I Want Your Love

ONE.

A/N: A visual idea of the location for the first chapter is above. Please vote and comment to let me know of your thoughts :).

Also - all non-English phrases or dialogues will have translations at the bottom of each chapter. However, if I do forget, then please tag me at that specific sentence and I'll fix it. 

Thank you so much and enjoy xx.

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"You know, it could be worse. We could be sleeping on the beach instead of the wooden floor".

Panesh's comment had all heads snap in his direction, each of them sharing their glares of frustration and one featured head shake. Panesh simply shrugged his shoulders before moving to sit behind his girlfriend on a large boulder.

Meraki watched as the rest of the men started walking down the beach to find a nearby camp site or any sign of life from the resort- they were becoming frustrated. The whole group were in a bind. They were just a couple of old friends who made the decision to have a reunion by going on a holiday. The destination? A popular four-star island resort in Fiji.

For Meraki, the chance to travel outside of South Africa was always an opportunity that she'd grab with both of her mocha-coloured hands. However, the chance that she would be travelling in the same group with her old crush, who was in the same group as their ex-girlfriend (also Meraki's old friend) was not what Meraki expected nor wanted.

Upon the nearly twenty-hour flight to the island, she had realised that she still found her old friend attractive and was scared that her feelings would resurrect themselves from the deep caverns of her heart - with bad consequences. 

Meraki was glad though that her current mental breakdown was being pushed back by their current situation, and she had to bite her tongue from saying anything that would erupt the already brewing volcano of negative energy.

"None of this would be happening if you hadn't opened your spoilt brat mouth Astrid", Rye snapped as he glared at the blonde who was perched on the beams of a wooden balcony. "Do not yell at me Rye", she yelled. 

"Ek het nie gedink dat ons sou eindig sonder 'n slaapplek nie. Ek is 'n klant, ek kan kla as ek wil. Sue me for wanting accommodation worth the four stars of this place", she retorted, earning groans from Panesh, Rye, Pan's girlfriend Kasey and Meraki's friends.

"We all spoke about the places that we would book, and we all agreed on those chalets because they were affordable. This place is not just a damn hotel, you can't be that blind", Rye argued. "And they were near a trail that lead to the beach", Kasey cut in.

"Exactly! Now we're in a desolate spot of this resort, in a tented area that only has two beds! Axel, please deal with your girlfriend", he fumed. Axel, seated on one of the beds, raised a brow at Rye's command. "She's not my girlfriend. Why must I take responsibility for her? She has her own mind, and Tweedle-dum didn't think to stop her from opening her mouth, so it's her fault", he jeered.

Axel ignored the squeak that came from the blonde who looked at him betrayed, trying to quell his own anger among other erupting emotions. However, before Astrid could defend herself, Meraki's close friends - Luca and Zaire returned from their hunt with miserable looks on their faces. "Why so glum apart from the obvious?", asked Meraki's best (and oldest) friend, Louise.

"Well, there's more tents and small bungalows for another kilometre down. We found one of the employees but when we asked, he explained that the bungalows were mostly for backpackers, but that they hadn't been used because of the thunderstorms that occur during the season. So basically, we're screwed if we sleep here tonight because it may rain buckets", Luca explained as he moved to lay on the other available bed.

"Ew, there may be bugs there - you could get sick", Alicia gripes. Louise scoffs, "Oh, so she speaks about hygiene but won't defend her friend when she's the reason Luca's lying on our potential bed for the evening".

Meraki and a few others hid their smiles behind their hands, but could not foresee the reaction by Astrid's best friend Alicia, aka Tweedle-dum. "You know what", she started as she approached Louise with hate in her eyes. "I don't even know why you're here! This was a trip for the six of us, not the rest of you tag-a-longs", she sneered. The tent went silent until Louise reacted by grabbing Alicia's pony tail, ensuing a fight.

The boys jumped in to separate the brawl, and as they vented their situational frustration, Meraki grabbed her phone and baseball cap before heading onto the sand. "Hey, where you going?!", Panesh called spotting the blue cap on the sand. Meraki turned towards him, "I'm going to find us a place to eat Pan. I need food to help me think of a plan. I'll send a message if I have a suggestion or when I find a place".

"No, you can't go alone. You're not familiar with this place", Pan argued. Rolling her eyes at the delay, she replied. "Who's going to accompany me when there's a battle royal happening?" Panesh went quiet as he glanced over at the sight of half of the boys still holding Louise and Astrid at arm's length from one another. Then, another one of Meraki's friends jumped off the other bed and walked towards her.

"I'll come along. I can't sit still anyway". "Thanks Haisley", Meraki smiled, nodding at Panesh before the pair headed in the opposite direction of where Luca and the boys returned from earlier.

"So, are we really going to find a place to eat?", Haisley asked once the two of them reached the paved rocky road leading back to the main hotel. "Nah, we're going to the reception. I'm going to see if I can't sort this out, because Astrid has always had this problem of starting unnecessary fires, and as usual someone else has to step in and wash out the flames". 

Haisley looked at her friend in confusion, "Why would you do that? Why would you jump in and solve the problems she's caused?"

Meraki shrugged as she watched locals and tourists intermingle along the roads and the beach side. "She's always been the selfish type to look out for herself. The closest she's cared about anything or anyone are her family and her pets. I fan out the flames because I don't want to deal with the consequences of her selfishness. I always look out for my friends and I, and she just happened to always be apart of that group", she explained.

The two went silent before Meraki spoke again. "Look, I'm not condoning her actions because I would prefer her to walk and apologise to the owner of the hotel for insulting them, the hotel and their culture, but I know that she won't and I don't want to get soaked by the rain while trying to sleep under a fucking tent. I flew here for a holiday and paid for good accommodation. I'm going to get that accommodation and if it means that I can save us and leave Tweedle-dum and Tweedle-dee behind, then so be it".

Haisley laughed at the nicknames before silently agreeing with her friend's words, with the hotel main building in their sights half a kilometre away from their feet.

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A/N: There's my first chapter! Sorry for the boring ending but it's just the beginning.

Here is the translation for the Afrikaans sentence above:

"Ek het nie gedink dat ons sou eindig sonder 'n slaapplek nie. Ek is 'n klant, ek kan kla as ek wil." = I didn't think that we'd end up without a place to sleep. I'm a customer, I can complain if I want to.

For those who don't know, Afrikaans is one of the national languages of my country (South Africa - we have 11 official [12 unofficial including SA sign language] languages). It's a pidgin language created from Dutch, German, Xhosa, English and a number of other languages that the Dutch borrowed from during Colonial & Apartheid period.

Random note: I can speak five of our 11 languages, including English and Afrikaans (had to learn them to pass school 😑)

K, Thanks - see you in the next chapter!