caller • mattia polibio

035.

Bikini clad and bathing in the heat, they had arrived.
Claudia lay on a large towel, skin glistening with sunscreen, her head propped up on her clothes. She read her book whilst attempting to tan. The boys were in-front of her, digging out a rather large hole with child sized spades. Every now and then Mattia would head back to the girl, making sure she was hydrated and okay, showing his caring nature. Laura had disappeared on a walk, Claudia was sure she'd come back with a story to tell.

In the sandy pit, Mattia sat smoothing out the sand with his friends, they were making some sort of place to sit; to kill some boredom.

"So how's you and Claudia doing?" Kairi asked.

"Amazing. I really love her man." Mattia said with an absent mind, perfecting the wall of their hole.

"You what?" Alejandro said with shock.

"I love her." He replied, with a smile and realisation, he in fact loved her.

He sat there for a while, thinking about their relationship, the dates to anywhere and everywhere, the lazy days and their first proper date, how her hand fit in hers, how his jumpers buried the girl, how she cared about him like a mother but laughed with him like his best friend. Claudia really was his everything and he really did love her.

"Are you going to tell her?" Kairi asked.

"Not just yet. I don't know how to tell someone I love them? Jhee, I'm her first boyfriend!" Mattia said, brushing his hair back, with regrettably lacing it with sand.

"Your best answer is to talk to Laura." Alejandro said.

"Speaking of Laura, how are you doing with that Ale?"

"Well if you look around, she's nowhere to be seen."

Alejandro spoke too soon, Laura came walking over to the group, four ice creams in one hand and a smoothie in the other. She sat down next to Claudia and the boys came scrambling over for a cold snack.

"So how was your walk Laur?" Alejandro asked, sitting next to her as he ate the cold ice cream with joy. Mattia lay next to Claudia reading the Crime Mystery with her.

"There's loads around! A fairground not too far.. It looks amazing! There's also a little street with all the cute shops, you'd definitely love this little clothes store Clauds." She nudged her best friend which caused the ice cream to wipe along her nose. "Ale, we should take a walk to the Ice Cream Parlour later?"

He agreed with instance. Mattia silently laughed at his eagerness. The friends spent the rest of the daylight at the beach, kicking a ball around, splashing around in the cool sea and just having fun with each other. Mattia and Claudia stayed behind watching the sunset, the others heading off to freshen up for dinner. He wanted to tell her there, tell her then, as her sun kissed faced stared off at the horizon.

"Hey babe? I have something to say."