Author's note:
Remember, Liz's thoughts are in italics.
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At 8 am the alarm clock rings. Of course, that's pretty early for a vacation but we want to make a lot of our day. I grab my phone and I see a message from Evan. "Good morning, I am in Samos town all day today due to family. If I get back in time tonight, do you feel like going for a walk on the beach together?". Of course I want that. "Of course! Have fun today!" I respond "Thank you :)".
I get out of bed and get dressed. When we are all ready we walk to breakfast. We sit down at a table and immediately get a cup of tea and a glass of orange juice, after that we go get our food. This morning I go for a sandwich with an egg and a bowl of yogurt with fruit and honey.
While we are eating I see Evan and his parents walking on the way to their car. He is really beautiful. He waves at me and walks behind his parents.
After breakfast, we walk back to our room. We are going to Pappa Beach today, which is a very nice small beach here about 15 minutes away. I put on a bikini and pack the beach bag and cooler bag. I take my earphones so I can listen to music on the beach and I also take a book to read. Once we have everything packed we walk to the car. The road to the beach is super beautiful. We pass small Greek houses and there are mountains with monasteries on them.
Arriving at the beach, we are also warmly welcomed here, as usual. The people here are super nice and always immediately start a nice conversation with you. We get a spot on the beach. We have parasol 7. I rub myself in and I lie down on my sunbed. I put in my earphones and start on my book. After reading for a while my mother and I go for a swim. You has to wear water shoes at almost every beach in Greece. This is because there are a lot of rocks and spiny fish in the water. On the beach here there are invariably different things to swim with like air mattresses. They also have snorkels and water shoes here but we always bring that ourselves. I grab an air mattress and go into the water. The water here is most of the time a little colder. My dad likes to go snorkeling here because the water is very clear and there are very nice fish here.
For lunch, we sit at the little restaurant which also belongs to the owners of this beach. I order an omelet with bread and a glass of iced tea. There are often many locals sitting here at the beach. That is at all times super fun because they always sing songs or are all dancing. You also see many Italians here.
After lunch, we head back to our place but I go for an iced coffee first. "You've grown up. I remember the first time you were here. Back then you were little and very cute and now you have already become such a big beautiful girl" the owner suddenly says. In such situations I feel uncomfortable so I just smile at her. this situation. "What can it be?" she asks. I order from her and walk back to our place.
After about 5 minutes she comes with our coffee and has a nice conversation with my parents and me. Suddenly she asks "Liz, by the way, do you have a boyfriend yet?" I'm a little startled by the question. I always find these conversations a little awkward. "No, not yet" I respond subtly. We have a conversation for a while after which she goes back to work.
Around 4 pm we get ready to go back to the hotel. There is mostly shade on the beach now because of the rocks. We walk up to pay and as usual, we get bottles of water and candies put in our hands. "See next time!" we say as we walk away. We get into the car which has been in the sun all this time so is super hot now. On the way back we drive through the town of Ireon. This is a slightly more modern town than all the other towns. It is not very big and there are many small hotels.
When we arrive at the hotel, we put our stuff in the room and go almost immediately to the beach near the hotel to sunbathe some more. And after about 2 hours we go back to our room to get ready for dinner in town.
I'm wearing a black dress and my vans tonight. On the way to town, we meet a man at a store whom we have gotten to know well in the past years. Every time we walk by he is very enthusiastic and we have a nice chat about what we did today.
We sit down at Irodion Garden. We come here often and the owner and his son can both speak Dutch quite well. It is always very cozy and the food is very good. It is always the question if there is still room.
We all order Gyros with a salad. This is kind of a habit when we eat here. We have a nice chat with the owner while dinning. On the way back to the hotel we get ice cream and we also get cans of "Mast" at a store. This is a soft drink made from mastic, a kind of resin from coniferous trees. You have to get used to the taste but it is delicious and refreshing.
On the way, I get a message from Evan which says "I'm on my way to the hotel, we're almost there". I smile at my phone as I read his message. Liz damn you are smiling already. "We're on our way back from town, be there in ten minutes" I respond. He reads it right away and I get back "Okey, take care, I'll see you in a bit!" Nahww he is so sweet!
"Mom is it okay if I take Evan for a walk to the beach in a few minutes?" She looks at me without saying anything with a smile on her face. "Why are you smiling?" I ask. "Because I think this is kind of cute," she says. "Mhm, but can I?" "Yes of course you may" she finally says. We arrive at our room and I see Evan already sitting by his room. "I'll be right there, I'll just put my stuff inside". I walk in and empty my bag and only take my phone. "Liz listen up, no is no okay, don't do anything you don't want," my dad says out of the blue. Dad is overprotective again. "it'll be fine dad," I say and walk out.
"Are you ready?" asks Evan as soon as I close the door to my room. "Yeah, come let's go!" I say happily. We walk out together and we tell each other about how our day was. This is the first time we've been together with just the two of us.
Ariving at the beach I feel the wind blowing through my hair. We walk along the beach for a bit until we reach the bridge and go back again. When we get back to were we started, we stand together for a while looking at the stars because they are very visible here because it is so dark.
Suddenly I feel him standing behind me when he wraps his arms around me. His warm body is against mine and I feel his breath in my neck. It honestly feels quite familiar even though we haven't known each other long. I place my hands on his and we stay like that for a while. In silence. We don't say anything but it seems like whole stories are being told. "Shall we walk back before our parents get worried" he says out of the blue. "Yeah, sure! Am also a bit tired after such a busy day" I say and we walk back to our rooms. We have an arm around each other and we let go just before we get to the rooms because when our parents see this there will be quite a few questions. But they're not outside. We hug each other and walk away.
Before I can open my door I hear a very soft "Good night!".
