Ibiza Summer (18 page)

We both sat there, looking at each other a bit bewildered, before we cracked up laughing, rolling around on the grass, our faces aching as we collapsed in a hysterical heap next to each other
and we were looking up at the sky that was close to darkness by now.

‘You know I love you too,’ I found myself saying, after a moment’s silence.

Rex touched my hand softly, linking his fingers through mine, creating a lock as he pulled me over on top of him so that our bodies were touching. I snuggled against his chest, listening to the
sound of his heart as he spoke.

‘It’s funny,’ he said, ‘falling in love was the last thing I had expected. There I am playing my music and strumming my guitar, and then suddenly you come along and it
all feels so different. Now when I pick up my guitar I think of songs I’d like to play for you. Whenever I spin a record, it reminds me of things we’ve done or a place we’ve been
to together. Everything I say and do, all that I see and hear, relates back to you – to us – and it just feels so right. And now – well, you’ll be going home soon and I just
. . . well, that just seems so wrong.’

I felt so sad – sad because I felt all those things and more. With Rex I felt truly alive, like I had been dead all these years and he had woken me from an eternal sleep, and soon it would
all be gone.

‘You know I really do love you too,’ I repeated, because now that I’d found the courage to say it once I wanted to keep on saying it and saying it until I wore the words
out.

Rex pulled me even closer to him, as if he wanted to pull me right into his soul, and he stroked my hair, over and over.

‘That time,’ he said as his gentle fingers worked their way through my knotty mass of curls, ‘on the beach when you told me about your dad. I knew then that I loved
you.’

‘You did?’ I asked, willing him to continue.

‘You opened up to me and it made me feel special, like you trusted me enough with your deepest feelings. I felt honoured that you could share your pain with me and it made me want to never
let anything or anyone hurt you ever again.’

I could feel tears forming in my eyes, making the image of his face all blurry as I looked at him.

‘I thought about what you’d told me when I went for my daily run along the beach the next day and you know, I cried, Iz. I cried for that little eleven-year-old girl you were who had
lost her dad in such a cruel way. I felt your pain as if it were my own. That’s when I knew I must love you.’

I let the tears silently slide down the side of my face again and he bent forward and kissed me. His lips were soft and warm and his breath was bittersweet, mixed with the saltiness of my tears.
‘I never want to let you go,’ he said, his voice cracking as he held on to me.

‘Then don’t,’ I croaked back. ‘Don’t ever let me go.’

When I woke, the sun was shining brightly, and I shut my eyes as quickly as I had opened them to shield them from its harshness. For a second I didn’t know where I was
and I felt a brief moment of panic. Then I felt Rex’s arm around me, loosely draped over my shoulder as he lay next to me on the sofa. I wasn’t sure how we had got there, or what time
it was, or whether I should wake him – he looked so peaceful asleep next to me, the softness of his breathing only just audible. We must’ve fallen asleep on his couch.

I searched for my phone to check the time. Oh bloody hell! It was nearly eight o’clock in the morning – the
next
morning. And now the panic really did set in. I was for the
high jump now, of that much I was sure.

he second I walked through the door and clocked Ellie’s face, I was hit by this sinking feeling,
the sort I imagine criminals must have when they come home to find the police waiting for them, knowing they’ve been caught bang to rights.

‘Been anywhere nice?’ said Ellie, her voice tight and measured.

‘Not really – well, yes actually, I had a really nice night with Edie. We went for pizza and then back to her apartment to listen to CDs and it got late and well, I thought I might
as well stay over. Sorry I didn’t text but I fell asleep . . .’

My sister stood up and walked towards me, and I couldn’t help but notice how gracefully she moved, like a ballerina, which was a ridiculous thing to notice, given the circumstances.

‘So are you going to tell me where you
really
were or are you just going to carry on with these blatant lies?’ Ellie asked angrily. ‘I know that Edie girl went home
over a week ago!
’ she said, emphasising the final part for maximum impact.

I knew the time had come.

‘OK,’ I said, defeated, ‘I’ll tell you everything.’ And so I did. Well, sort of.

I told her how I’d met someone that I really liked and that we’d been spending some time together. I’d been worried that she would be worried if I told her about it and I
wanted to keep it a secret because I didn’t want everyone to know. I figured that it was just easier to lie than tell the truth. I missed out the part about Rex being a twenty-six-year-old DJ
with his own moped, though, because I knew she’d totally freak – and I was in enough trouble already.

‘Why didn’t you just tell me you’d met someone?’ Ellie asked when I had finished, her voice softening slightly. ‘I wouldn’t have minded you spending some time
with a lad. Anyway who is he? I suppose you were with him last night?’

‘Yes,’ I said weakly.

‘
All
night?’

I nodded. There was no point in lying any more. I was too tired.

‘But we just fell asleep,
honestly
,’ I added. ‘I’m sorry. I know I should’ve just told you the truth from the start.’

Ellie looked at me mournfully and shook her head. ‘I trusted you, Iz,’ she said, ‘brought you out here, with
my
friends on
my
holiday because you’re always
going on and on about how much you want to be included and be grownup and . . . and . . . then you disappear for hours on end every day and I realise you’ve been lying to me about where
you’ve been and who you’ve been with.’

‘Are you going to tell Mum about this?’ I asked, pathetically.

‘I haven’t decided yet,’ she answered crisply. ‘I was so worried. I’d tried to call you on your mobile a dozen times to see if you wanted to come with us to a beach
barbecue, but it just kept going straight to voicemail. So I went down to reception and asked them what apartment that Edie girl and her family were in and I was so shocked when they told me that
they had already flown back to England. I panicked and suddenly had all these horrible thoughts of you lying in a ditch somewhere; raped, murdered – anything!’ Ellie was pacing the
room, waving her arms manically. ‘Why didn’t you want me to know that you’d met someone? Is he a criminal? A drug-dealer or something?’

‘No!’ I said, choking back the sobs. ‘He’s amazing and kind and gentle and loving. He respects me and says he loves me and I believe him, but he’s, well, a bit
older than me and I didn’t think you’d approve.’

‘Older?’ Ellie said, frowning, ‘How much older?’ Her voice was high-pitched and angry now and my head started to hurt.

‘He’s twenty-six,’ I sighed, and it was a relief to have finally said it out loud, to tell the truth.

‘Twenty-six?’ she said, as she fell on to the bed in shock.

‘And he’s got a moped and he’s a DJ,’ I said quickly, because I thought if I said it fast enough she might not hear.

‘A DJ? And I suppose you’ve been on his moped?’

‘His name’s Rex and yes, I have, a few times,’ I said, remorsefully.

She seemed more composed now and I sensed that she knew I was finally telling the truth.

‘Do you mean Rex ‘The Dex’, the DJ from Café Del Sol?’ She looked at me, eyes wide with horror, but somewhere, blink and you’d have missed it, I was sure I
saw a flash of something else – admiration perhaps?

‘That’s him,’ I said, wishing he could just zip right up on his moped so I could ride off with him and not have to face any of this.

‘Right! I know where to find him and when I do, I’m going to kill him,’ she said in her scary calm voice again. ‘You’re only sixteen years old, for Christ’s
sake! I mean, what’s he playing at? He’s older than Tom! Is he some kind of cradle-snatcher or something?’

This was exactly the type of reaction I had feared most and I broke down in tears.

‘He doesn’t know I’m only sixteen,’ I whispered, just loud enough for her to hear.

Ellie sat there on the bed, staring at me in disbelief.

‘You didn’t tell him you were only sixteen?
Why
, Izzy?’ she said, her face all screwed up. ‘What’s happened to you, Izzy?’

‘What do you care?’ I said, becoming angry now. ‘You’ve hardly complained about me going off with Edie. You’ve been far too busy going clubbing and having a good
time with your friends. I’m sure the only reason you brought me here on holiday here was because Mum
made
you.’ I knew I was being horrible but I couldn’t stop myself.

‘That’s just not true, Iz,’ Ellie said, looking deeply wounded. ‘I only seemed happy to let you go off with that Edie girl because I thought that’s what
you
wanted. I would’ve been just as happy spending some time with you. That’s why I wanted you to come out here in the first place – so we could be together.’

A wave of shame washed over me as I tried to blink back the tears.

‘Why didn’t you tell him you were only sixteen?’ she asked. So I explained. And this time I didn’t leave anything out.

I poured my heart out to her, telling her about the time Rex and I had first met and the day we spent together on the beach; I told her about the stars and the butterfly and the hippy market,
and I showed her my little bracelet that jingled slightly whenever I moved; I explained how much I loved him and that I had never, ever in all my life felt so deeply about another person and that,
as far as I was concerned, age was just a number anyway. I told her I was frightened he wouldn’t want anything to do with me if I told him the truth, but it had all got so out of hand and
before I knew it I had reached the point of no return.

‘He needs to know the truth,’ she said, after I had finished.

‘I will tell him,’ I promised, ‘and then I can be with him properly.’

‘What do you mean,
properly
?’ Ellie said, narrowing her eyes suspiciously.

‘I’m going to stay here in Ibiza with him – for good,’ I said, unquestionably. Suddenly I had never felt so sure about anything in my life before. It was a moment of
clarity where everything just clicked into place, and saying it aloud brought with it a soothing calmness.

Despite the confusion and chaos of the past two weeks, one thing was clear above everything: I loved Rex, and, as much as I had to pinch myself to believe it, he loved me too and we had to be
together. I realised he might be angry with me for not coming clean about my age from the off but now, after everything, the unbreakable bond I felt we had made, I was sure it would be irrelevant.
It didn’t matter how long you’d lived, but
how
you’d lived.
Our love knew no boundaries. Sixteen or sixty, we were so close and in love – and that was what
counted.

‘Oh don’t be so naïve, Izzy,’ Ellie scoffed, almost laughing. ‘You’ve obviously looked into the fact that you’ll have to travel to the Interior and
Justice Central Department in Madrid and provide documentary evidence that you have a source of income before they’ll give you a visa and residency, hmm?’ I knew she was quoting some
kind of bureaucratic legal guff to me, but I didn’t care. It was simple to me: I wanted to stay here with him; and I would do whatever it took, even if it meant travelling to Madrid by
donkey.

Ellie put her hands up to her head in dismay. ‘You know, I never thought something like this would happen. My little sister threatening to run off with a local DJ, who probably does this
kind of thing all the time, I should add. I don’t suppose you know that in Spain anyone under the age of eighteen is classed as a minor – what do you think he would say if he knew you
were a
minor
?’ and she overstated the word ‘minor’ presumably to cause me pain and shame.

‘I’m – I’m speechless,’ she said. But this was clearly just a figure of speech because she went on . . .