“I’m going to miss you so much!” Phoebe cried, throwing her arms around me, her shoulder smacking me in the chin. “Promise me you’ll text me when you’re in Scotland?”

“Of course,” I said, hugging her back. “There’s not much to do whilst we’re there so I’ll be texting you, like, constantly.”

“Good!”

“Don’t feel like you have to reply right away though,” I added quickly as she stepped back. “I know you’re going to France in a few days, right?”

“Urgh, yes. My parents are sending me to go stay with my aunt or my cousin or someone and they’ve said they’re going to have me fluent by the time I come back. I think they are vastly overestimating my skill. Apparently, they’re going to make me order in French every night when we go out for dinner!”

“Oh, no,” I laughed as Phoebe looked appropriately anguished.

“I know! We’re going to be sticking to poulet and pomme de terres because that’s all I can remember. I don’t even like chicken!”

We both laughed before she glanced over my shoulder and sighed.

I turned around, spotting her mom pulling up behind us in her Land Rover.

“I should go,” she said sadly.

I nodded and we walked over to her car slowly.

“Hi, girls! Good day?” her mom called, lowering the window to talk to us.

“It was fine,” Phoebe said with a sigh.

“It was pretty good, thanks. How was yours?” I asked.

She smiled at me and pushed her long brown hair back from her face.

“It was good, thank you. You know how it is, clients to speak to, laws to uphold,” she joked, making light of her job.

I knew that being a lawyer consisted of more than that but she always made it sound pretty good.

I grinned back at her as Phoebe climbed into the car and pouted dramatically at me through the window.

“Did Phoebe tell you we’re sending her away to Paris for the holidays?” her mom asked.

“Oh, yeah, she did. That sounds really nice,” I said politely.

“She mentioned you’re having some problems with that horrible teacher of yours too. You’re welcome to join her?”

I wanted to say yes so badly that it hurt.

A summer away from my family, in Paris with Phoebe, sounded spectacular but I couldn’t.

“I told you. She’s going to Scotland with her mom, remember?” Phoebe said quietly, rolling her eyes at me.

“Ah, of course! Well, if you change your mind or get back early, just get Phoebe to text me and I’ll book you a flight right away,” her mom said with an easy smile that immediately sent guilt through me.

“Thank you,” I said with a smile, trying to hide the worry.

I knew she probably was just offering to be nice but I still appreciated it.

“Truly, it would probably do Phoebe some good to have someone else her own age there!”

“Mom,” Phoebe groaned loudly.

“Sorry,” she apologised with a smile, her eyes sparkling, before turning back to me. “Is your mum here to pick you up?”

I glanced down the row of cars automatically despite knowing that she wouldn’t be there.

“No, don’t think so.”

A slight crease appeared in between Phoebe’s mom’s eyebrows.

“Do you want a lift home?” she offered.

“It’s okay. I don’t mind the walk.”

“Are you sure?”

I mean, I wasn’t really feeling walking home but I knew that my mom would be annoyed if some other mom drove me home. It might reflect badly on her.

“I’m sure!”

It wasn’t worth the inevitable argument.

“Okay,” her mom said, unconvinced. “Well, we had better be getting off. I’ll see you soon hopefully, Grace!”

“Bye! Bye, Phoebe!” I called.

“Text me!” she shouted back, as they started to pull away.

A smile grew on my face as I watched them leave before turning and starting to walk home.

The gentlest of breezes tousled my hair as I glanced up at the brilliantly blue sky. It wasn’t even a conscious decision. Just one moment I was walking down the path outside my school, the next I was on the balcony in Elounda, leaning back in my chair as a soft dizziness touched me.

“Sun cream,” Mitch said, dropping two bottles of factor fifty onto the table between us. “Put them on now.”

I picked up the smaller bottle, turning it over before realising it was a specifically formulated for faces cream. I squirted some out into my hands before rubbing it into my skin.

“Make sure you get your ears too. Trust me, that can be an absolute nightmare,” Mitch said before ducking inside once more.

I smiled and looked back at him.

“You’ve burnt your ears before?” I called.

“Just the lobes. Not sure how I managed to miss them but they were agony. Do you drink coffee? I can’t remember what you had in London.”

I considered it for a moment.

I didn’t but I couldn’t taste anything here so it didn’t really matter if I said yes. Plus, I was tired. The caffeine in it might help. But then, if I couldn’t taste anything, would the caffeine still affect me?

“No,” I said hesitantly after a pause.

He popped his head around the glass door to give me a look as I poured some more suncream into my hands to start coating my legs.

“You sure about that?” he asked.

“Yeah…”

He chuckled softly.

“Well, you don’t sound it. If you change your mind, help yourself to the coffee machine,” he said, going back to it to pick up his coffee and bringing it outside.

He sunk into the chair again as I rubbed handfuls of the cream into my legs, standing and contorting to make sure I got everywhere that my shorts didn’t cover. I wasn’t really sure if getting burnt would have any kind of impact on me in real life or even the fantasy but I didn’t really want to risk it.

A knock came from the door behind me and I span around, my heart rate skyrocketed. Mitch held one hand up to me, as if telling me to take it easy, before silently passing toward the door, peering through the peephole and pulling it open.

“Oh, breakfast!” he said loudly enough for me to hear as someone pushed a cart into the room piled high with silver cloches and tureens.

I sunk back into the chair, shuffling it around as subtly as I could so that I could watch the woman out of the corner of my eyes. Just because she was wearing the hotel uniform didn’t mean that she definitely didn’t work for Sterling. She could be undercover.

She pushed the cart further into the room before smiling at Mitch.

“Alice, come get some breakfast!” He called to me.

It took a lot of effort not to rush into the room and grab some of the food. It smelt so good and I was starving but I knew that it wasn’t what my character would have done.

“Alice!” Mitch called again as he took the receipt from the woman and signed it with a flourish.

I sat back in my chair, still watching but slowly rubbing suncream into my arms. I waited until I was completely finished with the suncream before slowly dragging myself out of the chair and stomping into the room.

“What?” I demanded as I entered.

Mitch had been chatting to the woman who was smiling prettily at him and leaning towards him but he turned to me with a forced smile.

“This lovely woman has brought our breakfast. Doesn’t it look nice?” he asked in a tone reminiscent of my mom’s.

That kind of tone wanted me to agree and say nothing more but for once, I rebelled.

“Eh,” I said, lifting one shoulder in a blithe shrug. “I’m not hungry.”

It was a lie and my stomach chose that exact moment to gurgle loudly.

“You’re going to have three meals a day whilst you’re here, Alice,” Mitch said in a firm, pleading tone.

I breathed in heavily and let it out loudly.

“Fine. I’ll just have a croissant or some fruit or something. Thanks for bringing it, I guess,” I said, barely looking at the woman.

“You’re welcome,” she replied in a cheery voice.

“I’ll show you out,” Mitch said to her with a charming smile before looking back at me. “Load up that plate.”

I slowly and reluctantly grabbed a plate and started lifting the tureens and cloches, dropping them back loudly or placing them onto the low cabinet next to the cart as Mitch walked the woman to the door.

“So sorry about her,” I heard him mutter. “She’s going through a rough time.”

“Don’t worry. She seems like a lovely girl,” the woman lied.

I leaned over the tray of scrambled eggs, sniffing the sulphurous food and loudly said, “Ew.”

Mitch glanced back at me, barely fighting a smile, before putting his hand on the door.

“Thanks again,” he said before shutting it.

I looked down at the food, scooping up a large serving of some perfectly crisp latkes before moving towards a tray that had a sign stating ‘vegetarian sausages’ and grabbing a couple with the tongs.

Mitch whipped out the scanner he’d used the day before, passing it over the cart quickly before saying, “You know what, kid? You really missed your calling. You should go into acting.”

I grinned up at him as he slipped the device back into his pocket, satisfied that there were no bugs on the cart, and grabbed a plate.

“Thanks,” I said.

“Do you know brats like that or are you just an incredible actress?” he asked, loading his plate up with sausages, latkes and baked tomatoes.

I considered it for a moment as I poured myself a cup of water.

“I mean both really. Not that I think I’m an incredible actress,” I added quickly. “I don’t know. I guess I’m kind of basing it on people I know, like from school or something. Or, like, what I think would work best in the moment. Am I doing okay?”

“Kid, you’re doing spectacular. I reckon bring up the divorce more though. That makes people uncomfortable so they look away,” he suggested. “They might listen in more but they won’t look.”

I nodded, waiting for him to grab a glass of water too before leading him outside.

“Yeah, good call. I’ll do that more. Have you got an idea for what happened to cause the divorce?” I asked as I sunk back into the surprisingly comfortable seats and took a sip of the bland water.

Water was never particularly flavourful but here, it truly tasted like nothing.

“I think so. What do you think of this backstory: your mom cheated on me, I found out and divorced her but you blame me for breaking up the family? Maybe you have another sibling, younger brother or something, who refuses to spend time with me too.”

I took a bite of the potatoes as I considered it.

A hint of salty, fried goodness burst in my mouth, surprising me so much that I gasped and choked on it.

“You okay, kid?” Mitch said, watching me with concern as I coughed and gulped down some water. “Is the story that good?”

I nodded as I shoved another forkful into my mouth, needing to know if I could actually taste it or if I was just going fully insane.

“Grace!” someone shouted from behind me.

I blinked, glancing down the sun-dappled path as dizziness threatened to sweep me off my feet, my eyes finally landing on Duncan who jogged down the path towards me.

Path of me wanted to blow him off, to disappear back to Elounda with Mitch and work out if I really could taste things there or not, but I forced myself to stay.

“Hey, Duncan,” I said, trying not to sound disappointed.

He grinned at me goofily as he caught up.

“Did you not hear me before? I shouted your name like four times!” he said, nudging me with his elbow.

“Sorry, I was in a world of my own.”

I smiled at him apologetically.

“Eh, that’s fine. You know I like that about you.” He grinned at me and hiked his backpack up over his shoulder a little higher. “So, are you coming to mine tonight?”

Confusion washed through me.

“Tonight?” I asked.

“Yeah! My parents are away so I’m throwing a party. A bunch of people should be coming! It should be really fun…”

My smile wavered.

He always invited me to house parties but I never really went to many. I don’t think he expected me to anymore but he still made sure to invite me. It was one of the benefits of being childhood friends with someone as popular as Duncan and I knew that, if I wanted to, I could have manipulated that into some semblance of popularity but I didn’t have the mental energy.

“Oh, that sounds really nice…” I started lamely.

“It should be!” Duncan continued, his unwavering enthusiasm high. “I’ve got like a bunch of cases of beer, basically every flavour of Bacardi Breezer, loads of mixers and vodka! That’s still your go-to, right?”

I smiled slightly at that, remembering the last party of his that I’d actually gone to. Phoebe and I had snuck a case of Diet Coke and a bottle of vodka onto the garage roof outside his room and spent all night out there getting progressively more drunk. Duncan had found us at like three in the morning, flat out on our backs watching the stars.

He’d just laid down next to us and joined in, it was actually really nice.

“Yeah. I probably can’t tonight though. I’m going away in the morning so my mom will want a hand packing,” I said, with a wince.

“Oh, where are you going? Scotland again?” he asked.

I nodded, stepping carefully over a huge crack in the pavement.

“Ah, that should be good though! Things are generally not too awful there, right?”

“Yeah, shouldn’t be too bad.”

“When do you get back? I’ll throw another party!” he offered.

I chuckled slightly, knowing that no matter what I said, he’d respond positively.

“Not for a few weeks, I think.”

“Awesome! I think my parents might be in Monaco then! If they are, I’m throwing the biggest welcome home party you’ve ever seen!”

I smiled distractedly at him, knowing that not many people would come to that party for me but only just because Duncan was throwing it. Phoebe was away for the whole summer, I realised, dread filling my stomach. She wouldn’t be able to go with me. I’d be alone there.

“That sounds good,” I said carefully, squinting in the sun as we emerged from the shadowy path.

Duncan laughed easily as we came to a stop by the road and waited for a gap in the traffic.

“That’s the most reluctant RSVP I’ve ever heard,” he chortled.

I laughed a little at that, surprising myself.

“Sorry.”

“That’s okay, I know you don’t always love the parties. But, you can always come over and just play video games or something if you want?”

I was silent as we rushed across the road, the cars barely slowing as they approached. I didn’t want to respond or do anything to take my attention off the road. More than once, I’d been distracted and caught my toes on the curb on the other side. So far, I’d been lucky. No one from school had seen but I knew it was only a matter of time.

“Yeah, that sounds good,” I said with a smile once we were safely on the grass on the other side of the road.

His face lit up with happiness.

“Awesome! I’ll put it in my phone. Video game date with Grace, some point in a few weeks time,” he said, pretending to type it into his phone.

I nudged him with my shoulder and he grinned at me toothily.

He always did stuff like that but I knew he didn’t mean anything by it. It was his personality, he was just silly.

He hesitated as I hopped the fence and glanced behind me, checking for animals.

“The field should be empty,” I said, looking over my shoulder.

“Are you sure though? Because do you not remember last time when you said it would be empty but there was a cow in it?”

I laughed.

“That wasn’t last time! That was like two years ago!”

Duncan narrowed his eyes, his hands tightening on the fence.

“Still…”

“It’s empty, I promise.”

He hesitated a moment longer before nodding resolutely and starting to climb.

“Okay but if there is a cow in here again, I’m running,” he said as he jumped down.

“Agreed.”

We started to walk across the field in silence for a moment before it became too much for Duncan and he started talking again.

“How’d you think you did in exams? Well enough to stay at the school?” he asked.

“Probably,” I replied with a slight shrug. “I mean, I’ve been getting mostly B’s in my mocks so should do about the same. Apart from in French, that is.”

Duncan laughed.

“Oh man, I can’t wait to see the look on Madame Noel’s face when I tell her I got an A star. She’s going to scream,” he giggled.

“Wait, why are you so sure you’re going to do so well?”

He looked around dramatically, making sure there was no one around.

“Well… I may have gotten a tutor,” he whispered.

My mouth dropped open.

“You did not!” I gasped.

He grinned at me but said nothing.

“You got a tutor?” I pressed.

“Keep your voice down!” he insisted jokily. “I don’t want anyone to know! I need to have the satisfaction of telling Madame Noel exactly how well I did and making her think it was all me. It’s the only thing keeping me going!”

“Why though?”

He grinned at me.

“Spite. The number of times she’s told me I’m going to fail! I cannot wait to tell her I got full marks! Well, maybe not full marks but good ones at least!”

“I have to be there when you tell her,” I said with a laugh. “I cannot wait to see her face. Are you going to study French for A levels too?”

He considered it for a moment.

“I’m not really sure. I did want to do Maths, Further Maths, Sports Studies and something else. Maybe, like, philosophy? But, I could do French instead. Oh man, she’d be so pissed,” he said, narrowing his eyes and grinning wickedly.

“She’d be furious,” I confirmed.

“Okay, maybe I’ll do that then.” He paused for a moment, glancing towards my house and coming to a stop.

The garden was barely visible from where we were but I knew that was on purpose. I couldn’t have my mom think he’d walked me home, she’d immediately suspect something else was going on and we really were just friends. She knew that, of course, we’d been friends since primary school, but that wouldn’t stop her from obsessing.

“I’ll wait here for you to go into your house?” he offered, turning towards me and glancing hesitantly over my shoulder.

“Thanks,” I said softly.

“Have a good trip?”

“Thanks. Hope staying here isn’t too bad.” I smiled up at him.

“It shouldn’t be. I have Brad coming over for a few days so that should be good! But… text me?”

He smile hopefully, waiting for my response.

“Yeah, I will.”

He hesitated, looking uncharacteristically awkward, before holding out his arms for a hug.

I stepped towards him, wrapping my arms around his body as he squeezed me. It felt weird hugging him. We’d never really done that before apart from once when I’d been really drunk and hugged him as we left his party. But now, hugging him, whilst sober, felt strange. Not in a bad way, just different.

He held on for a little longer than I expected before pulling back.

“Cool. I’ll wait here until you go inside,” he said with a grin, pulling his bag higher again.

“Thanks,” I said with a smile before starting to walk away from him.

I could feel his eyes on me as I walked towards my fence, shot him one last smile, and climbed over.

My body tensed noticeably as I walked towards the open french windows, knowing that if they were open, my mom was awake. I paused, just outside, and listened carefully. She was bustling around in the house but I couldn’t tell what she was doing or what kind of mood she was in.

Taking a deep breath, I pushed the curtains aside and stepped into the house, kicking my shoes off before padding softly towards the source of the noise.

“Grace!” my mom called as she spotted me, her hair pulled back in a bun and her eyes clear. “I’ve done all the washing. Make sure you get your suitcase packed tonight so we can leave nice and early tomorrow.”

I nodded.

“Thanks, I’ll go pack that now,” I said with a forced smile.

“Good. And don’t forget to bring some nice dresses for when we go out to dinner with your grandparents!”

“I will,” I said, already slipped back into my fantasy world as I started up the stairs.