Twelve thousand words about you

Chapter 1: Vacational Trip

We walked down to the beach, feeling the warm, salty breeze on my freckled cheeks. I stopped at the seashore and closed my eyes, letting the sun float on my skin. Me and my best friend Mia, had taken on a rather improvised vacation together after we graduated. We had spent the two first weeks of our summer getting bored and, suddenly, we decided to take a flight and get away from our little town. Now we were here. 
-Nora! Come this way.- Mia shouted as if we were the only two people on the beach and I smiled, amused yet a bit embarrassed. I walked over to my friend and we settled there. 

We spent most of our day at the beach, playing in the sea, jumping with the waves, getting tanned. We went back to the small apartment we had rented on AirBnB to get ready. There is nothing better than getting ready with your friends to go out after a relaxing beach day. We turned on the music and tried lots of outfits, and when I say lots I mean her outfits, mine and combinations of both. Thank god our moms weren't there to see the disaster that we had made. 

I looked at myself in the mirror in the entrance, waiting for Mia as she finished getting ready. I had a black, shiny minidress on and silver heels. My hair was straight and I had two small braids that took away the hair on my forehead, but leaving the rest of my long, brown hair lose. I took a mini silver hand-bag, where I had my phone, keys and some money, and went to see how Mia was doing. She was curling her hair and saw me in the mirror.
-Give me five minutes and I am ready to go- I rolled my eyes and smiled, knowing that she would take more than five minutes. 
I went over to the sofa in the living room and lay down on it. I searched the place we were going to. It was a 'chiringuito' as they called it and it seemed good. It was a beach bar and it said that it had a DJ at night. Mia was the one who had looked it up and was extremely exited to go. I was kind of excited too, it had been a long time since I had gone out to party. I kind of missed it. As long as I didn't get too drunk, it'd be fine. Besides, one of the two had to be sober enough to get us home, and was guessing it'd have to be me.

Ten minutes later I opened a taxi door and we got on our way to the bar. We arrived and saw lots of people in bikini dancing, drinking, singing, etc. I liked it. It had been such a long time since I'd been to a place like this. At least a year. But I didn't want to start thinking about that.
-Shall we go get something to drink?- I asked Mia, who had already started laying her eye on a couple of guys.
-Yes babe.

We sat down on two stools and looked at the menu, having no idea what each thing was. I looked to the side and saw a guy sitting, drinking something red.
-I'll have that thing that guy over there is drinking - I pointed at him as I told the bartender. He looked at me as if he had seen a green cow and I heard a small laugh coming from my side. I turned to see the guy smiling, without looking at me as he finished his drink and sat up. 
-What are you laughing at?
-Nothing- he said with a smile and disappeared into the crowd.
The bartender didn't take long to get us our drinks.

As I took the last sip of my drink which burnt down my throat, I understood why the guy had laughed at me. It was a strong drink, but I had had worse. A lot and of a lot worse. I needed way more to get drunk. Mia however, was far ahead of me and stumbled through the dance floor rather than danced. This was ironic. We had swopped places and I was the responsible now. 

We stayed a couple of hours, danced, even went into the water for a while, though I didn't get in completely. On our way back, I rested my elbow on the taxi window as I admired the busy night. I loved feeling the air against my face without feeling a worry in the world.

                                                                                      ***

I woke up feeling thirsty and went to the kitchen to get a glass of water. We had arrived at the flat at around 5am. I went back to the bedroom and looked for my phone. It was 1pm and Mia slept deeply. I decided to go for a quick run. I took a sports top on and matching burgundy leggings. 

I found a route on Google Maps that led me to a small beach a bit further away from the actual touristic beach. I listened to music with my headphones on as I let myself feel liberated. Running had become my escape this past year and I had come to love it. Hearing my heartbeat raise, tensing my muscles, focusing on my breathing. It helped me disconnect from the world around me and to focus on me and on the music floating into my ears. 
Someone bumped into me and muttered an apology that I almost wasn't able to hear. When I looked up, I saw that it was a young guy. He must be around my age, maybe a bit older. He had brown hair with lighter locks of hair as a result of the burning sun above us. I got a single look of his face, which seemed familiar and then he started to run again on the opposite direction I was going. I turned around as I retook my pace and saw his tanned, beautiful skin. I kept running, trying to figure out where I had seen his face before. As I was reaching my destination, I realized he was the guy from the previous night, the one whose drink I had copied.
I reached the small beach and I was left with my mouth open. It was absolutely beautiful. It seemed like a wall of rocks had formed and it had somehow molded itself into half a dome. It was covered in black, brown and shining white, and it seemed like it was covered in glitter from the light that reflected on it. The sand was as thin as silk and I took off my sneakers to feel it running through my toes. I looked out into the ocean. The water was a stunning turquoise color and I gazed out. I was amazed by this place. It seemed taken out of a fairytale and for a few minutes I imagined myself being in one. I wished I could stay in that moment forever, with the sand in my feet, the salty breeze and the unreal views. But I new I had to go back to Mia.

I entered the flat at around 2pm and Mia was still asleep. I new she had had a crazy night, but I still had to wake her up. I brought her a glass of water. 
-I feel like a car drove over me, then a train and then I got onto a plane and got thrown out the window. - she said as I sat down beside her on her bed.
I laughed.
-Well, today we have a beach day. Let's eat something and then we'll go get tanned.
-No - she moaned - I wanna sleep.
And she took her pillow over her face to shut the light out. Eventually I got her to the beach, though she fell asleep and I spread sunscreen over her from time to time so she wouldn't get burnt. 
A guy sitting near to us kept staring in our direction. I found it really creepy but didn't recognize him from anywhere. I didn't think I new him from anything. When Mia woke up, I told her about the guy and she looked in his direction without even trying to dissimulate. Her expression changed as she saw who it was.
-Oh God.
-What? Who is it? - I demanded to know.
-It's this guy I met at the party yesterday and he kept trying to dance with me and even tried to grab my ass. I didn't think he'd still be after me by this time.
-And you decide to tell me about this just now? Do you want to call the police or something?
-Don't worry, I don't think it's that big of a deal. Besides, we'll be out of this place in a few days and I won't see him again. Though he kind of freaks me out so I would appreciate if we went home now.
-And let him know where we are staying? No way. We're going out for dinner. It's almost time and we have to look for a place. If he's still following you by the time we're on our way back, we can call the police. Let's go.

We had dinner at a cute restaurant. The guy was nowhere to be seen so we rushed back home. We quickly fell asleep.