~6~
I'm so excited for you to read this chapter, which is dedicated to @NoorizaMaharani. Enjoy!
_________
So far on the trip, we had gone on picturesque hikes, tasted amazing cuisine, participated in traditional ceremonies, visited temples, swam in waterfall lagoons, zip-lined across a forest, snorkelled in the sea, gone sailing and water-skiing. And now, after all that, we had to leave.
"I'm gonna miss this place, it was just so...incredible," Talia sighed wistfully as we packed our suitcases on our last day.
"At least we can relive the experience with the millions of photos Huda took," Elif said, shooting me a teasing smile.
"Who's complaining now, huh?" I retorted jokingly.
"Aw, we had so much fun, didn't we?" Sofia reminisced. "Thanks so much, Elif. We owe you."
"No you don't," Elif replied brightly. "You guys being my friends is payment enough."
"Aw, group hug!" Talia loved hugs, so she spread her arms and we all gathered together, smiling and giggling and savouring the moment. These girls right here were my friends for life – no matter what. The girls and guys I had befriended in high school were nothing compared to what I had here. Yeah, back then you would promise all your friends you would stay together forever, but who knew what would happen in the future? Only Allah knew, and I was glad I had lost touch with the people who had been bad influences on me, replacing them with the ones who I considered family.
"So when's our flight again?" I asked, checking the time on my phone.
"Not until tomorrow morning," Elif replied. "So we have this last night to ourselves."
"Yay!" Sofia cheered.
Suddenly, Elif's phone chimed, and we all waited in silence as she read the text.
"My bro just texted me," she said slowly, as if this was a strange thing, and I exchanged a bemused look with Talia and Sofia.
"So?" I finally said when Elif didn't say anything more.
She spun around to face us, and there was an odd sparkle in her hazel eyes. "How would you guys like to go on a yacht...tonight?"
"What?" we all jumped up from the bed, unable to contain the emotions that overloaded our systems.
"Yeah, Ilyas just told me that the guys are going to this yacht party tonight, and he asked if us girls wanted to come," Elif explained. At the mention of party, I instantly became suspicious.
"Yacht party?" I echoed.
Elif nodded. "Apparently they met some people in their hotel that invited them to it, and it's just going to be casual."
"I'm in! Let's go, girls!" Talia bounced on the bed, dark hair as wild as her mood.
"Well, if it's a yacht, I'm definitely going," Sofia said, already unzipping her suitcase and rifling through it for an outfit to wear.
"But –"
"Huda, it's a yacht. How many times are you going to go on a yacht in your life?" Sofia fixed me with a determined but excited gaze, and her words instantly clicked.
"Yeah, we're going," I confirmed, before eliciting a squeal, grabbing Sofia's arms and jumping up and down with her. "We're going on a ya-acht; we're going on a ya-acht!" I sung, twirling around the room.
"Okay, Huda, pipe it down, we gotta be cool, okay?" Elif grabbed me by the shoulders and looked into my eyes while I felt like a fizzy drink that was about to explode. But I just nodded calmly and said nonchalantly, "Yeah, cool, okay, I can be that. As cool as a pool."
"Good girl," Elif patted my head, but behind her back I mouthed, "O M G!" to Talia and Sofia.
Needless to say, I wasn't cool. Not at all. And all through the taxi ride to the marina I was trying my best to breathe like a normal human being. Update – still not normal.
"I swear, Huda, we will dump you on the side of the road if you don't stop squirming," Elif threatened, but I just leaned on her shoulder and squeezed her hand, saying, "You wouldn't do that, Leafy."
After a moment, Elif said, "You're right, I wouldn't. But Talia would."
"True," Talia said from the front seat.
When we arrived at the port there was still a strip of light on the horizon, the sky thick with dark blue clouds and the sea reflecting the lights of the boats in the marina. The air was salty and humid as we strutted down the pier. Elif was texting Ilyas asking where they were, and as soon as she got a reply we heard a commotion behind us.
"Boo!" we all screamed simultaneously as we turned to discover our scarers, which happened to be Ilyas and his gang of misfits, laughing at our fear.
"Oh, man that was so funny!" Jason high-fived Ilyas, who grinned wickedly at a now-furious Elif.
"That was so not funny, Ilyas!" Elif began smacking him with her purse until Ilyas surrendered with an apology, but Elif still looked pissed, and so did the rest of us.
"Good thing I got that on video," Amir held up his phone with a cackle. He then proceeded to play the scene for us where we could all hear our girlish screams, and I rolled my eyes.
"Yeah, real mature, boys, real mature."
"Okay, let's just forget about what just happened and go find that yacht," Elif waved her hand dismissively and walked forward with the rest of us in pursuit. There were eight of us, and it almost reminded me of my group of friends in high school. We were a large group, always talking and laughing and daring each other to do crazy stuff, but there was no substance to what we did. We just did things without thinking, and hopefully tonight, I wouldn't fall into that trap again.
"Hey, it's the boys!" a loud voice boomed as soon as we stepped on the yacht. The owner of the voice was a short guy with a buzz cut and a Hawaiian shirt on, fist bumping all the guys who came onto the yacht. When he saw that Ilyas had brought us girls, his eyes lit up.
"The more, the merrier!" he exclaimed, and I realised then that he had an Australian accent. In fact, the people that invited Ilyas and his friends were Australian tourists, a group of uni friends on vacation, much like me and my girls.
The interior of the yacht was lit up and polished, with wooden floors and white walls, music playing in the background. There was food, refreshments and of course, booze, but I stayed far away from that and instead opted for a can of coke, sipping it as my friends and I scanned the place. There were at least twenty other people here, either dancing or talking, so it was your typical yacht party.
"This is the perfect way to end this trip," I grinned. "On a freakin' yacht!"
"Whoo!" Talia whooped, swaying her hips to the music blasting from the speakers. Sofia, Elif and I watched as she joined a group of dancers and tossed her hair around like a crazy girl. That was Talia for you – outgoing, wild and borderline crazy.
"Hey, ladies," Amir swung by, bobbing his head to the music while sipping a Red Bull.
"Hi," Elif replied absently while Sofia and I gave more enthusiastic responses, mainly because we were so stoked to be here.
"This yacht is so sick, right? Definitely fit for a prince like me!" Amir thumped his chest and then whooped, glugging down the rest of his can before our eyes.
"Get over yourself, Amir," I rolled my eyes as he scrunched the can in his hand, tossing it over his shoulder.
"Oi! Pick that up!" a voice yelled, and Amir widened his eyes.
"Excuse me, ladies," Amir dashed off while we laughed at his stupidity.
"Has he always been such an idiot?" Elif questioned.
"Yup," I answered.
I went back to the refreshments table after finishing my coke and scanned my options. Chips, fruit, more chips, muesli bars and lollies were spread out in their packets across the table, so I decided to be healthy and take some grapes and pineapple wedges, while stashing some chips and lollies in my purse for later.
When I returned to where my friends had been, I only found Sofia who was bobbing her head to the music. "Where's Elif?" I asked, munching on the grapes and suppressing a moan from how delicious they were.
"With Talia," Sofia jutted her chin towards the dance floor where we could see them dancing together and laughing their heads off. While I looked, Sofia pinched a few grapes from my plate, and I gasped.
"Sofia!" but she just giggled as she chewed them in front of me. "You are so silly." I then pulled out my phone. "Selfie?"
"Why not?" Sofia relented. It was only after we took the selfie that I realized there were a couple of photo bombers in the background: Jason and Daniel.
"Seriously?" I cried as they skittered off. I swear, Amir's friends were just as goofy and annoying as he was.
Suddenly, Talia came towards us, still swinging her hips about, and beckoned us over to dance with her. "Come on, girls, don't leave me lonely!" she dragged us with her, taking us both by the hands until we were in the middle of a swarming crowd of sweaty bodies. The music here was louder and the vibe was crazier, but soon Sofia and I got lost in it while finding Elif and Talia.
"Omg, I love this song!" Sofia shrieked in my ear once a particular song came on. I cringed at how loud it was, wondering how I was able to stand loud music back in the day, let alone any kind of music, but for now I just went with it, laughing and dancing with my best friends. I became hypnotised, enchanted by the moment, dazzled by the lights and entranced by the music. Who was I? What was I doing? All these things didn't matter while I had fun with my friends, my sisters, my BFFLs, and I forgot my promise to Mariam, but most importantly, my promise to myself. What was I doing?
"You scarf girls sure know how to have fun, huh?" a random guy I didn't know said to me, and when my eyes focused onto his cute but sweaty face, it was like a snap back to reality. This wasn't me; this used to be me – the girl I once was - but I knew my limits now.
"Excuse me." I pushed past him, past everyone, and I could hear him, this complete stranger, call after me, saying he was sorry and he didn't mean to offend me. If only he knew I wasn't offended; in fact, I wanted to thank him for being my wakeup call.
What was I doing?
I found myself on the deck, grasping the railing and panting for air, clean fresh air that I sucked in hungrily. I leaned on the railing with my arms and rested my head on top, hearing the throbbing of my heart in my ears and the distant throbbing of the music inside. I closed my eyes until my heartbeat returned to normal, before straightening up again and gazing out at the black ocean. Wait a minute...
I glanced down at the water, and noticed it was moving. But not only that, the whole boat was moving. We were moving.
"Why are we moving?" I asked aloud in confusion. I spun around and walked along the railing of the boat, passing couples who were making out and people smoking, and I made sure to hold my breath until I was a safe distance away from them. Seeing those smokers reminded me of the few times I had tried smoking with my 'friends' in high school, and I shuddered with disgust. There were parts of my past that I'd rather forget, but every now and then, they floated to the surface to haunt me. Like tonight.
I scanned the horizon for what I was looking for, and found it in the far, far distance. The shore was barely visible, but I knew that in a matter of hours, it would disappear completely. Plus, I swore I saw a flash of lightning in the distance. It was then that I wondered if what we were doing was even allowed, and whether we'd be back in time to our hotel so we could sleep before our flight tomorrow morning.
In all my dark ponderings, I suddenly remembered something – I had only taken one selfie this entire time. "Wow Huda, who even are you anymore?" I muttered to myself as I took out my phone. I couldn't believe it was already ten o'clock, so that would mean we had been here for over an hour. Had an hour really gone by already?
Anyways, I wasn't really fussed about how long we had been here, since I just had to show evidence for being here in the first place. My motto was: if you didn't take photos of the place, did you actually go there? I could just picture how jealous Haydar would be once he found out his sister got to go on a yacht. Never mind the fact that it was a party, just standing on this luxurious and extremely expensive thing was cool enough.
"Damn, the lighting here sucks," I sighed after opening the front camera. I really didn't want to use my flash, because it would just be too blinding and draw unwanted attention, so I just took a picture of me standing outside of the yacht, with the lights behind me, but that didn't look good enough.
"Time to up the exposure," I said to myself. Did I mention I talked to myself sometimes? Good thing there was no one around, since the party was inside, and the area where I stood was completely –
"Well, if it isn't the photographer."
Without even looking up I could tell it was Ilyas, who was up on the second level of the yacht, casually leaning on the railing. "I told you, I'm not a photographer."
"Whatever."
I ignored him as I finally adjusted my phone's settings to be optimum for the perfect selfie. This was an art, regardless of what my parents and friends thought. And right now, with the interior lighting of the yacht as my only source, and the dark ocean behind me as my backdrop, I was ready to take the perfect selfie. Until I saw my face properly for the first time.
"Yuck, I need a touch up," I said, rummaging through my purse for my lip gloss and mascara. And maybe some face wipes because I sure did sweat a lot from all that dancing.
"I'm flattered, but you really don't have to go through all that trouble for me," I heard Ilyas say satirically.
"I'm not doing this for you, idiot," I snapped as I twisted shut my mascara tube and shoved it back into my bag. "I'm doing this for myself." –ie, I added silently.
"Whatever floats your boat," Ilyas said with a chuckle before disappearing out of sight.
"I feel sorry for Elif if she has to live with that," I muttered, swiping lip gloss across my lips a little furiously. Unfortunately, that wasn't the best approach and I ended up furiously rubbing it off with a napkin and starting again. All for a stupid selfie.
"Okay. I'm ready now," I exhaled, speaking to no one in particular because it was still so deserted on this part of the yacht. I mean, it was a pretty big yacht and it could probably fit like a hundred people but there were only like thirty people here.
"Wow, after all that, the lighting still sucks," I groaned once I opened the camera. I was getting frustrated now, and it almost didn't seem worth it, but then I realised I had to get higher. I inspected the railing and was glad to find it was rectangular, meaning, I could stand on it without falling. But I had to be careful.
"Bismillah," I murmured, mounting onto the first rail and lifting the phone in front of my face, only to find it throwing a slight rectangular shadow onto me. "Ugh! I hate this!" I growled, positioning the phone so that there was no shadow. It was usually easy for me, but I was on a boat, after all, and a moving one too.
"Maybe just one more step," I said, looking down at the railing and gripping it tightly. It hadn't dawned on me how dangerous what I was doing was yet, and I couldn't let it dawn on me until I had completed my mission. There were four levels of railing, so one more wouldn't be so bad.
"Yes!" once I was standing on the second railing, the shadow of the phone was completely gone, and I was able to take the perfect –
"What the hell are you doing?"
What was I doing?
The voice had ruptured my perfect balance, and despite all that yoga I had done, there was nothing I could do to stop myself from wobbling about. "Whoa – whoa – oh my God, oh my God!"
I felt my upper body flip backwards so all I could see was the dark sky above me, and all I could feel was my heart lurching as I thought of the one thing I had to protect.
"My phone!"
Now this was where you would probably think, "Wow, Huda, how stupid are you?" because instead of using one hand to grip the railing or at least try to save myself, I used both my hands to cup my phone - my baby, my life – to my chest, before it all dawned on me.
I was falling.
____________
Ayyy cliffhanger!
Longest chapter so far, and I must admit I had a lot of fun writing it! Now the plot truly begins, and it'll only get better...😏
Bạn đang đọc truyện trên: AzTruyen.Top