Bali Island, July 2016.
The same day, a few hours earlier.
My grandfather always told me that there is a way out of every problem. If there is no way out, it means there is no problem. I have stuck to these words since I entered adolescence. In my first high school I started causing trouble, additionally dragging my best friend into it. Although he tries to stay out of trouble and still tries to protect me from it, in the end my fierce nature wins out and Henry accedes to my crazy ideas.
Sometimes I get the impression that this makes him sick of me.
Our friendship began in my first high school after I took a - disliked by me - classmate's shoes and threw them across the hall, accidentally hitting Henry's head with the sole. He fell to the ground, which amused his peers, but I was lucky that the boy knows what a sense of humor is, and when I leaned over him to see if he was alive, he claimed that he had made it to heaven because he could see an angel above him.
What can I say... he was able to approach me. We got close pretty quickly when I realized what a wonderful personality he had.
I like cheerful people.
I'm the type of girl who loves to discover something new every now and then, and to taste everything forbidden. Because of this, my parents are fed up with me, and my father repeatedly says that he will disinherit me. I don't believe it. After all, I'm their gem, and his overprotectiveness proves my point.
Even here, on vacation, he is able to peek into my room from time to time to check if I am being polite. There was even a moment at the airport when he wanted to send me home, claiming I didn't deserve an exotic vacation, but he gave up the idea when he realized it would be safer to keep an eye on me.
I'm not likely to obey, I think as I step out onto the balcony and lean against the railing with my hands. For the past few hours I've been keeping an eye on a handsome boy with blood-red hair who rents a room one room away.
So far, he hasn't noticed that I'm watching him, even though my gaze fixed on him is so intense that it would catch even a blind man's attention. I don't know what's wrong with him, but I get the impression that while standing on the balcony and staring at one point, he is so thoughtful that he doesn't notice anything around him.
He looks like a person who has a lot of problems on his mind, and resting there is supposed to help him think through his strategy.
I want to get to know him. I find him intriguing, especially because from the looks of him he is very appealing. That's why, ever since I saw him, I've been following him like a shadow, trying to do it discreetly, though. I hope that I will eventually get his attention.
I like craziness, so right now I'm dreaming of a romantic adventure with a fantastic lover on an island, and he seems perfect to fulfill this wish.
- Solar. - I look over my shoulder and look at my mother, who is in the room. - Are you ready yet?
I enter the room and close the balcony behind me. I have to go on a sightseeing trip with my parents, even though I don't feel like it. I'd rather take a walk by myself than listen to them jabbering over my ear for hours.
Sometimes they are really bothersome parents, but I still love them very much.
*
While Mom buys cream ice cream for us in front of the hotel, I lift my face and take another look at the massive building, which sits right on the beach. It's luxurious, you can find everything: game rooms, bars, gyms, a swimming pool and even a spa.
People call the place: paradise on an island.
I pick up my ice cream and obediently follow my parents, disengaging myself from their conversation about the wonderful hotel service.
In silence, I observe the area around me. Resting on a paradise island is every man's dream, and my additional wish is to meet this mysterious boy who interested me the moment I saw him.
Is it true that you can fall in love at first sight? I've never believed it, but by his appearance, I'm beginning to have a different opinion on the subject, because how to explain the fact that I can't stop thinking about him, even though I don't know him at all? It's hardly a simple fascination.... probably not.
My parents sit down on a bench, and I lean against a palm tree, watching the people passing by me. So many boys pass me, but none can catch my attention. Only that one over there has had that effect on me since I saw him.... I feel like I've become obsessed with him.
I realize that this is rather not normal.
I tilt my head as a strange guy passes me. He has the look of a typical thug, and I don't mean tattoos, because I really like scribbles on men's bodies, but his hairstyle, clothes and unfriendly expression, make me realize that the guy has a bit of an ear.
Maybe I'm wrong, but intuition has never failed me yet.
I put the ice cream to my lips and freeze when a boy with fiery hair catches my attention. His hairstyle is decorated with a blue bandana. He holds something in his hands and walks up to a man who looks like a criminal in my eyes. They talk for a long moment and I see that my ideal looks worried. He scratches his head and bites his lip, probably looking for some solution.
The man warns him with his finger, then walks away.
I watch the handsome stranger as he walks ahead, paying no attention to anything. He heads for the beach, and I look back at him, in my head devising a plan by which I will free myself from my parents and take the opportunity to meet him.
- I come up with a great idea! - I put the ice cream in my mouth and clap my hands. My parents lift their faces and look at me, sensing that I'm up to something again. - I am young. Imagine how terribly bored I am now. How about I let you spend some time together without a fifth wheel? Have a romantic date, and in the meantime I'll look for friends my age.
- I'm too old for dating," burbles my dad in response, and I make a puffed-up face.
- Don't make mom uncomfortable.... I'm sure she'd be happy if you devoted at least one day to her. I promise to be polite as a baby," I announce, making buttery eyes at them. - I just want to hang around on the beach. I like to make new friends. Maybe I will happen to meet a friend.
- A friend? - My father grunts. I look pityingly at my mother, looking to her for help.
- Let her. She is seventeen years old. If she makes any trouble, I'm sure she realizes that this time she will completely lose our trust. Let her go with that realization.
- I promise to be polite!
- This is your last chance. Don't disappoint us, Solar. - My father gets up from the bench and I can see that he is not happy with this idea, but he agrees only for the sake of my mother. - Be on the phone all the time.
My eyes begin to shine. I look back toward the beach and catch sight of the mysterious boy, soon to join him. All I have to do is change into my outfit and accomplish that in a short while he will lose his head for me.
At this point, the beach is empty, so I spot him sitting near the water. I hurriedly run to the hotel to dress up properly and return to him, ready to flirt.
*
A day later, everything changes. After spending a wonderful evening with him, during which he completely steals my heart, everything ends as quickly as it began. The kiss with him was magical; that moment was so incendiary that at that moment I felt like throwing myself at him and letting him do more, I wanted to do it even during the storm. I was ready to experience my first time on the island with a boy I didn't know.
It probably would have happened if it hadn't been for the fact that he unexpectedly moved away from me and disappeared from my sight in the thick rain.
He left me there alone, disappointed, with my heart beating hard.
As I walked past his room, I stopped for a moment and was about to knock on the door to ask what happened that he treated me this way, but my hand hung in the air and I just let it go, not wanting to come off as an intrusive idiot.
He touched my heart, it's true, but still, I wasn't going to be humiliated. I wanted to ask him what was the reason that he left me there alone, on that hammock.... There had to be something! After all, he didn't do it for no reason, if he also desired me.
What if he has a girlfriend and his conscience moved him? Maybe I should blame myself for seducing him?
However, early in the morning, the whole building is shaken by the news that a guest was murdered in one of the hotel rooms. It turns out to be a young man, an acquaintance of the redhead I kissed a few hours earlier.
What's disturbing, however, is that the boy disappeared without a trace, and the hotel's cameras didn't catch anything.
What happened to the handsome man who touched my heart? That's what I don't know. I have no idea what happened that night, two rooms away, but the sexy stranger vanished into thin air.... disappeared, and my heart suffers because of it.
- I just can't believe that a murder took place in such a luxurious hotel. It doesn't fit in my head! - yells Dad as he throws the bags into the trunk of the cab later that day.
It's late in the evening, and after retrieving the money, he and his mom decide to take the last flight to Canada.
They do not intend to spend another night here.
I lift my face and squint my eyes, looking into the window where the stranger's room was located.
- I told you that vacations abroad are dangerous! People of different nationalities flock to exotic islands, so how can you know what kind of chump you'll run into? - When something happens, my mother panics terribly. - My heart aches at the thought that even Solar could have been his victim. They suspect that this boy killed a colleague and disappeared!
When it comes to breaking news, Mom is like a radar. She catches everything.
- You can't believe all the rumors," I mutter, being angry that it was the fiery-haired boy who was identified by people as the prime suspect. I don't know him well, I've spent a few hours with him, but I can cut my hand that he wouldn't be capable of murder! Although... I don't even know his name. He didn't want to reveal his identity to me. He preferred to remain anonymous.
Did he have a reason?
My parents would have a heart attack if I revealed to them now that I had spent time and even kissed and was ready to experience my first time with the suspect.
Despite everything... I still can't forget about him, and I should be terrified after all.
- The cameras, however, captured the real murderer! That's not the boy. It is said that he was also killed but the perpetrator may have caught up with him outside the building.
The blood drains from my face. I look over my shoulder and see people rushing out of the hotel, carrying new news with them.
I am about to get into a cab, but my attention is caught by the police, who are leading the perpetrator out of the building. For the moment, it is not the boy with fiery hair, but the hotel employee who is the prime suspect.
- Solar, get in the car. We're going to miss our flight.
I obediently take a seat in the back and buckle up with my seat belt, still worrying about the boy I have so far obsessively lusted after. Has something really happened to him? Is there a possibility that he was murdered? Why? Who would desire the death of both men? What were they involved in? After all, he confessed to me that his father is a lawyer.
I hope he is okay and that I will meet him again someday....