The Void Between Hearts ~~ongoing~~

ⒷⒾⓇⓉⒽⒹⒶⓎ ⒷⓁⓊⒺⓈ

  ℬᎾℳᎯ

12AM, 24TH SEPTEMBER 2019.

"Happy birthday Ivan, you're a man now. . ."

Nah. That's not going to work.

I sit up and fold my legs on the small bed. We checked in forty-five minutes ago, our rooms are on the second floor and the hotel, just like everything in Venice, favours style over space. It's small. Not small like a kiosk or living house, small when compared to Maasai Mara and Zanzibar, but style beats space anyday. The room smells like something Mom would flip over, european scents and cinammONY things. Not grass and ocean. Everything else about the hotel, I didn't memorise because I was too exhausted.

My phone buzzes, lighting up the dark green duvet. A cake dances across the screen: IVAN'S BIRTHDAY!!!

I know what I'm going to do, I'll send him a simple text, nothing special, after all, I'm spending the whole day with him.

"Hey, happy birthday. I'm super exhausted so I can't romanticize anything. Don't reply 'cause I would have gone to sleep. That's a rule." It sounds simple enough so I send it. After the message is marked as delivered, I squeeze the fluffy pillows, exhale Venice and close my eyes.

********

The day starts like any other great day in Venice. I wouldn't know, being that it's my first great day, but you get the gist. Rippling waters, people on passing gondolas speaking Italian: Ciao here and there, Bellissimo this and that. I'm on the second floor but it sounds like it's coming from outside my freaking window.

"First things first," I check my phone, sure enough he replied at 12:10AM.

A knock on my door distracts me from replying him. I jump off the bed, stealing a brief glance from my window at all the brown roofs spanning the city, before walking over the rugged floor to the wooden door. I peep at the intruder and start smiling.

"Rule breaker, I said don't reply." I say.

He laughs. "Are you just getting up?"

I leave him at the door and walk over to the huge dressing mirror. Drool marks and frizzy hair. Yikes. "Yes. I'm just getting up." I laugh at myself, then turn back to find him watching me. I totally forgot I'm wearing my night-tee, it's not exactly well covered. I pull it down but cotton isn't the most obedient fabric. I give up trying to cover up and he smiles.

Maybe I should give him a birthday kiss, compensation for bad texting. Nope, not brushed, my breath is poison.

I start to walk back to him but I stop. My body feels afloat. I shake my head, then take another step and the room tilts. I grab hold of the wall to steady myself. He rushes to hold me. "Bo, what's wrong?"

"I feel dizzy."

"Should we go to the hospital?"

I manage to steady a glare at him. "On your birthday?" My stomach growls an angry long growl. He looks down so I know he heard it too.

I look back at him and he starts laughing. "You need to eat something. That's why you're dizzy. Come," he leads me to the bed and we sit. "So I wanted to tell you, we can have breakfast and then settle for a spa afterwards. Would you like that?"

I roll my eyes and drop my head in my hand. "It's your birthday, you're eighteen, that spa idea sounds like a golden jubilee plan."

He laughs again and falls backwards on the bed. "I don't feel any different. Eighteen is a hoax."