and ready. so just before i clicked the publish button, my computer froze and me, having not learned my lesson from pervious experiences, forgot to save. so i had to start this out again from my memory.

the first one was much better, so i apologize.

but i hope you all like the update.

just letting you all know that cesc fabregas and david villa will still exist in this story universe because i loved them in fc barcelona and the team just isnt the same without them.

so though i know they've moved on to different teams, in this story, they stayed.

thank you for reading and supporting.

i love you.

(originally posted: June 2014. edited: November 24th, 2022.) 

-clary xx