Chapter 21

Ziya

“Henry, you fucking ass—NO!” cried out as I saw my phone slipping from his hand, only to fall to the floor. It broke. “No! Fuck! Look at what you have done!” I screamed, picking up my phone. The screen was shattered.

Without Max’s number, I had no way to reach him, at least not right now. And to make it worse, Max thinks I’m with Henry! “WHAT DID YOU TELL HIM?” I screamed, grabbing Henry’s cheeks, pressing into his face with my fingertips, hoping I would bruise his skin.

Henry hiccupped again. “I said he needed to piss off. And that you’re m-mine.”

~~~~~~~~~~

I smiled while looking at my phone, reading Max’s texts.

I miss you

Things have been crazy these past two weeks. Utterly crazy.

After the ship had sailed us ashore, we had to stay in a hospital in Chile for one whole week. Apparently, Chile was the closest country the ship was permitted to stop. It had been a weird time during the foreign hospital stay. Max and I couldn’t stay in one room and I honestly had never felt more lonely than I’d felt in that week.

I can’t wait to hold you again

After that, we flew back home and had to say goodbye to each other at the airport. It was hard, very hard.

Max and I had promised each other upfront that we would meet again, as soon as possible.

So when he’d asked me if he could fly my way this weekend—which would be tomorrow—I was so happy. That, until I sadly had to say no to his proposal. When I saw my mom for the first time, I realized that I had to spend time with my family this weekend instead of spending it with Max and he should spend time with his. Mom seemed at least ten years older since the last time I saw her, and it had only been a few weeks. It left me shocked. Our family wanted and needed our full attention, which was only normal. These people thought they had lost their children. There’s no worse feeling than that.

Back then, my decision to cancel Max and my own plans of hooking up felt like the right one, but right now, my family drove me crazy and I missed the guy a lot.

It felt like I was homesick while I was at home.

To kiss you

I scrolled through the long pages of messages and pictures. This nineteen-year-old boy didn’t have a Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram page, so we could only send texts via WhatsApp. Really, which guy his age didn’t have at least one social media account?

“Cassie, are you listening to me?” My mom asked, snapping me out of my thoughts.

“Huh?”

“You should put your phone away, hun. Give that thing to me.” Mom held out her hand but I wasn’t gonna give her my phone. Fat chance. “I can see you’re tired,” she then said, withdrawing her hand again.

The first thing she had done when I was back, was taking me to the doctor for another check-up. As if I hadn’t had those in the hospital and on the ship already. To please her, I agreed to her wishes. Of course, I did. The doctor had said that my body was in great condition, apart from the many mosquito bites. She was happy again.

Sniff your hair. Hold you close. Damn, please call me, Cas. I need to hear your voice.

“You’re not getting my phone, Ma,” I answered.

“Did you just receive another interview offer?” she asked, looking displeased. “They should leave you alone.”

Since I came back, there were a lot of journalists, YouTube vloggers, talk show hosts, and more people that wanted to know everything about what had happened on the island. I’ve been offered crazy amounts of money to sit with them for an interview, but I had refused every single one of their offers because Max and I had agreed that we wanted to keep our adventure to ourselves. And although I would probably agree to certain offered numbers if it was up to me, I refused them anyway because I knew Max didn’t want it.

As if Max wasn’t Mister Perfect before, I now had one other thing to add to his Mr. Perfect list: he wasn’t greedy for money, power, or attention. A good quality if you asked me.

“I was reading Max’s messages,” I answered.

Please call me soon, babe

“Again?” my sister asked, walking into the room with tea for all of us.

“Yeah… I miss him,” I admitted.

I wanted to call him, but these two were keeping me busy all day long. Max had called me four times already, but I didn’t want to pick up to avoid my mother and sister rolling their eyes again. I’m going to call him back after I manage to work these two out of the door. The sooner the better.

“Don’t you think it’s time to go on with life? He’s nineteen,” Betty said as she sat next to me. My sister was nowhere near the hopeless romantic girl I could be. She was very down to earth. She simply couldn’t understand how I had fallen head over heels with the younger. “You were stranded together. He was there for you when you needed him, but now real life begins again, Cas. He’s still in school. He lives a few hours away. You have your own company and your whole life here, while he has it there. And he’s living in a whole other moment in his life than you are. You’re almost ten years older than him. You—”

“Jesus, woman! Are you done already?” I snapped.

“What?” she asked, innocently.

“I don’t need to hear the same bullshit every time again,” I replied.

“Betty, leave your sister alone,” Mom said. “And, Cassie... You don’t know how it has been for us… We’re just worried about you,” she whispered, eyes glazing up again.

I sighed. “I do know, mom. You missed me, you thought you’d lost me. And what you had to go through was so very awful. But Betty said it herself, life goes on. And you both need to give me some air to breathe. You’ve been here with me every single day since I’ve returned, from morning to evening. And if dad is done with work, you make him sit here too, while the man just wants to watch his sports. I’m here, I’m alive. And… I just want some me time.”

“Fine, fine,” Betty said. “Let’s finish our tea and then we will go.”

“Thanks, Bet.”

As soon as they were done, Betty stood up. I followed her and hugged Betty first, then Mom. I gave her a big one.

“I’m sorry for what I said about Max,” Betty said softly.

“I know you don’t mean things in a bitchy way,” I replied. Or maybe she did, but I knew she said them because she was worried for me. “When he’s here for a visit, I’ll let you guys meet him.”

“Okay. Let me know what color toy car I should buy for him as a welcome in the family present. Red or blue? I don’t know what the kids like these days.” Betty chuckled at her own joke. I stomped on her toe, making her whine. Serves her right.

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