Like Real People Do - Jill Roord

We've All Earnt It

Hunter's POV

We'd finally been given a day off to explore the South of France and while everyone else was over the moon about it, I was rather fearful.
What would my mind do without the distractions? Where would it run?

"Hunts you ready to go?" Ona asked, picking up her bag. 

I nodded, "Yeah."

"Great," She linked her arm into mine, "Let's go then, Alexia might kill us if we're late."

"Again," I added; Ona and I weren't exactly the greatest time keepers.

"Shush," Ona tapped my nose as we walked out of our room. 

I jerked my head back, "Oi!"

Ona let out a short scream, proceeding to dramatically start sprinting down the corridor. Of course I chased after her, yelling and throwing my arms about as we both fell into fits of laughter. We ran around the corner and practically into Alexia, who stood there with a bemused look on her face.

My older sister chuckled, "You two really are kids."

I eventually got ahold of Ona, shaking her from side to side as she laughed, her eyes creasing up and smile wider than ever. 

Ona and I had definitely grown closer in the past week or so, we had this twin-like bond. Alexia was my older sister and that was always clear but Ona and I were so similar in age and nature that we'd mess about all day and falls into fits of laughter over the smallest of things. 
We'd been inseparable when we attended the Barcelona camp together, as children, though we'd grown apart when we left and went our separate ways, so being close again felt really good. 

Mapi strode over, calm as ever, "Hunter if you want to get on this boat, you might want to stop attacking Ona."

I let go of Ona, who stumbled around for a second or two as she tried to regain composure of herself, she looked like a lamb learning how to walk for the first time. 

"Thankyou Mapi," Ona coughed out, wiping her eyes from the tears, from her laughing too hard. 

Alexia led us all out to the taxi which was driving us to the boat she'd set up. Alexia was an organizer, in fact she was the organizer, today she'd arranged a boat for the four of us where she'd planned for us all to relax and rest, though it probably wouldn't be quite as calm as she'd envisioned; nothing ever was if Ona and I were involved.  

We soon arrived at the harbor and I'd noticed that France could be rather beautiful. The beach had golden sand and soft blue waves, the skies were bright and the food was incredible.
The four of us were led to the boat which was rather large and very luxurious; Alexia only ever settled for the best. She wasn't at all snobby, she just liked treating herself and all of us, especially when it had been such a difficult year. 

"Look how beautiful this is," Alexia sighed, leaning slightly over the side and admiring the view. We were on the top floor so it felt rather high up, like I could see on for miles. 

I hugged Alexia from behind, leaning my head onto her shoulder, "Thanks Lex, this is great."

"I think we've all earnt it," She huffed; I knew everything in the recent months had taken a massive toll on her. 

We all took the time to sit and wind down as the boat sailed out into, what felt like, the middle of the ocean until it finally stopped and we were free to get in the water.

"I'm going to go for a swim," Mapi decided, very slowly lowering herself into the water where she began to wince and shake her hands about, "It's cold! It's cold!"