It was the second day of our vacation and I had planned to show Alexia around. When we both had woken up and had breakfast together, I took her to the garage.
"You're gonna show me around on that?" She pointed to the Vespa parked in front of her. Her mouth was hanging open in surprise.
"Yeah." I walked past her and put the backpack that I had made with some snacks and drinks in the scooter.
"And you know how to drive that thing?" Alexia asked, still not convinced about our trip with the scooter.
"I do. I've been driving that thing for a long time." I smirked at her nervousness. It was cute.
"Okay." She gulped. It eased her worries a bit, knowing that I had done this multiple times before but still she couldn't help but be nervous.
"You trust me?" I went to stand in front of her.
"I do." She looked me right in the eye. There was no hesitation, whatsoever.
"I won't let anything happen." I smiled at her one last time and got on the scooter, driving it outside.
Alexia stood rooted in her place while I was waiting for her to get on. Instead she kept staring unsure at the vehicle.
"You do realize you have to get on in order to get somewhere, right?" I chuckled at the nervous girl.
Alexia scoffed at my remark but it successfully got her out of her staring match with my scooter. She eventually got on, instantly wrapping her arms tightly around my waist. Not that I was complaining.
"You're ready?" I looked back a bit so I could see her.
"No." She firmly replied, making me laugh internally.
"Hold on." I shook my head.
"Don't worry. That won't be a problem." She squealed at the end, tightening her grip on me when I decided to mess with her a bit and sped away without warning.
"I hate you." I heard her yell out, her face buried into my back.
"No you don't." I laughed, slowing down a bit.
"No, I don't." She mumbled, agreeing.
I had planned to drive to Biokovo, a mountain where the 'Skybridge' was located. It was a beautiful trip with the Vespa through the landslide of Dalmatia and the view at the Skybridge itself was also very nice.
The closer we got to our destination, the more comfortable Alexia seemed to get. Her arms were still tightly wrapped around me but it wasn't a dead grip anymore, a smile plastered on her face while she enjoyed the scenery and the breeze in her face.
Along the way we stopped a couple of times to drink or snack something or to simply enjoy the view and take some pictures together.
"And here we are." I parked the Vespa in front of the small building that blocked the view from the bridge a bit and took off my helmet, placing it on one of the mirrors.
While I was doing all that, Alexia made no move to actually get off the Vespa. Instead she remained seated with her arms wrapped around my waist and her head buried in my back again.
"You realize, you have to get off now, right?" I chuckled at the girl who was sitting behind me.
"I'm comfy." She mumbled
"I know but I can't drive the Vespa any further. If we wanna see the bridge, we have to get off here."
I heard a small sigh and I felt her get off. While I was parking the scooter, Alexia was looking at the stairs that led to the bridge with a smile, undoing her helmet.
"Waw, it's beautiful." She breathed out leaning on the railing admiring the view while I did the same.
"Yeah, it is but wait till you get to the top." I smiled her way.
"We're going higher?" Her eyes lit up, looking at me expectantly.
I nodded and pointed to the top where we would be going. We stayed a bit longer admiring the view and taking pictures before we continued our journey to the top.
Reaching the top Alexia even got more excited. We parked the scooter and I took her to the small hiking trail around it. She was in awe, that was for sure.
"Pretty sure you have these views in Barcelona too. You seem like you've never seen it." I chuckled at Alexia's amazement.
"I have, that doesn't mean I can't be amazed by it. Maybe we should be more open to being amazed by things instead of thinking of it as normal." She smiled at me before looking back at the view.
"Maybe you're right." I nodded in agreement.
Alexia and I had a fun day, exploring the Croatian countryside. We had stopped by tons of cute and cozy places and taken loads of pictures of ourselves and the beautiful sceneries.
Upon arriving home there was little time to rest. We may or may not have forgotten the time, perks of having fun, and had to race home to be on time for the 'family dinner' as Neda would call it.
"My baby!" Before I could even say or do anything I was engulfed in a big bone crushing bear hug peppered with kisses all over my face. I could hear Alexia chuckle at the behavior of the older woman while I could only groan.
"Hey to you too." I mumbled into the woman's shoulder. Even though I wanted to be tough, I couldn't hide the fact that I secretly loved the motherly gesture.
"Mom don't embarrass her in front of her g-" I shot Mario a glare that made him not finish his sentence but Neda had obviously heard the remark her son was about to make and shifted her focus to the girl behind me.
"And who is this beautiful young lady?" Now letting go of me fully. She even pushed me out of the way a bit.
Alexia was nervous, that much was clear so I decided to help her a bit.
"Neda, this is Alexia. One of my best friends and teammates. Alexia, this is Neda. A close and very dear family friend." I swung my arm over Neda's shoulder, squeezing it a bit.
"It's nice to meet you." Alexia took a step forward, holding out her hand. Neda looked at the hand and then back to the girl before slapping the hand away and pulling her in for a hug.
"Yeah, I should have mentioned that she's a hugger." I pressed my lips together, realizing my mistake.
"Come come now. Let's meet the others." Neda ushered her into the living room, leaving me behind in the hall.
"Sure, I love to meet the others. I'll follow you." I mumbled while closing the door.
Mario approached me and swung his arm around my shoulder, laughing.
"Seems like you're no longer the favorite." He smirked. I rolled my eyes at the younger boy.
"Seems like it." A playful frown on my face, making him laugh even more.
"That's what happens when you bring your girlfriend along." The smirk on his face only got bigger, fully aware that he was successfully winding me up.
"Not my girlfriend." I grumbled, crossing my arms over my chest.
"Sure, keep telling yourself that." He laughed even harder and guided me into the living room.
The sight I was met with warmed my heart. Alexia was already laughing and talking with my friends. It was like she had done this a 100 times.
"Stil sure about the 'not being your girlfriend thing'?" He smirked at me with raised eyebrows. I didn't reply, I just rolled my eyes.
I walked over to Alexia and the Spaniard turned around with a smile on her face, looking amazed by all the different kinds of food on the table.
"How many people are actually coming?" She asked dumbfounded.
"Just us." I shrugged, grabbing a glass of wine. I handed her a glass as well that she eagerly took.
"What?"
"Well us and another family of four."
"But that's food for a whole army." Her eyes widened.
"Welcome to Croatia. What can I say? They like to cook and they are good at it too." I grabbed myself a plate and gave one to her too.
We got our food and sat down at the balcony with the others laughing, enjoying The rest of the evening.
After another sleepless night I was preparing breakfast. I was humming along to the tune the radio was playing, completely unaware of the eyes that were carefully watching me dance around in the kitchen.
I almost died from a heart attack when I turned around and came face to face with the brunette that I thought was still asleep.
"Geez, you scared the crap out of me." I held myself up with one hand on the counter while the other one was placed on my heart.
"Seems like it. Sorry Bonita, buenos días." She chuckled, pushing herself off from the doorframe she was leaning against.
"Good morning. Pancakes?" I stood up straight again and crabbed the plate that held the stack of pancakes up to her.
"Yes please." Alexia was about to grab herself a plate but I mentioned for her to just sit down and relax. I grabbed a plate and started to prepare it for her. When I was done I placed the plate with a Pancake and some blueberries in front of her and kissed the top of her head.
"There's coffee in that pot if you want any." I mumbled in her hair and pointed towards the freshly made pot on the counter.
"Gracias Bonita. Wait, we have blueberries? I thought we had run out?" She asked surprised.
"We did. I ran to the store real quick." I shrugged while I was preparing my own plate now.
'When? It's seven thirty!" The volume of her voice increased along with her confusion.
"Right before you woke up. I was awake anyway." I shrugged again, doing my best not to look at her.
Truth was that I had yet another nightmare that had woken me up around three and again I had trouble going back to sleep. Alexia obviously didn't buy my lie. She wasn't stupid but I didn't want to burden her with the truth, I mean we were her to make sure she relaxes after all.
"You'd tell me right?" Her eyes were full of worry. "If there's something, I mean." She specified herself.
"I'm fine." I smiled when I sat down with my own plate full of food but my appetite was slowly decreasing but technically I didn't lie.
"You didn't answer the question." Since I had met Alexia I had quickly learned that she could be extremely stubborn so I knew she wasn't gonna drop it that easily.
"I promise." Again not a lie. I mean I do promise that I'm fine, not that I would tell her.
Alexia dropped the subject but I knew she wasn't convinced. We both had breakfast together and discussed our plans for today.
We're going hiking. Our hike started at the foot of the mountain and would go all the way to the top. The whole hike there, we were surrounded by beautiful nature and views.
"Waw, it's so beautiful." Alexia said in awe when we reached the viewing point at what was almost the top.
I chuckled yet again at the amazement the girl had for things like this.
"Just wait till you see the view from up there." I pointed to a path that would lead us to a higher place.
It is a spot where I would mostly run to if I wanted to hide from it all. It had a beautiful view of the city and the islands and one that wasn't polluted by anything men made.
We both wandered up the road a bit until we came across a gate with a big sign on. "Okay I don't speak Croatian but I'm pretty sure that sign says we're not allowed to go any further." Alexia pointed out while I just continued walking.
"Something like that." I smirked and approached the gate. Alexia immediately caught on to my plan.
"What? No! Ella. There's literally a gate to keep us out." She took a step closer to me while my plan was to climb the gate, it was hers to stop me but I was already too far away from her to actually grab my wrist.
"Yeah I know, the gate has been there for as long as I can remember. Now come on." I started climbing the gate that was a little shorter than two meters and pretty easy to climb.
I was already sitting on top of the gate before Alexia could really react. "Eleanore, get down from there." She scolded me like a mother would to her child but I of course wasn't listening, instead I decided to mock her a bit, knowing full well it would rile her up.
"Alexia, get your cute but up here." I imitated her.
"No I won't." She rolled her eyes and stood right in front of it.
"Oh come on. Why not?" I pouted at her with my arms crossed over my chest.
"Because," she dragged out the word, taking yet another step closer to the gate. "You can just open it." I let out a squeal in surprise when Alexia suddenly opened the gate, clutching on for my dear life.
"Oh well this is the more adventurous way. " I shrugged, looking at Alexia sheepishly. I landed with a tud next to her on the ground. A smirk present on my face.
"You're an idiot. " She playfully rolled her eyes, closing the gate behind her and resuming our hike further up the path.
"But a cute one." I remained standing where I had landed, waiting on Alexia, tilting my head to the side a bit. A big grin on my face.
"A very cute one." She smirked while she passed me, continuing our hike.
Even though I had convinced Alexia to follow along, her worries hadn't settled down at all.
"This is such a bad idea." I heard her grumble from behind me.
The path had narrowed down a lot. Where the path had been a road at the beginning, it was now simply a hiking trail.
"Remember Paris?" I questioned the worried brunette behind me, carefully watching where I was going.
"I do." No doubt, thinking back at our night we had spent in the French capital together.
"Just because it's a bad idea, doesn't mean it isn't a good time." I smirked.
"We'll see how good of a time we'll have in jail." She sassed back, a certain amusement in her voice.
"Oh I would rule in jail." I kept walking but stared off into the distance a bit, picturing myself in the 'orange is the new black'.
"No you won't." Alexia snapped me out of my daydream.
I stopped dead in my tracks. "Of course I would. I'm the baby." I turned around facing her, raising my shoulders in disbelief.
Alexia chuckled at my behavior, finding it incredibly amusing. She playfully pushed me ahead.
"This is so illegal." The Spaniard groaned, throwing her head back, looking at the sky.
"No it's not but can you be quiet before they find us?" I sassed back.
"You said it wasn't illegal." Her eyes immediately shot open again.
"It isn't." I shrugged, assuring the brunette. "Well at least if we don't get caught."
"Really?! Queenie! I swear if we get caught?" My smirk only grew at her reaction but soon got replaced by a smile when I saw the first glimpse of the view that I wanted to show Alexia.
We settled down on some rocks that gave us a nice viewing point. For a while we sat there in a comfortable silence, enjoying the view that Alexia had to admit was very nice but above all we enjoyed each other's company.
"It's my hiding spot." I mumbled out, barely loud enough for her to hear it.
The silence gave me time to reflect on our stay here, making me realize that I was always very vague to Alexia about this place and why I loved it, simply because this is my thing. This is something private that has nothing to do with football.
Bringing Alexia here was big. I had never brought someone here, not even Leah or anyone from my national teammates. So to be honest I have no idea why it was different with Alexia.
"What?" The Spanish girl obviously had no idea what I was talking about. How could she, it was a random statement.
"Here, it's my hiding spot. I mean not here, here, well I do mean here, this is one of my favorite ones but I mean Croatia in general. When we just got here you asked me why I picked this place, it's because it's my hiding spot." I rambled, not sure why I was telling her this.
My eyesight locked at the view in front of me. Not daring to look up in those hazel eyes that I felt I could drown in.
"That's why you said you liked it that no one knows about it." Suddenly it all downed on her. She clued in what I was talking about.
"Yeah. I know I don't do well with feelings and emotions. I put them in a box and shove it to the farthest corner in my mind and do my absolute best to ignore it. I push people away and I build walls so high people in general don't even try anymore. When it all becomes too much I just run and this is the place I run to." I took a deep breath, trying to calm down my racing heart.
"Why did you pick this place?" Her voice was soft and sweet. The effect this girl had on me, scared the crap out of me. The way she could calm me with one single word.
"I don't know." I shrugged, taking a second to think about my answer. "I feel calmest here. Here, I'm not the Eleanore Queen. I'm just that hyper little kid with a ball at her feet, who loved football. Don't get me wrong, they follow my career, they support me all the way but when I'm here I'm just me, I'm just Ellie. I like that. I like being just Ellie." I mumbled out the last bit, looking down suddenly feeling very vulnerable.
"I like just Ella too." She placed her hands on either side of her, leaning on them, touching mine. She bumped my shoulder. "To me you're just Ella."
"I like that." For the first time I met her eyes. It only took me a second to be drawn to them, losing my grip on reality. She had this loving smile on her face that made me feel loved.
"Thank you." She broke me out of the trance I was in.
She must have noticed that I had no clue what she was thanking me for because she was quick to explain herself.
"For sharing this with me and letting me hide here. I was really struggling and I really thought I was making it work, I really did but I wasn't. You noticed straight away and were brave enough to call me out for it. Thank you for giving me the break that I didn't know I needed that badly."
"You're welcome." I smiled back at her.
There was another moment of silence but this time I was the one to break it first.
"Feel free to use this hiding spot whenever you feel like it. Just take me with you." I send her a cheeky smile.
"Deal."