Chapter 12
12
As the taxi pulls up outside the sun-bleached villa, it’s hard to feel as excited this time. Before we had no idea what we were walking into, the possibilities were endless. This time, well, it’s the same, but say that exact same sentence in more of a pessimistic tone: we’ve no idea what we’re walking into. The possibilities are endless.
As the sound of crunching gravel stops all at once, we all filter out with our bags of shopping, setting them down on the floor so that the driver can get on his way.
‘Are you trying to stock an entire vineyard, Molly?’ Willow half-jokes, grabbing one of the bags that is full of bottles – a job I took responsibility for.
‘I mean, aside from the absolute nonsense that is suggesting you would stock a vineyard with bottles of wine bought from a shop…’ I can’t resist pointing that out. ‘…this is a hen party, you know.’
‘So long as we have the actual essentials covered,’ Willow says.
‘Wine is absolutely an essential,’ Lou reminds her. ‘But, hey, look how many oranges Nita bought. Five a day covered.’
‘Yeah, if you mean five sangrias a day,’ Nita says with a chuckle. ‘Because that’s what I bought them for.’
Nita walks ahead of us, leaving us with the bags so that she can open the door for us.
I watch as she types in the code. Then she tries again. Then again. I swear, each time the keypad flashes red and buzzes in a way that could mean nothing but rejection, my bags get heavier.
‘This thing hates me,’ she says, frustrated, before trying it again. Once again, the door isn’t having it.
‘Are you typing it in right?’ Willow asks.
‘No, I hadn’t thought of trying that,’ Nita replies sarcastically. ‘I’m typing in the same code as I did earlier, but it isn’t working.’
‘That’s because we’ve changed it.’
It’s a man’s voice, coming from above.
We all whip our heads up in unison. Standing on the balcony above the front door are the boys – Owen, Travis, Harry and Nolan – leaning casually on the railing like they’ve been waiting for this exact moment. Smirks all around as they peer down at us.
Owen, the self-appointed leader of the pack, leans casually against the railing, flashing us the kind of smug grin that can only be removed by a slap.
‘Hello, ladies,’ Owen says, tipping an imaginary hat.
‘What the hell is going on?’ Nita asks him in a hiss. ‘What do you mean, you’ve changed the code?’
‘Well, we’ve been expecting you,’ Owen replies cryptically, doing a bad impression of someone who works for a company that puts on corny murder mysteries.
‘You’re not a Bond villain, you’re a bellend,’ Nita reminds him. ‘Just tell us what’s going on.’
Owen gives Nolan a playful jab with his elbow.
‘Nolan here, our resident tech genius, has reset and changed the door code,’ Owen says proudly. ‘Right, Nolan?’
‘Er, yeah,’ Nolan replies, in a sort of shy way, but happy to take credit for his handiwork. ‘It’s super easy, if you know how, you just have to?—’
‘All right, don’t tell them,’ Owen reminds him with a laugh.
‘Are you even allowed to do that here?’ Lou asks.
‘I’m not saying we were allowed, I’m just saying that we did,’ Owen replies.
Nita looks ready to explode.
‘What the hell are you playing at?’ she asks.
‘We found out all about the double-booking,’ Owen explains. ‘That this place is basically up for grabs, for free, for the next two weeks. So we’re claiming squatters’ rights.’
‘Aside from how obviously stupid that is,’ Nita begins, unable to resist a dig, ‘what gives you the right, over us?’
‘Yeah, we all booked the place, fair and square, for the same two weeks, so why is it you guys who get to stay here?’ I ask, keeping my voice calm and steady.
‘Because we got here first,’ Travis points out.
His words send a flutter of something through me. It’s probably not a nice flutter, right? Just a weird, embarrassing pang left over from our awkward first meeting earlier. Definitely that. Nothing else. It’s just that.
‘You can’t just stop us from coming in!’ Lou says, emotion building in her voice.
‘Hmm, it’s funny you should say that,’ Owen replies. ‘Because from where I’m standing it looks like we can and we did. You’re not getting through this door without the code, and only we know the code.’
‘What about the back door?’ I think out loud. ‘Did you lock that?’
As the four boys exchange panicked looks it becomes glaringly obvious that, caught up in their elaborate plan to change the code to the front door, it didn’t occur to any of them to lock the back door that leads out to the pool. The smug looks drain from their faces all at once. At the same time, we know what to do. We need to run, as fast as we can, around to the back of the villa, to get in through the patio doors before the boys have a chance to lock them.
‘Go!’ Nita yells, her voice sharp and urgent as she tries to motivate us. ‘Go, go, go!’
And we’re off, moving like we’ve never moved before (well, I haven’t) as the boys scramble to head inside, their footsteps thudding on the balcony as they all try to get in through the door, trying to beat us to the patio doors.
My heart pounds as I run – keeping up the rear, we’ll call it, otherwise you would say I’m in last place. I’m powered by a mixture of adrenaline, determination and spite. Who do these boys think they are?
Willow, of course, is the fastest of all of us. She’s a sportsy girl, has been her entire life, and has kept it going into adulthood. She runs marathons so I fancy our chances. It’s only going to take one of us to get through that door and all of us are in.
Looking ahead, I see her dive in through the open door just as Harry lunges for the handle. Ha. We did it. Well, Willow did it, my stitch has a stitch, but you take my point.
‘Too slow,’ she tells him triumphantly.
Willow can be so rude but when she’s using these powers for good I don’t actually mind it. The boys, on the other hand, don’t look impressed at all. They’re panting, and pouting, like the losing team of a relay race at the Olympics.
‘Now then, now that we’re all inside, how about we sit down on the sofas and we sort this out like the grown adults that we are?’ Nita suggests, her voice dripping with sarcasm.
‘After you,’ Owen tells her.
Nita brushes past Owen with a sharp glare and an ‘accidental’ elbow. He laughs it off as they follow us through to where the sofas are.
‘Bring the bag of oranges,’ Nita half-jokes to Lou under her breath. ‘In case we need a weapon.’
Oh, God, yeah, we’re all so mature. This is going to go really well.
‘I can’t believe they’re refusing to acknowledge squatters’ rights,’ Owen says under his breath to his friends – of course, we hear him.
‘I can’t believe you think you can say squatters’ rights in a situation like this,’ I point out. ‘You’ve clearly been learning about the law from clueless people on the internet. You need to get off TikTok, bud.’
‘Oh yeah, and what are you, a lawyer?’ he replies mockingly.
‘No, but I am,’ Willow points out. ‘What you’re talking about is adverse possession, and you can’t use that to bagsy a holiday rental for two weeks, so shut up, you’re making yourself look dumb.’
Again, not the most polite, but I’m happy when she’s directing it at the boys.
Owen leans back against the sofa, folding his arms in a way that flexes his biceps – I swear, he’s doing it on purpose.
‘Right, so, obviously, we all know the villa’s going free for two weeks,’ he points out. ‘We’re all getting a refund, so that’s fair – so what we need to work out is who gets this place.’
Lou leans forward in her seat, placing her hands calmly on her lap.
‘We’re both as entitled as each other to stay here, that’s true,’ she points out, keeping her voice soft and gentle. I can tell she’s about to appeal to their better nature – if they have one. ‘But it’s very, very important that we stay here. I’m getting married on Sunday, at La Palacio de la Mar. It’s one of the most exclusive venues in Spain, and we had to move the wedding at the last minute, which was very stressful, because of a disaster…’ She pauses to take a deep breath. ‘This was the only place in the area we could find to stay, or we’d have happily gone somewhere else. Honestly, you can have our refund money as a thank you if you’d just let us stay – and you can go anywhere you want.’
Owen sucks air through his teeth like a mechanic about to deliver bad news.
‘Oof. Yeah, sorry, no can do,’ he says.
‘What?’ Lou blurts, her eyes widening. ‘Why not?’
‘Because we’re here for a wedding too,’ he informs her. ‘Also at La Palacio de la Mar. But ours is Saturday.’
‘Wait, who’s getting married?’ Nita asks, her voice overflowing with disbelief, and potentially a little bit of disappointment. I wonder which one it is she fancies…
Owen smiles, pointing a thumb over his shoulder at Nolan, who’s suddenly looking like he wants the ground to swallow him whole.
‘This guy,’ Owen announces.
Nolan waves awkwardly, his cheeks pink. He’s clearly not as confident as his friends, not as easy-going with the ladies, although he is getting married so he must have worked his magic on at least one. Maybe he dazzled her with his tech skills. I am annoyingly impressed at what he did with the door – we’re so lucky they’re ultimately stupid boys, so proud of their handiwork that their egos make them sloppy.
‘So, there we have it,’ Owen concludes. ‘We need this place too, for the same reason as you, just as much as you do – although probably more so, because our wedding is on Saturday, yours is Sunday. Our wedding is first.’
Travis, who’s been quietly scrolling on his phone up until now, looks up.
‘I’ve been checking for other places in the area. Everywhere is full,’ he points out.
‘Wait, do you have signal? Or are you on the villa’s wi-fi?’ I can’t help but ask.
‘There’s no signal or wi-fi here,’ Harry points out. ‘But Nolan brought some fancy modem thing. Works anywhere. Satellite or summat.’
‘There’s no internet here?’ I shriek, the horror sinking in. ‘How am I supposed to stay here for two weeks without internet?’
‘You’re not,’ Owen says smugly, as if it’s the most obvious thing in the world. ‘Because you’re not staying here.’
‘No, you’re not staying here,’ Nita says firmly.
Harry visibly relaxes, the very definitely of laid-back, as his lips curve into a teasing smile.
‘Oh, yeah? What are you going to do about it? Kick us out?’ he says, and I could swear he was flirting with her right now.
‘If that’s what it takes,’ Nita replies slowly, in a breathy voice.
Oh, cool, cool, cool, she’s flirting back. That will help.
Harry shrugs, undeterred.
‘Who cares? We’re boys,’ he points out. ‘We’ll piss in the garden and wash in the pool. And there are four big sofas right here, so that’s beds sorted, and the kitchen is only a few steps away…’
‘You’ll piss outside?’ Willow replies in disgusted disbelief. ‘What about… about…’
‘There’s a WC under the stairs,’ Travis informs us all. ‘We’ll use that, not the garden.’
‘But you can’t wash in a WC,’ I point out.
‘Like I said, the pool,’ Harry says. ‘You girls need to chill out – have you thought about a holiday?’
‘Plus, the TV and the pool table are down here,’ Nolan pipes up before anyone can strangle Harry.
‘Yeah, okay,’ Travis agrees. ‘Downstairs sounds fine to me.’
‘Wait, so we have bedrooms, and bathrooms, but you guys have the living rooms, the kitchen, and a loo. You have the TV, the pool table – all the fun stuff,’ I can’t help but point out. Suddenly this doesn’t quite seem fair.
‘Yeah, well, that’s what you wanted, right?’ Travis reminds me, trying to hide his smile.
‘I mean, what we want is for you guys to just leave,’ I tell him with a smile of my own.
‘But with that not happening…’ Travis reminds me.
‘So, are we including the garden in downstairs?’ I ask – because that doesn’t seem fair at all.
‘Yes,’ Owen says quickly.
‘No,’ Travis says, speaking over him. ‘The pool and the gardens are communal areas. We’ll share those like we would if this were a resort. That seems fair, right?’
‘Not really,’ Nita says, huffing as she folds her arms.
‘No, that does seem… fairer,’ I tell Travis, grateful for small mercies.
‘There’s no reason we can’t make this work, right?’ he replies.
‘I mean… there’s no reason we can’t make this work,’ I agree. ‘But we didn’t kick off negotiations by locking you boys outside.’
‘And for that we’re sorry, right, lads?’ Travis says, looking to his friends. They don’t seem very sorry. ‘Lads?’ he prompts them again.
‘Yeah, sorry,’ Harry says, trying to mask a giggle, like a naughty little kid.
‘Sorry,’ Owen adds. ‘But we’re all being grown-ups now, right?’
‘We will if you do,’ Nita says.
Owen claps his hands together, satisfied with the deal we’ve just done – it feels more like we’ve been done.
‘So, that’s settled,’ he says. ‘Go on then, head upstairs, to your floor, leave our zone. Take your stuff with you, make yourselves at home. Unless…’ His smile turns teasing. ‘You don’t think you can hack it and want to back down?’
‘Not a chance,’ Nita snaps back, grabbing her bag. ‘Come on, girls.’
As we head upstairs, I can’t help but feel… I don’t know. Like, yay, we’re proving a point, we’re stronger than the boys – whatever. This sounds like it’s going to be hell.
‘Come on, we’ll show those boys who’s boss,’ Nita says as we carry our bags across the landing.
Lou exhales, her shoulders dropping a little in relief.
‘I’m just glad we can stay,’ she replies.
‘Me too,’ Willow adds. ‘And I’m more determined than ever to prove to those boys that we can hack this. They’ll be the ones struggling before we do.’
I smile, trying to match their enthusiasm, but really, I’m not so sure. Sure, we’ve got the better deal with beds and bathrooms, but it’s not perfect. The food we need to refrigerate won’t last up here. All our drinks will be warm in the Spanish heat, and it’s going to suck to rely on dry or long-life snacks for two weeks. It’s better than being stuck downstairs without a bed, but only just.
Nita looks ready to go to war, Lou seems like she’s willing to do whatever it takes, Willow is Willow, and I’m… I don’t even know what I am. Not up for this, that’s for sure.
Boys will be boys – and these boys seem like they’re going to do whatever they want. Oh, this is going to be fun, and not in the good way.