Lifeboat Lighthouse

Chapter 5

Day 4 - Rome, Italy (Becky's POV)

It was times like this I wished my brain had an 'off' switch. I had to be up in a couple of hours but sleeping didn't seem to be on the cards tonight. The kiss Freen and I had shared kept replaying in my head. It had seemed so perfect but, somewhere in the back of my mind, all I could hear were Nam's words during our cookery class. "Most of the staff are sleazy anyway. It's all a game to them, they just want to see how many girls they can get with on the ship."

As much as I wanted to believe that I wasn't just 'a game' to Freen, I couldn't help but consider it could be a possibility. One night she was making it quite obvious that we couldn't even spend time together, and the next she was kissing me and looking at me the way she did tonight. It was all so confusing. I tried to tell myself that Freen wasn't like that, but the more I thought about it, I really didn't know anything about her at all. The short time we had spent talking had only revolved around me; I hadn't even bothered to ask her anything about herself. She probably thought I was a self-absorbed arsehole.

One thing I did know was that there seemed to be two sides to Freen. The dominant side was this insightful, confident girl that seemed to always know the right thing to say, but then there was also the side I'd seen a glimpse of at the end of tonight. The side that seemed somewhat unsure and lost. I'd noticed that her eyes were beautiful from the first moment I saw her, but had that sad and empty look always been there too? How had I not noticed that before? Maybe I really was self-absorbed.

I'm not sure what time it was when my mind finally succumbed to sleep, but it wasn't long until my alarm was going off and my mum was dragging me out of bed to get ready for the day. I wasn't much of a coffee drinker, but this was going to be a double-shot latte kind of day, unless I wanted to sleep walk around Rome. My family wanted to see all the main tourist attractions, so our first stop was the Colosseum. It was great, but far too crowded for my liking. I made a mental note that it would probably be cool to come back off-season, when I wouldn't have to fight my way through swarms of people. The mix of the heat, overcrowding and my lack of sleep were putting me in an agitated mood. I even snapped at Rosie a few times.

The next stop they wanted to make was St. Peter's Basilica, but by this point I just wanted to get away from everyone. I knew my dad would never let me wander the city alone, so I made up an elaborate lie about wanting to meet up with the two girls I had met at the cooking class yesterday. My parents seemed hesitant at first, but after about five minutes of using my powers of persuasion and giving my best puppy dog eyes, they agreed to let me go. I didn't have any idea of where I was going, which would usually scare me, but today felt different. The new found freedom was exhilarating.

Eventually, I came across a local outdoor market. I'd never seen anything like it. I could have spent hours walking through the colourful displays, everything was so vibrant and exciting. After a while I came across two stall owners, who seemed to be having a very animated argument over fish in a language that I didn't recognize. I was watching in amusement when I suddenly heard a familiar voice to my left.

"Becky? Hey, Becky?" I whipped around to see Freen standing just a few meters away from me. We were in a huge city filled with millions of people, where the chances of bumping into her were basically zero, yet somehow I wasn't surprised.

"You following me?" I said playfully.

"You wish!" Freen replied with a cheeky smile.

"What are you doing?" I tried to ask casually.

"Well, I was trying to haggle for this really awesome necklace, but apparently I can't speak Italian at all... I think I might have just paid double the price it actually was, so that's cool." She said sarcastically. "Where are your parents? " She added, looking around, expecting them to be hovering over one of the nearby stalls.