A World Alone

Thalia smiled weakly at Lionel as he wrapped his arm around her waist and held her close. The two entered the quiet hotel lobby together, grateful that they had each other right now.

She knew that Lionel would try his best to keep this from the public, and she knew that only a few of his teammates knew about her right now, those four being Javier Mascherano, Ángel di Maria, Kun Agüero and Gonzalo Higuaín.

Lionel nodded at the receptionist who smiled at Lionel meekly. The two entered the lift, ready to go up to their rooms. “Do you want me to stay with you?” Lionel asked. Thalia took a deep breath and bit her quivering lip before nodding.

Thalia felt guiltier than she already did, knowing that he had training early in the morning and he’d probably stay up the whole night trying to comfort her. The doors opened and Thalia led Lionel to her room, slipping her key card into the slot with shaky hands.

“I’m going to go get some clothes, okay? Hold on.” Leo murmured, pressing a soft kiss to Thalia’s temple before getting back into the lift, pressing his room number. He stood in the lift alone, suddenly feeling a surge of anger. He hated that Thalia was feeling like this. He wanted to take away her pain, but he knew that it wasn’t going to be that easy.

The doors opened and he bit his lip, trying to calm himself down. He slipped his card into the slot and opened the door. His roommate for the tournament was Kun Agüero. The two were best friends and Leo was grateful that he could trust Kun with what just happened.

Kun was on the bed, reading a book quietly but quickly put it down when he saw Leo. “Leo? How is she?” he murmured. Leo shook his head, “Not doing so well. I’m going to spend the night with her, okay?” Leo told his roommate who nodded. Leo picked up some clothes for the night and for the training session tomorrow, grabbed his toothbrush and toothpaste and headed back downstairs.

Thalia opened the door for him and Leo changed in the bathroom. Thalia was wearing one of the shirts Leo gave to her; it was plain white with ‘LA ALBICELESTE’ written on it in blue. Thalia crawled into the bed and got under the blanket, crawling up into a fetus position.

Leo frowned and got in behind her, wrapping his arms around his waist and holding her to his chest lightly. He pressed a kiss to the back of her neck and shut his eyes tightly when he felt her body slowly shaking.

“Sleep, querida,” Lionel whispered, “I’m here.” He whispered. Almost like his voice was a spell, Thalia fell asleep.

-

It was 3:34 when the nightmares started. Thalia moved around in her sleep, her eyes shut tightly as the previous events came back to her in a rush. She started breathing deeply, her hands gripping the sheets. Then she jolted awake, suddenly sitting up. She sighed and rubbed her eyes tiredly, feeling a cold sweat break across her forehead.

Lionel, now roused from his sleep, sat up as well and frowned, rubbing Thalia’s back comfortingly. “Querida?” Lionel whispered. Thalia took a few deep breaths and shook her head, “I’m fine.” She whispered, slowly lying back down. Leo frowned, knowing he had to do something to distract her when an idea popped up at the top of his head. He was going to tell his teammates about her tomorrow, and he hoped that some of the WAGs would take Thalia under their wing.

-

“Thalia,” Leo called, reaching out for her. Thalia tied her hair up in a messy bun and sighed, looking down at her outfit—shorts and a simple t-shirt. Lionel wanted to introduce her to his teammates, and she knew that it was Phase 1 of telling the whole world about their relationship.

He smiled and led her into the stadium where ‘La Albiceleste’ would be training today. He saw some of his teammates free styling at the edge of the pitch. He smiled and led a nervous Thalia to them.

“Hola, Leo!” Ezequiel Lavezzi grinned. “Hola, Pocho.” Lionel greeted back. Thalia had gotten almost everyone’s attention, and Leo smiled, holding Thalia close to him. “Guys, this is Thalia, my girlfriend. We’ve been together for awhile now,” Leo introduced her.

“Hola,” Thalia said in a frail voice, smiling nervously at all the players who looked at her with grins on their faces. After Thalia had gotten to know a little about most of the players, they went back to their routines.

Kun shuffled over to Thalia and Leo and gave Thalia a weak smile, knowing what happened to her the previous day. “You okay?” he whispered. Thalia nodded gratefully at her boyfriend’s best friend, “Sí, gracias.”

Alejandro Sabella arrived at the training ground and Leo quickly Thalia to where all the WAGs were sitting. Thalia, having already met Fernanda Mascherano at Leo’s gathering, started talking to her first.

Fernanda introduced Thalia to all the other WAGs and Thalia was soon welcomed into the group. Jorgelina Cardoso, Angel di Maria’s wife, Lucia Fabiani, Gonzalo Higuaín’s girlfriend and Fernando knew about what happened the night before, so Thalia mainly stuck with them. They helped Thalia get her mind off the incident, and they were very nice.

Looking around the circle of WAGs, Thalia’s eyes landed on Karina Tejeda who was glaring at her. Karina leaned to Eliana Guercio, Sergio Romero’s wife and whispered something into her ear while looking at Thalia.

Thalia raised her eyebrows and moved to talk to Jorgelina, “What’s up with Karina?” she whispered. Jorgelina bit her lip, “She’s Antonella’s best friend.”

Thalia frowned. She knew all about Antonella, Lionel’s perfect ex-girlfriend. Argentina loved her and she was plastered on every Argentine newspaper when she was still with Lionel.

Thalia looked down at her hands, wondering how her time in Brazil went from great to horrible in just two days.