Kevin - Als Ik Je Niet Zie (ft. Yade Lauren), Young T & Bugsey - Don't Rush (ft. Naïka) Remix

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I'm looking at Ibrahim, putting a scarf around Beth's hair to keep her safe from the sand. She laughs as Ibrahim says something funny in Arabic I can't understand. It annoys me so much, why is she laughing? He wraps the scarf around her neck and tucks it in the back of the jumpsuit she's wearing.

The camel sitting on the ground next to me makes a disturbing sound. It sounds like he's disapproving my thoughts.

'I know I need to stop thinking like that.' I whisper, talking back as if we are really having a conversation.

I see Brian running to Beth with his phone in his hand. He has the same scarf around his head, but then blue and he wraps his arm around Beth's neck when Ibrahim is done with her. She lifts her hand in the air and I see her eyes twinkle when they take a picture together.

'White or blue?' Ibrahim asks while holding two scarfs in his hands.

'Uhm.' I look at Beth. 'White please.'

Why did she choose white? Her favourite colour is blue, like mine. I would've chosen blue if I were her, but since she chose white, I chose white.

I look at her outfit. She is wearing a green jumpsuit... oooh... now I get it. If she would've chosen blue, the two colours would have clashed.

'All set.' Ibrahim says when he's done.

I pull my phone out of my pocket and look at myself. I look kind of cool.

I see Beth walking to me and she wraps her arms around my waist. All the conspiracy theories and stress disappears when she touches me. This woman will never know what kind of power she has over me.

'Liz! Do you want to be in the front?' Ibrahim yells.

'No!' She yells back without letting me go.

We're standing in the desert next to the hotel. Four camels are sitting on the ground, chewing on nothing. It looks kind of funny and I chuckle. Suddenly the sun disappears and we all stare at the sky in shock, even Ibrahim. The sun has been shining non-stop the moment we arrived and now it disappears.

'Wren! You go to the front! Then Shawn and Elizabeth.' He points at the two camels. 'And last but not least, Brian!' Ibrahim yells.

A couple of other employees from the hotel walk towards us and help every single one of us get on the camel. I wait until Beth sits on hers and then I climb onto mine.

'Hold on.' The man says when he taps on the camel's leg.

It stands up and I swing back and forth before it's finally standing on all four legs. All the camels are tied to each other with one rope leading to the camel at the front. One of the employees is holding the string in his hand and waits until every camel is standing.

'Have fun!' Ibrahim waves from the side.

He's not coming...?

Yes!

I am so pathetic. If Beth didn't want to be my girlfriend, she wouldn't be my fucking girlfriend and unfortunately for her, she is.

Elizabeth's POV

The man called Sammy - one of the employees of the hotel - is holding the rope and starts walking when we are all seated on a camel. I feel a lot of wind hitting me from the right, now I understand where the scarf is for. I feel the grains of sand hitting the scarf and somehow I enjoy the sound of it.

'Sammy!' I yell the man's name. 'Are you going to walk all the way there?' I ask in Arabic.

He nods as he walks up a hill of sand. My camel shakes his head a little and I almost fall when it starts walking up the hill.

Shawn laughs when he sees the devastated expression on my face as I hold onto the small iron thing on the saddle to keep myself from falling. Why did I want to do this again?

Two hours later we - the camels - are still walking through the desert and my legs start to cramp from holding on to the camel every time he walks up or down a hill of sand. I quickly ask Sammy how far the camp is from here and he says it's just twenty more minutes.

I can't stay like this for twenty more minutes!

I decide to make a rash decision and I grab my flip flops before I jump off the camel. My feet hit the warm sand and it feels amazing.

'What are you doing, Beth?' Shawn asks.

'I'm walking to camp.' I say, unwrapping the scarf around my head.

I quickly run to Sammy and he points me in the direction to the camp. After a couple of minutes, I see the camp in the middle of the desert.

'Beth! Wait!' I hear Shawn yell as he jumps off the camel too.

'You don't have to walk with me!' I yell back at him.

I stop walking and wait until Shawn catches up with me. He grabs my hand and pulls me closer to him.

'I'm not letting you fucking walk alone all the way there...' He says, also unwrapping the scarf around his head.

'And maybe because my balls were slowly dying.' He says again, pulling at the jeans between his legs.

I hear Brian and Wren laugh. I laugh too and we keep walking.

This wasn't a good idea either. Wearing my flip flops makes me trip and not wearing them hurt my feet. I don't know what's underneath this sand, but it's stinging in my feet.

'You're almost there! Turn left!' Sammy yells behind us.

Shawn and I start running downhill and I almost trip over the sand again. Shawn already helped me stay on my feet, like, ten times, so I have to stop falling.

Five minutes later we arrive and I walk through the small gates of the camp, with Shawn still holding my hand. I see a few people sitting on the cute couches next to a big tent.

'Hi, everyone!' I wave my flip flops in the air.

'Hello!' A woman my age with a big smile says.

I smile at her and look around at the other people who are eating something. Are we late for something?

I see Ibrahim emerging from the big tent on my left and he smiles at me while holding a plate of food in his hand. I hear Shawn sigh and curse under his breath.

'How did you get here?' I say surprised.

'With the Jeep.' Ibrahim says, sitting down at a table.

'There is a Jeep?' I chuckle. 'Really?'

He smiles and tells me about how he got here.

After our conversation ends he tells us that there's a buffet inside the tent and that we can get something to eat, since we must be pretty hungry.

Shawn and I walk inside and I grab my phone out of my pocket, holding it in the air.

'Of course there's no reception here.' I sigh.

'You could've expected that with all the sand around us.' Shawn says, handing me a plate with food on it.

I look at the plate. Shawn put everything on it, but he filled a little too much and some things almost fall to the ground.

'Hey, babe...' He looks at me with an empty plate in his hand. 'I appreciate you not giving me food like I'm a rabbit.' I point at the plate. 'But I'm not a lion either.' I chuckle.

'Oh please...' He raises one eyebrow. 'Don't tell me you're not hungry?' I don't respond.

He is right, I am pretty hungry.

'And whatever you don't finish... I will finish it.' He smiles at me.

He's so sweet.

Sometimes it still feels weird to be in a relationship. I always told myself that I don't need love, that I don't need a man in my life. I mean, everything someone else does for you, you can do for yourself, but now I see that you sometimes need someone to do it for you because deep down you know you will never do it for yourself.

And of course, that's not an excuse to treat yourself like shit and just to keep waiting for someone to do it for you, but you need someone to complete you.

That is also one of the reasons why you can't get pregnant by yourself, you need the missing piece to your puzzle to create another human being that will build a life and eventually will start looking for their missing piece. This way it has just become the endless cycle of the human race and deep down you know that this is how it's supposed to go and you can't do anything to change it. Honestly... you don't even want to change it.

'Beth.' Shawn's calm voice snaps me out of my deep thoughts.

'Yes.' I look at him, my mind still far away.

'What were you thinking about?' He asks.

'You are the missing piece to my puzzle, whether I like it or not.' I narrow my eyes when I finally realise it.

'Some lives only shine in unison with another...' He whispers, looking at me with the same realisation in his eyes.

I heard him say that before. Where was that again? I don't remember, but I do remember that I didn't get it. It didn't make any fucking sense and now it does.

I knew I loved him very soon in this relationship but deep down I was always waiting for that moment that everything goes downhill and I was expecting that my - or Shawn's - feelings toward one another would slowly disappear and we would break up. But to be honest here, I don't think we will ever break up because we don't love each other.

He's the one for me and no one can ever replace him. His imperfections make him perfect and I know that he loves me too.

'Feelings...' Tears sting my eyes. 'My mum was right... again' A tear rolls down my cheek with a soft smile on my face.

'Don't cry, babe...' Shawn puts his plate down on the table and wraps his arms around me.

'These are happy tears... they really are.' I start crying harder.

'I believe you... just hold me.' He says and I hear his breath hitch in his throat.

We stand there like that for a while and for once I don't care what other people think. I just want to hold him and never let him go.

That creative genius was in my wall tonight, for sure. I wrote the last part in not even ten minutes...

I can't believe this is chapter 40 already. I know I say that every time, but it's true! Every time I upload a chapter, I'm like, wtf that's one more chapter... hahaha

Thank you for reading!

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