Chapter 33
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“This should be it,” Sadie says and starts rummaging in her bag for the key.

I look up. The house we’re standing in front of isn’t large but it’s definitely pretty. The walls are white and the shutters in front of the windows are painted blue, there are olive trees in the garden by the wooden front door. I look at it longingly. The apartment behind it must be pleasantly cool.

We’re in Greece and the heat is pressing. It shouldn’t be this warm – it’s only Easter – but evidently, the weather didn’t care to ask permission. Why we’re here? Sadie asked me - just two weeks ago, mind you - because her parents had invited her to come stay at their apartment. When she’d heard they’d be gone for almost her entire stay there, she asked me whether I wanted to come along and spend the week living entirely as Luisa. She obviously didn’t need to say anything more after that, I was already running back home to ask Mum to pay for my flight, which she gladly did.

And now we’re here. I’m still wearing my travel clothes, jeans and T-shirt, but I have the blue dress in my suitcase and money ready to go on a shopping spree.

Finally, Sadie finds the key and we walk up the uneven steps to get to the door. The key fits and we enter the small apartment.

Immediately, the weight of the air outside lifts off my shoulders and I feel myself straighten a little.

“Right,” Sadie says. “So, this is our place now, Luisa.” Swiftly, she walks over to the fridge humming softly by the small, open kitchen and opens the door. She pulls a face at its emptiness but then turns back to me with a smile. “Guess we’re going to eat out for lunch, we can go shopping for dinner later but I’m way too hungry now.”

I look around. The living space isn’t large, but then again, I don’t think you’re supposed to spend the entirety of your holidays in here. There are three doors leading away from the main room. The door to the bathroom is cracked. There are supposed to be two bedrooms.

“Who’s changing where?” Sadie asks, making me look at her a little startled. She laughs. “You didn’t plan on running around like that for the rest of the day, did you? C’mon, you brought that dress for a reason! And I didn’t bring makeup for nothing, either. So off you go.” She makes a shooing motion with her hand and my lips crack into a smile.

With new energy, I pick up my suitcase again and make my way into the bedroom that still has neatly folded blankets on the beds – there are two separate beds here. Quickly, I change out of my jeans and T-shirt and into the dress. I feel better immediately. Crazy how much more comfortable the bareness of your legs makes you with these temperatures.

Back in the living room, I find Sadie’s suitcase open on the floor. She emerges from the bathroom barely a minute later, wearing shorts and a cropped T-shirt.

“We have to go swimming later,” Sadie says, systematically rubbing sunscreen on her legs and arms. “The weather is way too good not to. I know a great beach.”

“I don’t have any clothes…” I tell her cautiously. And anyway, what would I wear? I still have… boy parts.

“We can get you some, there are enough stores.” Then she looks up suddenly. “Or are you not comfortable –”

“No, no.” It makes me feel stupid that I blush.

“I’m sure you won’t be the only person there wearing swimming shorts.” Suddenly her face lights up. “Know what? I’ll just get trunks, too, and then we’ll go in partner look. You definitely won’t be alone, then.”

“That’s dumb,” I say, not looking at her as I put new sunscreen, a smaller amount, this time, to apply to my face.

“Nothing’s dumb if it makes you more comfortable,” she tells me in an almost scolding way. “And anyway, I really wanna go swimming with you. Didn’t you say you’ve never snorkelled or dived at a coral reef?”

I nod. I haven’t and the idea is really appealing. So I don’t say anything more as we get ready.

Not much later, we’re sitting in the shade of a parasol on an open terrace with a perfect view of the city beach. Not the beach we’re going to go to later, but nice still. The breeze here is much kinder than at home and together with the shade and the clothes, the hot food is actually quite enjoyable.

“Do you plan on getting your ears pierced?” Sadie asks suddenly, wiping grease off her lips with a table napkin.

The question catches me off guard at first, but then I allow my mind to wander, just for a moment. How have I not thought of that yet? I think back to my face in the mirror, then imagine colourful stones at the centre of my earlobes.

“Yeah, I’d like that.”

“But not yet, huh?”

“No.”

“We could get you clip-ons, though, right?”

“Do they even have those in the stores here?”

She shrugs, grinning an innocent grin. “We could look. And if not, you’ll get a good idea of what you’d like to wear once you can, right?”

So after lunch, that’s what we do. Together, we walk around the port city that’s not large but still a fair bit larger than my home town. Every now and again, Sadie will suddenly take me by the hand to pull me into some shop she spotted. I’m reluctant at first, I am used to being very careful about going into shops for women, after all, but that lifts away sometime around the second store we visit. We spend several hours looking through jewellery and I get myself a necklace with tourmalines in green and white and ember strung up to form a beautiful pattern. It fits neatly around my neck, almost like a choker. It feels strange at first but I’m determined to get used to it.

By the time we realise that the day’s closing in on late afternoon, we have to hurry to get swimming clothes and catch the bus in time to make it to another beach.

The sun is already hanging somewhat low but there are still a lot of people on the beach. Quickly, we change behind a set of bushes, then Sadie shouts, “First to the water!” and starts sprinting across the beach, her feet leaving deep craters in the soft, hot sand. And already, I’m running after her, my toes kicking up sand, the breeze throwing salty air at my face, my hair whirling after me.

People look up as we race past and I laugh as I overtake Sadie, the muscles in my legs full of power like they’ve been waiting for this moment for months now.

I’m first to the water, my feet crash through the surface of first, shallow waves and splash my shins. I slow as the water gets deeper and I can’t continue running for fear of tripping myself and turn to look back at Sadie. I’m just in time to see a flash of her hair as her arms close around my stomach and pull me with her into the water. The water hits me and engulfs me in a swirl of bubbles and little turbulences, then my back touches against the sand that’s even softer underwater than it was on the beach and Sadie lets go of me to push herself back up.

I come up laughing, wiping water from my eyes and putting back my hair.

“It’s perfect, isn’t it?” Sadie laughs and I nod. The coolness perfectly counteracts the warmth of the sun.

“Come, I wanna show you the reefs,” she says then and together we wade out until the waves go past our midriffs, then we lower ourselves into the water and start swimming.

I’ve never been swimming before with Sadie. She’s fast. So fast, in fact, that even I with my longer arms and legs and still bigger hands have trouble keeping up. But she doesn’t lose me. Regularly, she turns her head and slows a little until I’ve caught up. A few times she suddenly draws her breath and dives underneath the waves and when I look for her in the water, she’s two metres underneath the surface, twirling around herself like a dolphin. Every time she resurfaces, she seems barely out of breath and laughs in a way that makes my stomach clench with joy.

That way, we make our way farther and farther away from the beach, around a set of rocks until we can’t hear the children shout anymore, then Sadie says, “It should be somewhere around here. You’re good at diving, aren’t you?”

I shrug. I used to be alright but I haven’t done it in a while. And anyway, there wasn’t all that much to dive for back home.

“You do know how to clear your ears, though, right?”

At that, I nod and she beams at me. “Okay, I’ll see you underwater, then.” She takes three deep breaths as I do the same, then she’s gone.

By the time I’m working my way away from the surface, she’s already swam a good few metres away. But other than earlier, she’s moving slowly now. Her arms and legs move in a relaxed manner and it looks almost like she’s floating in a gentle current. Ahead of her, I see a group of almost wall-like structures protruding from the rocks we just swam past. They’re probably part of the rocks, too, but they’re unrecognisable because they’re packed with marine life. Colourful corals, sea urchins, sea stars, and all sorts of things I don’t even recognise. Among them, colourful fish swarm and dash away as we glide towards them. I’m glad my eyes deal well with salt water. I’m several metres underneath the surface, now, and I feel the heavy pressure on my lungs. The upward pull of my body is much lighter now, so I don’t have to work as hard. I feel weightless, here.

In a gentle arch, we swim through one of the rifts, slowly making our way back to the surface.

“Fuck, I missed this!” Sadie wheezes in between the deep breaths she’s taking then. I’m even more out of breath than her, of course. “Know why I wanted… to become… an underwater photographer… now?” She’s practically radiating with joy.

I nod and I mean it. There’s no way anybody wouldn’t understand her love for the sea at this moment.

We spend another hour in the water, swimming, diving, lying next to each other on the ground, metres beneath the surface, surrounded by algae drifting lazily in the current, looking up at the kaleidoscope of light above us.

When we emerge from the water, my muscles aching with strain, exhausted in the best way possible, the beach is already clearing and the sun is about to set. The air has cooled but it’s still comfortable enough out here, so we decide to miss another bus and watch the sunset.

“This is living, isn’t it?” I say lying back on the beach towel next to her after having somewhat dried myself.

She nods and grins like she understands, her eyes hidden behind a chunky pair of sunglasses. “You know, in summer you can do that at home, too, right? I’m sure there are fun places to go swimming near you.”

I shrug. “Yeah, maybe.” Once again, it seems laughable to me how I used to hate that town. If this is going to be my summer – and right now it looks very much like this is going to be the exact thing we’re going to do if the weather’s warm enough –, how did I ever dare to hate it.

The answer is clear, obviously, and it doesn’t even make me mad right now. I’m just happy my view has changed.

We stay and watch as the sun paints the sky in a deep, radiant orange, then pack our things as the sky grows pale and walk back to the bus station in the twilight of the wild olive grove.

We arrive at the house in darkness and snack on crackers and water, sitting on the roof and watching the stars. We almost fall asleep up there, too, but notice just in time and make our way back down to crash into the creaky beds without brushing our teeth.

We sleep in because neither of us set an alarm and wake up at noon. Even though we both have slightly sore muscles, Sadie wakes up eager to return to the beach. It’s even hotter today than it was yesterday so at least a short swim before returning to explore the city would probably be nice.

Before we leave, she has to go to the loo one last time. I’m sitting at the kitchen table, then, a simple construction of cheap wood and metal, scrolling on my phone to see what my classmates are up to, when suddenly, I hear the front door unlock.

I freeze, suddenly unable to do anything but stare at the door like a deer in the headlights. I’m wearing my dress again, my feet are still bare, I just brushed my hair and put on water-resistant mascara.

The door opens and in come Sadie’s parents.

My stomach turns.

Ouh! Stuff is happening! Any predictions?
As always, please tell me what you think and have a nice week!

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