20 February 2020

Score: Late Night Talkin' - Harry Styles

Lydia

"I'm going to the saunas," I tell Gloria and Alex.

"Do you really need to get even more dehydrated?" Gloria looks at me with mock concern. "You're going to wrinkle like a raisin,"

"Haha." I sneer. "I need to sweat it all out," I say. I just feel like I need to go in the saunas. I have never been in such a state before, so I don't know if it's the smart thing to do, but I just need to get in there.

"Suit yourself," Gloria says. "Just don't forget dinner's at eight. And don't you two dare leave me alone with the old folks tonight." Gloria waves a finger in the air between me and Alex. Alex lifts her hands to her shoulders and looks at her innocently.

"You," I point a finger at Alex myself, "Owe me. You'll have to repeat everything you told her," I jerk my head in the direction of Gloria.

"I'll tell you even more, baby," Alex winks. "Ouch!" She shrieks, as Gloria pinches her arm viciously.

"We'll see about that," Gloria says.

"OK, I'm going in there."

"See you upstairs in two hours." Gloria waves her hand.

I get up to my feet and walk into the sauna area.

There is a lot of folk at this hour because people are back from a long day of riding the slopes (Unlike you, Lydia, my subconscious eagerly reminds me), and are now back to warm up and relax. I check the sauna out, as I prefer it to the steam bath, but it's fully packed. I sigh in frustration and walk over to the steam bath.

I open the door and the moist heat instantly hits my face. The room is teamed up and I can't see a thing, but the edge of one of the benches. It's empty and I decide to take my chance.

I walk in and close the door behind me. I sit on the hot, wet stone, close my eyes and lean back. I allow for the steam to warm up my skin and penetrate my every pore.

I look around, but the steam is too thick and it is too dark to make out anything, but it is eerily quiet, and I decide there aren't any other people around, so I allow myself to take out a long, audible breath.

Oh, my, it feels sooo goood. The heat finally warms me up, inside and out, chasing away the awful chills I've been having all day. I lay my head on the backrest of the stone bench and practically feel the tension dissolve and leave my body with every breath of hot, moist air that I take.

A gush of steam blows from an invisible gauge inside the steam bath. The steam is infused with the scent of lavender and eucalyptus. I am in fucking heaven.

I give out a loud moan, as I lift my feet onto the bench.

Suddenly, a chuckle comes from my left. I jerk my head in the direction it came from, but I cannot see anything, as the steam's even thicker now.

"You must be really enjoying this," a voice cracks. I immediately recognize it.

"Are you fucking stalking me?" I blurt out, annoyed.

"It works the other way around, Caramel." Mark laughs. "I was here first." I hear his flip-flops across the wet floor. He's coming towards me, I'm sure, though I cannot see him yet. I can feel him getting closer. "Which means," his body emerges from the balls of steam. "You are stalking me." His slender torso looks sleek with perspiration. He is so close to me right now that I can see the droplets of water or sweat, chasing each other down his toned chest and abs.

I suck in a harsh breath, without wanting to. Embarrassed by my reaction to him, I try to mask it as a cough.

What is wrong with me? I might be hormonal, but that's fucking Mark I'm drooling all over. He's my best friend. And, most importantly, he's not Patrick...

"You wish," I say, pulling my knees towards my chest and wrapping my arms around my legs.

There's a short silence, then he leans over me, placing his hands on the bench next to my thighs, literally caging me, and whispers in my ear:

"Maybe."

My eyes widen and I stop breathing. He straightens himself up, walks to the door, and leaves, without another word.

I let out the breath I only remember now I'm holding. I can feel my heart pounding against my chest.

Maybe.

What the fuck was that supposed to mean?

I put my feet back down on the wet, hot tile.

This is totally insane. I've known Mark my entire life. He's my best guy friend. He's totally asexual to me because he's Mark. There's nothing exciting about him. I've seen him completely naked when he was six years old. We've had sleepovers till Gloria and I turned ten. He's the person, who, along with Gloria, knows the most embarrassing moments of my life. He was there the exact day my period first came. He actually went out to buy me pads, because I was too embarrassed and I didn't want to tell auntie D. I've talked to him about my crushes and he told me and Gloria when he lost his virginity.

It's Mark.

I take a deep breath and shake the embarrassing thoughts out of my head. Clearly, I'm still intoxicated.

After spending a considerable amount of Mark-free time in the steam bath and in the sauna, I feel like a new person again.

Don't get me wrong, I'm absolutely never, ever drinking again, but I feel like I can actually go to dinner.

I shower and straighten my hair in the dressing room of the spa because I don't want to spend a lot of time in our room. It's crowded, and yesterday, it was fine, but now I want to not have to wait for the shower forever.

After I'm done, I put my bathrobe on and head straight back to the room to put some clothes on. Unfortunately, there is no way to avoid dinner with the parents tonight, so I need to make myself presentable.

I open the door to the Cabin and the first thing I notice is that the door to the boys' room is open. I don't know why, I feel a little disappointed.

When I walk in the living area of the girls' part, though, Mark and Patrick are sitting in the armchairs, watching TV. They're both very quiet, which is totally weird.

"What is going on with you two?" I ask, standing in the middle of the room.

"This new virus thing," Patrick frowns, and changes the channel. "I'm so glad it's far away."

I try not to blush, when his eyes meet mine, but there's a very high chance that my face and neck have turned crimson. I smile nervously and walk away, my ability to speak taking an unexpected vacation. I catch Mark's eye just when I am in the doorway to my bedroom and he looks pissed off.

I know he doesn't like Patrick. I'm still to find out why, though.

I walk into my bedroom and find Gloria lying on her bed, fully clothed and with her hair already done, looking at her phone. She lifts her eyes from the screen, when I walk in, bit then glides her gaze back down at her phone. She's wearing a camel-coloured sweater dress and sneakers, which is not typical for her. At all.

"Where's Alex?" I ask her, nodding to the empty bed.

"Downstairs in the lobby with Nate."

I let out an exasperated breath.

"What, are they glued together now?"

"You're just annoyed Patrick hasn't deflowered you yet." Gloria smiles mischievously, dragging her eyes up to me again. I grab a throw pillow from my bed and chuck it at her.

"I'm not!" I say.

"It's OK," Gloria says lifting herself up and swinging her legs over the edge of the bed. "It's gonna happen eventually. And I'll die a virgin, it seems."

"And whose fault is that? The boys in school are practically begging you to let them lick the soles of your shoes, yet you're totally ignorant about it."

"I just have high standards." She shrugs her shoulders.

"Impossibly high." I lift a brow at her.

"Well, we don't all have a lord, who fancies us." She folds her arms over her chest and tilts her chin towards the door.

"Shh, he's outside!" I wave my hands in front of me, mortified.

"Good," Gloria says. "Maybe, if he hears me, he'll stop being a cunt and finally do something about it." She pulls up to her feet, and, in two long strides, leaves the room.

The damn virus is the main topic at dinner tonight. Which is good, I guess, because at least nobody is actually interested in us. My dad is talking conspiracy theories to everyone, who'd listen. Unfortunately, uncle Matthew is seated next to him, and he stoically takes everything my father is giving him right now.

I'm seated between Gloria and Patrick. He's been unusually quiet and avoidant all day. I asked him if I ever said anything to him last night to offend him, because I don't remember much, and he said he was fine, just a little hungover himself. But I have the weird feeling there's something going on with him.

"What are you, kids, up to tonight?" Headmaster Farrell asks. My eyes shoot at Alex and Nate, who flush in a matter of milliseconds and I stifle a laugh.

"Nothing much," Nate shrugs his shoulders. "Hanging our in the room."

"You're so boring!" Auntie D says. "When I was your age, we'd get drunk and play Never Have I Ever and Truth or Dare, or stuff like that."

"Don't give them bad ideas, D," mum says. She looks almost happy tonight. She's wearing make-up for the first time in months and she's actually smiling and laughing. "They're way more sensible than we were."

"All I'm saying is that they shouldn't be wasting these precious moments together. They'll be gone too soon."

Then the conversation moves on to something else and our side of the table falls silent.

Gloria's hand covers mine and she squeezes. I turn to face her and a playful smile is curving her lips.

"No," I mouth to her. She lifts an eyebrow and turns to face Mark, who's sitting across from us. He's talking to Nate, so Gloria wiggles a little in her chair, trying to reach with her foot and kick him under the table. She clearly succeeds, because he turns around and spits and annoyed "What?"

Gloria leans over the table and motions him to move closer. They both lean across the table until their heads are touching. Then, she whispers loud enough for me to hear.

"I need your help."

"With what?" He frowns.

"I need you to buy alcohol."

"No." He shakes his head, pulling back in his seat. "After what happened last night? No way! If some of you, children, die from alcohol poisoning, I don't want it on my hands."

"Oh, come on! You're being over dramatic! No one will die! We'll just have some fun."

"Yeah, like the fun I had last night!" I say, turning to face Gloria. "It was fucking hilarious, blacking out for hours and waking up in his clothes." I tilt my chin at Mark.

"Don't act like you didn't like it." He winks at me.

OK, there's definitely something going on with him, too. I'm not sure if it's in my head, or if he's being unusually flirty. I love him to pieces and our communication has involved huge amounts of banter since we were children, but not like that. Not like this afternoon in the steam bath.

Maybe...

Not like now.

I squint my eyes at him, but don't respond.

"Fine," Gloria says, pulling up to her feet and pushing her chair back with her legs. "If you don't want to help me, I'm going to find someone, who will."

And she walks out of the restaurant.

Forty-five minutes later, I'm already fed up with my father's conspiracy theories and Patrick giving me the silent treatment. I excuse myself and head straight back to my room. I feel ready to go to bed now. I don't want to miss the early riding tomorrow, so I am having an early night. I still don't feel completely like myself after last night.

Just as the elevator doors are closing, a foot steps in between the them and they slide back open again. I raise my gaze to see whose body the foot is attached to and my heart jumps in my throat, when I see it's Patrick. I immediately look down at my feet, feeling the heat spread from my neck to my cheeks.

"Hey," he says, stepping in and standing next to me.

"Hey." I say, lifting my head half-way up to glance at him.

"Are you OK?"

"Yeah. I'm fine now. Just tired. I'm going straight to bed, when we get to the room."

"Good." Patrick says, looking at his feet.

God, this is awkward! Damn Gloria, why did she put it in my head that Patrick fancies me! I didn't know I fancied him myself, before she told me that! Now, I don't even know how to talk to him anymore! It's too awkward! I've never had a crush before, or whatever this is, so I don't know what's the protocol in this situation.

I have never even been kissed before, and I'm both excited and terrified whether Patrick might kiss me.

Plagued by my thoughts, I don't notice that we've reached our floor until the doors slide open.

Patrick and I head for The Cabin, but someone shouts behind us.

"Oi!" I turn around and see Mark, jogging towards us. "I took the stairs." He reaches us and doubles up to catch his breath. "I had to get out of that restaurant. I really didn't want sit through another Rolex vs. Omega conversation!"

"At least they have dropped the chemical weapons talks." Patrick laughs, as we approach the door.

I am the first one to take my key card out. I swipe it and open the door.

As we walk into the hallway/common area, I immediately feel something weird. I take a step toward the girls' room and see something on the floor by the door.

Shoes. Why has someone taken their shoes off here? And whose are those? They look male.

I push the door to the seating area open and instantly raise my hand to my mouth, silencing a loud gasp.

There's a man there, lying on top of what I can only assume is Gloria. They haven't noticed us yet. They are too busy examining each other's mouths. A soft moan comes out of Gloria.

A hand appears next to my face, holding a phone. I hear the flash of the camera go off and then Mark's laughter breaks the awkward silence.

Gloria's face appears from under the stranger, looking at us. She pushes at his chest and both of them rise from the sofa.

Mark is still holding his phone up, laughing and shaking his head.

"Fucking priceless," he says. Then, he nods toward the newcomer. "Who the fuck are you?"

Gloria pushes the now very embarrassed guy back and lifts herself off of the sofa. I can't help but notice he's dashingly handsome, with a chiseled face and dark brown eyes. He has what looks like a couple of days' stubble and his hair is longish and parted in the middle of his forehead.

"This is Marco," Gloria says. She walks around the coffee table and grasps a bottle of whisky that I didn't notice till now. "He works at the bar." She nods her head. "You see," she narrows her eyes at Mark. "I'm perfectly capable of taking care of my business."

Marco smiles sheepishly and waves a hand to us.

"Do you want us out?" Patrick asks politely. I glance at him. His ears are bright red now. Good guy Patrick.

"No," Gloria shakes her head. "My mum gave me an idea," she slams the bottle of whisky back on the table. "We're playing Truth or Dare." She puts a hand on her waist. "Let's get this party started."