First Love

The next morning, Mariana felt like she’d been ran over by a car on her way home. She opened her eyes to blinding sunlight coming through the curtains of whatever roon she was in, she squinted her eyes, suddenly realising that the room she was in was definitely not her bedroom.
She looked beside her to see the body of another person, who had his head buried in his pillow.

“Seu idiota” She muttered to herself, putting her hands over her eyes and looking up at the ceiling. Mariana knew who it was lying next to her and mentally slapped herself for sleeping with him, and more importantly, giving Simon exactly what he wanted.

Neymar stirred, waking up as he moved slightly, but Mariana refused to look in his direction.

“Bom dia” Neymar said as he sat up in his bed, looking over at Mariana who stayed laying down, but removed her hands from her face “Okay then” He sighed getting up to walk over to his closet where he picked out a T-shirt and a pair of sweat pants.

Mariana also stood up, suddenly feeling totally uncomfortable with just Neymar’s shirt from the night before covering her body.

“No need to feel uncomfortable, you were naked last night” Neymar winked, a cocky smirk on his face. Mariana just rolled her eyes and grabbed her dress that was laying on the floor before searching for her shoes.

“I don’t usually do this, you know?” She said picking up one of her shoes from the nightstand next to Neymar’s bed.

“I know, you said that about ten times last night” He smiled softly at her.

“Claro” She laughed lightly running a hand through her now messy hair.

“I’ll be downstairs when you’re done” He said and left his bedroom. Mariana watched him go, still unable to ignore the shooting pain in her head. She quickly got dressed into her clothes from the night before and picked up her plain black clutch that was laying on the floor and pulled her phone out, rolling her eyes at how many texts she had, guessing they were all mainly from Simon.

Hope it went okay, make him like you!-Simon

Remember you signed a contract!!-Simon

Sheignored all other texts from Simon and quickly flicked through her other ones.

Miss Rodrigues? I’m sorry but I though you said you’d be home by 2am? I dropped Ana Clara off at pre-school anyway

Mariana quickly read the text from her sister’s babysitter before she got up and walked out of the room.

She made her way to the kitchen where Neymar was drinking a bottle of water.

“Do you want to get lunch or something?” Neymar asked standing up from the breakfast bar when he spotted Mariana stood in the doorway.

“Lunch? What time is it?” She asked suddenly alarmed.

“It’s just turned one” He told her checking the time on the large clock that hung in his kitchen.

“I’m sorry, I’d love to but I really have to go” She smiled at him before turning to leave.

“Well I could drive you if you want” He said following her out of the room.

“You don’t have to, really” She said politely “I already called a taxi anyway”

“Well if you’re sure…” He trailed off, shrugging slightly.

“I’ll see you around then” Mariana said.

“Listen!” Neymar said quickly just as she was about to turn around “Do you want to give me your number? Maybe we can go to dinner or something?”

“Sure” She smiled.
*
“I’m so sorry, Ana” Mariana said frantically as she walked into her little sisters pre-school. Because of her little interaction with Neymar, she was a good hour late picking her sister up from pre-school.

“It’s okay” Ana smiled at her older sister quickly hugging her, whereas Ana’s teacher, Miss Blake, just glared at the teenager.

“Miss Rodrigues, may I have a word?” Miss Blake asked coldly.

“Of course” Mariana smiled warily at the older woman, walking away from Ana, who was sat on the couch in the reception area.

“I’m so sorry I’m late picking Ana up, Miss Blake. I was just-“

“I know very well why you’re late, Miss Rodrigues. It was plastered over every magazine this morning” She told Mariana, causing her to groan and pinch the bridge of her nose.

“I understand that it’s hard for a girl of your age to look after a 4 year old child, but you can’t simply give her to whoever is willing to look after her when you have a party to go to” Miss Blake hissed.

“This is the first time anything like this has ever happened!” Mariana defended herself “I’m always on time to pick her up and if I’m not available, it’s always her Tia Jane” She said referring to her best friend who was like an auntie to Ana.

“Miss Rodrigues, it’s not acceptable for you to behave this recklessly while taking care of a child”

“I’m not behaving recklessly at all! I’m providing for my younger sister and I’m doing an extremely good job at it!” She said, beginning to raise her voice.

“Well, judging by Ana still not being able to write even her name, I must disagree” Miss Blake said smugly, crossing her arms over her chest.

“She’s four years old!” Mariana exclaimed “Our parents died last year! Give me a break. Some children progress slower than others. She’s a clever child” Mariana felt tears of anger building up as she realised that not only was Ana’s teacher calling her incapable, she was calling her little sister stupid, which didn’t make sense to her “This is ridiculous. Ana’s more intelligent than me half the time”

“Well that I’m not arguing with” Miss Blake scoffed.

“You know what? I’ll be withdrawing Ana from this school” Mariana snapped walking back over to where her little sister was sat, completely unaware of what was being said about her.

“Now come on, there’s no need to act so irrationally”

“Come on Ana” Mariana said holding her hand out for her little sister to take “We’re leaving”

“Are we going home now?” Ana asked as Mariana speed walked out of the school.

“Sim, and you don’t have to go back to school for a while” She smiled at her younger sister.
Ana just smiled as she and Mariana walked home together, Ana telling her all about what she’d done at school that day.