"Venga, venga, venga!" 

"Tómate tu tiempo, no puedo respirar." The little six year old boy laughed, inhaling and exhaling even louder when he got to the top of the slide.

The red slide.

The metallic red slide that for months, he had not been able to climb once because he always ran out of breath at the very top, and was far too scared to come down.

He wasn't going to let that stop him today.

Well, not under the watch of one of his best friends in the whole wide world.

Alaska Velazquez was determined to get Ander Muñoz up that slide if it was the last thing she did. 

Everyday, they would play in the new Jungle Mania in her backyard  that she begged her father to buy her. And he did. He did, and he bought way more than that too. He even threw in a large tree house in the end. Alaska and Alejandro were over the moon and overjoyed when they saw that backyard. And their friends were too. 

However, an 'intense' football match days before caused Alejandro to injure his wrist, which ended up with him in a cast for 8 weeks, meaning he couldn't play out with his sister and his friends in all their games anymore. Some he could, but some he could only watch.

So Alaska had to find someone else to play with.

And Ander was perfect.

It just so happened that he was out of shape, but Alaska would fix that.

"Rapido Ander! ¿Cómo te estoy pasando ahora mismo?" she giggled from the bottom of the slide, watching as Ander wiped the beads of sweat off his face.

"Ander! Alaska! Some sandwiches?" From a distance, Alaska heard the voice of Alba call.

"We'll be there in a bit, Alba!" she turned back round to face Ander, "Ander, ven! I promise, I'll catch you." She urged.

That was all the reassurance he needed as he looked down at her little figure jumping and waving at him, beckoning him to just let go and do it.

He took a deep breathe and closed his eyes, leaning forward, and sliding down.

Alaska cheered!

"Ander, muy bien! I knew you could do it!" She jumped, hugging him.

"It's because you were at the bottom, Ala! A and A forever!" 

"Double A, forever!"

-

"Muy bien, mi amor." Alaska smiled softly as Guzman came up to the surface. 

He was startled, because he didn't expect her to be standing there just watching him, with a towel in her hands. But then again, he remembered that she always did, and this warmed his heart.

"Hola; Gracias, mi vida."Guzman replied as he jumped to the surface to embrace her.

"You're soaking wet!" she squealed, attempting to shove him.

"Well, you get me like that sometimes." He said cheekily, grabbing her lower back to bring her closer. 

The tips of her ears turned red.

And he loved it.

From as early as he could remember, even before they had began dating, she was always so bashful whenever he or anyone for that matter, but especially him, would make any remarks remotely sexual or even sexually related. She was even know to be blushing during the compulsory sex education classes they absolutely had to take at least once a semester.

"What are you still doing here?" he asked, patting his face.

"What kind of question is that? You know I'm always here to see you swim."

"Yes, but it's," he brought her wrist up to his face, "4:13pm and you're still here? You act like I'm some sort of olympic swimmer." He laughed, kissing her forehead.

"You are in my heart," she rolled her eyes, "I don't know though, there's something calming about watching go back and forth like that."

"Como un 'perve'?"

She told him to shut up, slapping his chest.

Guzman let go of her waist and walked to the side of the room where the bench with all his belongings and a bigger towel sat and she followed closely behind.

"You know, I still have some cookies from the other night if you want come over and try some more." Alaska voiced, sitting on the bench as he gathered his belongings in his bag. He turned around and smiled.

"Of course; you know I want to spend as much time with you as I possibly can. And besides, I need to talk to you about something."

"Is it important? Am I in trouble?" she giggled.

"It's important. And I might be the one in trouble when you find out what I'm going to say."

"Now you're making me nervous - Guzman!" she was cut short when he rather promptly removed his swimsuit, leaving him just about stark naked. Alaska quickly shielded her eyes and turned around. 

Guzman looked at her, bewildered.

"Really, Ala? At this point in our relationship?" He burst into laughter, rolling his eyes. 

She was absolutely adorable.

"So, I think we should talk right now, before I forget." Guzman started, setting the tupperware of cookies down on the nightstand.

"Yes, yes. What's up?" 

"So; I wanted to talk about Marina." 

The smile dropped off Alaska's face.

"What about Marina?" she replied blankly in the tone that she never used when she was around him, which made it harder for him to say what he actually wanted to say.

"First, I don't want you to think that she told me to say anything because I promise you she didn't. I just wanted to ask you if I invited you over for dinner at my house, you would come. Because I know you avoid my place because of Marina, but my my mother wants you over some time, and I just wanted to know if there's any sort of chance you would maybe not be so opposed to having some casual conversations with her just so when you come over, it wouldn't be so bad." He continued.

She stared at him and blinked.

He stared back.

"Guzman . . ."

"I know, I know it's a lot to ask, but don't make any decisions right now. In your own time. I'm not in any hurry to have you. Just wanted to put it out there." He said, and leaned over to give her a kiss.

As she leaned into him, she felt the familiar prickling of the goosebumps around her neck and chest like she always did. They were interrupted however, when the familiar ding of his messages went off right next to them.

They ignored it.

Guzman clasped her cheek with his right hand, deepening the kiss.

The phone dinged.

And dinged.

.  . . And dinged.

"Perdoname." Guzman apologised and reached for his phone. She sighed and criss-crossed her legs, when she noticed that his eyes went wide and his mouthed dropped slightly, staring at his phone.

"Que?" she asked, yawning slightly. Guzman flinched.

"N-Nada. Just the . . . La Liga! The boys sent me a text with the results of this evening's match. Madrid is in the lead." He stuttered slightly.

He rarely did.

"Oh, and you support Barca right? Sorry for you then." she laughed, laying backwards. She was more tired than she initially thought.

"Y-Yeah," he laughed, "I have to go anyway, Ander wants us to watch the rest of the game together." In a scramble, he picked up he hopped off the bed rather fast. 

"No goodbye kiss?" Alaska asked from her spot on the bed. 

Guzman's heart thumped with guilt as he turned around and saw her sitting up and smiling. 

He plastered a smile on his face and went back to give her a quick yet deep kiss.

And as she beamed at him, the feeling of guilt didn't leave him even when he went outside to make his way three neighbourhoods down because he knew, and he knew well, that the match he claimed he was going to watch was yesterday, and he wasn't heading towards anyone's house other than the brunette girl who had sent him the most seductive picture he'd seen in a while.

-

"What the fuck did you do?"

"Calm down." Guzman raised his hands in defence as Ander came barrelling to him.

"You got me in trouble!"

"I'm worried about you, you're my friend." 

From a distance, Alaska with her juice box in hand, furrowed her eyebrows at the two of them having some sort of interaction.

"What do you think is going on there?" Alejandro from beside her asked.

She shrugged almost simultaneously as Nadia did. 

"That was cool, the way you two did that." Alejandro grinned at Nadia.

As a response, she pushed his chest slightly, or attempted to, to which he grabbed her hand and held it as they laughed at each other. Alaska noticed.

She took a sip, watching them in suspicion. 

She'd asked about it later.

Well, knowing him he'd never succumb.

So she'd sit all her weight on him, and ask about it later.

"Get over what happened! Ands top messing with the rest of us." Ander said, annoyed. 

Ander then shoved Guzman's chest, which caused Alaska's instincts to quickly bin the juice box, much to her discontent, and force herself in between them.

"Basta! Ustedes necesitan calmarse."

Ander failed to notice her.

"I don't understand how you could do that to me." Ander said, rushing forwards in an attempt to push him again.

"Ander, por favor, ya!" she faced him.

This time round, he did notice her, and it was as though the flame in his eyes grew brighter.

"Stay out of this, Alaska! This has nothing to do with you, and why do you care anyway?! You never have in your fucking life!" His voice grew louder, and then that began to raise some eyebrows and turned some heads.

Alaska flinched.

From a distance, Alejandro noticed and came to try and help her.

"Ander, relax." He put a hand on his shoulder.

"Get off me, you're no better." With that, Ander purposely bumped into him and gave Guzman an annoyed look, walking away.

Alaska was still frozen in place, her teeth pressing tightly together. She wasn't even angry.

But then again, she knew that she it came to Ander, she never was.

All she felt when she prepared herself to put distance between her friends and herself was guilt when it came to Ander. 

She was never ready to let him go.

In fact, their friendship was so deep that it felt almost like it was collateral damage letting him go.

And till this day, it hurt to see him so upset with her. The only one that she didn't get angry at, or project her rage at, in any sort of way was Ander.

"Hey, are you okay?" Nadia appeared, putting her hand on Alaska's shoulder; this broke her out of her blank trance.

She nodded slowly and shrugged Nadia's hand off. She suddenly didn't like the amount of people surrounding her. Alejandro noticed.

He noticed that she was becoming cold again with the way her eyes dropped and her lips pursed that whatever little progress she had made with coming out of her shell was gone. She was retracting.

"Don't touch me." Was all she replied with, not even giving Nadia a second glance. With that, she walked away, not even replying when her brother or boyfriend tried to call her name.

-

"Sad, intelligent eyes which seemed to have suffered too much."

"Too much?"

"I don't know," Marina smiled, "maybe this is nothing but a bored and vain rich girl putting on an act."

"Why would you do that?" Samuel replied.

"To keep guys away and avoid being upended by love again." Marina replied, laying back into her sofa.

"I've never felt that."

"You're not missing out, really."

After deciding that it would be better to work on the remainder of the project in the comfort of Marina's house, the two had made their way there to begin the work. They smiled at each other as they continued their conversation, but they were interrupted by knocking on the glass doors. The pair turned around to see Lu waving with a smile they couldn't tell was fake or not. It wasn't a request  though, because soon, she let herself in.

"Buen dia mi amor, y . . . tu." she smiled in the beginning and when she noticed Samuel, frowned.

"Hola, Lu."

"Where is your lovely brother if I may ask?"

"He's right here." Guzman appeared from the door and voiced.

Lu grinned at him.

"Shall we?" she asked in English with a giggle while walking towards him. Guzman nodded and looked to Samuel and his sister.

"We'll be studying in my room." 

Marina shrugged, not caring because she knew that it was a routine. His brother and his best friend were joint at the hip, nothing suspicious. Others found it strange, but she knew how deeply he cared for his girlfriend. So to Marina, this was nothing. For Samuel . . . his curiosity didn't let him rest.

He looked questioningly as Lu greeted Guzman with a huge kiss one his cheek and he smirked in response. It was a bit strange to see the little exchange, so he stared, and stared; then Marina interrupted his thoughts.

"Don't worry about that, it's how Lu works." she laughed, noticing how bewildered he looked.

"I thought he was dating Alaska." 

"He is," she reassured, "but he and Lu are really close. Best friends. And he and Alaska are together, and he loves her, believe me." 

Samuel nodded slowly, although he wasn't completely satisfied. He stared at the space they left, with the thought never leaving his mind.

And he would get to the bottom of it.

A/N:

Hey guys! Sorry this is too late; I didn't even wanna upload it if it wasn't like 30 pages long but I didn't want to keep you guys waiting and keep doing scene changes in one chapter. But I hope you enjoyed this one. There's more to come!

I hope you are all staying safe and being healthy. Next chapter is already in the pipeline so I'll  see you soon!

(P.S. I'm so sorry if there's any errors like with spelling. It's cause I haven't proof read so forgive me.)

xx