Only You

Chapter 11- I'm Not Ready to Leave

Paddling got tiring after a while, Ollie offering to let me have a rest while he paddles for a while, but I didn't want to leave him paddling on his own.

We continued down the river, sparking occasional water fights with passing boats, dragging out paddles through the water to create massive splashes.

Ollie was better at this than me, paddling us head on into fights against Isaac and his dad, or against Ella and her mum.

I kept telling him to just leave it, but he didn't listen and continued getting me splashed, so I eventually gave up and just had fun fighting against the other boats.

After a while, when the sun fully came out, we all began to dry off and could see the actual town from where we were on the boats.

We kayaked along the river, Ollie talking to me, offering to let me rest, treating me like a fucking princess, and I silently wished the kayaks were shorter, so I'd been right next to him.

I would've loved to be holding his hand in that moment. We kept kayaking, he felt so far away from me, he was all the way at the back of the kayak.

He said he was tired, but he didn't stop paddling, he didn't want me to have to do it all on my own. We kayaked under the big bridge across the middle of the town, people on the bridge stopping to look at us paddling past.

We heard one of the instructors saying that the next part was the hardest part as we had a headwind and we had to paddle against the current for a bit, and we were already exhausted.

When we made it out of the difficult section and could see the sea, we relaxed and got the kayaks all tied together and anchored to the shipwreck we would look at.

We were handed out crappy snorkels that we all put on and we climbed off the boat into the cold sea.

Ollie and I swam around the shipwreck together, looking at the fish swimming around what couldn't even be identified as a ship anymore.

After a while I got too cold, so I got out and watched Ollie swim around a bit. The kayaking hadn't actually taken that long, so we could meet the others back at the beach at 2 o'clock and spend the full afternoon with them, the closeness to the end of the holiday finally dawning on me.

Tomorrow's activity was a boat tour of this blue lagoon in one of the other towns, but Ollie was on the afternoon boat, and I was unlucky enough to be put in the morning boat without him.

At least he actually looked disappointed when I said I couldn't be with him though. That meant something.

I was still stupidly overthinking whether the feelings went both ways when everyone could very clearly see that I liked him, and he liked me.

I liked him a lot.

Imogen and I were walking back to the apartment wearing our bikinis, wrapped in towels just in case we got fined for wearing what we were wearing.

We ate lunch quickly, not even getting fully changed, just throwing some clothes on top of our swimsuits and heading out to the breakfast hotel, making sure not to be late again.

Most people were already there when we arrived, they always were now, eager to spend time with everyone.

Ollie's face lit up when he saw Imogen and I coming towards them, and highly doubted he was smiling at Imogen.

I went and stood with him, talking to him and Isaac about the plan and what we were going to do, planning on renting another peddle boat, everyone agreeing, so we waited for Toby this time, then headed to the man on the beach with the boats.

We paid for our boat and set out, the mismatched weight slowly being fixed, everyone pushing other people in then having water fights before catching up and climbing back onto the boat.

Isaac dived off the edge of the slide, some people sliding forwards, some people sliding backwards, some people sliding down on their knees and skidding across the water.

We splashed and played and talked to everyone. I wished that that afternoon could last forever, but we had to return the boat almost too soon.

Ollie and I stayed in the sea together, we planned to swim to the very edge of where we were allowed to go, but that meant walking over seaweed, which I hated.

I just hated the feeling of the slimy stuff on my feet, and Ollie knew this from the day rafting. As soon as he walked into the seaweed part and saw me hanging back, he did the best thing ever.

He offered to piggyback me until the sea was deep enough to properly swim in without touching the seaweed. Obviously, I accepted.

When everyone saw him piggybacking me, they laughed at us, but I didn't really care because that experience was one of the best ones I had with him.

I had my arms around his shoulders as he waded through the sea just to stop me feeling uncomfortable from feeling the seaweed.

We'd come so far from him being a boy I barely knew throwing a piece of seaweed at me to a boy I was in love with making sure I was happy and okay.

He was more than I had ever dreamed of. Respectful, kind, and mature unlike any other guy my age that I had ever met before, and he was absolutely perfect in every single way that was possible. I was so lucky.

He told me that he couldn't stand up anymore because the water was too high, so I hopped off his back and swam, making sure I didn't touch the seaweed, him pointing out fish that swam past.

We paddled in the sea, splashing and laughing just the two of us like little kids, and I felt so alive at that moment, and he caught my eye just at the right time.

We ended up hugging in the water, paddling to keep afloat, his arms around me and mine around him and I knew I loved the boy I'd only known for four days and probably would never see again.

I didn't want that to be the ending of our story, didn't want him to have to be the summer romance that I fell for fast and only ever saw once. I wanted him forever.

I would've moved to London for him, honestly, if I was older, if I could. But I was too young and there was no way my mum would move to London to maintain her thirteen year old daughter's relationship.

I'd only liked him for 3 days, known him for four, which was so fast for both of us, and it scared me how head over heels I was and how much I would give up for him.

I couldn't admit it to him, I never would, but I was seriously, madly in love with that boy, and I couldn't deny how much he meant to me, and I was still stupid enough to doubt us.

He had no doubts, and neither should I, I told myself, I was in the sea in the sun in Croatia with the love of my life, and I knew we were young, but I'd never fallen for someone so fully before, and I knew I would never let go of that boy for as long as I lived.