0.28|when throwing eggs|

0.28 | from Sabah's recorder: when throwing eggs |

Real Madrid vs Barcelona.

It is always a tough match. The energy is undoubtedly high and so is the pressure. It's covered extensively with newspapers and news channels building up the heat, comparisons are drawn, stats are mercilessly discussed, calling upon every story they can, embellishing it, spicing it, spreading it like a wildfire until no one, not even my tourist customers can escape it.

It is huge.

And this time, it wasn't just popularized as a Cristiano vs Messi brawl, because this time the media had found something much more...how shall I say it? Biblical?

Brother versus brother. The age old story excited the media and the fans ate it up. It played on me too. Every time I saw a poster, I would feel my nerves tingle with the excitement, the nervous energy that was singing the air. Every picture of the Kroff brothers had been exorcised, blown up and I am nearly ashamed to admit Auburn and I were taken up with the story.

Onscreen, we saw pictures of Anthony with his brother and offscreen we saw the haggard Anthony retreating into a nervous, distracted silence. Most of the pictures were from their childhood. They looked happy together, playing football in their courtyard. There was even a video of six year old Anthony, jumping in the crowds with his parents cheering for Mikhail as he scored on his under-eleven team.

It is safe to say Auburn and I had developed an intense dislike of Anthony's family. To the outside world, the definitions of Mikhail and his 'little brother' might have appeared cute, interesting, titillating but to us who knew what this demeaning title meant to Anthony...we felt angry at them and protective of him.

There were no videos of Anthony being cheered when he started his career. Just a couple of grainy videos of him celebrating with the other kids on the team. Sometimes I would look up pictures of Mikhail on Auburn's phone and search the handsome face which looked so much like Anthony's but yet so unlike because you see, Mikhail Kroff exuded confidence. His eyes were sharp but friendly, his smile was relaxed and he had Anthony's eyes, just a few shades lighter. He looked mature, in control and so horribly relaxed that sometimes I feared about the result of the match.

It was going to be Mikhail's golden debut. Trust them to organize it like that.

One day, while we were sitting in the empty café, those pestering kids ran up to my crystal clear window glasses and slapped on some El Clasico posters. I quickly handed Auburn and Anthony four eggs each and we ran out shouting after those spawns of satan. One day one of the eggs will find their target I'm telling you or my soul will come back to haunt them.

We walked back, faces red from our short excited run and it seemed like we were back to our carefree selves, back when the toughest thing to do was to coordinate their meetings at the café. Except we were never really carefree even then, we just had the distracting shine of newness to us. Now, now, we were as familiar to each other as my knee pains were to me. Novelty is exciting, familiarity is beautiful; to those who have little of either.

"Maybe we should try paying them more than the rival restaurant down the road and then we can get your café's adverts posted on their windows," Anthony mused, smiling.

"We do have better customers so our café should be counted as better," Auburn said.

"It's a miracle we have customers," I said.

"Carlotta, I have yet to see a better café," Auburn said.

"And I don't like a crowded café anyway." Anthony reached for a poster's corner when his eyes caught his own face smiling back at him and it was then he took notice of the poster inviting people for the airing of the live El Clasico at Raul's Bar. He couldn't read most of the Spanish on the poster but it was so obvious that his blown up picture stood in competition with his brother's.

We stopped laughing, knowing full well that whatever little respite we had was over. Mikhail Kroff had become a wet blanket continuously thrown on our lives. Auburn had tried to talk to Anthony about it but the problem with him was he was even worse at articulating his problems.

All he said, over his untouched cup of coffee, was, "Mikhail is great. You'll like him."

And so Auburn and I fell into a bumbling silence not knowing what to do as he stood, staring at the virtual contest played out on posters.

He felt the silence before he realized it and he turned to the two of us. "You guys," he looked away blushing, "it's not that a big deal, okay?"

Then the little shit began to laugh, while we stood staring at him wondering if he had finally lost it.

He walked to us and enveloped us into a hug, "I love you two."

To say I was shocked would be an understatement. I nearly lost it too.

"Come on, let's take off these posters. I look horrible in them. They could have used a bit of photoshop," he went on, pulling the posters off, leaving me standing as Auburn followed him to the posters.

You know, happy tears are funny.

When it had darkened considerably and we had finished our cups of tea—Anthony had insisted on changing our beverage for once—he pushed across two rectangular pieces of paper across the table.

"If you guys are free, I would be honoured to have you in the stands," he nearly whispered, looking away, pushing back his hair to one side.

"Tickets!?" Auburn gasped. "And you waited till now to give them? You idiot, of course we'll come."

He smiled, still looking away, "Good."

I took up a ticket and let out a laugh. It was one of those Platinum ones, VIP seats and all. I cast a side-long glance at Auburn, who caught it with a smile.

We had talked about this.

"We should save up to buy tickets for the match," Auburn had said, days ago.

I had laughed, "Even if we do save up, I doubt we'll be able to buy the tickets. We're both of us in debt, in case you don't remember, and tickets are expensive."

"I know," she grumbled.

"You can just ask him if you're that interested in seeing it. He'll happily give you tickets."

"You're interested too, Carlotta. You ask him."

Neither of us liked asking for stuff but we would have, for Anthony we would have asked for the world. Except we were cowards who lived in continuous spirals of what-ifs. What if his team lost, would he even want us there? What if something bad happened...what if I was unlucky for him...what if.

I had sat there, wondering how to say it. "I don't know if Anthony wants me—us—to be there. There is tremendous pressure on him as it is."

Auburn lay back on the counter, "I feel that too." Then, several minutes later, "I miss him."

"He's practicing too much," I frowned protectively.

"According to him, everyone is practicing equally in both teams."

"I never thought football would be such a huge fuss before...when I used to only know it through tv."

"Me neither."

I sighed, "The world is full of huge fusses."

"Coffee makes it better," I could hear the smile in her voice.

"You mean my coffee makes it better."

I looked up from the ticket, knowing well enough that these could have been for his parents, for family, and I patted his head, "You're a great kid."

He looked at me, "Don't worry. Madrid is going to win the match."

Auburn nodded, "There's no doubt about it. I mean, have you seen our players?"

"As a matter of fact," his eyes twinkled, "I see them everyday."

"Yeah, yeah, Mr. I-am-so-famous-and-I-have-cool-friends, we get it," she rolled her eyes. "So, tell me is the midfield..."

I didn't hear much of their football nonsense. I looked at the ticket in my hand and I'm pretty sure I was asleep in minutes.

***

This is dedicated to the new readers, I read your comments and I appreciate every one of them and I promise I'll do my best to get back to everyone, thank you so much for reading and I hope you enjoy this story; and to the ones who've been here awhile and plan to stick around till the end, welcome home, my friends, welcome home.

***

Deep down this story is about not giving up, no matter what. This story has bits of my soul in it. I love writing it and when I write I give it my all. Sometimes, my life outside wattpad is too tough or demanding so I can't always update soon but I try to write and not give up. I know we're all fighting our own battles so let me tell you, if you want Carlotta, Auburn and Anthony to keep going, there's no reason why you shouldn't keep going in your lives too.

Don't give up on yourself ever. I believe in you.

***

Lastly, my exams just got over and its my summer break woohoo! I'm still unpacking stuff over at our new house but its cool.