Cris invited all the girls to Zaorejas to stay at her house during the last two weeks of summer break, well, she did it after mocking my pronunciation 84 times. I really didn’t think that my parents would let me go away for two weeks without therapy and supervision, but after a family session that included Cris, they decided to let me go as long as I didn’t forget to take my meds, I made sure to eat every day and to sleep every night.
“Well, I can’t promise you will actually sleep every night.”
Cris winked at me from her seat next to me on the bus to her hometown. All five of us travelled by ourselves in the bus and Dani said he would meet us there to help us settle in and make sure everything was up and running while we stayed there. Once we arrived, Dani greeted us all with a big hug and Cris and Amira shared a look after Dani hugged her. Then, he showed us all to the rooms, had a couple of beers with Cris and ate something before leaving.
“Alright! The party has now officially begun you guys, lets enjoy what’s left of vacations!”
All five of us made a toast and we spent the rest of the day exploring the countryside, then we all made dinner together, started a small bonfire on the backyard and spent most of the night playing card games. The next day, we went to the public pools and spent the whole day there, under the sun, joking and laughing, Cris and Eva snuck in some beers for themselves, and by four we came back to the house and I asked Cris to stop with the drinking.
“You’re not going to be drinking every single day, are you?”
She told me to calm down because its summer break, I just got up and left the house without saying another word. The silence in the fields, the fresh air and the sunset were working together to stop me from having an episode right at that moment, so I just walked until I found some high ground and I sat there to just watch everything around me. I stayed there until I calmed down and I felt I could go back without getting into an argument with Cris.
When I walked back into the house Cris ran to the door, her eyes were red and it was obvious she had been crying.
“Cris…”
“Are you okay?”
I nodded my head in reply.
“Alright.”
She turned around and walked to the room we were going to share, and I stood there for a few seconds getting by breathing under control and then, I followed after her.
“Cris, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to worry you.”
“Sure.”
I could hear in her voice that she was upset and I couldn’t blame her for it.
“So, what exactly did you think was going to happen when you decided to go walk by yourself in a place you don’t know? You could have gotten lost, Joana. And then, what would I have done?”
“Well, you didn’t seem very worried about spending time with me anyway.”
“Excuse me?”
I didn’t mean to say it out loud, it just slipped.
“Look, Cris. I understand its summer but if your plan was to just be drinking all day everyday then you girls should have come up here by yourselves and that’s it. You know I can’t drink a every day and I cant drink much, and well, if you’re drinking all day when are we going to have fun?”
The room was silent and I could actually feel both of us trying to carefully think what to say next. Cris was looking straight into my eyes when she started walking to where I was standing, she stopped once she was right in front of me and I could see the tears welling up in her eyes, I was just about to apologize when I felt her arms around my neck and I out mine around her waist.
“Baby, I’m sorry, I just got caught up and didn’t even think about all that. I didn’t think about you. I’m sorry. I promise I won’t drink every day, okay? I really, really, want us to have an amazing couple of weeks and that this becomes the best end of summer ever.”
“Okay, let’s get this summer going.”
I try to imitate her accent and she laughs really loudly.
“Was… was that an attempt at Spanish?”
I shrugged and then kissed her, then we went to bed and woke up energized to take in everything the last weeks of summer had to offer.
