Chapter 4 Time for Friends and the Campfire

We were in the parking lot of the stadium talking about our last trip to the beach in Ibiza because of how incredible that was. It was crazy the few times I ended up 100% drunk, he loved to tell the anecdote between Fabian and me “we were dancing on the beach but so drunk that when I took Larissa in my arms I gave her a kiss so passionate that our heads bumped into each other and suddenly came a wave that knocked us right into the water” said without being able to contain his laughter and those of others, in other people that situation would be something serious or embarrassing but we were completely harmless we had such affection, that it was a funny thing nothing serious at all, we counted every anecdote and laughed “we have to go again one weekend”, said Alicia excited “!yes we have to do it.

At that moment Dilan and Roberto approached us, Fabian and Dilan made a masculine greeting that only they could understand, something silly collided their muscular breasts as cavemen, deep down they were still children, congratulations and Fabian said: “ready let’s go, because the beer and wine the I brought are exquisite” “of course the wine is for you Larissa come, guys, let’s go” Dilan came up to me and said to the theme “drunk” I looked at him smiling, “I’m serious, I’m the one who takes this little group the least, fruity wine doesn’t count as liquor and much less raw” I said sarcastically.

"Larissa, sometimes I think you are cheating with wine!" Ok! there’s more beer” “Alice’s drunker than I am,” I said with a joke laugh “that’s why I’ll be with Dilan, he’ll take care of me and we’re going to have a lot of fun, ” said Alice looking at Dilan and kissing her on the cheek in a very flirtatious way, the situation between Dilan and Alicia was very complicated but everyone knew the reality Alicia was in love with Dilan and hers or at least we thought so but we never believed it made it official, for us it was.

Everyone headed to their car Laura left with Roberto in his car, while Dilan, Alicia, and Fabián in Dilan’s truck, Fabian looked at me and said “what are you waiting for lest go ” at that moment I didn’t know what to say and I just turn my eyes and I kept standing without knowing what to say, thank God to Roberto screaming “she’s not coming is waiting for someone” Tristan told him he knew my breathing stirred and I looked at them smiling “it’s okay don’t worry we’ll see you at the campfire go “.

They left without saying more and I stood there waiting, I was nervous there were almost no people and the parking lot was dark, through my head passed a thousand thought of what could go wrong at the time when in the distance I saw that from the door of the dressing rooms came Israel, try to evade its gaze, turn my head to another side when I returned my sight towards the exit of the players, there he was Tristan, walking towards me, with his gray jacket with white and red, looked gorgeous with his hair still wet and his suitcase, “Sorry I made you wait long, they all left?” He told me, referring to my friends “yes, they left 15 minutes ago, okay, nothing happens, it’s fine Congratulations it was a good game” I said excitedly “thank you I was a little distracted, but we did well,” “distracted?” I said, “Yes, you're beautiful and you were here, that's reason enough to be distracted.”

We stared at each other, for a few minutes, but I felt that it had been hours “let’s go” Tristan said and opened the door of his truck, which was a double-cabin monstrosity, helped me up with my short stature was difficult, between and sliding his suitcase in the back seat, we went to the beach, that’s where the campfire would be, on the way I was nervous I didn’t know what to talk about, the stadium was just 20 minutes away so, time flew by.

When we got in, there were a bunch of people from college, as anticipated, they were all on that point, it was the outcome of the night “you didn’t finish telling me about your friendship with Roberto”  “what you desire to know, we met in high school, back than his sister was my girlfriend, but when we stopped our relationship Roberto and I were still friends”.

 “! Isabella! She was your girlfriend! ” I said something nervous “she’s very pretty I know her” “if we were a couple of the moment, it was very nice and fun, but we never took that formal step and the only good thing about that relationship is to have a great friend, like Roberto when he came to Palmira, we kept in touch and when the exchange opportunity was given, do not hesitate to come here, besides my uncle insisted a lot”.

“Your uncle?” I said, "Yes, coach Douglas, is my uncle, he insisted," "Wow, now everything made sense." We arrived in the parking lot of the beach when someone shouted to us: "Tristan!" It was Dilan, who was yelling at us, we got out of the truck and we approached them and introduced them to Tristan “guys this is Tristan, they’re my friends” and each of them showed up. “My name is Alice, Bonjour,” “Hello I’m Fabian ” and “ I’m Laura Hi,” Dilan and Roberto you already know them “of course it’s nice to meet you all,” Tristan said, “I think a blind date will no longer be necessary,” Roberto said, “I looked at Tristan and Roberto” “he’s the blind date you wanted to fix me, he’s the friend of yours you wanted to introduce me to,” I said in front of everyone.

Moving his head from top to bottom with a bow was the only gesture Roberto made “he insisted a lot,” Roberto said, looking at Tristan, “but I was surprised when Tristan told me who his date was and the beautiful woman he talked to so much about” look at Tristan surprised” I think in the end, I decided that things don’t happen alone and you have to do it for yourself, don’t think Lari, ” said Tristan looking me in the eye and holding my hand.

“Sure,” I said smiling after the introductions were the time for the fun “now that we’re going to do,” I said watching them all “have fun,” said Dilan took Alice by the hand and went dancing with the music and the people who were on the beach, Laura and Roberto did the same thing, while Fabian approached a redhead who was watching him during the game and took her dancing, leaving us alone Tristan looked at me and said “let’s take a walk” I smiled and I said “yes, I’d love to” as we walked away from the rest of the people we started getting to know each other more “When do you tell Roberto you wanted to meet me?” I ask him.

“When I first arrived, Roberto took me to a café forget my wallet and come back for it and that’s when I first saw you, you were reading no matter what you were the center of attraction of all the men passing by, the next day we went back and without realizing it was the same time and there you were, it was usual for me to go for coffee to see you, so it was almost a full week, until one day you were neither the next day nor the next I was intrigued I wanted to see you, it was 4 days and you did not show up, but I did not give up, I asked the waiter if he knew your name, you were always at the same table and it was the waiter who told me that you were coming in the night, so that day I came back and saw you again, I was about to talk to you but late so long that you left, so I promised myself that the next day no matter what happened I would never let you go again.”

“In my favor, I can say that it takes a lot of courage to go directly with a woman and open your heart in a silver tray if you had rejected me, my ego would have suffered a very great disappointment,” he said, looking at me and smiling “now tell me how you met Roberto and your friends” I would have been a little thoughtful without knowing how the story initial “that’s a less romantic story when I first arrived Laura was my roommate, so I met her first, then in a class, we both met Dilan, he was late as usual and he sat next to us saying.

“Let me sit with you please save me,” he said, “Looking back, when we saw where his gaze was headed, we could see that behind he came to his rather furious ex-girlfriend, to whom he had months fleeing,” I said laughing “When we left class he introduced us to Alicia and Fabian, whom he just met in another class where his team of workers, we’ve been together for 2 years now and we are inseparable, and a year ago Roberto arrived, but that was Dilan’s fault, I invited him to a party and he fell in love with her at first sight, they have been 13 months together, we have made trips, study teams, lots of parties, we have stayed in each other’s department, they are good friends,” I said ” and there was no one else,” he told me very seriously waiting for my answer “someone else what do you mean?”.

“I know you don’t have a boyfriend, but there wasn’t anyone else, someone important all this time an old boyfriend you left coming to college or any broken heart” “maybe some dates or fans but nothing serious,” I said without giving importance to what happened with Israel “I have a better idea, why we better not have dinner, I’m kind of hungry, ” I said changing the subject “of course let’s go,” Tristan said.

Who is your 'friend Roberto? “Something we need to be concerned about,” Fabian said. Who do you mean, Tristan? Even if I gave you references, no one is worthy of Larissa “said Roberto “what going on with you guys, we should be having fun”, said Alice taking Dilan by the arm and started dancing with him “don’t worry Tristan is a family friend, I know him from England, there’s nothing to worry about” but Fabian didn’t feel safe with the comment “that’s what you said about Israel” everyone looked at Roberto with Sarcasm’s face “I admit that was a mistake, let’s make that clear what I admit my mistake, get over it”.

At the time Dilan said “do you saw that ” pointing to someone near the beer table and they all turned around watching Israel just drunk and could hold on to the table so as not to fall on the sand, “fuck I think there’s going to be trouble,” Dilan took Fabian by the arm making a move with his head so Fabian could see the situation “I think we have a chronic Batman case” heading for Israel that was starting to walk heading for Tristan and Larissa “a Batman of what? What do you mean? ” Alice was speechless “a chronic Batman case is a man thing I explain to you, we all had a Batman toy right and over time you get bored of it and leave it in the corner of your room, but you always know it’ll be there by the time you get back until your nephew comes along and wants to play with him, so you feel that deep feeling that it’s yours and no one else,” Dilan said, “your idiots Larissa is not a stupid toy”.

'I told you, you wouldn't understand,' said Fabian, 'hey, Israel! It's a miracle to see you at these parties I think you said you weren’t interested” “change my mind, you have to reconnect with the old friendships you don’t think,” he said, looking to Larissa, “I think I’ll come and say hello to an old friend,” Israel said, pushing Dilan aside with his arm, but Fabian got in the way again.

“She’s not interested in you and made it very clear, she doesn’t want anything with you, stay away from her” Israel looked at him and violently grabbed Fabian’s shirt around, “Dilan you want to get your little friend out of my way, this is none of your fuck**g business” “Israel, please don’t make a scene, you need to get over it there are a lot of women who are dying so you can take them to bed, forget about her” he took his hands off Fabian’s shirt, but they continued with the challenging glances.

“let it gooo, ” said Fabian waving his hand telling Israel that it was time for him to go “Will see” and with that, he walked away into the parking lot with a can of beer in his hand, the others turned to see where Larissa and Tristan were sitting, but fortunately she did not realize what had happened, but Tristan was seeing them and we just moved our heads, greeting and lifting our thumbs in a sign that everything was fine.

The party went smoothly, we all had a lot of fun, but it was too late, and I was a little tired, I asked Tristan to take me to my apartment, he said goodbye to me and left, he promised he’d call me tomorrow.

The next day already in class as always Dilan came running late with dark glasses it was apparent that he had not slept at all, a  few minutes afterward we found out Fabian who looked like a zombie, they looked ridiculous at the end of class we headed to breakfast all together “haaaa my head hurts Fabián bring me a juice,” said seeing Fabian “I am not your slave”, leaned towards him almost falling in the form of a tantrum “I’m dying here please bring me something men” we were laughter seeing them look like two children “when they’ll learn not to get drunk,” I said pointing to their heads “I’ll think of it as a service to the community,” I said and I got up “that’s why you’re the most beautiful we’d do without you, I hope you two learn something”.

" I’ve learned not to have a boyfriend like you two,” Alice said, banging Dilan’s head with her book, I went to the cafeteria and had my breakfast, something light, some salad sandwich, and 3 juices, when I came out someone opened the door to let me out, but I ran into a wall of muscles one of my juices fell to the floor and that wall took it and put it on my hand touching my skin.

 “be more careful where you walk because you no longer have me close to take care of you” I recognized that voice and said “I didn’t know we had walls at the gates” and when I lifted my head I saw him, it was him I think it was weeks since we last addressed a word and even longer since I could feel his body so close to mine that I could smell his lotion, that was something that fascinated me about him, his aroma was intoxicating I loved “hello lovely ” told me with a smile “Israel! I’m in a bit of a hurry” try to avoid it and move to the side of it, but it didn’t get out of my way “we can talk” told me in the ear “it’s been a long time, there’s nothing to talk about.”

I never wanted to stay and fall back into his intrigues.  go on with your life forget me as something fleeting in your life, I was not that important, goodbye, Israel” and I kept walking, When he grabbed my arm tightly and approached me, absolutely no space between us, we were face to face skin with skin so close that I could feel his breath “ for me you were and you still are, you are something important to me... I'm not giving up and you know why. ”

 He looked at me in the eyes, he was about to kiss me, and he stopped, so close to my lips, that my heart was beating at such a speed, the was afraid to pass out, “I couldn’t understand why it made me feel so nervous, it will be that I still felt something” I took a step back and he let go of me...Good day...!! I told him, then I left.

I was breathing very agitated, that situation took me by surprise, it had been so long since I was so close to him that I had forgotten for a moment what the closeness of his body with mine made me feel, that sensation, that desire to kiss him, now my future was Tristan, I felt bad for thinking this when I was now going out with him, come on forget it!  I kept walking to my friends, I made it, I sat beside them and I gave them their juice.

“I’m already saved, what would I do without you because my best friend let me die of thirst” said Dilan looking at Fabian, at that moment Israel passed almost unnoticed by everyone, except for Fabian  “you’re fine”  “yeah, I just almost drop everything, you know how distracted I can be sometimes, but nothing happens, I’m fine”.

“Okay, what’s today’s plan, we have to do the project, it’s not going to be done by himself right,” Laura said, “of course it’s not going to be done alone because I already did it!” "You're so beautiful I love you," said Dilan as he kissed her, "that's all I needed to be kissed." ” I would have done it before,” she said with his hands-on her waist and we all started laughing “then now what we’re going to do,” Fabian said, “there’s only one thing to do,” Laura said

“Let’s go to my beach house its pool time” “yeaaaa” we all shout at the same time “Laura save me I need a swimsuit,” I said extending my hands towards her “of course I have several is no problem even for Fabian and Dilan” “I do not doubt that a bikini would look spectacular on me but no thank you,” said Fabian “I have to buy some stuff, we will make a barbecue and drinks, I’ll take care of it, Larissa you go with me” “sure!  I’ll see you guys there,” I said, looking at them, “I’m going with you Laura I didn’t bring my car,” Dilan said, “of course I go up there, see you guys, don’t be late,” Laura said, walking away with Alicia and Dilan in her car.