Only You

Prologue

I sighed, staring wistfully out of the window as my plane ascended, leaning to see past my sister and my mum. My mother was reading a book, her arms covering the full armrest. It's just a week, I told myself, nothing will change. I turned up my music and relaxed, leaning back into the seat, watching the fields shrink and the lights get left behind.

I looked at my phone, but airplane mode was switched on, there were no messages anyway. My boyfriend had recently broken up with me and I wasn't used to having no messages in the morning. I didn't care though, if he didn't want me then how was he supposed to be "the one" anyway?

My head ached and my ears popped as the plane got higher. I stared down as the plane flew over what my mum was saying was France, but my sister Imogen said it was Germany. All it was was a cluster of lights anyway, I couldn't tell and didn't care either way.

After twenty minutes, Imogen fell asleep, and my mum was too immersed in the book I had recommended her a few months ago to notice my existence. I leaned forwards and looked down the aisle, scanning for anything. My tray table lay open, on top of it my phone with the headphones connected, the music playing loudly.

A boy from the row behind came up and dropped a piece of paper on her table, smiling at me. He was cute, with floppy hair and a lopsided smile. I unfolded the paper and looked at the writing as the boy walked off. He wore a Levi's shirt and a pair of football joggers, with some creased air forces.

I'm Alfie, I'm 16, you're cute. After that he'd written his number in small numbers underneath, which I didn't even bother to read. My mum was looking the boy up and down and staring at the note. When Alfie walked back towards me, he stopped next to me and smiled. 'Hey!' he smiled. I wrinkled up my nose.

'I'm thirteen you piece of shit.' I made a face and turned away from him, turning my music even louder to help him get the hint. The aisle was thin and a middle-aged man was trying to push his way past the boy. My mum looked at me, shocked. 'Language,' she said in a whisper, but she was smiling.

The man stuck in the aisle was getting slowly more and more annoyed the longer Alfie lingered. The man elbowed the boy. 'Oi, lemme past.' The man lightly nudged Alfie when he didn't move, and Alfie then made a point of falling over onto me. I shoved him off even harder and he made a face at me.

'Ouch, that hurt. Anyway, what do ya say? You wanna go on a date?'

'Ugh, no. Leave me alone before I actually hurt you.'

'Ooh, you're getting feisty now. How cute.'

'Oi, she said leave!' The man who was still stuck behind Alfie, and was now furious, shoved the boy back to his seat, and he ran back, avoiding a bigger fight. 'You okay? I hate people like that. What a prick.' The man nodded slightly at my mum and headed back to the seat, giving Alfie a death glare.

I tried to drown everything out and forget how disgusting Alfie was. Ugh, he kept pressing on and on even when I told him I was three years younger than him. The music washed over me like a wave from the ocean, and I soon fell asleep.

***

When I finally woke up, we were at Split airport in Croatia, the holiday was finally starting. My mum and my sister were both ready to leave and I was in the way. I got up to see a look of utter contempt from Alfie and whoever he was with, probably his dad.

I got up and took my suitcase out of the overhead luggage and walked behind Imogen into the airport. We got through security quickly, our passports barely being glanced at before a quick stamp, then we were off. We waited at the conveyor belts for our extra suitcase.

Alfie and his family came and stood close to us, but the other man and somebody who he was with came and stood between my family and Alfie's, glaring at the boy. Thankfully my suitcase was one of the first out and we could leave easily.

The transport our holiday company had arranged for us was on time and easy to find. All our bags were silently loaded in, the man driving not saying any words of welcome. We barely had time to do our seatbelts before the man drove off, yelling at other drivers in Croatian and speeding along winding side roads.

The drive was just over forty minutes, and everyone in the small town of Omiš was getting ready to go out for dinner as we arrived. Our apartment was perfectly placed directly between where we would go for breakfast and the holidays office.

The driver helped us unload our bags and said a quick goodbye before driving off. We were given a much warmer welcome by one of the holiday's hosts, who gave us our key and toured us around our apartment. She introduced herself as Karmen and reminded us to meet at the holidays office for a welcome meal in an hour.

After that we all immediately collapsed into bed, our bags being forgotten. We lay there, exhausted, waiting to be told we needed to go. Time passed and I prayed to some god that I didn't believe in that there would be someone to make this holiday one of the best ones ever.