We found a last minute holiday in Spain and decided to book it. The girls had matching pink Adidas tracksuits and trainers for the flight and they both had backpacks on their backs. Cheryl hid behind thick rimmed sunglasses from the masses of pushing and shoving obnoxious paparazzi desperate for pictures and quotes about her failed marriage that fell apart not that long ago. Don’t they understand how belittling and obnoxious they are?We got out the taxi. Cheryl held Lexi on her hip and I have Amy’s hand tight in mine.The swarms of people around us between the car and building made me nervous for the safety of my kids and I could tell Amy was starting to get upset by the chaos,its something she isn’t used to. The grip she has on my hand tightened and her eyes look up at me.She looked so scared and concerned just how I was feeling on the inside.
“It’s ok, come on” I smile down at her squeezing her hand slightly. I try my best to reassure her, try to convince her and maybe I was secretly trying to convince myself.
The paparazzi’s camera’s clicked rapidly, blinding flashes beamed on us making it difficult to see the ground infront of us as we pushed through their bodies.Their deep voices screamed questions at us, mostly to Cheryl who was shielding Lexi’s eyes with her hand.
‘Cheryl, is it true you still speak to Ashley, are you getting back together?’ ‘Cheryl! How are you after your divorce’ ‘When did you girls become friends again?’ The questions never stopped until we left the cold air and entered the airport. We checked in the cameras still flicking away from a healthy distance.
“Cheryl who’s Ashley?” Amy asked looking up at Cheryl with a furrowed brow.
“He’s no one babe”
“But them people kept asking about him, is he the one from your picture?”
“What picture?”
“The one of you and a man and you’re smiling and you look really happy”
Cheryl brushed the hair out her face and smiled, a half-hearted smile.
“Hes just somebody that I used to know”
****
The scorching hot blood orange sun floating in he clear blue sky beamed down on our warm bodies. The sand beneath my feet glistened from the bright sunlight and made it warm between my toes. The sand was scattered with bright colored umbrellas shading the happy people beneath it, bright towels spread out and buckets and spades belonging to the happy children digging holes and trying their best to make the best sandcastles they could. The sea rises and falls, it’s a complete different colour to the beaches back in England its clear crystal blue, clean looking. The whole beach is completely different to the beach I used to visit back in the England when I was a little girl. There was no dark Spanish man pushing a cart piled with mango’s and watermelons trying desperately to sell as many as he can shouting out about how delicious and cheap they are. There was no ice cream shop at the top of the beach and of course the sun was never this beautiful.
Amy’s already made some friends already despite only being here less than a couple hours, it’s no surprise really she’s such a chatter box she will talk to anybody about anything. They are staying at the same hotel with us with their families and just happened to visit the beach not that far from our resort. Cheryl is lapping up the sun laying on the straw sunbed. Her skin glowing from the oil she recently rubbed into her body, her long hair tied loosely into a knot on top of her head and still she looks beautiful with minimum makeup on her face. This is Lexi’s first time at the beach and she seems to be loving it in her pink one piece and straw hat which she keeps throwing off her head she wiggles her toes in the sand and I have to keep stopping her from putting it in her mouth.
Amys running towards me hand in hand with her new friend. Shes blonde with straw like hair waving in the breeze.
“Kimberly! Can me and Jenny get an ice cream?” Her cheeks are rosy red and the baby hairs on the side of her heads stuck to her cheeks from the little beads of sweat from the exhausting heat. Her nose is scattered with light freckles which the sun exposed, its almost like someone flicked brown paint over the bridge of her nose with a paintbrush.
“Have you asked your Mum?” I ask the little girl in front of me that nods in reply.
“She said I can if Amy comes with me” Her Irish accent melts my heart,shes adorable.
“Go on then” I hand them some money and watch as they skip away full of happiness and innocents I look at Cheryl and see the opposite. I see struggle behind her smile and a mind of fucked up memories.
“Where’s Amy going?” She questions sitting up on the lounger and pushing her sunglasses up her head.
“Ice cream” I simply reply. I take a bottle of sunscreen from the bag and rub it into Lexi’s pink body. She sits back down playing in the sand as it sticks to her legs.
“Put some on me shoulders will you, pet?” Cheryl ask moving forward on the lounger.
I sit behind her so she’s between my legs and I squirt a white line on her shoulders. I rub my hands over it in a circular motion; her skin is hot against my hands, smooth and babylike.
“Did you see that barman back at the hotel?”
“Which one?”
“The hot one, maybe I can find us a man on this holiday “she smirks. “A holiday romance I just what I need”
Something about Cheryl wanting to find a man on this holiday hurts me and I know that’s stupid since she’s my friend and I want her to be happy but picturing a man pressing his rough lips against her skin and his hands touching her body makes me cringe, makes me angry. It leaves a weird knot feeling in my stomach maybe it was jealousy…?
