The sense of ridicule is something really important to maintain. It is strongly recommended to keep it in a little corner of the brain where it doesn't bother much but can be heard clearly when needed, preventing you from saying something too direct to your crush, singing outside the shower, or writing an internet fanfic about a beautiful girl who doesn't know you exist.

I pondered it deeply when I saw myself reflected in the beer tap at the bar, filled with water droplets from condensation that I wiped away with my hand to get a better view of the mess.

"Come on, it's not that horrible," my friend Irene looked at me from one of the high stools, trying to hold back her laughter.

I gave her a sarcastic look.

I was wearing a huge witch hat and a long coat. As if that weren't enough, Maite, who had the luck of dressing up as a ghost, found it amusing to make me clean the entire floor of the bar to complete the outfit with a worn-out broom.

Irene had agreed to come to the bar for a couple of hours to make my moment of absolute embarrassment as less traumatic as possible. However, to make it clear who was feeling uncomfortable and who wasn't, she had chosen the Halloween costume that had helped her get the most sexual attention in her life and that suited her perfectly: a blood-covered nurse.

"You think it's not that horrible? I've been hearing jokes all afternoon about whether I'm going to eat people or if I've cast a spell on the drinks," I complained.

"That's funny," she warned with a raised index finger while finishing pouring the beer I had ordered. "Besides, you love Halloween, dressing up, and all that nonsense. You always make us wear matching costumes."

"Well, I don't see you dressed as a cat."

"Hmm... Actually, a black cat costume would have suited me perfectly," she teased. I rolled my eyes and placed the glass in front of her. "You didn't cast any spell on it, right?"

"Idiot," I spat.

I turned around, intending to put the enormous hat on one of the refrigerators and relieve my neck from the weight and the embarrassment. It was the first themed party at the bar. Fernando had spent the week distributing posters and thinking of offers that wouldn't bleed his wallet too much.

"This is a success!" Speaking of the devil. After proudly surveying the full tables and customers dancing with drinks in hand, he noticed me. "Mia, the hat."

"Is it really necessary?" I asked.

"It's the most important thing," he warned. Irene chuckled under her breath. "Now, do you see the table I placed in the back of the bar?" I nodded. He left a cardboard box filled with things in my hands. "I want you to go there and fill it with cobwebs, cardboard pumpkins, and all that stuff. The DJ is about to arrive."

Without saying anything else, Fernando went off to do what he always did, absolutely nothing. He sat on one of the stools and poured himself a drink to celebrate his successful management. I took a deep breath and gave my friend a meaningful look.

I had just picked up the box when she jokingly called my attention.

"Look," she ordered, pointing excitedly at the television screen.

On the screen, there were images of FCB during training sessions. Some passes, rondos, shots on goal, sprints, jumps... And at the bottom, the headline that I knew had caught my friend's attention. "Alexia's comeback expected this weekend after her return to group training and inclusion in the squad."

"Yes!" I exclaimed with joy. "Finally! I hope she's handling the pressure well. With so many people waiting for her to be back to her old self... It must be tough."

"She will. Don't go into psychologist mode, today you're a witch," she winked at me.

"Yes, and tomorrow a waitress again," I mocked myself.

I started walking towards the back table. "A DJ," I thought. Fernando had definitely gone crazy. At least the Halloween party made logical sense, but based on the examples he had given us when he pitched the idea of these themed nights, he had other much more convoluted ones. Plus, he could have asked us to bring costumes from home, and I wouldn't be looking so horrible right now.

I placed the box on the floor and crouched down to start decorating. The first thing was a cloth that covered the table and the sides, giving the impression of a counter. Then, I started placing various letters so that it would later spell out "Halloween The Elf Bar." I proudly looked at my creation and observed the ones still left in the box. I had to form the name of the DJ, for sure, but what could it be? Certainly not Manuel or Rafael. I had no idea where to start. I turned around, ready to stand up and ask Fernando, but there, in front of the door, I encountered horror.

Mapi León was standing in front of me, no more than two meters away. She was easily recognizable by the tattoo on her neck, but perhaps not to everyone. She was dressed as Trinity from "The Matrix." She was wearing a long black leather coat, practically reaching the floor, black boots, black pants, and a black shirt. Her elongated sunglasses looked me up and down, and I saw her smirking. Great.

Then, a few more people moved behind her, and a chill ran down my spine. She hadn't come alone. How many more people would see me make a fool of myself?

One, two, three, four, five... I feared the worst. Six, seven, eight. Eight. There were eight Barcelona players behind the blonde. I turned around, dying of shame, and focused on decorating the table, pretending I wasn't about to faint from embarrassment. Oh, how I wished the ground would swallow me up.

Lucy Bronze and Mariona pushed a couple of tables together. Many of them had chosen to follow Mapi's costume and coordinate, as it provided them with quite a bit of anonymity. That explained why so many of them had come today; being able to disguise themselves also made them more invisible. But still, on such an important day, why not go to a trendy nightclub and enter the VIP area?

When they sat down, I looked for her inevitably. Alexia had sat between Patri and Claudia Pina, facing Hansen, Aitana, and Sandra Paños. Lucy, who had recently joined the club, had taken the liberty of choosing a devil costume, and Hansen had done the same, dressing as a zombie. But I couldn't understand Alexia's choice.

It would have been easy for her to dress as Trinity and hide most of her face to make her unrecognizable, but that couldn't be further from the truth. She was wearing red contact lenses, a loose shirt with the lapels disheveled and excessively large, fake fangs, and fake blood stains all over her body. I shuddered as the drops of blood seemed to spill from both sides of her lips, and she repeatedly licked her plastic fangs like a tic.

I shook my head repeatedly and went back to what I was doing. I started placing cobwebs all over the table, making sure to avoid exposing myself to them again or turning around since they had taken that particular table.

"Hey, what's that?" I heard Sandra ask.

I prayed that she wasn't referring to the crap of a table I was preparing.

"They'll bring in a DJ or something," Pina deduced.

Damn it, it was definitely about me. The eyes of the Barcelona team were on me. What the hell do you do in these situations? I hoped I had a nice neck; I had never thought about it before.

"Elf Bar Halloween?" Hansen said with a smirk.

"It must be an Irish bar. Elves, the whole wooden and dark vibe... It looks like it," Mapi said. "We should order some of those huge jug beers."

"Cubatas!" Lucy exclaimed.

"Look at her, she's learned that word well," the blonde laughed.

I started getting up, calculating the best route to be seen as little as possible.

"I'm not sure if it's the best idea," Aitana added. "If we get wasted tonight and have a hangover tomorrow, we'll look like a mess in the match."

"Oh, right! The only one who should be a bit tipsy is Alexia, maybe it will knock some sense into her," Mariona mocked.

I sat back down.

"Come on, leave her alone," Pina tried to bring peace. "It won't hurt us to have one drink together."

"Are you nervous?" Mapi asked in a calmer tone.

"I can't help it. It just feels different," her voice. I froze. "And if it feels so different, maybe it's because it is."

"Everyone finds it strange to do something new when they've been without it for so long. It's just the novelty, remembering how to move, letting go," Aitana said.

"I guess so," she sighed. "Still, I can't help it. Maybe this break is too much to come back to where I was as if nothing happened."

"Then you'll have to find a different starting point," Aitana silenced the murmurs at the table, and everything fell into an intimate silence where I felt like an intruder.

"I'm going to the bathroom."

I heard the chair slide on the wood, and I knew it was my moment to escape without her seeing me. The night was going to be long.

I think there's no need to say that English isn't my first language, haha. Please, whenever you see something written incorrectly, let me know so I can improve :)