Chapter Twenty Five

It was the knocking on the door that woke Rowi up. She dragged her tired body out of bed grumbling and moaning to open the door.
‘Fara’ Rowi exclaimed, seeing her friend.
‘Hi’ Fara smiled sheepishly, walking into the room, still dressed in the nights before clothes, in her hand she held a jacket. Not her own. It looked like, Rowi realised, the one Urs had been wearing the night before.
‘Where have you been all night?’
‘Sundeck’ came Fara’s reply.
‘But its cold up there’ Rowi yawned.
‘I know. We…I mean, I found out’ Fara lightly coughed.
‘You’ve been with Urs’ Rowi guessed.
‘Yes’ Fara nodded, blushing slightly.
‘You’re….back together?’
‘No’
‘But…’
‘I just thought, I would see, what it was like’
‘What…? Oh!’ Rowi suddenly realised, ‘oh’ she blushed, ‘and?’ she asked.
‘It was…good’
‘Good?’
‘Excellent then’
‘You and he…?’
‘Yes’ Fara confirmed.
‘And he’s…’
‘Excellent. Yes’ Fara nodded.
‘Oh…right’ Rowi nodded also.
‘Crikey…’ Fara then noticed the time, ‘we’re going to be late’ she dashed into the bathroom, pulling of her dress as she went.
Rowi noticed scratches on her friends shoulder as she closed the bathroom door behind her.
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Ten minutes later, Fara and Rowi were ready. This morning the group were to have their balloon ride. Not that Fara was looking forward to it, because she wasn’t. Fara hated heights and dreaded doing this. She sat on the coach for the short journey next to Cydalia with her knees shaking. Her legs felt like two lumps of jelly.
‘Exciting, isn’t it?’ Cydalia asked, thinking Fara was shaking with happiness and not for fear which was actually the case.
‘Yeah, sure…’ Fara yawned.
‘You look tired…’ Cydalia noticed.
‘Didn’t sleep much last night’ replied Fara. It hadn’t been a lie either. She hadn’t. Nor had Urs. But he was wearing his dark sunglasses again so no one could see the dark circles under his eyes. He had enjoyed the night before with Fara. It had been like a dream come true until he had woken up cold and alone with no sign of her. It hadn’t occurred to him that she had used him.
‘Mate…you are hurt’ Carlos noticed a scratch on Urs’ neck.
‘What?’
‘A scratch, on your neck’ Carlos pointed out.
‘Oh. Can’t think how that happened’ Urs lied.
‘And some on your shoulder too…’ Carlos now also noticed.
Urs just shrugged in reply. He wasn’t going to tell Carlos how he had come to get them. Not that he wasn’t proud of them, because he was. He just wanted to keep something secret.
‘You’ll be seeing Laura soon…’ Carlos then commented.
‘Hmmm….’ Urs scowled at this. Like he had forgotten. He couldn’t. He wasn’t allowed to forget her coming.
‘What are you going to say to her?’
‘That I don’t want her around anymore’ Urs gave the simplest answer he had ever said before in his life. It was the truth.
‘She won’t like that’ Carlos lightly laughed.
‘Tough’ Urs shrugged at this comment.
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Soon enough, too soon as far as Fara was concerned, the coach drove up to the balloon site. With dread in her heart she dragged herself of the coach to stand on the ground. They were in a field. Two large balloons with baskets attached awaited their passengers.
Ahmed called them all around. He coughed and looked at them. ‘You are to split unto two groups. The baskets can only carry four passengers and the balloon man. Please stick to your…partner that you have been with all week’ he waved his hands around as he spoke. He held no clipboard for once and felt almost naked without it.
Fara let out a groan at this news. Urs beamed.
He waited until Fara had climbed into a basket then jumped in besides her. Cydalia and Carlos climbed also into the basket Karen and now Urs were in.
Fara stood in the basket, shaking with fear. Urs reached out a hand and held one of hers, ‘I’m here’ he told her.
Fara looked at Urs, ‘No. Don’t’ he said when she tried to pull her hand away, ‘I won’t hurt you. I just want to hold your hand. I’m…scared too’ he lied. Ok. He was scared. But not about the balloon ride. No. He was scared about the idea of losing Fara. Of not ever seeing her again once today was over.
The balloon started to rise into the air. Apart from the noise coming from the hot air being let into the balloon to make it lift and move you couldn’t hear anything else. Once in the air it was almost peaceful floating about. There were no clouds in the sky to spoil the view. You could see for miles.
‘Its so peaceful…’ Fara mumbled. She was still scared. She hated heights and so was trying so badly not to look down. Not that she could. The height of the basket came up almost to her chest.
‘It is, isn’t it?’ Urs smiled.
‘You ok honey?’ Cydalia then asked Fara.
‘Fine. Fine’ Fara attempted to smile brightly at her friend.
As the balloon floated over the fields and houses the group discovered something interesting. None of the houses they floated over had any roofs on them.
The captain of the balloon told Carlos when he asked.
‘Here in Egypt, we have roof tax. So we don’t have roofs’
‘What about when it rains though?’ Carlos asked.
‘We build an extra level. Then cut it off from the rest of the house’ the balloon captain, named Hazem told him.
‘A bit like having a roof, but not’ Carlos got the idea.
‘Exactly my friend’ Hazem winked.
In reply, Carlos winked and laughed.
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David filmed everything he could see, including the other balloon with Carlos, Cydalia, Urs and Fara in it.
‘Wow…what a view’ Dany gazed around.
‘I’ve always wanted to experience a balloon ride’ David confessed.
‘Now, you are’ Dany smiled.
‘The best one ever. For you are here with me. My fiancée’ David gazed at her. Dany lightly squeezed his hand briefly.
‘Hope Fara’s ok…’ Rowi gazed at the balloon Karen was in.
‘Is she scared of heights?’ Seb guessed, correctly for once.
‘Partly that’ Rowi agreed, ‘plus…Urs is there with her’
‘Hmmm…’ Seb seriously nodded.
‘Although’ Rowi whispered so Dany and David couldn’t hear, ‘she stayed out all last night…’
‘Oh?’ Seb asked.
‘Yes’ Rowi nodded.
‘With Urs?’ Seb whispered.
‘Think so’ Rowi replied, remembering the jacket her friend had bought back to the cabin with her.
‘They may be back on then…’
‘No. I know Fara’ Rowi shook her head, ‘she’s been done, badly. She doesn’t do forgiving THAT easily’
‘Nor would I. If I’d been treated that way’ Seb found himself agreeing now with Rowi.
‘Maybe… I should warn Urs…’ Rowi sighed.
‘What for? He hurt your friend’ Seb reminded her.
Rowi smiled. Seb was, at long last, learning about what was most important to her - her friends.

I'm so enjoying this More chapters please