Never Beside You × 5SOS

More - Chp. 14

In the last chapter...

It's the beginning of an awesome vacation. We thought. Everyone thought. But would it be life, if it turned out the way it's planned?

As soon as we were in the Netherlands, we just wanted to get out of the van and move after sitting still for such a long time. We went straight to the Water Amusement Park and to our surprise, the weather seemed just great today.

Everyone changed into swimming clothes and went directly into the refreshing water... Except for me. Now I'm sitting here, outdoor blanket spread on the grass, the sun shade providing a pleasant shadow to hide from the sun.

I hear footsteps on the grass and Jade shows up in front of me, looking just as pale as me, since she probably didn't spend a lot of time outside in the daylight these past months. She starts, "You don't wanna come into the water with us?" and I look down my body, then I shake my head.

I'm in a constant state of being uncomfortable in my own body, and I feel bad for thinking this, but do I really want to be around the others right now, when they are enjoying themselves with their relationships and perfect bodies...? I'd feel left out anyway. I don't know what's wrong today, usually I'm not such a cry baby.

I just can't do it. Not today. Jade just nods and sits down next to me. I'm thanking her a thousand times for that on the inside, for not asking why and just being okay with it. Not pushing me to do something I don't feel comfortable with.

"Wanna listen to music together?", she asks as she takes out her phone and earphones. "Uhm, yeah that sounds great," I give her a small smile, trying to hide the enthusiasm that breaks loose in my soul every time she's close to me. She hands me one of the earphones, I put it in and we both lay down.

She's so close. I try not to think about it and focus on the song that's playing now instead. She chose 'Beast Of Burden' by The Rolling Stones and it helps me to calm down a little... It's on my 'fave songs'-playlist and it's kind of relaxing.

Her choice of music was just wonderful and we didn't talk all the way through. It's as if she knew that I needed a break from socialising. And to be honest, even not talking and just lying next to each other counts as spending quality time together, for the simple fact that it happened with her.

The rest of the day was spent in Amsterdam, walking all around the city, buying an uncountable amount of souvenirs along other stuff and taking pictures of each other. Then we parked the van in Zandvoort, near the ocean, where we stayed to spend. Who would choose a hotel over this?

General POV

After thei successful day in the city, they all sat around at the fire in their camping chairs and remained there for a few hours, just talking and goofing around. The one or the other drink was shared amongst them, but two out of the group clinked bottles more often than the rest.

Michael had a few beers too much, as well as Jade. The reason for this might be that Michael got caught everytime he was staring at her a tad too long and had to create an alibi for it, so he just said cheers and they shared a grin every time when taking a sip out of their bottle.

A while later, one after another left the circle to go to sleep. It was pretty late after all and they had to leave for tour in Australia the following day.

Remaining at the end when everybody else had hit the sack already and seemingly not wanting to leave were: Michael and Jade. They already sat next to each other, but Jade swooped a little bit closer now.