saying goodbye to paulo after such a good week was one of the hardest things sofia had done in a long time. she spent her last moments with him sobbing, repeatedly telling him how much she's going to miss him. she then cried to bella for a good hour on the plane back to england.

---

the plane journey back to england felt like the longest. neither of the girls were excited or happy to be going back, it meant they were out of a beautiful country- italy- and now had to go back to the reality of school, horrible english weather and no paulo. however, it meant she was going to be seeing dele again in two days. she was excited to see him, it had been so long since she last saw his beautiful face and soft brown eyes. bella was excited to meet him too, mainly so she could grill him on how to and how not to treat her best friend.

"it feels horrible to be back in this tiny room." sofia sighed as her and bella walked into her dorm.

"i can't wait until next year when we can live in an actual house together, somewhere with space so we can get ready without being crammed, and we can actually get ready together instead of two completely separate dorms."

"tell me about it." sofia groaned. "i'm so tired of this room, i can barely breathe. anyway, ordering a chinese tonight?"

bella groaned in delight. "yes please, i'm starving!"

"so... how's dele?"

"he's ok, busy with training but i'm excited to see him again."

"i bet." bella winked. "let's just hope they win."

"yeah, lets hope!"

---

sofia and bella had finally arrived at wembley. they were a couple hours early so they opted for a quick dinner at prezzo. sofia was nervous, she hadn't seen dele in months and now she was going to possibly meet half of his closest friends. however, she was ecstatic to see gazzaniga again. she was so excited to see his reaction when she surprises him.

"who are they playing again?" bella asked.

sofia sighed. "for the fiftieth time, chelsea!"

"one of their rivals, right?"

"yes bella."

"ok. got you!"

they walked into the home side of the stadium, surrounded by thousands of spurs fans in jerseys other merchandise such as scarfs and hats. the atmosphere was amazing, sofia had missed the feeling of being at a football game. usually she's more secluded as she goes to paulo's games but this time she's sat in the stands with the rest of the fans. she was excited to see paulo gazzaniga play his first big game as tottenham's main goalkeeper was injured.

"i know he's going to be great." she thought to herself.

she was excited to see dele too, she had hopes he'd score and do her proud. she'd never liked chelsea, it would be nice to see them lose.

---

the game ended 2-1 to spurs. dele scored the winning goal and paulo saved 3 great goals. she was proud of both of them.

the girls walked towards the meeting spot for the players. she was pochettino who she knew roughly through her brother and the rest of the argentine team. they said their hellos and it's so good to see you agains until he pointed out gazzaniga to her.

"i admit, he is fine. and better than you said!" bella excitedly told sofia. sofia laughed.

she walked over to gazzaniga, covered his eyes and whispered in his ear, "¿adivina quién?"

he turned around abruptly, remembering that soft voice.

"oh my god. fia? what are you doing here?" he exclaimed, grabbing her and pulling her into a tight hug.

"i've been in england for a while and you know, i had to come and see my second favourite paulo didn't i!" she laughed.

"wow. it's so good to see you. i can't believe you're here, and you didn't tell me you were coming! i've missed you so much fia."

"i wanted to surprise you." she smiled. "i've missed you too lo."

"did you like the game?"

"i loved it. you were incredible!" sofia heard a small cough behind her and remembered about bella.

"shit." she laughed. "lo this is my best friend bella, bella this is paulo gazzaniga."

"hi, it's nice to meet you!" paulo smiled and reached a hand out for bella to shake.

"it's nice to meet you too." she grinned and shook his hand.

"anyway sofia, it was nice of you to come and see me but i know i'm not the real and the main reason you're here. i heard boys talking about you before, who got you the tickets?" paulo winked at her.

sofia looked down nervously. "i uh... dele?" she whispered so quietly that he just about heard her.

"oh really? we'd better go find him then, hadn't we?"

"isn't he supposed to be in here? this is where he said to meet me." she asked, confused.

"he might be running late, sometimes players hang back or get caught up. we'll go look for him."

they walked out of the room they were in and down a corridor when they heard dele's name shouted in a feminine voice she'd never heard before. they turned the corner and sofia's whole body tensed at what she saw. dele, with ruby, hugging. his hands wrapped around her waist, hers around his neck with his face buried into her hair. they stood there for a second just staring, sofia unable to say anything. the hug finally ended and dele looked up, locking eyes with sofia. his face paled and his mouth opened but no words came out. ruby turned around and stared at sofia.

"who's she?" she asked dele.

a look of guilt and sorry flashed through his face before he turned his gaze away from sofia to look at ruby. "a friend of paulo's." he replied.

sofia's heart sank. how did she get back into this mess again? she thought dele and ruby were finished, she thought he was going to be different this time- with no lies. guess she was wrong. on each side of sofia, she felt both paulo and bella tense. paulo's jaw was twitching with anger whereas bella's eye was twitching with fury.

"nice to meet you, i guess." ruby flashed a sarcastic smile at sofia. she wasn't sure she believed when dele said she was a friend of paulo's, or if she did, she believed sofia had something for dele.

"i'm about to say something." bella whispered in sofia's ear through gritted teeth.

"leave it. he's not worth it. apparently neither am i." sofia sighed. she turned to walk away when she heard a voice laced with anger.

"dele." paulo growled.

fuck. "paulo, don't..." sofia muttered.

"no you know what paulo has the right idea." bella piped up. sofia sighed, this wasn't going to be good.