Page 9 of Beyond the Blues
“I’m sorry about your top. I’ll buy you a new one.”
“Leave off, will you? It’s just a cheap basic one.It’s fine, honestly.” I twist my face into a ‘are you sure?’ look.
“If it were my brand new Nike one, then I might’ve made you buy me a new one.”Nora smirks at me before picking up my suitcase and walking towards the door.
“Let’s go see your new suite, then.”Nora wiggles her eyebrows and I let out a chuckle, edging myself off the bed.
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Chapter 5
The room is beautiful and immaculate, with crisp white bed sheets and the sun pouring in through the balcony door. The view shows an unbelievable landscape of Santorini, in all its glory. Nora wolf whistles.
“This room is sweet” Nora says, elongating ‘sweet”.
“Tell me about it. I mean, look at that view. It’s almost worth it for this ugly cut on my face.” I walk over to the mirror opposite my bed and stare at the raised red bump around the white bandage plastered on my face.
“Doesn’t change the fact you’re still beautiful.” I turn and face Nora, who is not looking at the view but me.
“You’re intense, you know that, right?” I ask, tilting my head. Nora walks a couple steps towards me, breaking the gap between us.
“Is that a bad thing?” Shaking my head, Nora holds eye contact, her frost kissed eyes making me nervous.I feel the tension between us grow. Is she flirting with me? I mean, during university, all she’d ever do was say hello, and that was it. She probably just feels bad for me and wants to make this trip more enjoyable. I clear my throat.
“I might have a sleep.Try to distract myself from the throbbing of my cheek.” And throbbing elsewhere.
“No, sure, do you need anything? Medicine? Water?”
“No, I’ll be okay.” Nora walks towards the door and I follow, waving her goodbye as she walks down the steps from my door. I get into an oversized
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BEYOND THE BLUES
t-shirt and my comfy pants, tie my hair up and lie down in bed browsing through the channels till I find one I can understand. Finally I find an episode of ‘Friends’ where all the pitches of the voices are ridiculously high. My thoughts drifting between Coco, like usual and then to Nora and the moment between us earlier, my eyes feeling heavy. The voices on the TV get quieter, and I feel myself drifting out of consciousness. I hear a subtle knock on my door, unsure if it’s a dream or not. I continue to lie there, then the knock is louder, waking me up.The room has fallen dark. How long have I been asleep for? I stand up out of bed, the cold tiles cooling my feet after a sweaty sleep. I open the door and Nora is standing there, carrier bag in hand. I pull my shirt down, attempting to cover my horrendous underwear.
“I just came to drop these bits round. You missed dinner, so I got a bit worried.” Nora lifts the carrier bag and hands it to me. I peek inside and see crisps, ibuprofen, antiseptic cream, two bottles of water and a pot of noodles.
“You didn’t have to. What even is the time?”
“It’s 9pm.” Wow, I must’ve really needed that sleep. To be fair, the pain of my injuries has really mellowed out. Nora stands there, shifting between her feet.
“Do you want to come in? It’s not much fun but, you’re free to” I offer. “Your company is fun enough for me.” Nora smiles and walks past me into
the room. I close the door and follow her in. I open the carrier bag before opening the cold bottle of water, gulping it, soothing my dry mouth. Sitting back on my bed, I lean up against the headboard. I pat my side, inviting Nora to lie back with me rather than perch on the edge of the bed.
“Mind if I check your cheek?” Nora asks.
“Sure. Are you a doctor today?”I joke.Nora carefully removes the bandage from my face, the air hitting the wound.
“No, just making sure you don’t need stitches, but I think…” Nora grabs my chin with her thumb and index finger and moves my head slightly to the side, inspecting it further. Her eyebrows furrowed with concentration.
“I think you are all good. I’ll just put some cream on it and you should be good to go.” Nora leans to the edge of the bed where the carrier bag was, her shorts slightly revealing her Calvin Klein boxers. She leans back and gets a
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CHAPTER 5