Ibiza Summer (6 page)

‘Phone credit,
por favor
. . .’ I said, pleased with myself that I’d managed to say something in Spanish other than ‘
gracias
’. The man behind the
counter stared at me blankly.

‘Er . . . phone?’ I said, holding up my mobile in the hope that he’d understand what I was trying to say.

More blank looks.

‘I look round,’ I said, suddenly wishing I’d taken up Spanish as a subject at school. My eyes darted round the shop, past the chocolate bars with foreign-sounding names,
brightly-coloured beach towels and cheap sunglasses, but there was nothing that suggested they sold phone credit. It was no good, I’d have to run back and get Ellie.

‘Looking for something?’ an oddly familiar voice suddenly said from behind me, making me jump.

It was him. Oh
noooo.
He was standing in front of me, a bike helmet under one arm and a tall blonde girl linked in his other. He looked even more gorgeous than I had remembered, if that
was possible.

‘Hi!’ I said shakily, in a state of total panic and shock – not the best combination when you’re trying to look cool. Was this man destined to sneak up on me all my
life?

‘Need a hand?’ he asked, smiling.

‘No, thanks. I’m just erm, looking for some, er, milk. Run out of milk,’ I stammered lamely. There was no way I was letting on about the phone credit. He might think I was
desperate to make sure I didn’t miss his call, if indeed he was planning to call. Besides, I was more interested in the girl holding his arm. She had to be his girlfriend. She was tall and
gorgeous with long slim legs that went on for ever and she had that effortless chic look about her. I felt sick. Why couldn’t I have been wearing something half decent, like the cute denim
mini I’d brought, or at least something that matched my sarong instead of this baggy old T-shirt that had a smiley face on it ironically saying,
Don’t worry, be happy.

‘You must think I’m stalking you,’ he said, meeting my gaze for a second.

If only.

‘This is Jo-Jo,’ Rex said, gesturing towards the beautiful girl next to him.

‘Hi!’ I said as brightly as I could.

She looked me up and down in an unfriendly manner and linked her arm into his more tightly.

‘We’ve not long been back from the party. I’m going off to the gym for a bit of a workout and then heading to the beach later to chill out,’ he said, and I was suddenly
besieged with the vision of him looking all gorgeous and working up a sweat on the treadmill. It made me even more flustered.

‘Cool.’
Oh no, here come the monosyllabic answers again
, I thought, so I added, ‘I had a really great time last night.’

‘Me too,’ he said.

We stared at each other for a second and Jo-Jo suddenly said, ‘Rex, I’m just going to get some water. You want some?’

‘I’m good,’ he replied, and I was relieved when she dropped his arm and walked off towards the cooler.

‘I guess it saved me a phone call,’ he said, ‘now that we’ve bumped into each other.’

‘Oh yeah, right, I guess so.’

This was just awful. I wished I could start the whole morning again. It had been so perfect just thinking about him, holding on to the memory of last night. I was so excited about the
possibility of seeing him again. I had premonitions of me looking fantastic and gorgeous, the pair of us hanging out together at the beach, the gentle wind in our hair and sun on our skin as we
messed around in the sea . . . but instead here I was sandwiched between these funny half-naked statues with
Ibiza Forever
written on them and banana inflatables, in my oldest, baggiest
T-shirt, and him linking arms with a model-type girl looking like something out of a shampoo advert. Could it have been any worse?

I could tell he sensed I was uncomfortable.

‘Jo-Jo’s a mate . . .’ he said, and I seriously wondered if in fact my thoughts were being projected above my head in a giant speech bubble for all to see.

‘I gave her a lift back from the party to San Antonio, where she’s staying.’

I sensed he was trying to make a point that he and Jo-Jo weren’t an item and I felt that strange rush of excitement.

‘So, do you fancy the beach later?’ he said, his beautiful green eyes shining. ‘I promise you don’t have to do any diving if you don’t want to.’

‘I’d really love to,’ I said, wondering if I sounded too keen. ‘Maybe I’ll just watch you dive from a distance.’

‘You can give me marks out of ten,’ he smiled broadly and I sensed relief in his voice, which gave me hope about the whole Jo-Jo and bad T-shirt thing.

‘Whereabouts are you staying? I’ll pick you up.’

‘I’m . . . we’re up at —’ and then I suddenly thought about Ellie and Co. and the last thing I wanted was for them to find out I was meeting a guy and heading off
to the beach with him. They’d only ask questions and want to meet him, and it would be embarrassing with Ellie doing the whole ‘look after her’ big-sister act. So I said,
‘I’ll meet you outside here if it’s easier.’

‘OK,’ he said. ‘I’ll pick you up here at three. And you don’t mind the bike?’ he asked, gesturing to his moped outside. Mind? I was ecstatic! I’d never
been on a moped before, let alone one that belonged to a drop-dead gorgeous DJ.

‘No, that’s cool,’ I said casually. I was getting good at doing casual.

‘Three it is then.’

‘Bye.’

I waited a few seconds for him to leave before I raced out of the shop.

‘You want phone card?’ the man said to me as I was leaving, but I ignored him.

It was nearly midday. I had three hours to decide what I was going to wear. And what excuse was I going to make to Ellie about sloping off all afternoon?
You’ll think of something,
Izzy,
I told myself as I broke into a run.

knew I should probably just tell the truth: tell Ellie that I’d met this guy and that he wanted to take me to
the beach. I knew Ellie would freak if she found out I was going to ride on his moped, and she’d probably doubly freak if she knew he was a bit older than me, even though I wasn’t sure
exactly by how much. I didn’t like the idea of lying to Ellie, but I justified it as a necessity so as not to cause her any worry. Anyway, I had to actually
think
of a lie first.

I decided to go for a bit of a dip to cool down and get my thoughts together. I got back, dumped
the
T-shirt and walked over towards the pool, adjusting my new yellow crochet bikini that
Mum had bought me.
Perhaps I’ll wear it to meet Rex
, I thought as I eased myself into the water and started to swim. Yeah, my crochet yellow bikini and my denim mini. Hopefully
he’d look at me and think I was a real babe, even though I wasn’t exactly chuffed at the thought of him seeing my wobbly bits.

I dipped my head underwater and let the coolness surround me. I loved swimming, even if I wasn’t very good at it and was a bit nervous in deep water. One of my dreams was to swim with
dolphins, and I imagined myself holding on to their fins as they glided gracefully through the water and I how I would be free from worries such as which bikini to wear or what lies to tell.

What was I going to say to Ellie?

I wished I had got that phone credit now, as I knew that if I called Willow she’d come up with something at the drop of a hat and —

‘Oops! Sorry!’

I’d bumped into someone as I came up for air and had knocked them off their crocodile-shaped lilo.

I gave them a hand back up on to it.

‘No worries,’ said the girl, flashing me a friendly smile. I figured she was a bit younger than me, although I couldn’t be sure because her hair was all over her face.

‘I was in a world of my own.’

‘You can borrow it if you like,’ she said, smiling at me in an over-zealous manner.

‘Eh?’

‘The lilo.’

‘Oh no, it’s fine. Cool lilo though,’ I said, just for something to say, because I didn’t really think it was that cool at all.

‘Yeah, my dad got it for me. Embarrassing, isn’t it?’

‘Well, that’s what dads are for.’ I laughed and wondered how I knew that, because I didn’t really have much experience when it came to embarrassing fathers. I’d not
quite reached that awkward stage of being totally ashamed by my parents’ presence when my dad had died. He was still just my big, cuddly old dad, someone I looked up to and who held me in his
arms when I was scared.

I suddenly felt jealous of this girl’s ability to be ashamed of her dad. I would’ve given anything to have the chance to feel that way about my dad. My stomach wrenched with the
realisation that I would never hide my head in shame or cringe with humiliation like other girls my age did when their dads would come to collect them from parties, or showed them any affection in
front of their mates, or bought them stupid lilos. All these feelings, and more, I would forever be denied.

‘I’m Edie, by the way,’ said the girl in front of me, snapping me out of my thoughts.

‘I’m Izzy,’ I smiled at her. ‘Good to meet you.’

‘You too. You here with your folks?’ she asked.

‘Well, my sister and her friends,’ I replied, looking over in the direction of Ellie and Co.

‘Lucky you,’ she rolled her eyes. ‘My parents have been driving me bonkers.’

She looked like she was struggling with the lilo now, so I reached out to help her keep it steady. ‘Fancy grabbing a Coke?’ she said. I looked around briefly to see if I could catch
Ellie’s attention, but she was still horizontal so I thought,
Why not?
It’s not like I needed her permission. So I carried on with Edie towards the bar and she promptly ordered
two Cokes and told the barman to put them on her dad’s tab.

‘Thanks,’ I said, taking a gulp and getting a proper look at her. Edie was a bit shorter and stockier than me, if that was humanly possible. Her shoulder-length brown hair was
straight, although it was difficult to tell as it was wet and hanging round her shoulders in straggles. Her face was all smiley and round, and there was a smattering of freckles across her nose
that made it look as though someone had sprinkled her with brown sugar. I noticed she was wearing a T-shirt over her bikini and I wondered if it was for the same reasons I wore T-shirts over mine
– because she was self-conscious.

‘Ibiza’s great, isn’t it?’ she said, wiping the strands of hair from her face. ‘Have you been clubbing yet? There’s no way Mum and Dad would let me go on my
own and there’s no way they’re coming with me thanks very much, I’d die of shame. How old are you?’ She didn’t even draw breath.

‘I’m seventeen,’ I managed to say. Well, I was
almost
seventeen and lying about a couple of months wasn’t going to hurt was it? Besides, I needed the practice.

‘Wow. I’m fourteen, fifteen in three months. Are you still at school? Where are you from? I wish I could go to some of the clubs out here, they look
amaaaazing
, but instead I
have to go to dinner with my parents every night and watch them drink themselves delirious on sangria and get all giggly and act stupid. Thank God I bought my headphones with me or else I’d
corpse with boredom.’

I wasn’t sure which question to answer first.

‘I’m from London and I’m just about to start Sixth Form College and I have been clubbing already – well, sort of – and I’m off to the beach this
afternoon.’
With him.

‘Am I jealous or what,’ Edie said with a smile and I thought how pretty her face was, even if it was a bit on the chubby side.

‘Perhaps we can hang out together?’ she asked, hopefully. ‘You’d be saving me from the holiday from hell.’

‘Yeah,’ I replied, weakly, feeling a bit sorry for her. ‘That would be great.’

‘Nice one!’ she squealed. ‘Why don’t you come and meet my parents. They’ll be cool letting me go off with you if they meet you and realise you’re, like, a bit
older and everything.’

‘Er, well, I’m not sure . . .’

This was the last thing I needed. I’d come away for the first time on my own and now I was going to be lumbered with someone else’s parents.

‘That way, I won’t have to watch my dad making a total prat of himself on the pedaloes down at Cala Jondal this afternoon.’