by Bella Donnis
Gia kissed her hard on the lips. When their lips parted, Gia pressed her forehead against Erin’s. “I’m going back down.” She whispered, then vanished out of sight as Erin’s entire body shuddered in ecstasy.
Chapter Eight
Action
Smack.
The ball hit the wall and rebounded in Ben’s direction. He unleashed an almighty crack and the ball smashed against the wall with full force.
Erin missed the rebound. “Bloody hell, what has got into you?” She picked up the squash ball and prepared to serve. “Is this some kind of power record you’re going for? I pity the poor guy you’re thinking of when you strike the ball like that.” She joked.
Only, it wasn’t so funny to Ben.
He scrutinised her form in those shorts and squash jersey; her sport sculpted legs that ended at that backside, tight and perky. Those breasts that pushed out against her top, taunting him with agonising frustration.
How long had it been? How long since he’d taken her, had his way with her, experienced her.
Now would be a good time to joke about Erin’s comment, but nothing came to mind.
She half bent forward, threw the ball up, stretched and struck the sphere against the wall, groaning from the sudden exertion, a sound that Ben hadn’t heard in too long.
The ball rebounded, Ben almost snapping a string, or seven, as he hit the ball with all the force he could muster.
Erin missed the rebound. “I think that’s game to you…Lunch?” Her complaining belly, audible from the other end of the court.
“I was thinking…” Ben said, wiping his forehead and slipping the racket inside its sleeve.
“…Yep?” She came closer, her scent, her sweat, her body sending Ben insane.
“…We’ve never been abroad together.”
“You’re only just realising this? The amount of times I’ve brought this up.”
“I think it’s time we went for a romantic break somewhere, see some sites, have some fun.” And get that spark back and fuck each others’ brains out.
Her face shot to life – They were getting somewhere – Finally. “Well, I think you already know my opinion on that.”
“I was thinking; there are some wonderful castles in France, vineyards, history, culture, food. I’ve always fancied Bavaria too, or Austria, Switzerland…All those mountains, all that mountain air…”
“…Italy!” Erin cut him off.
He rubbed his chin. “Hmm, I’ve always fancied the thought of Venice. I’ve heard Rome’s a little too busy, but Florence would be nice…All that art.”
“Napoli!” She said with conviction. “I’ve wanted to visit Pompeii for a long, long time now.”
“You have?” Ben wrinkled his nose. “Ok. I’ve not heard much about Napoli to be honest with you, but the Amalfi Coast is supposed to be splendid. That’s if we don’t get killed by one of the local drivers.”
She hesitated, the smile of a few seconds before dipped and she rustled through her bag as she spoke. “I’ve an old Cambridge friend who lives in Napoli. It’d be rude not to drop in and say hi while I’m there.” She continued bundling her sports gear bagwards, not looking up.
“Well it’s not every day we pass by Napoli, so you may as well take the opportunity if that’s where we’re going.” He’d doubtless find some old cathedral to occupy himself with rather than listen to two women catching up on old times. The very thought of it filled him with boredom. “Um, Napoli, huh?”
“Napoli it is.” Her eyebrows were raised higher than he’d ever seen them, a spark in her eyes the likes of which he’d not seen since before that fucking flu.
“Well, I’m doing this for you.” As well as for his sanity. “Napoli it is.” He grabbed his bag, swung it over his shoulder and danced to the door.
It was odd, very odd. Kind of like taking your seat in a public place and realising you had no clothes on - Just a weird feeling, almost of nakedness. She knew it and everyone else could see it.
“Where’s Gia?” Rebecca asked. “I don’t remember a time I’ve seen you without her glued to your side…Or vice versa.”
Erin laughed, more out of politeness than anything else. “You know, I’m really not sure. I should probably text her.” She whipped out her phone, flipped it open and then the professor entered. Damn it. This particular professor wasn’t afraid to shout at people he saw on phones during lectures and Erin could do without being centre of attention, especially considering her shield had taken it upon herself to skip the day’s first class.
There had not been an occasion in the entire year that either of them had missed a lecture, seminar, practical or anything else. They were model students. But being May, they were mainly covering old ground in preparation for exams next week. Oh well – Clearly Gia had decided to sleep in and skip the first lecture. And Erin couldn’t really blame her. She’d half thought about doing the same thing herself considering that, after they’d had sex for the first, second, third and fourth time only the night before, it had been something like three in the morning when they’d finally fallen asleep. Still, if it was Erin, she’d at least have texted Gia to let her know she was staying in bed a few more hours.
Erin had only left Gia’s flat a couple of hours earlier. She pictured her beautiful face and relived their tender kiss before she departed. Erin had needed to go home since the only clothes she had for classes were the dress and heels she’d worn for the Fairbairns’ Ball. Gia was still in bed, but awake. Next time she’d make sure to shower and have breakfast with the girl she loved, rather than stealing out at some early hour to avoid the dreaded walk of shame in the prior night’s clothes.
After the lecture, Erin brought out her phone to make the text. “Great, no battery.” Staying the night at Gia’s, she’d not had chance to charge the bloody thing.
She considered knocking on Gia’s door during changeover and dragging her out of bed but thought better of it. She didn’t want to come over as being completely desperate for the girl. Granted, they’d had sex the night before, something she was still trying to get her head round, but although she wanted to be with her right this very minute, she knew it was probably best to give her at least a little bit of space. “But no more than a few hours.” She muttered under her breath as she took a seat next to Rebecca, feeling naked and exposed.
At lunch, Erin took her sandwich onto the cloister, making sure to walk by Gia’s window on the way over. The curtains were still drawn from the night before. She giggled to herself, “that girl is in big trouble.” But then again, they really had gone to town on each others’ naked bodies and only very recently, which had been merely hours after exerting themselves like never before during the Fairbairns’ race. Erin herself felt drained as though she could quite easily spend the next week in bed. She’d sleep tonight, that was for sure, even though she’d gladly forgo sleep for another night of hot passion with the most beautiful girl in the world.
When the final lecture finished, it was three in the afternoon. Erin would not wait another minute to give Gia a piece of her mind and if necessary, her body too.
She arrived at the door, knocked and waited.
No response.
She knocked again. Where was she? “Get up you lazy bum!”
Erin pressed her ear against the door but could hear nothing from inside.
After checking the kitchen and common room and finding both empty of students, Erin decided to head for home. It was only a ten minute walk when not slowed down by chatting with Gia. She must have gone grocery shopping and, not being able to get in touch with Erin due to her phone being out of battery, they’d missed each other. No matter, Erin would get her eventually, that much was inevitable.
When Erin arrived home, she immediately plugged her phone into the power cable. She waited for it to power up, excited to read the messages from Gia. ‘Welcome to Nokia.’ The display said.
Her heart dropped to the pit of her stomach - Zero unread messages. What was Gia doi
ng? Playing some kind of a game? No! That wasn’t Gia.
Erin fired off a quick message. ‘You ok, hon? Missed you today xxx’
Which was quickly followed by another. ‘Please get in touch hon, let me know you’re ok.’
She waited all of thirty seconds. “Sod this.” Then found her number at the top of recent contacts, pressing the call button. The phone rang which was a good thing, she’d soon pick up.
The longer it rang without her answering, the more Erin’s eyes began to sting. That was a new sensation for her and one which was unaccompanied by the familiar haze. Erin’s heart beat through her chest, or was it her stomach. Her skin felt numb. And why could she feel a pulse in her head?
Where was she? What was she doing? Who was she with? Why wasn’t she answering?
Erin tried to occupy herself. She forced down some food, merely for sustenance rather than pleasure, then cleaned her room, though sitting down to do some study would require more concentration than it would be possible to submit to at the moment.
No, she had to return to Downing and bang on Gia’s door until she showed her face. Man, did that girl ever have some explaining to do.
And then, ten minutes later, Downing was where Erin found herself. Her knocks turned to bangs, which soon became kicks.
A female student in dressing gown emerged from the room next door. “What’s with all the noise?”
“Do you know where Gia is?” Erin knew she was being rude but she didn’t really care in the moment. If she saw the girl again then she’d apologise at the time.
“Who?” She squinted like she had the need for glasses.
“Gianna De Luca, the girl who lives in here…The Italian one.”
“Oh, Gianna...Haven’t seen her in a few days…Normally see her making breakfast in the kitchen…All that Italian stuff. But I do tend to hear her every day…Slams the door…Loud girl...Bit like you.” She smiled and walked closer.
“When did you last hear her?”
“This morning, around the usual time…Um, nine o’clock…Maybe a tad earlier.” She raised her eyebrows. “We could check her milk.”
“Check her milk?”
She walked down the hallway toward the kitchen and Erin followed her. “Yeah, I always know when she leaves because she always slams the door.” They entered the kitchen and opened the fridge. She pulled out a two litre plastic carton of skimmed milk. The girl tutted. “She goes through one of these a day…Usually starts an argument if anybody uses any of her milk, so she draws this line on and signs each one.” She pointed to the line which was at the top of the carton, save for an inch or so, the amount required for a cup of coffee.
“Shit.” Erin said.
“Usually, at this time in the evening, this should be down here.” She pointed half way down the carton, where nothing but whiteness showed through the transparent container.
So Gia had most likely left early and not returned, not even for lunch.
Erin had an idea so she thanked the girl and ran back to Gia’s door. She decided to call her again. Erin recalled the Christmas debacle where Gia left her phone in the flat. If she’d returned to Italy due to some emergency, or whatever, then her phone would still be in the room and Erin would hear it ringing. She dialled.
Strange - It went straight through to the answer machine. Between Erin’s last call and now, Gia had turned her phone off.
Tears streamed down Erin’s face, uncontrollable oceans of tears. Her legs began to shake, so she leant against the wall for support.
Why had Gia turned her phone off? Why did she not want to talk to Erin? Had they overstepped the acceptable boundaries of friendship last night? And had Gia panicked and fled? Or was it because Erin had been terrible in bed and Gia wanted an easy way out? – No! Surely not – None of these things were Gia.
It was possible, still slightly possible that Gia was in her room ignoring all calls. But Erin had to consider the possibility that she was in some bar with a girl or some sleazy guy; but none of those were Gia either. Not knowing was the worst part. Whatever the truth of the matter, Gia was intentionally avoiding her at best – At worst – Erin shuddered – Not even willing to consider those possibilities at this moment.
When Erin began hyperventilating and the haze almost blinded her, she stumbled from the building grasping the wall for support.
Despite the events of Monday, Erin had still arrived at classes Tuesday and Wednesday with the expectation that Gia would be there, red faced and apologetic, possibly with some monstrous hangover and one heck of a story to tell. When that never happened, the enormity of what was possibly unfolding began to dawn on Erin.
She’d sent a hundred messages over the few days following and tried to ring her just as often. Gia’s phone always went straight through to voicemail.
After Erin had harassed Sarah, Gia’s neighbour, as well as the rest of her dormitory mates for information and failed to turn up any clues, Erin then asked around all their usual haunts.
The boat club had not seen anything of her and neither had Mikey or Scruffy. When Erin told them she hadn’t seen Gia since Monday morning, they insisted on going to the police to file a missing person’s report.
“Basically, we need to get inside her flat.” Mikey said. “Maybe she trapped herself inside the bathroom.”
“Hey, it happens.” Scruffy placed a reassuring hand on Erin’s shoulder.
Once the police report had been filed, progress stepped up several gears. The police didn’t seem worried, which was reassuring, because students going missing was a regular occurrence.
“When I was a fresher, I got drunk and woke up the next day to find myself drifting down the Cam in an eight man coxed boat, which was strange because we row double sculls.” Scruffy said.
It was Wednesday evening when the Downing residence warden opened up Gia’s room for Erin and two police officers.
The first thing that stood out was the mess. When Erin left, the room had been tidy, save for the bed sheets and Gia’s dress from the night before which lay crumpled on the carpet. Now there were clothes strewn all about the floor, the drawers had been pulled open with much of the contents scattered about the immediate vicinity. Her Fairbairns’ winner’s medal lay randomly amongst the mess. At first glance it looked as though she’d either gone insane and trashed the place, or had been robbed.
“Her mobile phone’s here.” The police officer said. “She must have left in a hurry.”
Erin perked up from the news; so Gia had not turned off the phone, but Erin had most likely used up the damn battery with her constant harassment. “Oh no, not necessarily. If she’s returned home then she’d have left her phone here.”
“If she’s returned home, then she’s wasted a lot of people’s time.” The officer said.
“I agree with you and there’s nobody more than me who wants to give her a piece of my mind.”
“Are you sure she’s never done anything like this before?” The officer asked.
“No, never. This is not like Gia at all.”
The other officer had been searching through Gia’s drawers and shelves. “There’s no sign of her passport.”
Erin thought out loud. “But if she’s gone home, wouldn’t she have packed more clothes?”
“Is her bag here?” The first officer asked.
They found her large suitcase, but there was no sign of her smaller backpack.
A few minutes later, they were in the warden’s office reviewing CCTV footage. From the cursory look inside Gia’s room, it was beginning to appear that she hadn’t been dragged off or kidnapped, but that she’d left in a hurry. This hypothesis was confirmed when the camera by the front door had filmed Gia running out from the building with her backpack slung over one shoulder. The time stamp on the footage read 08:50.
Erin breathed deeply and felt some relief, but still didn’t quite know what to make of the news. The important thing was that Gia was safe. But considering everything, she’d still fled wi
thout so much as a word to anyone.
The officer radioed through to the station and within ten minutes they received confirmation that Gia had boarded a plane from London Gatwick to Naples International Airport on Monday mid-afternoon. “Are you sure she didn’t say she was travelling home on Monday?” The officer asked, looking down on Erin as though she’d wasted several hours of their time. “You students with your chit-chat can easily miss important details.”
Erin chose not to answer his patronising question.
“You’d be surprised by some of the missing people’s reports we have to file.” The other officer said.
The mystery had been solved and most importantly, Gia was safe. Although something had obviously happened to make the girl run off like that, Erin hoped it wasn’t her who’d frightened Gia away. The best course of action, especially considering that stupidly, Erin had no way of contacting Gia in Italy since she only possessed her University of Cambridge Hermes email address as well as her UK mobile phone number, was to wait for Gia to contact her.
One thing was obvious - She’d be back soon. Gia had made her home in Cambridge, exams were next week, she had rowing to train for and most importantly of all, she had Erin.
It hurt that Erin wasn’t worth the courtesy of a goodbye or of any explanation whatsoever, but as long as Gia was safe then Erin could relax and continue with her studies.
Gia would return and then things would pick up where they left off.
Chapter Nine
Summer Holiday
No later than two hours after deciding on going to Napoli had Ben booked their holiday. She had to hand it to him; turned out he was keen on travelling after all. It also appeared he was keen to get away fast, because the old romantic had booked the trip for the very next morning. “He must really want to see some scenery.” She muttered to herself as she opened up her browser.