We Don't Care || Eng

Chapter 3

June 2020

«Mayla, wait for me!» Toni yells behind me. I feel grabbed by the shoulder and then she turns me in front of her.
«Have you lost something?» I say quietly. She looks at me with a "what are you saying?" look and the thought makes me laugh. She shakes her head and starts walking ahead of me.
«This is the last call for the flight to Brighton, gate 16.» we run with the suitcases to the gate and the stewardess shows us the direction to the tourist class. Stingy parents. Going to the United Kingdom has always been my dream and now that I'm old enough, my parents gave me permission to spend the whole summer there! Crazy things. Stingy, but crazy. Who would have ever thought something like this could happen? I put the headphones in my ears and fall asleep: it will be a long journey.

In England...

«Dear passengers, we inform that we have just landed at Brighton Airport. Enjoy your stay and thank you for choosing our line.»
«Go fuck yourself and your line!» Toni says as she pulls her suitcase behind her, cursing that voice that woke her up again and again during the journey. I burst into a loud laugh and we leave the airport. Nine or ten hours of travel was worth it. Our destination was London first, but since it's summer we then chose Brighton, not too far from the capital, but here's the sea. Maybe we'll go sightseeing in other cities too. The air of Brighton enters my lungs and makes me smile. We call a taxi and hand him the slip of paper with the address of the apartment where we will be staying. He leaves us in front of a not very large house and darts away raising a fuss right in front of us.
«Hello, summer!» Toni shouts entering the house. I cough and then throw my head back rolling my eyes. Now my summer begins, my dream begins, something new begins, hopefully beautiful...

[...]

«Shit, Mayla... will you wake up?!» Toni yells two centimeters from my ear. I yell and lift myself up. I see her slumped at the foot of my bed covering her ears. She gives me a murderous glare and stands up. «Why are you screaming?!» she yells at me angrily in front of her face, almost as if it were a scolding.
«Stop yelling!» I yell back.
«Well» she says adjusting her pajama top. «Get ready, let's go to the beach!» she says excitedly jumping out of the room. I send her to hell with the thought of her and then I get out of bed. The idea of going to the beach is nice, in short, I like being on the beach, then if it's the English one it's even better. The only thing I hate is water, I'm terribly afraid of it, I've never wanted to learn how to swim, the idea scares me too much.
I put on the first bathing suit that comes my way, a t-shirt and a pair of high-waisted shorts and finally my black Vans. I eat one of those packaged croissants that are in the pantry and Toni forces me to leave the house. After less than a quarter of an hour's walk we arrive at the beach. What a paradise... just like I've always imagined! Crystal clear waters, white sands, nice guys on the surf... truly wonderful! Well, you can find this in Australia as well, but the fact that we are in England speaks volumes about it. We spread the towels on the sand and sprinkle myself with tanning oil. Instead, Toni covers herself with protective cream and starts massaging to let the cream absorb, then she jumps up and pulls me by the arm, bringing me up to her level. She starts dragging me on the sand until I get to a small port of boats.
«Where are you taking me?» I ask her.
«There are some friends of mine, they rented this boat.» she says pointing to a small boat. She never told me about these "friends". «They'll take us for a ride!» she says enthusiastically. There's no way I'm coming.
«No, I'm not coming» I say retracing my steps. «It doesn't exist!»
«Oh, come on, Mayla... I'm here!» she says grabbing my arm.
«Then I feel safer.» I say ironically.
«Nothing will happen to you!» she calms me down.
«If I die, you'll have me on your conscience!» I say grabbing her arm. She smiles at me and takes me towards a group of four guys and they, as soon as they see us, smile at us and come towards us.
«Hi, girls.» says a dark-haired boy.
«Hi.» I say.
«My name's Marcus, this is Paxton, Charlie and Ben.» he says with a wink. I sigh and turn away. If they try to talk to me, I'm not the right "jacket". Yes, I admit it, it was bad.
«This is my best friend Mayla by the way.» Tony says. Still the guy grabs my hand and takes me aboard the boat. Man, who do you think you are? Sourly, I rebel against his grip. I hear the boat's engine start up and after a few minutes we are a few meters from the beach. I already start not feeling good, I don't want to think about what's going to happen next.
«We can't go any further than this.» a dark-haired boy says, maybe it was Charlie... I don't remember. He quickly takes off his shirt and dives with two other guys, Ben and Paxton, I think. Marcus comes over and strokes my back and rests his head on my shoulder. I dodge and glare at him. As he looks at me, a nervous giggle escapes him. God, what nerves. Toni is in dreamland while she sunbathes and I'm in danger of being raped by this guy. What fucking thoughts, I know! Suddenly he brings the diving platform in front of me and pushes me into the water. Holy shit. I'm under water and about to drown. I squirm, come back to the surface and start screaming. I go down again and my lungs can't take it anymore. I feel tired, out of strength, out of breath. At some point I can't even keep my eyes open anymore, so I pass out.

[...]

«Give her mouth to mouth! Can't you see that she's not breathing, damn it!» I hear Toni screaming, but her screams come to me like voices in the distance. Then I feel soft lips on mine and a gust of air enters my lungs. Immediately there's another one. At the third I have enough strength to reopen my eyes. I find a boy with blond hair who presses his red lips to mine. He notices that I've recovered and he pulls away from my mouth. His lips are so beautiful... he pulls me up by the neck and leans me against his chest. I spit some water and then feel his big hand caress my cheek. I look into his blue eyes, how beautiful they are! And yet I can't immediately focus on his entire face. He looks at me bewildered and takes away a curl that has fallen on my forehead. I don't know why, but I realize it only now. I turn to my friend, who looks at me smiling.
«James?» I mumble staring into those two deep eyes. He gives me a hand to get up and we find ourselves facing each other.
«You recognized me, it's a good sign.» he says laughing as he squeezes my hips. I squeeze his red shirt in a fist and lots of water comes out of it. I stare hard at him and then back to his eyes.
«Did you save me?» I ask incredulously.
«Duty!» he says smiling. «I mean, if lifeguards don't do their work» he says pointing at the empty tower of the lifesaver.
«And do you remember me?» I ask, hoping for a yes. It's the only thing that strangely matters to me right now.
«Of course I do» he says smiling. «Sydney in December, right?» he asks.
«Right.» I say super happy.
«Well, now let her go.» Marcus says taking me by the arm. James looks at me as if to say "what does he want?", then he shrugs and walks back up to me.
«Are you ok?» he asks me.
«Now I am, thank you!» I say smiling.
«Alright, I'm going back to my friends.» I'm tempted to ask him if Toni and I can spend the day with him, Bradley, James and Tristan - if they're the friends he's talking about - instead of Toni's friends, but it seems like a risky move.
«All right, see you.» I say stroking his arm. He smiles at me and then I lose him among the people. I turn to Toni who falls into my arms.
«I'm so sorry, my friend! I didn't mean to! It was all my fault...» she says whimpering.
«Don't worry, everything's fine now. I'm alive, right?» I say running my hand up and down her back to calm her down. «But I admit that if it wasn't for this, James wouldn't have saved me.» Toni walks away from me.
«I mean, be kissed you, basically!» my eyes widen.
«Shit, James McVey kissed me!» I scream and then put a hand over my mouth. «And I didn't even hope to meet him...» this vacation has started quite well. I take Toni's hand and with an excuse we move away from those guys. I feel her arm grabbing me and I turn around in exhaustion, imagining Marcus.
«What?» I say.
«See you, right?» Marcus says smiling and hoping for a "yes" as an answer.
«Uh, count on it!» I say ironically and pointing my thumbs up. I turn around and walk back to my best friend. I'm really too tired, so I ask her to retire. «Let's go home, please.» I say, leaning on her shoulder.
«Okay, it's been a long day.» she says grabbing all our stuff. I turn the last time to the direction in which James has walked and I see him while he talks to another boy. He notices me and smiles at me, so I wave my hand to greet him and he immediately waves at me back. I smile at him and then Toni and I leave. It was already a tiring day in the early morning, I don't want to know how it's gonna end!