Twelve thousand words about you

Chapter 2: Home Sweet Home

We were back to our old life away from paradise. Mia and I were trying to enjoy the last days we had left before we had to go back to the real world and face reality. I didn't want to think about that yet. 
As every other day, we went to the local swimming pool. As long as the weather allowed it, we would bathe and lay in the sun for hours, talking and playing cards with our friends. Some of them were already there and I arrived a bit later. I spread my towel and saw that they were bathing. I took my clothes off and walked over to the swimming pool curb in my electric-blue bikini. I left my flip flops aside and sat down, letting my feet hit the water and splashing a little. 
-Nora! Hello love, how are you? How was the trip? You gotta tell us everything. - my friend Lea came over to greet me and I gave her a huge hug. 
Mia and I had been friends since forever, but over the last year Lea and I had become super close and I had come to love her so much.
-Well, we mostly went to the beach and from the beach to the swimming pool, from the swimming pool to the apartment and from the apartment we went out to party. We didn't do much really, but we had lots of fun and I think it was exactly what I needed.
-Well I'm glad you had fun. - she said with a bright smile. But I had seen her face flinch when I said 'out to party'. - Any cute guys?
-Well you know Mia. She found lots of guys, both cute and ugly. I don't think she remembers half of them though. Too drunk to remember.
We laughed. I told them some more about our trip and said I would show them pictures once we got out of the water and went to the towels.

-Well what have you been up to? - I asked Lea as I finished showing her the pictures we had taken.
-Not much actually. - we were lying down on our towels and she turned her head to look behind her where the guys were sitting. She turned her head back to me, looked down and smiled.- Although...
-Oh my God! - I sat up on my towel and took my hands to my mouth - What happened? With who? - I whispered.
Lea laughed and I lay down again.
-Okay. Do you remember how I told you that Julian and I had started to become close and how last year I told you that I thought he was cute?
I couldn't speak. I was super excited and my face said it all. I loved seeing my friends finding love. And Julian was definitely a decent guy. I knew they'd make a good couple. But at the beginning of the year, Julian had had a girlfriend, so I hadn't even considered it. It all made sense. 
-Well. Julian and I have been talking for some time now. We both went to this party a few weeks ago and ran into each other. I didn't know he'd be there and he didn't know I was going either. We talked for a couple of minutes and then we each went back to our own groups of friends. A friend of mine asked me who he was and I told her he was a friend of mine. In the end she invited him and his friends over to where we were sitting and we spent the rest of the time together. When it was time to go, he offered to take me home, so we got into his car.
Lea looked up and started laughing upon seeing my excited face. I just loved seeing her so happy and needed to know every single detail about what had happened.
-Keep going.
-I got to my room and got a text from him asking me if I had arrived well. It was so cute. We spoke for a bit and then I told him I was really tired and went to bed. The next morning though, we met up to go to the swimming pool with the rest of our friends. But, - and she made emphasis there - he put his towel next to mine. We bathed and got out before the rest. We laid down and spoke for, like, two hours non-stop. The next few days we got together all the time and when we weren't, we would speak on the phone or message each other. My mom even asked me who I was talking to a couple of times. One day we went for a walk together, just us two, and we talked and laughed all the way. We got to the park and went to the beautiful weeping willow in the middle of the park. Suddenly we were just standing there looking at each other. Next thing I know, he's in front of me, looks me in the eye and kisses me. But I'm talking real kiss, not just a peck. Like full blown tong included kiss. I swung my arms around his neck and we just kissed for what seemed like too short of a time. From then on everything clicked and it was just perfect. The day after he asked me to go out with him and I obviously said yes. It was perfect. It is perfect.
Lea opened her smiley mouth to keep talking when we were annoyingly interrupted. We turned around to see Julian waving at us.
-Hey! We're going out for lunch. You guys wanna join?
-I'll join you later. - Lea said.
-Can't - I answered - I eat at my aunt's today.
They finally left and we went back to talking.
-So. We've been going out on dates and it has been so much fun. But I just feel like these last days we've been hanging out with his friends and he spends a lot of his time on his phone. I don't know, maybe it's just me.
-Look, I haven't been here to see it, but from what you've told me, I don't think anything is wrong. See how it goes this week and if you are worried about anything, talk to him about it. It will get worse if you keep your feelings to yourself.
-I know. I just don't want for it to end badly or anything.
-I get it. Let's go. You have lunch with your caring boyfriend while I'm going to my aunt's. Get your ass up. I'll go with you, it's on my way anyway.

I rung the bell to my aunt Rosie's house. It had a blue door that I had always loved. It seemed so unique, even though anyone could paint their door blue if they wanted to. She opened the door and gave me a big hug. We went inside and sat down. She asked a lot of questions about my trip and we talked about our holidays. 
I had always been close to my aunt. She was the single, cool aunt. Since I was a little kid, she would pick me up from school and we would spend the afternoon together at her house. As the years passed and I got older, not wanting to stop seeing each other weekly, I started to go to her place once a week, usually Saturday or Sunday, and have lunch with her. She truly understood me, or at least tried. I felt like I could always go back to her and hide under her wing. That I could trust her. After all, she was one of the people who had stuck with me at my darkest times.
Plus, I could steal her old clothes back from when she was a teenager. I remember doing fashion shows in her hallway as a kid, wearing her clothes, which didn't fit me, and making crazy combinations with them. We would walk down her hall and pose in front of the mirror making funny poses. 

We finished cleaning up the table and went to the living room. We lay down on the sofa and turned the TV on. We pressed 'Keep watching' the show 'Friends' on Netflix. It had become our thing to watch and rewatch Friends. We started watching 'Gilmore Girls' and when we finished that one we started this one. We just loved it. I mean, I don't know a single person who doesn't like 'Friends'. 

I looked at the time. It said 17:34 pm. I looked again. I was over an hour and a half late to meeting my friends. Not that there was anything important, we were going to the pool. Besides, it was summer. But still, I rushed to get ready while my aunt paused the show and asked me if anything was wrong.
-I'm late. I was supposed to meet my friends at four.
She laughed. I squinted at her, slightly annoyed and slightly amused. I looked at my phone and had six missed calls from Lea. I took my stuff and flew out the door.
-Bye aunt Rosie!