33

"hey wake up."

i groaned in annoyance and opened my eyes to see joão tugging on me to wake me up.

"i have a match today, did you forget?" he rolled his eyes.

"oh shit really?"

"yeah, against uruguay so get up," he said while taking his shirt off and picking a new one up.

"joão!" i blushed and covered my eyes, "i'm not ready to see that yet."

"actually you're right, you can see that later," he winked as he put his new shirt on.

i threw a pillow at him playfully as he laughed. he went into the bathroom so i got out of bed and made the bed behind me. i wore his jersey and left my hair in a low bun with two strands out. when joão came out the bathroom i went in and quickly brushed my teeth. i came out and did my makeup and then we were ready to go - i checked the time and it was now 10:00 am. the match started at 11:20 am.

we walked out the door and closed it behind us, taking the elevator and walking into the buffet. we picked up a plate each and loaded our plates. on my plate i put mostly sweet stuff like donuts and croissants because i love sweet things.

i looked around and spotted rosia sitting with kat, i took a deep breathe and headed over - i really hoped that she would listen to me.

as soon as i sat down at the table, they stopped their conversation and the atmosphere became quite uncomfortable. rosia immediately stood up and left, and of course kat gave me a weak smile and followed her like she was a queen or something.

i felt very stupid sitting at an empty table so luckily joão noticed and came over. he sat in the chair opposite to me.

"are you okay?"

"no," i said honestly. "i've already told her that it was fake but she won't believe me." i sighed and put my face in my hands.

he looked at me in sympathy, "well, i can try talking to her if you want?"

"no, it's okay," i muttered. "thanks though,"

-

after eating breakfast we all got on the coach and thankfully joão gave me the window seat again which was good. (even though i practically beg him to let me sit there)

he rested his head on my shoulder and watched me scroll on tiktok. suddenly there was an edit of kevin álvarez, talk about wrong timing. my stomach dropped when i saw him on the screen and i felt immense guilt, how could i have almost forgotten about him kissing me?

"do you think he's cute?" joão asked.

"no." i said quickly and scrolled. it was a coincidence when an edit of joão appeared under it. "but i think he's pretty cute."

"oh really?" he smirked.

"mhm" i smiled as he pecked me on the lips quickly, then he got his own phone out. he went on tiktok and went to his favourites, clicking on one and showing me

"i think she's pretty cute," he smiled, showing me an edit of me.

i couldn't believe that people actually made edits of me?? i took joão's phone from his hand and watched the edits - which were all saved by him.

 he laughed. "what, not used to being famous?"

this specific edit was a velocity of me and joão. i scrolled down and another one was a scene of me at ronaldo's party talking back to that girl, it was with the song 'bad girls,' by mia. i scrolled down again and it was a clip of me and joão kissing but with the editors profile picture covering my face. i scrolled down once more and it was another edit but with a kinda innapropriate song, i looked at him with wide eyes.

"-shut up," he coughed and took his phone back.

-

when we finally reached the stadium we got out the coach and walked inside. it was now 10:40 so joão walked inside the changing rooms to change.

i saw georgina with her kids so i went over to them with a smile.

"olá eleanor, how are you?" she said warmly.

"i'm very good, thank you-"

"ellie!" eva said cheerfully as i kneeled down to hug her.

"hello," i smiled.

"eva's been missing you," georgina said. "you and rosia should hang out with us again."

my smile dropped as she said rosia - and she noticed.

"what's wrong? did something happen between you two?" she asked curiously.

"someone faked some screenshots of me talking bad about her, and she believed it. so now she's mad at me." i sighed.

her eyes widened in surprise, "oh gosh. that's terrible. i hope she realises that you wouldn't ever say anything bad about her,"

"thank you," i smiled. "i've got to go now though, so i'll see you soon. bye guys. bye eva." i said, spotting joão walking outside the changing rooms.

i walked away from them with a wave and walked over to joão, he looked very nervous and his hands were shaking.

"joão, don't worry. you'll do just fine." i reassured him and held his hand. he still looked a bit worried so i hugged him, and he hugged me back.

"i love you," i whispered in his ear, "you're gonna do great."

"thank you, el. i love you too," he smiled and pulled away, he kissed me gently before letting me go sit at the bench - but without rosia i was alone - or so i thought.

"hey there." diego lainez smiled, sitting next to me.

"hi." i replied dryly. "what are you doing here?"

"am i not allowed to go to other matches?" he chuckled. "our practice finished early so i thought i'd come see ronaldo play."

"fine. is kevin here?" i asked anxiously.

he shook his head. "nope, but i wanted to talk to you about him-"

i was starting to get frustrated, "what? about why he kissed me, knowing fully well that i had a boyfriend?" i said rudely.

"i'm not involved in anything kevin did so don't take your anger out on me." diego said and crossed his arms.

"i'm sorry." i apologised. "carry on."

"thank you. i was just going to ask if you wanted to talk because i need to tell you something very important." he said, and pulled out his phone. he searched up something on it and passed it to me.

"famous portuguese football player, joão felix's girlfriend caught cheating with mexican player, kevin álvarez."

attached: 1 image.

my heart dropped as i looked at the image; and sure enough it was a picture of him kissing me at the gallery. the website this was posted on was very famous, and people were already starting to make remarks.

'i could definitely treat joão better'

'this girl had the AUDACITY to cheat on my husband??? wtff'

'tbh i can't blame her, kevin's hot'

'girl couldn't get enough of two hot guys'

'kys eleanor silva'

'i told him that she wasn't good for him'

'i kinda liked her.. disappointed..'

"oh my god!" i panicked and put my hand on my mouth. i handed diego his phone back as he nodded. "what do i do??"

"i can't tell you everything right now because the games about to start, but if you meet me after at the coffee place i'll explain everything, alright?" he said quietly since people were starting to sit down.

"fine." i agreed. "i'll be there."

he nodded and walked away.

great. now i had to explain to joão that i was going for a coffee with diego lainez.