Read Online The Day Of The Wave by Becky Wicks - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Becky Wicks
Ads: Link
face in the helmet is pressed against his back. I move my head, open my eyes.
'I'm OK,' I say into the wind, right as my ponytail slaps me round the mouth. He has a tattoo on his right shoulder blade that says T&C in an intricate, swirled black circle. It looks a lot like waves coming in. T&C. Terms and conditions. Or Toby and Charlie? Maybe both. The terms and conditions changed for all of us that day.
I close my eyes again as we turn down a dirt track, back towards the sea. Admittedly everything looks completely different to how it was when I left. Everything's changed. It looks like it did before the wave came in, only more modern in places. I recognize the shops set up on the roadside, the bananas and red and spiky fruits stacked haphazardly outside. I recognize the songbirds in cages and the piles of big green coconuts. Same, same, but different, like the T-shirts said on Khao San Road.
'Hold on!' Ben yells. I grip tight to his waist as we hit another bump. It's weird to have just met his Thai girlfriend. I don't know why I was expecting he'd be single. We're not exactly sixteen anymore. Besides, it's not like Colin and I aren't still talking.
Colin.
My insides twinge.
'Still OK?' Ben asks.
'I'm OK!'
When I showed up at the flat the other night, we agreed a break was best while I came to terms with what happened and while he let it be known that he's still completely wracked with guilt. He'd painted the hallway the color I decided on myself in an act of relinquishing control in such domestic matters, I assume. He's still the one I called just now when I couldn't get hold of Maria. He had to keep trying till he got hold of her, but even after she wired me some money he offered to do the same once it runs out.
I told him I was here in Khao Lak. I didn't tell him about Ben. I just said I'd bumped randomly into an old friend who lived here and decided now was the right time to return. I never did tell him about Ben anyway. I never told anyone. I saw him as my secret, I guess; someone I was keeping alive just by talking to him, telling everything to when times were shitty. Telling anyone he'd died would've put me in the basket with the nut jobs, even by my own admission, so I never said a word.
'Home sweet home,' Ben says now, slowing the scooter to a stop and flipping the stand down in a small dusty parking area. Palm trees are lining the start of another pathway to our left and a sign says Shady Palm Resort . Tiny yellow butterflies are flitting everywhere.
'Very fitting,' I say, pointing at the sign and then up at the trees as he holds out his hand and helps me climb off the back. He grins as I straighten out my T-shirt and shorts. I'll admit, that was kind of thrilling; maybe because I wasn't on it for too long. It's worrying enough being in the car when someone else is driving and those have windows and doors. I won't be doing it again.
'I like it here, more than on Bang Niang,' he says now, helping me take the helmet off. His fingers brush my chin as he wriggles the strap and when his blue eyes meet mine for just a second in the blazing sunlight I feel something in my tummy jump again. A stray butterfly?
'You live in a resort?' I say, squishing it.
'Is there any other way to live?' He raises his eyebrows at me comically, puts the helmet on the bike seat, motions me up the pathway with him. I run my fingers through my hair, try to keep my eyes off the way the sun shines intermittently off his shoulder blades and tanned upper back when we pass under a gap in the branches. Even through his black board shorts, the same ones he was wearing in Bangkok, I can see how toned and strong his bum and legs are. Ben got even sexier. I swallow, turn my eyes to the scenery.
Several small villas, all the same with wooden porches and hammocks are dotted about the place, and the lawns between them are manicured and glistening with water from the sprinklers. Frangipani trees add bursts of white and yellow every
'I'm OK,' I say into the wind, right as my ponytail slaps me round the mouth. He has a tattoo on his right shoulder blade that says T&C in an intricate, swirled black circle. It looks a lot like waves coming in. T&C. Terms and conditions. Or Toby and Charlie? Maybe both. The terms and conditions changed for all of us that day.
I close my eyes again as we turn down a dirt track, back towards the sea. Admittedly everything looks completely different to how it was when I left. Everything's changed. It looks like it did before the wave came in, only more modern in places. I recognize the shops set up on the roadside, the bananas and red and spiky fruits stacked haphazardly outside. I recognize the songbirds in cages and the piles of big green coconuts. Same, same, but different, like the T-shirts said on Khao San Road.
'Hold on!' Ben yells. I grip tight to his waist as we hit another bump. It's weird to have just met his Thai girlfriend. I don't know why I was expecting he'd be single. We're not exactly sixteen anymore. Besides, it's not like Colin and I aren't still talking.
Colin.
My insides twinge.
'Still OK?' Ben asks.
'I'm OK!'
When I showed up at the flat the other night, we agreed a break was best while I came to terms with what happened and while he let it be known that he's still completely wracked with guilt. He'd painted the hallway the color I decided on myself in an act of relinquishing control in such domestic matters, I assume. He's still the one I called just now when I couldn't get hold of Maria. He had to keep trying till he got hold of her, but even after she wired me some money he offered to do the same once it runs out.
I told him I was here in Khao Lak. I didn't tell him about Ben. I just said I'd bumped randomly into an old friend who lived here and decided now was the right time to return. I never did tell him about Ben anyway. I never told anyone. I saw him as my secret, I guess; someone I was keeping alive just by talking to him, telling everything to when times were shitty. Telling anyone he'd died would've put me in the basket with the nut jobs, even by my own admission, so I never said a word.
'Home sweet home,' Ben says now, slowing the scooter to a stop and flipping the stand down in a small dusty parking area. Palm trees are lining the start of another pathway to our left and a sign says Shady Palm Resort . Tiny yellow butterflies are flitting everywhere.
'Very fitting,' I say, pointing at the sign and then up at the trees as he holds out his hand and helps me climb off the back. He grins as I straighten out my T-shirt and shorts. I'll admit, that was kind of thrilling; maybe because I wasn't on it for too long. It's worrying enough being in the car when someone else is driving and those have windows and doors. I won't be doing it again.
'I like it here, more than on Bang Niang,' he says now, helping me take the helmet off. His fingers brush my chin as he wriggles the strap and when his blue eyes meet mine for just a second in the blazing sunlight I feel something in my tummy jump again. A stray butterfly?
'You live in a resort?' I say, squishing it.
'Is there any other way to live?' He raises his eyebrows at me comically, puts the helmet on the bike seat, motions me up the pathway with him. I run my fingers through my hair, try to keep my eyes off the way the sun shines intermittently off his shoulder blades and tanned upper back when we pass under a gap in the branches. Even through his black board shorts, the same ones he was wearing in Bangkok, I can see how toned and strong his bum and legs are. Ben got even sexier. I swallow, turn my eyes to the scenery.
Several small villas, all the same with wooden porches and hammocks are dotted about the place, and the lawns between them are manicured and glistening with water from the sprinklers. Frangipani trees add bursts of white and yellow every
Similar Books
