Sitting in the aeroplane my heart was thumping so quickly I was sure it'd burst. My breathing was coming quickly and my palms were sweaty. I looked beside me, past Lilly, who was sleeping, and out through the tiny window.

My stomach lurched.

All I could see was white. Clouds for miles.

We were too high up, and this tin can sounded like it was going to fall out of the sky at any moment. I was certain the engine wasn't meant to make that noise.

"Excuse me," I stopped a stewardess. "What is that noise?"

"What noise?" She asked, her eyes taking in my tense posture with sympathy. "You don't like flying."

I shrugged, not prepared to admit it.

She smiled, "the sound you hear is the propellers," she answered my next question before I even asked it, "and I assure you, they're supposed to sound that way."

"How much longer is the flight?" I prayed it would soon be over.

"We still have over an hour," she smiled sympathetically. "Would you like a magazine to distract you?"

"No, thank you."

I leaned back in my seat and closed my eyes. I tried to breathe evenly, and not think about the fact we were thousands of miles above the ground in a sardine can that cou - no. I wasn't going to think about that.

If only Lilly was awake to distract me. I opened my eyes and looked over at my sleeping girlfriend. She looked so peaceful, her blonde hair surrounding her head like a halo. She was snoring, very softly, and I couldn't hold back a smile when she mumbled something and shifted in her seat. It was the cutest thing I've ever seen.

I stroked her soft cheek, and she stirred, her eyes opening a crack.

"Hey," she mumbled, stretching and rubbing her head.

"Hiya," I ran my fingers through her hair, smoothing it. As she leaned into the touch a deep sigh of satisfaction escaped her mouth.

I kissed her softly.

When I pulled away my gaze slipped across to the window, and I felt the fear rise inside me.

"Are we almost there?" Lilly asked, her voice still low and sleepy.

I shook my head stiffly. My hands gripped the arms of the seat. My fingers turned yellow with how tightly I held on.

"What's wrong?" Lilly asked, but I didn't reply. I couldn't. "Are you scared of flying?"

I shrugged and averted my eyes.

"You are, aren't you?"

"I've, I've never, well I've never actually, uh," I stuttered. Lilly's mouth fell open.

"You've never been on a plane before?" She sounded totally shocked, as though it was impossible to imagine someone having never been in one of these death traps.

"No," I said, a little sharply. Then the plane shook as we hit some turbulence and I gripped her hand tightly in mine. "Fucking hell."

Lilly tried to hide her smile, but wasn't quite successful.

"What're you smiling about?" I kept sounding snappier than I meant, this damn flying thing wasn't doing anything for my temper.

"You're cute like this." She said simply.

"Cute? I'm scared out my freaking mind, it's not cute!"

"I know sweetie," she cuddled my head into her chest and stroked my hair, "I'm sorry."

"Me too," I sighed, "I'm being a dick."

"No, I shouldn't have laughed, that wasn't nice," she gave me puppy dog eyes, "can you forgive me?"

I think my heart melted, and being so close to her warm body, hearing her heart thumping in my ear made me unable to think of anything but her. And I didn't have the energy to stay mad at her even if I'd wanted to.

"Yes," I told her, and her face broke into a huge smile. "Wait," I put a hand on her shoulder, "can you do that face again for a second?"

She frowned then obliged.

I grinned, and pressed my lips to hers. "Thank you."

"Why did you want me to do that?"

"Because you look adorable."

She shrugged and cuddled me closer to her, resting her head on top of mine.

"I'm going back to sleep," she said, and I closed my eyes too. I figured sleeping was better than staying awake and being terrified.

She was the only thing that could distract me while I was awake, which was only another reason to sleep.

Surrounded by her smell and with her light breathing tickling the top of my head I slowly drifted off.

***

"And we're here!" Mrs. Daniels announced, making me look out the window of the jeep Lilly's parents had hired.

The sun was beating down, and the ground was hard and dry because of this. There were strange huge fern-like plants, and a few trees had spikes on their grey trunks. These trees were weirdly bottle shaped, with the lower third of the trunk bulging out. There were ordinary trees too, without the spikes, which made me feel oddly at home. That could only be a good thing, so far I didn't like being abroad.

It was too warm, and the people were too tanned for me to feel totally comfortable. But that was what was good about holidays, or so Lilly told me. You went into a completely new culture and it was a nice change from the one you're so used to. I, for one, thought it was bullshit. However I had decided I'd try it out, and try not to expect the worse before anything actually happened. So far it wasn't working out so well.

Mr. Daniels stopped the jeep outside a large, two storey building. The walls were white, and the roof a pale brown. It was a villa, with a huge pool out back.

I'd never been in one before, I only knew them from pictures on postcards. I couldn't pretend I wasn't excited. This place was huge and looked like total luxury. Maybe Spain wouldn't be so bad after all.

I stepped out the jeep. Heat hit me like a wall, and I was instantly sweltering.

"We shouldn't have come in the middle of the day," Lilly's mum grumbled as we hauled our luggage out the trunk of the car.

I helped Lilly to drag her suitcase along the gravel driveway and up the pale stone steps. My bag was larger than hers, and subsequently heavier, but Lilly didn't have the benefit of regular workouts like me. I found it quite cute.

"Laura sweetie, you can share with Lilly if you like, there's enough space. You'll have to move a bed from one room to another though, but that shouldn't be a problem."

Both Lilly and I nodded to Mrs. Daniels gratefully, and she moved past us, into the shady house.

We stepped inside and the cold greeted my overheated skin to a sigh of relief. The entrance was large, with high ceilings, and fans which whirred overhead.

I stood under one long enough that my body temperature retuned to normal then went with Lilly to organise our bedroom.

Turns out dragging a bed through a building was is lot harder than we anticipated. For starters it made the most annoying screeching noise, and, the bigger problem, it didn't fit through the doorway.

"Maybe if we turn it sideways?" Lilly suggested.

I frowned, trying to work out how wide it would be, and how tall.

"Might as well try," I shrugged, giving up the mental maths. "But we'll need to get your brother and Eric to help us because there's no way you'll be able to lift that." I grinned at her, and she pretended to be insulted.

Somehow, with the help of the two men, the bed made it into the room Lilly had picked for us.

It had big double doors made of glass, which led onto a balcony. Our room was to the back of the house, so the balcony was overlooking the pool and the abundance of nature behind it. The sun was still halfway down the sky, making it shine brightly into our room, but there were shutters, which we'd lowered halfway and left the windows open in an attempt to find a breeze.

I flopped down on 'my' side, which was actually just one of the beds, we'd pushed the two together. Resting my head on my arm I looked out the window, and took in the amazing view.

Lilly moved about our room, unpacking, and aside from a few crickets and people talking somewhere within the villa, that was the only noise I could hear.

There was no traffic, or sounds of the city despite the fact we were only a few minutes away.

The lack of cars passing, and horns beeping was alien to me. Living on quite a busy road I'd grown used to the noise, was even comforted by it. The silence was slightly... creepy.

I lay there for a while, soaking in the quiet, trying to get used to it. At some point Lilly had unpacked and lay down beside me. I wrapped an arm around her and from then both of us were silent and still.

"Do you want to go for a swim?" Lilly asked suddenly, after a long period of calm.

I was no longer too warm, the cool house had taken care of that, but I still felt sticky so I agreed.

I got up and was about to pull off my shirt when I saw Lilly. She was undressing in front of me, in the full light of day. She'd never done that before - she'd always been too shy. If I didn't undress her then she would disappear into the bathroom, even if it was dark and I couldn't see her.

I watched happily, glad she now felt comfortable enough to do this.

When she was completely naked I grabbed her, pushing the bikini bottoms out her hand and pulled her to me.

She gave out a little shriek as I pushed her down on the bed. We were on her side, and there wasn't enough room in this little single bed for two people to lie side by side comfortably so I was forced to hover over her.

"Laura," she gasped, and I moaned at the sound of my name on her lips. I lowered my lips to her neck, nipping and sucking on her pale skin. "What about swimming?"

"Later," I told her, as I pulled off my top.

I ran my hands down her sides, feeling the swell of her breasts and the curve of her hips beneath my palms. I pulled back, propping myself up on my elbows, and admired her.

Her hand gently touched the side of my face as she stared back up at me. My heart swelled and I felt something bubbling inside me. Something I wasn't used to, which made me feel warm and satisfied, despite the throbbing in my core.

What was it?

"Laura?" Lilly said quietly, and my eyes met her bright blue ones.

She looked up at me while I stared down at her. We were both silent, a slight tension in the air. Lilly's hand was still on my cheek, and she prodded me gently with one finger.

"Anyone home?" Her lips twitched into a grin. I wondered if she felt the tension, the heaviness of the air which should be filled with something. I didn't know what. She must not feel it. My stomach curled at the thought, twisting painfully as though someone was grabbing my guts and squeezing them.

"What's wrong?" Lilly spoke again, she must have noticed my expression, I hadn't even tried to keep it hidden. There was another pause, as I tried to think of something to say. Something reassuring but still truthful. "Are you going to say anything?"

I realised I hadn't replied yet and pulled myself out my thoughts.

"Sorry," my thumb grazed her bottom lip, "I was distracted by your beauty." That was true. Or at least, partially. But I couldn't say what I'd been thinking before. I had no idea how to explain it, and she'd probably think I was crazy too.

Her face reddened with the blush I found so adorable, making me smile without any conscious decision to do so.

I lowered my lips to hers and kissed her. My hands roamed her body, one cupped her breast, tugging and flicking the nipple.

The moment was gone.

But the feeling wasn't.