"What did you find out?" Eda asked Serkan, when he returned from the long line, waiting for the information point. She was on her phone reading about the strike, and it wasn't looking promising for them. Even if they would get out of Turkey, no plane was flying to Spain except expensive charters.
"All long-distance bus companies are striking too, and the short-distance ones are full. I'm sure all trains are booked, and they are too expensive."
"Can't we take your jet?"
Serkan looked at Eda oddly. "I don't have a private jet."
"Aren't you filthy rich or something?"
"No, I'm not. My parents are, but it doesn't mean that I am. It doesn't work like that." He said, sitting down on the airport floor and looking around for outlet, but all of them were in use.
"Don't they love you that they cut you off?" Eda said in a mocking tone, earning an annoyed gaze from Serkan.
"They love me very much, that's why they gave me the choice of how I want to live, but there are rules. I can't just go and take their private jet if I don't work for the family business."
"Can't they help you?"
"No." Serkan cut the topic short, opening the map on his phone and checking the distance from Antalya to the Mundaka on the northern coast of Spain, where the competition was taking place.
"It's still early in the morning." Eda said, looking at the map. "If we rent a car, we can get to Spain in three days. The finals are on Thursday, and now it's Monday. We can easily do it. How much money do you have?"
Serkan pulled the corner of his lip in an unhappy smile. "I have 500 euros in my cart and 200 liras in my pocket."
"Ne?! You are so broke?" Eda exclaimed in shock. She thought he could have more.
"No, I have my saving on another account. I can't access it."
"Can't you call your bank to transfer the fund?"
"No, they are blocked for the next months on a fixed-term deposit account. I can't take them, or I will lose my interest. What about you? How much do you have?"
"100 liras and 400 euros on my credit card."
"And you are saying I'm broke?" Serkan rolled her eyes.
Eda jumped on her feet, put her hands on her hips, and leaned over him. Any suggestion that she was poor was her sore point because it wasn't true. "I paid the rent for three months, and all my bills, and I ordered a new board. I'm awaiting my payments in a week, and this was all paid expense trip! Can't you call your sister or your future brother-in-law to lend you money?"
"Did you forget they went with Ceren and Ferit on that trip to the mountains where there is no reception?" Serkan got up from the floor and turned to the exit. "They only have my satellite phone in case of emergency, and Piryl keeps it switched off."
"Why did she switch it off?"
"Because otherwise Mom would call her on the excuse to ask about a good art deal, and she would talk and talk for hours, and Piryl wants to have a little peace."
"Yes." Eda giggled, following Serkan to the doors. "Your mom can be intense, but she is so passionate about a topic she talks about. It's harmless."
"Yes, but after two hours talking about the same shade of paint, it's too much even for a painter."
"You just don't understand." Eda rolled her eyes but smiled. "Undertone makes a huge difference."
"That's why you talked with my mom for five hours about the exact same shades of green." He smiled slightly.
"It was segde, Serkan, not green. You are just color-blind like all men are. I'm surprised you don't take all your pictures only in black and white."
"Half of it I do. The rest is a lucky coincidence." When they stopped next to the bus station Serkan checked the distance on the map again. "We won't afford a car for this, only gas and food."
Eda looked at the bus lines to the city and thought intently, tapping her chin with her fingers. "I might have a solution. I'm from Antalya. I have my old car here, sitting in the garage of my parents' house."
Serkan raised his brows at her. "Are you from here, and you can't borrow money for your family?"
"My family is not living here, butthead. They are in New Zealand for my dad's three years contract."
"And the rest of the party tug along?"
"My grandparents wanted to go too, and why my aunt had to be left alone? They like nature and peace, and it's a perfect place for them." Eda picked up her suitcase and went to one of the buses, not even looking at Serkan, if he followed her.
* * *
"Do you have a key?" Serkan asked when Eda stopped under one of the gates.
"No, but it's not really closed." She shrugged and started pushing and pulling by the handle until it gave in and opened. She took a bobby pin from her hair and tossed it to Serkan. "Now, pick the lock to the garage door."
Serkan just rolled his eyes at her big grin and started to work on the lock. Eda looked around and spotted the neighbor watching them suspiciously from his balcony. She smiled widely and waved at him. The man seemed to recognize her. She hoped he won't call the police. They didn't have time to waste to explain why she was breaking into her own house.
When Serkan finally opened the lock, Eda pushed on the garage doors and looked fondly at her old red jeep, which she had many adventures with, also when it broke in the middle of nowhere.
"What is this?" Serkan asked when Eda climbed on one of the storage shelves to look for the car keys she had hidden there.
"A car?"
"You're kidding me? This old wreck?" He kicked the tires to checking them.
Eda pursed her lips, coming very close to him and looking him proudly in the eyes. "Yes."
"No."
"Yes."
"No."
Eda squinted her eyes, and Serkan frowned. They were staring at each other while Eda also was trying to kill him with her gaze.
"Aa! You blinked!" She exclaimed triumphantly. "You lost."
"What?! What I even lost? There were no rules."
Eda opened the back of the car and threw inside a couple of additional blankets and pillows she found on the shelf. She packed her suitcase and board, a gas kitchen, a flashlight, an empty travel bag, and the inflated mattress while Serkan was still looking at the car as if he was awaiting it falling apart at any moment.
"Get your ass to the car, Serkan Bolat, or I'm leaving without you." Eda walked to the driver's seat. "Or you know what? I'm leaving without you. I don't need you for anything. Bye." She said, hit the gas, and backed up the car.
To her surprise and a little disappointment, Serkan didn't run after her. Too bad it would be funny. He just stood there with his arms crossed on his chest, looking at her unimpressed, when she waved him and drove away.
"You'll be back in five minutes, Eda Yildiz." Serkan muttered under his breath and sat comfortably under the tree and checked the time.
Eda was back in four minutes and a half. She parked and looked at him grimly. "Get your ass to the car."
Serkan smirked, waving at her with her purse with wallet and passport. "Forgot something?"
"Yes, one annoying ass. Did you see him?"
"No, you probably missed him."
"Serkan, stop acting like a petulant child and enter the car!" She raised her voice.
"I'm acting like a child? And who just left me here? I have your passport and your credit card. I don't need to go with you. I will rent a car with your card, and you will be paying off the debt for the next five years."
"Serkan." Eda said in waring tone.
"Yes?"
"I'm sorry, ok? Now to the car."
"I didn't know you have that word in your vocabulary." Serkan got off the ground and walked to the trunk, putting his bag and board inside. He closed the garage and jumped into the passenger seat. "Are you sure it won't fall apart during the ride?"
"Do you want to leave the car?" Eda grumbled, but she felt excited about the trip. She always liked to take a car and just drive wherever her eyes led her. The first time was Piryl's idea right after she was grounded for running from house with her brother for a week on the road trip. And when her punishmet ended, she suggested that they should do the same. They both were grounded for doing that, but it was one of the best experiences of Eda's life and the beginning of her many adventures.
After they stopped by the store to stock on food and water supply, and Serkan checked the oil level and inflated the wheels, he sat in the driver seat and opened his navigation.
"Why aren't we going through Istanbul?" Eda asked, looking at the itinerary he made.
"The route is closed, and on the highway through Bulgary was an accident. We will drive along the seashore to Greece and sleep near Thessaloniki, tomorrow we need to reach the Italian-French border, and then we will have about a twelve-hour drive to Spain."
"We will go through Greece?" Eda jumped on her seat with excitement. "I always wanted to drive there."
"I was there with Piryl when we ran from home for the first time." Serkan smiled, seeing Eda's happy dance. "Alp was supposed to cover for us, but after five days, he got bored, went to the party, and got hammered. He forgot to turn on the music in our rooms, and when Dad found him sleeping hungover in Piryl's bed, he learned we weren't home for that whole time. We were grounded for two weeks, but it was worth it."
"Your parents had their hands full." Eda chuckled, connecting Serkan's phone to the car radio and played the music. "Piryl was grounded half of the time."
"Yes, we were a lot when we were at school. Once I was going from my room through the balcony on the first floor, Piryl was sneaking away, crawling to the back doors, and Alp got stuck in the garage window. Dad didn't know who to catch first, and Mom decided it was fun, and she wanted to climb the wall too."
Eda laughed at loud. "Your family is so chaotic. I heard the stories. I always felt sorry for Kemal bey when he was trying to bring any structure, not letting Piryl go out while she was making puppy eyes at him, and your mom was opening the kitchen back door for her, averting his attention."
"We had fun upbringing. Dad always threatened to send us all to boarding school abroad, but no one ever took him seriously. He would be first to take us back after one week because he would miss us too much." Serkan smiled fondly, looking at the road, and changed the song on the playlist.
"Oh, I love this song!" Eda started to move on her seat to the rhythm of the song. Serkan was tapping his hand on the wheel to the beat.
"It's my favorite too."
Eda threw him a challenging gaze. "Do you know the lyrics?"
He looked at her with his confidant smile, which made Eda's heart beat faster again and started to sing. She joined him for the chorus, and Serkan snorted with laughter.
"It's not electric boobs, but boots!"
"It's more fun that way." She smiled at him playfully. "Did you hear about Caught a moose, caught a moose, will you do the Fandango?"
"Eda, don't butcher Queen's songs."
"I always sing like that." She shrugged, but she was enjoying herself a lot.
"Do you have more?" Serkan teased her, and she shifted in her seat to face him.
"I have more, but you have to guess the correct lyrics. Ready?"
"Ok." He smiled.
Eda turned off the music and sang the line. "Like the legend of the penis."
"Like the legend of the Phoenix." He corrected her.
"I've got two chickens to paralyze."
Serkan snorted with laughter. "I'm sure you do. I've got two tickets to paradise."
"We don't need no sex vacation."
"Education."
"It was too easy." Eda smiled brighter. "Try to guess this one. It doesn't make a difference if we're naked or not."
"If we make it or not." He was laughing at lound from her lines.
"I think I'm in love with a girl who goes down."
"I'm gonna crash the car." Serkan couldn't stop laughing. "Two doors down."
"Ok, last one. Might as well face it, you're a dick with a glove."
Serkan pulled off the road and stopped. He rested his forehead on the wheel, shaking from laughter. Eda curled in her seat, holding her stomach because she laughed so hard it hurt.
"It was addicted to love." Serkan said with difficulty, wiping the tears from his eyes.
"Same thing."
"Eda, aren't you missing something in your life?" He looked at her, cocking his brows and smiling slyly. "Everything you associate with one thing."
"Shut up, Serkan Bolat." Eda punched his arm while he was still laughing.
"Play the song without penises, dicks, and boobs, or we won't make it to Spain."
Eda was going through the playlist on Serkan's phone when she saw one album with a picture on the cover, which was taken four years ago during Piryl's birthday grill, where Eda met Serkan for the first time. In the picture were the three of them, and Serkan was hugging not only his sister but also holding Eda by her waist, and she was resting her hands on his shoulder, pressed tight to him. All of them were smiling happily. She tapped on the picture, and the content of the playlist surprised her.
"Are you listening to the sad love songs?" She said, raising her brows.
"No, I'm not." Serkan quickly snatched the phone from her hands. He played a random song and asked. "Do you want to play a dare?"
Eda looked at him, for a split second wondering if he wanted to avert her attention but then shrugged and sat straight because she didn't mind the game. "Ok, but you are going first. Truth or dare?"
"Dare."
"Ok." She looked around and spotted the road exit. "Park by this gas station. Do you see the drugstore with that huge line?"
"Mhm."
"Put your underwear over your pants and go there asking very loudly which laxative is the most effective, and when they finally answer, ask how many they have. When they will want to sell it to you, make a stupid face and tell them you don't need it anymore."
Serkan rolled his eyes but pulled off the road. "Did you think about this for the whole ride?"
"Whole year." Eda smiled sweetly, taking her phone out and turning her phone camera on. "Now, go."
To her surprise, Serkan did everything exactly as she told him, not even batting an eye, and he even waved to her when she was recording him.
"Happy?" He smiled smugly, getting back into the car and starting the engine.
"It looked too easy." Eda pouted. "You are not even embarrassed."
Serkan smirked. "They don't know me, and I don't have a stick in my ass."
"Sometimes you are even too carefree."
"Live is short. We are young only once. Why should I waste it worrying about what people would think about me or what will be in fifty years?"
"Were you always like that?"
"I was living, waiting for tomorrow to happen for my whole life, until I just left and decided to live today." Serkan looked intently at Eda. "It may not be tomorrow. You never know."
Eda was watching in silence as he was driving the car. He was right. She did the same. She was waiting for years for something that never happened, deceiving herself. She always clung to the thought that next month, next semester, something would change, and she would eventually have a happy life with her boyfriend, he would propose to her, and all of their problems and misunderstandings would finally disappear. Until one day, when it all went crashing down, and she got an unexpected visit from his mother. No one ever humiliated her so much as that woman.
Eda was about to move back to Istanbul after finishing her degree in Paris and thought Efe would rent a flat with her when his mother told her he was arranged to get married to their business partner's daughter, and Eda needed to move aside and stop pulling him down, and Efe didn't even call her after that. Piryl found her in the apartment their shared, curled under the blanket with broken hearts, and convinced her to move with her to Portugal and start living the way she always wanted. And she did just that. Eda was lucky to have a friend like her.
* * *
Eda took a nap in the back seats, which she pulled down and made a comfortable bed there as she had done many times before. When she climbed back to the front of the car, she noticed that they already crossed the Dardanelles and were close to the Greece border. She was just looking for something to eat when Serkan turned to her with a mischievous smile.
"I dare you to steal that watermelon."
Eda glared at him and saw that they were passing a watermelon field. "You and your stupid ideas."
"Wasn't your more stupid? And I did it."
"I should have made you make out with a tree or a traffic pole." Eda grumbled, watching the open field without the fence. "Couldn't you think about something else?"
"No, I'm hungry, and I want that watermelon. Pick a nice one or you are going again."
Serkan stopped the car and leaned over Eda to open the door on her side. She felt an electric shock when his arm brushed her thigh. He was looking at her with his signature half-smile that was confusing her, and she ran from the car to hide her sudden daze.
Eda went to the field and found a nice not too big watermelon, but forgot to take a knife, so she started twisting and pulling on it. She managed to rip it off the vine when she heard an angry voice coming closer to her. Not looking, she grabbed the fruit and launched toward the car. Serkan already turned on the engine and started to slowly drive away.
"Serkan!" Eda yelled after him, running even faster. The angry voice behind her was coming closer.
"Run, Eda, run!" Serkan laughed when Eda speeded up behind the car. He pushed the door open, and she jumped inside, throwing the watermelon on him, and they both burst out with laughter.
"You knew someone was there!" Eda yelled at Serkan, punching his arm.
"No, I didn't. No one was around when I was looking at the field."
"Now I feel bad for him."
"Pay him." Serkan reached into his pocket and gave Eda the fifty lira banknote. "His stand is right in front of us. He left it all alone."
Serkan slowed down, and Eda learned through the window to stick the banknote between fruits.
"Now you won't choke on it. This is the most expensive watermelon in my life." She said, looking for a knife to cut a slice.
"You should take the bigger one, and we are just by the border, we don't need liars anymore."
"Are you always stealing on the trips? Now I know how you can afford them."
Serkan glowered at Eda. "No, I'm not. Only if I find a wild tree or bush."
"Pull off the road after that crossing. I will drive now."
* * *
They arrived at their destination late evening in a shorter time than expected and found a camping spot away from the city on the empty beach. The night was warm for the end of April, and the sky was clear, perfect for watching the stars. Eda sat on the roof of her car, and Serkan climbed next to her. He was carrying a blanket and gave her a pillow. They lay down to look at the stars.
"Did you watch the southern sky?" Eda asked, remembering the picture Serkan took, when he was traveling through Africa.
"Yes, many times. It's amazing. There are no lights to dim the stars, and if you are open in nature the sky seems so much bigger than ours. Do you want to see some pictures?" He reached for his phone, opened the gallery, and gave it to Eda.
She gasped in amazement at the picture of giraffes in the night sky with the brightest stars she had ever seen. "You didn't photoshop the stars?"
"No, I barely touched up the lighting."
"It must've been amazing to be there."
"I was so stunned I almost forgot to take pictures. I had to wait a couple of nights and watch out for lions so they won't eat me but it was so worth it."
"I would want to see it one day." Eda said dreamily, imagining how it had to look live.
"Nothing is stopping you. Save for a couple of months, and you can go. You can paint there, sell your art later, and afford the next trip."
"You know what? This is what I'm going to do. I didn't know you could say anything useful." Eda looked at Serkan, and he smiled at her.
"I couldn't paint like you and Piryl, so I started to take pictures."
"Maybe I will have a new career now." Eda giggled and sat up. "Wide nature painter. Watch out, or you will be out of business with your wild nature photography. I'm already better than you at surfing, and your teasing has the opposite effect than you think. I'm only getting better."
"And you think I tease you to put you down?" Serkan said so quietly that Eda didn't hear him, looking again at the pictures.
"I know this one. It was in magazines. It was you?" She looked at him with round eyes.
"It was a perfect fluke. I was walking around and spotted that old shaman standing on the peak, and when I snapped the picture of him, the light broke in after the storm and fell on him. Everything turned out perfectly as if it was planned. I won an award for this. The funny thing is I usually have to stand still for hours to have any decent frames, and this one was out of nowhere."
Eda lay back on the roof next to Serkan. "Why do you choose this life? Did you always want to do it?"
"Do you really want to know?" He looked intently at her.
"Yes."
"I was always the best at school. Everything was easy for me."
"Are you bragging now?" Eda teased him, and Serkan poked her with his elbow in her ribs, making her laugh.
"No, I was good at everything, so I never had one subject to concentrate on. I had no idea what I wanted to do in life. All I did was read old adventure books and dream about finding the blank spaces on the map or the north pole like the great explorers. Everybody in my family was telling me that I was so good at school that I would become a great lawyer like my father. All my uncles and aunts, my grandparents. I knew my dad would be proud of me if I did that, but he never expected me to follow his lead. But I wanted to be like him. The confident man who always knew what to do and was killing in his field of expertise. So I went in his footsteps, and I did well there. Again it was easy for me, but it wasn't giving me any satisfaction."
Eda turned to watch Serkan while he was looking at the stars. She felt strange calmness and enjoyment just lying next to him and listening to him speak.
"When I was an undergraduate, I got a prestigious internship to practice international law in Paris, and it was just around my twenty-first birthday. My grandfather gave me a very expensive Rolex for my birthday, and I sold it for two tickets to California, a boat, and surfing equipment. I went with Piryl for the whole summer and ditched the internship. When my dad learned about that, he flew to us and took me and Piryl for a talk. He said that after we finish our degrees, we can work for Holding and freely use the fortune or he can buy us a house in a place we chose and give us a reasonable amount to start whatever we want to do, but we have to work to sustain ourselves. We can't party for free. We still get our allowance from an inheritance from our grandmother, but it's not a big amount. Piryl uses it to pay the rent for her art gallery, and I use mine mainly for insurance as I work as a freelancer and usually don't have a stable income. What is left allows me not to starve so this is not a big monthly sum. I really have to save and work to climb the mountains. I work as a nature photographer when I'm on my trips and as a sports photographer when something is happening in Portugal or Spain. But this sponsorship is a good opportunity to earn some money. You know that well too. Otherwise, none of us would agree, but we need sponsors, and the Olympics can give us them."
Serkan turned his head to see Eda watching him. Again she felt the strange pull between them. She wasn't so close to him, not shouting in his face for almost four years, when on the day they met, they spent the night lying on the roof, watching the stars and talking about everything.
She always liked to listen to him even through all these years when she was angry at him because he always had something interesting to say or was narrating his adventures. She always pretended that she didn't care but sat with the rest of their friends and listened, enchanted.
"What was your most dangerous trip?"
"My first year when I went to climb Kilimanjaro. It is an easy peak, and it was my first of Seven Summits. I just got my first job as a nature photographer so I decided to combine all in one. I didn't go with a guide and deviated from the route to make some shots. It was the middle of the night so I set camp in a bush and went to sleep. When I woke up, it turned out I set my tent, just next to sakes pit. I thought I would shit my pants. I probably did. When I managed to escape in one piece, I ran into the hunters. They would kill me if they would spot me. I have more luck than reason. Since then, I never go ahead, not thinking where I am. I always research the area and have chosen safe places to spend the night, and I use guides. I was too arrogant to go by myself. Even if guides can cost me a lot, their job is very important. I trained in hand-to-hand combat, I learned how to use a gun, and I'm not leaving without a big ass knife."
Serkan turned to the side, rested his head on his arm to look at her, and asked. "And what do you want from life?"
Eda sighed with a small smile and sat up to look at the sky, embracing her knees. "Many things, the excitement, adventure, but I want to experience the great love."
"Great love?"
"I know it's a romantic movie cliché but I want love when the man is so taken by me that he is ready to marry me even before he confesses his love to me. And he confesses on the top of an observatory tower or the peak of the mountain. Somewhere under the stars and above the ground. The stars are a must. And you? Is there love in your plans?" Eda nudged Serkan with her knee, and he laughed.
"I think everybody wants to have love. But I don't know if it is in my cards."
"Why? Are you too afraid to commit?"
"No, but the way I live is not convenient for any woman. She would have to be crazy to go with me at the end of the world, sleep in the car or under the sky, and eat what we find on the tree. I have only dreams to offer, nothing else. And I don't have luck with these things. I tend to fall for girls, who are in love with someone else."
"You fall for someone?" Eda looked at him with disbelief. She felt a small pang in her heart at his revelation. "I thought you only think about your ass."
"Surprise." Serkan answered, pursing his lips in a bitter smile, still observing her.
"Who did you fall for?"
"I'm not telling."
"Why? Does she know about you?"
"No, I rather prefer to avoid humiliation."
"How can you know she's not interested if you didn't even tell her." Eda insisted.
"She's pretty clear about her feelings for another guy. She thinks about him all the time."
"Do you know him?"
"Yes, he's a douchebag. But he's the complete opposite of me. That's why I have no chance."
"Maybe if you would try..."
"Eda, can we change the topic?"
"What?" Eda opened her hands, shaking her head. "I wanted to help. I have an unfulfilled crush too."
"Mhm." Serkan pursed his lips and sat up, turning his head and reaching for a bottle to hide his displeased facial expression while Eda looked up at the sky a started to talk.
"When I left with Piryl for our studies to Paris, it just didn't work because of the distance, but if I wouldn't leave Istanbul, it all could be different." At least it was what she was telling herself, trying to believe in her own words.
"Are you regretting your studies in Paris?" Serkan asked her suddenly, and Eda looked at him, surprised by this question.
"No, it was my dream come true."
"Would you rather give up on this for some guy, who wasn't even there for you? You got your prestigious degree at the art academy, which is one of the best in the world. You and Piryl traveled freely throughout Europe and had many adventures you will never forget, and now you have the job you love and follow your other dream."
"Yes, but my relationship..." She started talking, but Serkan interrupted her
"Would you prefer to be closed in Istanbul in a golden cage as a housewife and not live the life you want but die for boredom keeping up with the appearance? And then getting hammered because of the empty, fake life? Aren't your dreams more important than stupid social expectations? Aren't you more important?"
Eda turned her head down. "I wish he could see it that way."
"Any man who doesn't see it is an idiot, Eda Yildiz."
Eda bit her lips and thought bitterly that Serkan was right. She wasn't regretting her choices, but she was angry that the person she was with for years never supported her in achieving them, making her even feel bad for wanting to have her life. Her boyfriend was telling her that she didn't love him when she was trying to persuade him to leave with her and choose her. He was telling her she was selfish and thought only about herself, not considering his situation. It made her thought that if she wouldn't push too much for her goals, they could still be together, and Serkan's words about the life of Istanbul socialites angered her. She knew he was a part of it for years. She heard much gossip about parties that were thrown by him. Everybody was only talking about Bolat's next crazy idea. And her ex-boyfriend took part in many of them, always leaving Eda behind.
She turned to Serkan with anger. "Like you never did anything, and now you are playing saint. Like you weren't parting like crazy during your studies."
"No?" Serkan looked at her, surprised. "Where? In the library?"
"Oh, please, I had first-hand relation how you took your parents' private jet and ran with hoards of escorts to a private island. And it was only one thing from many you did."
Serkan was watching Eda with wide eyes and then burst out loud with laughter.
"Is this so funny?" She asked, offended.
"This is what you think I did?"
"Yes?"
"I can tell you about the stolen jet, but I want to know first from who you know about that."
"It's not your business." She grumbled.
"Yes, it is. I would like to know who is talking around. I presume someone, who was on that jet, but he shouldn't be, and you were very pissed about it." Serkan chuckled.
"It was my ex-boyfriend, happy? Your bad influence on him created huge problems in our relationship."
"He probably cheated on you back then and you still go out with him? I thought you respected yourself more."
"Probably?!" Eda rasied her voice in fury. "You had first-row seat to witness it! You got him drunk and pushed those sluts at him!"
"Poor Efe, always innocent." Serkan said in a mocking tone, angering Eda even more. "Always everybody else is guilty. Good to know that you blame me for that too. But I'm sorry for shattering your little illusion, but it wasn't me. I wasn't even there."
"Yeah, right."
"Tell me, did you ever hear the sentence 'Serkan Bolat put me on that plane' from the mouth of that douchebag.
"He's not the douchebag."
"Lying cheat then. So?"
"Do you think I remember the exact words? It's been years!"
"But you still hold the grudge. So? Did you hear my name?"
"No, he said it was Bolat. What's the diffrence?"
"Huge one?" Serkan raised his brows, shaking his head in disbelief at what he just learned. "Alp Bolat? My brother? And he didn't put Efe on that plane. I admit, Alp was parting then beyond the healthy standards and got himself in many troubles, but he was under the bad influence of you know who. It all was an idea of your precious douchebag. Alp lost the bet and was too proud and also too stupid to pull out so he took that jet. When Dad found out, he flew to kick his ass and bring the party to Istanbul. But the good thing was that after Alp was grounded, he stopped seeing those fake friends and found normal people to surround himself with, who are not trying to use our family money for their amusements."
"It wasn't you?" Eda grumbled, embarrassed.
"Nope. You hated me without a reason. I was during my finals then. I still probably can find the dates in my email. So no, I physically couldn't be on that plane, and I left Istanbul just after my graduation. If you would come to my graduation party, you would know, but you didn't bother to show up." Serkan finished the last sentence through his teeth.
Eda looked at him, as he seemed to be more hurt than angry. "Are you bitter I didn't come?"
"Well, Eda, I invited only people I considered my friends, and I didn't have many." He spat.
She turned her eyes down. "My ex never liked when I was going out without him if other men were there. He said he was afraid for my safety."
"Yeah." Serkan snorted with sarcastic laughter. "Because me, Engin, and Ferit are predators. Oh, and maybe my parents' house is a suspicious, dangerous nightclub. The real prince charming this your unfulfilled crush. Someone definitely to dwell about. So considerate of you that he satisfied his needs on that plane. I'm sure he did it out of respect."
"You don't know him!" Eda shouted through tears.
"Unfortunately, I know him very well. Much longer than you. But it's your problem. Live in the reality you create, but stop blaming me!"
Eda bolted up and jumped off the car roof, blindly running away to hide her tears. Everything that Serkan said was true, but it hurt so much. She suddenly felt his hand on her shoulder, stopping her and turning around. Serkan looked at her softly, and his eyes were full of regret.
"Eda, I'm sorry. I didn't want to make you cry." He embraced her, and Eda shook from cries. "If it would make you feel better, you can blame me. I've got used to it."
"I don't want to talk about it." She said through her tears.
"Forget that we even had that conversation." He was stroking her back and hair so gently like no one ever before, and it was too much for her. Eda freed herself from Serkan's hold, wiping her tears, trying not to look at him, and went to take her board out of the car.
"What are you doing?" He asked.
"I'm going to swim. Do you have any problem with that?!" She shouted aggressively and turned with her board over her shoulder. She heard a groan of pain and saw Serkan falling to the ground, pressing his palm to his head.
"I'm so sorry, Serkan! I didn't want to!" Eda tossed the board away and knelt next to him. She helped him to stand up. He looked a bit confused and roughed up. He will have a nasty bruise on his forehead by the morning.
"Are you ok?" She asked, and he looked at her.
"You are so beautiful." He said and slumped on the ground, leaving Eda completely speechless with her arms and mouth open.