Drenched | ✓

tres

Julie, I'm so sorry. I don't know how it happened. But I slept with someone.

"Don't know how it happened," I mimicked with an almost painful eye roll. "Give me a fûcking break, you wank stain."

I slipped on a summer dress and did my hair without looking at it again. But, when I sat down in front of the mirror, I couldn't help reaching for it again. It just happened. Was there something wrong with me?

Again, I threw it aside.

"You alright, darling?" Grandma asked.

"Peachy," I muttered, brushing my hair a little too roughly.

She cane further into the room and perched on my bed. "What's happened?"

"Tim cheated."

"Again?"

I sighed. "Yeah. I don't know why I thought he could change. He's such a, such a—"

"Bastard?"

"Exactly," I said. "An top class bastard."

"You're better without him," she told me, rubbing my arm soothingly. "He was punching way above his weight anyway."

I chuckled. "Well he's not anymore."

"So you're finally done with him?"

"I want to be," I said, gnawing on my lip. "It's just hard. We've been dating since, since I can remember really. It's complicated."

"Just leave him for tonight then," she said. I knew she didn't agree with me going back to him the first time, and she definitely wouldn't now, but she tried to keep her face unreadable. "Make him worry a bit, yeah?"

"Alright," I agreed.

"Come on," she said, flattening out my dress as I stood. "Nicolás is waiting."

We went down the stairs. I opened the door to see him, his jaw clenched and features so sharp they could cut a bitch. The bitch being Tim.

"I'll see you later!" I called to her as Nicolás began walking away. I hurried my pace to catch up with him. She waved me off before closing the door.

We walked in silence down the track to the bottom of the hill. The sea was visible from my window, yet it felt far longer on foot than it looked.

"Your mum said they do this every year?"

He 'mhm'ed. Great conversation, I though sarcastically.

"What for?" I asked, needing something to stop this odd silence.

He sighed. "Have fun, drink, release sexual tension."

I scoffed. "And you wait all year for it?"

"There are other parties," he said, glancing at me momentarily. "Just not as big as this one."

"I see," I said, even though I didn't really see at all.

"You don't have to babysit me, whilst we're there by the way," I told him. "What I mean is, don't let me get in the way of you having fun, drinking," I said, counting each thing on a finger. "And releasing 'sexual tension.'"