See you soon

Chapter 5

"Not bad!"

I stop humming Andrew Lloyd Webber's Angel of Music right away and my cheeks turn bright red as I walk from my hotel room to the breakfast room. I smile at Michael and together we walk past the pool towards the smell of strong coffee. "Hangover?" I chuckle and smile at him, answering that I had only one beer. "What a shame. I want to see you hungover. Two beers tonight?" he smiles. He seems like another person when he smiles that sweet smile of his. There's a big difference between his friendly smile and his sincere smile. His eyes start twinkling at that second one. His eyes are twinkling right now. Daniel catches up with us right before we enter the building. "Michael!" he jumps at Michael's back. The poor boy now has to complete the damn hard task of keeping himself in balance so he doesn't embarrass himself. "Dan da man!" he eventually shouts back, a little less vigoriously than Daniel. "Are you in love with my sister?" My organs seem to make a looping and all the colour I just gained by spending hours in the burning sun, disappears straight off of my face. I get really queasy and dizzy and walking suddenly seems like the hardest task in the history of humanity. "Good question. What do you think, Dan?" I breathe in. "I think you are!" I hear Michael laugh a little. He doesn't give an answer. My heart turns around a thousand times. Maybe even more. I breathe in really deeply and close my eyes for a nanosecond. What is this? Michael bends so Daniel can jump off his back and he runs to our parents's table. My mind does its very best to think of something funny to say to Michael to break the tension, but I fail so I decide to hurry to my table. With eyes that could presumptively shoot lightning if I would try, I look at Daniel. He is calmly nibbling on his croissant. I sigh and walk towards the buffet to get myself a bowl of fruit and some fresh yoghurt.

My dad explains what he would like to do today, also known as: the place we will visit today, whether we like it or not. We are going to visit the city of Brindisi (my dad seems to be a big fan of Brindisi since it's the third time we're visiting the place). He smiles contently and tries to unravel a long and hot walk, while he takes occasional sips of his cappuccino. Daniel took two wedges of chocolate cake and now gives one to me, because he knows it's my favourite. My mum scoops the crumbs of her strawberry pastry together with her finger and lays back her head. I love these moments of just being. Being on vacation. Being a family. Being happy. Being a happy family on vacation.

"Hey... I'm sorry to bother you, but can I ask you something?" Michael's mum stands next to our table with a friendly smile on her face. Michael follows her and comes standing next to her. "Of course you can!" my mum answers. "Michael told me that Emma told him that you've been here a couple of times before and know the area pretty well. I was wondering, do you have any tips for us regarding places to visit? We'd like to visit a city or something." And at that moment, my dad's eyes started twinkling, knowing he would be able to share his knowlegde with others. I prepare for half an hour of non-stop information about the beauty of Puglia, by looking around for a waiter to bring me a hot chocolate, but something else happened. "We can surely give you some information now, but we planned on going to Brindisi today, so maybe you'd just like to come with us? It's such a beautiful city!" my mum smiles at me as if she just started a whole Michael-conspiracy when she finishes talking. Oh god, mum... "Oh we'd love to! If it's not a problem for you..." "Oh, no, not at all! We're going by train, so no car problems either!" my mum replies immediately. "And dad can show off his geographical and historical knowledge," I add with a smile. Michael's mum smiles and introduces herself as Karen. My parents do the same. We agree to leave in half an hour, so we can be in Brindisi by eleven. After assembling in front of the main building of the B&B, we walk towards the train station, about a mile from the B&B. The weather is perfect. Not too hot, not too cold. Some light clouds floating through the sky that protect you from sweating all too much, so you don't get all sticky. I notice that Michael flees from the sun, by moving from treeshadow to treeshadow. "Afraid to get sunburned?" I joke, when I catch up on him under the shadow of the train station. "I don't like the sun." "Well, you must be a very miserable Australian, Michael Clifford." He turns towards me and grins. "I am a troubled guy indeed. Emo boy with band shirts, loads of minor guitar chords and a fringe more impressive than his future ever will be." "Oh so troubled," I answer him sarcastically, before we get into the train.