Chapter 160

GREECE

I watched as the waves rose and crashed repeatedly against each other and sometimes soak the sand by the shore. I was quiet. I hadn't spoken to anyone or even myself in hours. It gave a strange sensation, like I'd forgotten the sound of my own voice. Like I'd always been here, sitting on the cool sound, watching the sea.

A part of me didn't want to end the quiet. I wanted to stay that way for as long as I could but…

“Greece? Are you coming?” Joe called out from behind me, his voice disrupting the calm I'd enjoyed for hours and of course bringing my mind back to the present.

I turned around to look at him, his dark brown skin was shiny with sweat, no doubt he'd been running around with Alicia, his girlfriend and my friend.

“I don't think I can join you guys today,” I admitted, feeling a pang of guilt for having to turn them down for the third night in a row.

We were out on a ‘school trip’, at least that was what I told my mother. If not, why else would she let me