Lifeline (Marc Guiu)

Chapter 26

When he saw the plane had landed, Marc started to get really nervous. What if Alicia wasn't on that plane? What if she had changed her mind and decided not to go to London to see him and try to fix things between them?

But soon he saw her coming out the arrivals door. Marc closed his eyes and sighed, relieved.

"Ali!"

Alicia turned her head when she heard Marc's voice and walked towards him. "Hi".

"Hey".

They just stared at each other for a minute before Alicia wrapped her arms around his waist, placing her head on Marc's chest. Marc put his arms around her immediately, keeping her close to him.

"I was afraid you wouldn't show up", he whispered.

"I'm here".

"Want me to take you home? It's not too far but it's outside of London and the traffic might not be the best".

"Ok. Let's go".

Marc opened the trunk of his car and placed Alicia's bags there. He then saw her walking towards the driver's seat and laughed.

"We're in England, Ali".

"What?"

"You're on the wrong side of the car. That's not the passenger's seat. Unless you want to drive".

"Oh. Right...".

Alicia went to the other side of the car and Marc took the seat she was going to claim by mistake.

"Is it weird to drive on the left?"

"Yeah. But you get used to it".

She nodded and looked out of the window while they drove to Surrey.

"I'm sorry", she said after a couple of minutes.

"For what?"

"How I treated you. I wasn't fair. My feelings scared me and you paid the price. When it wasn't your fault".

"We both made mistakes".

"There's a reason for mine. Well, several seasons".

"Do you want to tell me those reasons?", asked Marc, more than ready to hear them.

Alicia took a deep breath. She had thought about this a lot since Marc sort of gave her an ultimatum.

"After I broke up with my last boyfriend, I was in the mindset of not wanting another boyfriend. He wasn't bad. Like, I know how bad boyfriends can be from seeing what's happened to friends. My ex didn't treat me badly or anything but...I don't know. The relationship didn't end well and it left a bad taste in my mouth. I didn't want to be in a relationship again. Not anytime soon anyway".

"Ok. I get that".

"And then there's Vicky", Alicia took another deep breath before talking. "I'll preface this by saying that she's probably the second person I love the most in the world. I definitely love her more than I love my dad. But never more than I love my mum. But...being her friend hasn't always been easy".

Marc noticed how guilty Alicia felt saying that. "Go on".

"Growing up, she was Xavi's niece. I mean, she still is but she was called that more than her own name. It was the only thing that people cared about. Who she was related to. And some people abused her for that but most people just wanted to be near her for the clout, you know? I never cared. But I always felt second best. She was prettier, her family had someone famous people adored, everyone wanted her attention and they sometimes hated me for being the one Vicky wanted to be friends with. It sounds stupid now but those things mattered a lot when we were children and I got this inferiority complex because of it".