Cause and Effect

Nine

"Morning Nia!" Granit yelled to me, as soon as I entered the pool yard.

"Morning!" I greeted him cheerfully, slipping off my flip flops, and placing my towel, phone, and key card on a dry deck chair, which would hopefully be out of the way of the splashes from the pool.

I glanced around to see who was in the pool today - Hec and Granit were there, plus Reiss, Eddie, Chuba, Jefe, Joe and Ainsley, who were mucking around in the jacuzzi, which was separated from the pool only by a wall that was low enough to allow some water to flow over the top, creating a mini waterfall. Well, Reiss and Eddie were in the jacuzzi. Jefe, Chuba, Ainsley and Joe were splashing the cold water from the pool onto them. Mesut and Alexis were also in the pool, but they were relaxing at the other end, and paid no attention to what their younger teammates were doing. I hoped they were sorting out whatever the problem was that Mesut had had earlier, and so, not wishing to disturb them, I jumped in the pool where Hector and Granit were swimming. The cool water was absolutely perfect, exactly what my tired muscles needed after the last few football-filled days.

"You must've slept for ages," Hector smiled at me. "It's almost eleven now."

"Nah, I woke at ten, I've been chatting to Anya for a while."

"Ah, that's good," Granit nodded. "How is Anya, by the way?

"She's well, thank you," I responded. "We talked for ages, we had a lot to catch up on. How's your morning been?"

"Pretty good," Granit replied. "We've been speculating as to what those two are talking about."

He nodded his head in the direction of Mesut and Alexis, who were still deep in both conversation, and pool water, far away at the other end.

"Who knows," I shrugged, scanning the faces of them both.

I forbore to mention what I hoped they we talking about - I felt it would take too long to explain, and perhaps time had made me forget how harsh Mesut had seemed the other day. I now wondered if I'd been overreacting, and nothing was really wrong.

"Aw, stop staring at him, Nia," Hector interrupted my thoughts, and I turned to see him smirk knowingly at me.

"Staring at who?" I asked, innocently.

"Alexis, of course," he laughed.

"I'm not," I retorted, feeling my cheeks heat up.

"Aren't you two together yet?" Asked Granit.

"No," I shook my head.

"What?!" Exclaimed Hector. "But please tell me you at least kissed the other night, when I left you alone. It'd be a fairly safe bet to say he wanted to do it on the beach, if he wasn't too nervous."

"No, we didn't kiss yet," I laughed at his excitement. "Calm down, Hec."

"Yet?" Put in Granit. "That sounds promising."

At this point, we were prevented from further discussion of such an intellectual topic as my love life, by the arrival of the very person in question. Alexis and Mesut seemed to notice I'd entered the pool, and began swimming over towards us.

"Morning," they both greeted us, and Alexis pulled me in for a hug, which I returned happily.

I shot a smile at Mesut, and he returned it, but it seemed a little fake, and he said nothing. As the rest of us began talking, he continued to remain silent, leading me to think that whatever he may have been discussing with Alexis earlier, they hadn't been sorting out their differences. I then recollected that, whilst his angry words had been directed towards his friend, it had been me who'd been on the receiving end of his scathing looks.