[ ocho ] 

It was the night before the Clasico Femenil in the spanish league, and it would be taking place in Barcelona's Camp Nou. Sasha had been away, out of town, trying to secure some details with some promoters for another tour he was planning after the very successful release of his newest CD El Meu Amor. It was the very CD where he claimed that a majority of his music had been inspired by Aimée Kroos. There was even a song in the album titled Aimée, and the entire world now knew that Gerard Piqué's younger son was interested in Toni Kroos' eldest daughter.

What everyone was yet to find out was that there was a brewing war between two brothers for her affection. And still, she wasn't able to chose between the two of them.

It was like when she was close to choosing one of them, the other found a way to confuse her even more. It had now been months of talking to the two Piqué brothers and she still had no idea which of them she liked more.

Milan had invited her to stay over at his apartment a few days before the game, but she explained to him that it was the same for women as it was for men in football. They would be staying at a hotel until the day of the game, and then they would return to Madrid. Milan insisted that she should at least go visit him, since the girls weren't allowed to have men in their rooms, and she was convinced. She needed a distraction and she didn't want to be locked up in her room for three days.

Aimée got a cab to Milan's apartment in the upper scale zone of Barcelona. Since he was twenty two years old, he was no longer living with his parents. But he visited very often. 

After paying the cab driver the money for the ride, plus a tip, she climbed out of the car dressed in black adidas training pants with the Real Madrid logo, as well as her training jacket and black sneakers. At this point in their sort of relationship, she felt that she didn't need to dress up for Milan. He knew that she was a football player like him, and that she was more accustomed to being comfortable in the clothes she was wearing. 

The nineteen year old clicked on a button at the door that was locked and led to the upper floors when she saw the name Milan - Room 18. 

As she had been walking into the building, she saw the flashes of photographers snapping pictures of her and she cursed to herself.

On the night before her game against Female Barcelona, there were going to be photographs of her visiting a Catalan footballer at night. Not only would everyone know she was talking to both brothers, but people would probably also coin her as a traitor to Real Madrid.

-

Aimée and Milan spent a couple of hours together. The last thing she wanted was for there to be follow up photographs of her leaving his apartment at three in the morning, so she decided to make a prompt exit at no later than eleven thirty. 

Milan had been more than happy to see her. Since she had warned him that she would be showing up in comfortable attire, he did the same. Only he wore obnoxiously Cule clothes--in her opinion. His had a burgundy t-shirt with the words Mes Que Un Club big and proud in yellow letters, and the FC Barcelona logo stamped right in the middle, in the background of the phrase of the iconic Catalan squad.

He also wore Nike FC Barcelona training pants, a cap with his team's football logo on it, and even dark blue socks with the logo on them. Aimée rolled her eyes at him, knowing by now that it was his way of messing with her.

They watched movies--well, they watched one movie and then about a half hour of another one-- when Aimée decided it was time to return to her hotel room. Milan had ordered a pizza and had made popcorn for them to eat during the film. And when she said it was time for her to go, he tried to convince her to stay, and she really wanted to, but ultimately declined. The last thing she wanted was more negative press going around about her. 

It wasn't the same for women as it was with men. 

The men could go to parties, get drunk, and be seen with all kids of women and not many negatives would be said about them. Some even probably got praise for it. For the women it was different. Pictures of them going into a man's apartment were very negative press for them, and it was even something that could break their careers. No team wanted a woman on their squad who would be caught out--having any kind of social life. Sometimes even seen with a boyfriend was negative because the teams believed that having a boyfriend would keep their female players out of focus.

Aimée shook the negative thoughts away and told herself that as long as she played her best out on the field, then whatever she did in her personal life shouldn't matter. 

She returned to the hotel by taxi. Milan had offered to take her, but she wanted to avoid more problems in the media. On the way back, they passed a news stand where she saw her picture on the front page of several tabloids, already claiming there was a romantic relationship between her and Milan.

-

The teams had arrived at the stadium for the game around three hours before kick off. The first thing the players did after getting off their respective team buses was to talk to the media first. Aimée remained towards the back of the crowd that had been designated for the players to give short interviews. She didn't want to confront the press yet about the pictures that had been taken the night before. 

After the players had acknowledged the media, the teams headed to the locker rooms to change into their training uniforms. They were to get some warm ups done before the match started. 

Aimée was the first to run off to the changing rooms and she quickly changed into her white Real Madrid training shirt, and black training pants. On her way out of the locker room to get to the pitch, she saw Elionor waiting for her with her arms crossed over her chest. The look on her face was one of disapproval mixed with a glare that was directed at her best friend. The FC Barcelona footballer with jet black hair pushed herself away from the back wall that faced the visiting locker room entrance and she told her friend in a serious tone, "We need to talk." 

No doubt she had probably seen the pictures and was going to once again ask Aimée to leave the brothers alone if she wasn't going to choose one of them already.

The blonde followed Elionor to a secluded hallway at the stadium, where the Catalan footballer stopped and turned to face the girl from the capital city in Spain. Without even hesitating first, she got straight to the point. "I want you to leave Milan and Sasha alone." She demanded, her expression and her tone were dead serious.

Aimée sighed and offered a shake of her head as she tried to reason with Elionor. "I like them both, Eli. I really do. I can't decide."

"That's why I think you should just leave them both along. You're just going to hurt them." Elionor accused. In her opinion, she thought that Aimée was just stringing both brothers along without being entirely serious about either of them. Elionor and her younger brother Pol had known Milan and Sasha since they were children. Elionor saw them as though they were her own brothers.

She had known Aimée just as long, but from a distance. 

"I know what this is." Aimée glared, a thought suddenly coming to her. "You want Milan now that he wants to date me. Its too late Eli. You had Thiago Messi and Milan to chose from and you let them go."

Elionor scoffed. "You're daft. I don't see Thiago or Milan that way! I only care about Milan because you're only stringing him and Sasha along. I think you just want the attention and utter devotion they both have for you. You haven't chosen one of them, not because you can't decide, but because you won't decide. Those are two different things and you're being selfish!"

"Just admit you like Milan too!" Aimée argued, accusing her friend of wanting to push the two of them away from each other. "If you had told me sooner, I would have backed off. Now I can't because I liked both of them and I know I'll have to choose at one point, but I just can't right now."

"I do love Milan." Elionor admitted through gritted teeth. "But as I have repeated like a billion times--I only love him as a friend. Milan knows that. Its everyone else that doesn't seem to understand that!"

The blonde snorted. "Whatever Elionor."

She cut their argument off there, walking past her friend to return to the tunnel where she joined her team.

-

If both girls thought they had seen the end of their argument, they were both wrong. From the moment the first whistle blew for the kick off, the clasico became a rather violent one for both sides.

The last straw came for Aimée when she was swept violently off her leg of support by Elionor Bartra, knocking her onto the grass where she tumbled a few feet away. Aimée laid on the floor in pain, gripping her ankle which had been where she had been hit by the Barcelona defender. Close by, the referee called a foul, but didn't give the Barcelona footballer a yellow card, only a warning. 

Aimée's team mates complained that she had been overly aggressive, but the referee shook them away. It took a few minutes for Aimée to regain her breath and get back on her feet, but instead of continuing the game, she ran to confront her friend.

"What the hell was that? You could have broken my ankle!" She hissed, pushing her shoulder harshly.

"It was a clean sweep." Elionor defended with a shrug of her shoulders, pushing her back.

But Aimée shook her head. "It was a dirty tackle and you know it."

The families of both girls watched in shock, as they had never seen the two of them fight like that before.

Aimée was about to push her again when their team mates interfered to separate them before things got more violent. Without hesitation, the referee walked over to the mob of girls and showed both of them the red card, sending them off the field during the first half of the game.

Both girls went to their respective locker rooms and waited to cool down, but their friendship had been broken.

-

so here's a new update for this story. i have the rest of the chapters in my drafts, so i'll probably be uploading another one by around wednesday or thursday. so stay tuned for that.

thank you all so much for reading. it means so much to me!

have a wonderful week.

-clary xx