Confession (Part 1)

“Great, I won!”

Leonel was celebrating victoriously having defeated us in the famous board game 'Minepolympic'.

“You are amazing, Leonel! I admire you a lot.”

Another comment that caused me a lot of embarrassment from my sister, who hasn't stopped flirting with my best friend all this time.

“Thank you, Marin! Although I feel like Andrea let me win in the end.”

“Of course not! Half the time I didn't know what I was doing.”

The four of us burst out laughing at Andrea's comment. It has certainly been a very beautiful night: Dinner was delicious, we chatted pleasantly throughout the evening and played board games to pass the time.

The only problem is…

“Guys, it's a little late now. I think I'd better go home.”

The only problem is that I haven't found a single moment to talk to Andrea alone, and it's really late now.

“It's true, Leo, I think I should go too.”

It was sad, but I couldn't stop them. We went out to the living room, where my mom was watching TV.

“Are you leaving, guys?”

“Yes ma'am, thank you very much for your hospitality as always.”

“Leo, honey, you don't have to be so formal, you're already part of the family.”

I know what my mom was referring to, but it gave me a little courage to see Marin blush. That girl just makes me angry.

“I-I am also very grateful to you, ma'am. It's the first Christmas I've spent here, and it was wonderful. Thank you very much for your hospitality.”

“There is nothing to be thankful for, precious, this is your house.”

My mom hugged Leonel and Andrea very affectionately... very affectionately, I would say, they seemed to be unable to breathe well.

After a few seconds of strangulation, they finally grabbed their things and headed for the door.

“Mom, I'll be right back. I'm going to take Andrea to her house.”

“Okay, take care please.”

I took my keys and just when I was about to leave, my sister rushed to hug Leonel.

“Goodbye Leo, please come back soon.”

DAMN GIRL, SHE KISSED HIM ON THE CHEEK!

Leonel blushed and without saying another word Marin ran up to her room.

I was shocked. When I wanted to react, the coward left the house along with Andrea.

Along the way I could only think of multiple ways to kill him, and he was feeling my negative aura, and he just was looking at me as if to say, what do you want me to do?

“I-I think we say goodbye here. It was a pleasure spending Christmas with you, Andrea.”

“Same Leo, see you soon”

He turned to see me to try to say goodbye, but he realized that my soul was eager for his blood, so he just lowered his eyes.

“B-bye friend, g-good luck in your mission.”

Mission, what mission?

…

THE MISSION!

I had completely forgotten about the whole thing with Andrea, and now we were finally alone.

“Shall we go?”

“Y-yes, of course.”

I went from serial killer to scared puppy in a matter of seconds.

We headed to Andrea's house. The Christmas lights and decorations that covered the streets were very beautiful. This was the atmosphere I was looking for, but I couldn't find the right moment to say "Hey, I like you, do you want to be my girlfriend?", or something like that.

“This is the first Christmas I spend with friends.”

It's true, since some time has passed, I forget that I was Andrea's first friend.

“I hope you had a good time.”

“Are you kidding? The food was delicious, we talked and laughed a lot, and I had fun playing with my friends until it got late. I don't know how this night could get any better.”

Well, actually, something does occur to me… but I don't know if my words would help to make tonight better, or would simply make it worse...

“Tell me, what has been your best Christmas?”

I improvised on the fly, actually I was looking for some ideas to carry out my confession.

“The best christmas? Uhm... I guess this has been the most fun Christmas I've ever had.”

She smiled after telling me that. My God, she's so cute!

Her words made me very happy, although, right now that doesn't help me much...

“But, I remember a specific Christmas very fondly: I was a 5-year-old child, and my father took me to buy a lot of gifts. We brought dolls, cars, balls and everything you can imagine that makes a kid happy. But what made that night special was that, after finishing shopping, he took me to the roof of the mall… The sky was beautiful!”

“That sounds really cute.”

“It was, the stars were shining so brightly, and the moon seemed to be only a few meters away. Also, even though we were in a shopping center, silence prevailed around us.”

“Like in a fairytale.”

“I know! I haven't seen a night as beautiful as that time.”

Suddenly, when I finished listening to her story, I think I had an epiphany. An idea for the perfect declaration of love came into my head, however, it was a bit risky what I was about to do.

“Andrea, would you like to see a sky as beautiful as the one you saw that Christmas?”

“What?”

“I-I know a place with a view very similar to that mall. I assure you that you will be able to appreciate the night the same as you did that time... but the only bad thing is that it'll take us a few minutes to arrive.”

Andrea took her cell phone out of her pocket to see the time, it was 11:58 pm.

“It's a little late now...”

She turned to look at the floor with deep sadness. It was very selfish what I was asking for, I don't want her to have problems with her parents because of me.

“I-I'm sorry, maybe another time we can…”

Andrea didn't let me finish speaking, she took my hand and came closer to me.

“LET'S HURRY!”

My heart was beating at an unbridled rate. Her hand… I was holding her precious hand again. This indescribable feeling of joy ran through my entire body.

“S-sure, let's go.”

I quickly shook all my nerves and we headed to the place where my biggest dream began.

Along the way, Andrea and I sent messages to our families so they wouldn't worry about us. It was very difficult to write with one hand, but she didn't feel like letting go of Andrea, and apparently neither did she.

“We are almost there? I'm so excited!”

“Yes, we're almost there…”

This is without a doubt the biggest gamble of my life, but I have a hunch that things will work out.

After a couple of minutes, we turned a corner and walked through a rustic, tree-lined plaza well removed from the noise of the city.

“Andrea, I...”

As a TV game show host, I stood in front of her and with both hands pointed to the spot.

“I present to you: "Green Court", the old soccer field where I used to play!”

Andrea was quite surprised, and for good reason. Green Court is an old and abandoned field. Its area is in a very bad state due to lack of maintenance.

“Although it may not seem like it, not long ago many important games were played here with dozens of attendees every week… and, well, now it looks horrible, but… I assure you that the view from the center of the field is spectacular!”

God, I wanted to die.

She continued like a statue without saying a word. For a moment her countenance reminded me of the old Andrea I knew before I began to tutor her.

“I-I…”

I was about to start apologizing when she suddenly started laughing.

“I really can't believe it! This time you did surprise me hahahaha”

At least her laugh calmed me down a bit.

“Sorry if it's not what you imagined.”

She took my hand again and put her index finger to my lips.

“Shhh, you don't have to apologize, this place is important to you, right? You brought me here for a reason.”

I'm going to have a heart attack.

“Y-yes, that's right… In this place I played my first soccer game.”

She got closer to me, so I looked away to try that she wouldn't notice my nervousness, but it was inevitable, the uncontrollable beating of my heart gave me away.

“Well, then take me to see that view.”

Although I should have been the one to guide her, she was the one who ended up taking me to the center of the field. Obviously the field lines were no longer visible, but amazingly the center circle could still be made out a bit.

“Wow, you weren't lying!”

Fortunately, the view from here was just as I remembered it. The night appeared before us with a beauty difficult to explain: The full moon was majestic, and the stars seemed to be shining just for the two of us.

“Come, sit down.”

I took off my jacket and put it on the grass so that Andrea could sit without getting dirty.

“I remember when I sat here for the first time: it was after the referee blew his whistle to announce the end of my first soccer game. That day we lost 5-0.”

Andrea was confused for a moment, but when she saw me say those last words with a smile on my face, she had the confidence to laugh a little.

“No doubt that was a great beating. You sure ended up very sad that day.”

“No, quite the opposite.”

I raised my right hand and made the gesture of wanting to reach the moon.

“That's when my greatest dream began. I was very excited to know that the path wouldn't be easy. I didn't care about anything, I wanted to become the best soccer player in history.”

I lowered my right hand and sat in a way that I could see Andrea's right profile clearly. Without much thought, she did the same as me, and we stayed looking at each other.

She seemed a little scared, so I steeled myself and held her hands, which were shaking.

“Andrea, I no longer need to tell you what happened to me, because you already know my story. Today I just want to thank you, because if I hadn't met you, I'm sure I'd still be regretting my past and not knowing what to do.”

I paused to find in my heart the courage I needed. What I was about to tell her would forever change our relationship, for better or worse.

“You have become a very special person for me. You are my classmate, my student, my coach, my friend and... my savior. You are so important in my life that believe me when I tell you that there is not a day that I don't think of you.”

I gently squeezed her hands and looked directly into her beautiful black eyes.

There's no turning back now.

“Andrea, I like you.”