The Games We Play

01 | I Got These Pills You Can Take

"Sure. Just try not to overpack."

"Rocio, there's no such thing as overpacking. I need to be ready for whatever situation life decides to put me in, yeah?"

I chortled and blew her a kiss. "Pack as much as you want. And um, Axel and Reeve might be coming over tonight too."

"Bloody hell, you really want to test me, don't you?" she groaned. "Fuck it, fine. I'll be a good girl. Might as well call Reeve and ask him to drive me to yours. See you later."

I retrieved my phone from the sofa and called a goodbye before slamming the front door shut behind me, almost hoping Reeve would tell her he couldn't pick her up. I seemed to be the only one aware of the huge crush he had on Talia.

He was perhaps one of the nicest people I knew and he would do anything for both me and Talia. While she freely used his kindness for her own comfort, I tried to avoid asking him for favours. He was one of those people who had a hard time saying no and I didn't want to use him.

During the fifteen minutes it took for me to walk home, I thought about the following days. My parents had been nice enough to lend us their quite luxurious estate in Ibiza over the three upcoming weeks and I was excited to return to the island where I had spent the bigger part of my summers growing up. I had never brought friends there before but when Talia suggested we should go there instead of booking a trip to Greece or Cyprus like everyone else, I hadn't been hard to convince.

With the living arrangements already taken care of, all we had to pay for was the flight tickets. Ibiza was an expensive island to live on during the summer months, at least when you planned to go out a lot, so every penny we could skimp on was welcome.

I had asked Axel if he wanted to come with and he had been reluctant at first, claiming the whole rumoured wild nightlife the island offered wasn't for him. But when Reeve heard of the news and invited himself, Axel didn't have much of a choice. The boys had met through me and unlike the situation with my best friend, Reeve and Axel immediately hit it off.

How Clara got invited was still beyond me. I hadn't gotten the impression Axel was close with her but for some reason, he thought it was a great idea to bring her.

When I stepped into my flat I was greeted by a low meow from my cat Biggie Smalls, mostly referred to as Big. The irony wasn't lost on anyone as he probably was the smallest cat ever known to man.

"Hi bud," I cooed and picked him up, scratching lightly under his chin while he purred loudly and rubbed his face against my knuckles.

One of my former and biggest issues with going away was that I couldn't leave Big alone for that long. I had informed Talia of this when she first mentioned her idea, telling her I simply was unable to be gone for three weeks. But sneaky as she was, she had called my mum behind my back and managed to get her to agree on letting him stay with her while we were gone.

I shouldn't have put it past her to reach out to my parents - she was ruthless when she had her mind set on something. We had known each other for so long; she was the first friend I made when my family moved from Spain to England.

At the age of seven, I struggled with not being able to speak English. Kids seemed to distance themselves from me, having troubles with me because they couldn't understand what I was saying. For Talia, it had never been a problem. She managed to communicate with me despite not knowing any Spanish and slowly she helped me settle into the new culture.

As time passed, we stuck together and sixteen years later she was still my closest friend. I had lots to thank her for and didn't know where I would be today if it wasn't for her. Sure, my parents put me in a school where I eventually learned the language flawlessly, but she taught me so much more.