She hurriedly gasped her effort. Hardly audible and yet her lungs burned. drops of sweat collected on their foreheads, they formed small streams in their young face, drawn by freckles. The sweat shot down like a wild unbridled mountain spring, drove through the small bumps on her face, gathered in her corners of her mouth and finally fell over her chin, her neck, before he poured out of her tight-fitting tanktop. The yellow fabric was long soaked and clearly showed the contours of Melanie's lush breasts, which had adapted to the uniform movements of her body.
Celina was close on her heels. Both girls sat on their bikes and trampled as fast as they could. The mountain slope visibly troubled the two. The somewhat more delicate Celina was only a few meters behind her rival. For almost 10 minutes she had to stare at the broad butt of Melanie, who was lounging in the red hotpants on the saddle.
Welding also flowed into her. The black string and her bra clearly emerged under her soaked white summer dress, but she didn't care. The need to breathe regularly was far greater than any shame. Her muscles burned like fire and she could hardly wait until they finally overcame the ridge. Celina thought she had to hold out for so long. As long as she had to fight with her body for exhaustion and the midday heat.
Her otherwise flowing, curly hair was glued together into small dark brown strands, which always fell nervously on her face. She didn't know how Melanie, with a good 20 kilos more on the scales, managed to keep the small lead. Melanie always had a 5 in sports at school, while Celina, who had taken ballet lessons at her mother's request, was a 1 student. The emphasis was on.
After years of competition, both girls finally had their Abitur in their pockets and finally wanted to avoid each other, but this was easier said than done. As soon as she had apparently separated the end of her school days forever, she now reunited her parents' vacation plans.
Melanie's father, who had been hostile to her father since school, had to spend his summer vacation in that small fishing village on the Croatian coast, where his intimate enemy and work colleague have always spent his vacation.
Celina cursed herself for giving in to her mother's pressure and for going on vacation with her parents again. If she had stayed at home in Germany, she would not have met Celina on the ice cream parlor. Then she would not have had the stupid idea of defacing a race that was all about determining, who was allowed to go to the disco tonight and who had to stay at home. A stupid little bet that seemed to mean everything at that moment.
The girl, who was still convinced of her victory in the ice cream parlor on the beach, was slowly thinking. Why didn't the stupid cow give up, Celina wondered. She knew that Melanie didn't like to go to the disco anyway, but rather left her manga booklets. Celina would even be willing to talk to her about the fact that they were both allowed to go to the beach disco when she finally gave up, and to her so that this cursed ordeal saved. Melanie that eternal ugly ducks without a friend, however, didn't seem to give up thinking of giving up. Why is she so stubborn?
***
Melanie desperately bit her lips. Her heart was racing, her muscles were burning as if liquid fire was shooting through her veins, but she didn't give up. The summer sun burned down on her mercilessly. Only a light draft from the sea gave her cooling from time to time. She paid no attention to the blue sea, which was loosened up by numerous small islands. She paid no attention to the white-gray mountains, over which huge cloud towers formed.
At that moment, every beauty had lost its appeal. Her head was empty. This was the only way she managed to cross her borders. Her heartbeat boomed in her head, like the vigorous beating of a fast techno beat, when you stand directly in front of the bass. Her thighs just pedaled the bike.
Celina's challenge had been something of a gift to her. She wasn't interested in going to the disco tonight and keeping her away from it. She had been here for four days and had never seen this stupid disco from the inside. She preferred to lie on the beach in the shade of one of the trees and read a book. She would probably have done this now if Celina hadn't showed up all at once.
Melanie had hoped to be rid of this stupid goat forever. Celina hated her. Why didn't she know for certain. Maybe it was because of her father. Maybe because of her. Melanie was good at school and had always relegated Celina from first place, especially in the natural sciences. Melanie's mother had only ever told her that it was the envy that made Celina her rival, and she used to be a little more pompous, also became a popular bullying victim. The reasons were actually the same. Melanie was only glad that her school days were finally over and that she could now start her studies in Heidelberg in peace. This race was the last time she had anything to do with this stupid cow.
For Melanie, the only but decisive reason why she was completely exhausted was to defeat her and thus deny her access to her beloved disco. Celina had made her life hell. Now, for the first time, she was able to pay her back a little of what she and her friends had done to her over the years.
***
The girl still stuck to her rival's butt, who squeezed into these red hotpants. Celina had never seen her former classmate in such an outfit. Most of the time, Melanie had only ever worn jeans and thick sweaters that covered their curves and simply made them look thick. However, this picture of the past few years ignored the fact that Melanie had grown in the meantime and that her pounds were now mainly distributed among very female attributes.
Finally they had reached the highest point on the small peninsula. It went down almost two hundred meters to her left. From here, both girls could see the village where they started running almost half an hour ago. From now on it went steeply downhill with both.
Melanie was the first to shoot down the winding coastal road. Her drenched red-browned hair now fluttered in the rapid wind. Celina was on her heels. The two rivals quickly reached a speed at which they struggled to keep their bikes brought from Germany under control.
Celina had hoped to be able to accelerate downhill again, but she had done the math without her intimate enemy. Melanie also blew to the last lineup of her strength. Both girls trampled as fast as they could. Head to head they approached the village. Neither of them applied the brakes on their bikes, even though they were over 50 kilometers per hour long ago.
***
When they reached the village, Melanie was still a good bike lead. In a few seconds they would have reached the ice cream parlor at the small fishing port. You should brake now, but neither of them wanted to lose speed first. Again and again Melanie turned her head to look for Celina. In the meantime, something like sheer hatred had joined the exhaustion. A satisfying feeling for Melanie, but she hadn't won yet.
They still separated from the ice cream parlor a hundred meters, while their bike raced past a grill at a significantly excessive speed for the village, which was just equipped with a new meat skewer by two men. The girls didn't think about braking. They only thought of screwing the tour up to the others.
Seconds later, Melanie was the first to reach the ice cream parlor and pressed the brake levers on her bike with all her might. The intoxicating feeling of victory flooded her and so she didn't even notice that the brakes didn't have enough strength to stop the bike, until it was too late for that. Almost unchecked, she shot across the quay wall into the harbor basin. A bright, desperate scream, which was not hers, echoed through the fishing village, then hit the water with full force.
Burning pain drove through her weakened body. She detached herself from her bike, which sank to the ground like a stone, and struggled to the surface. Melanie loved the water, and even if everything hurt her at that moment, she had enough reason to know that the Mediterranean impact had saved her from worse injuries. She smiled mischievously. The victory belonged to her, and the refreshing bath could no longer take him from her.
The girl quickly looked around. She was alone. It was noon and there was no one on the street in the fishing village. The men on the grill were too busy with the meat skewer to look for the crazy tourists. Where was Celina? She had just been behind her. Did she manage to take the curve by bike and brake in a side street? No, Celina had plunged into the harbor basin just like her, but unlike her, she hadn't reappeared.
Suddenly the smile on her face died when she sniffed to see air bubbles rising from the water next to her. Something white shimmered down there in the water. Celina. She still had to be down there.
Melanie called for help several times, but when no one appeared after a few seconds, she took a deep breath several times and dived. Even if she always had bad grades in sports, she was actually able to swim and dive quite well. She couldn't afford the required speed of school sports, but here in the wild it looked different.
With all her remaining strength, she slid down. The harbor basin was about four meters deep at this point. It was easy in the swimming pool, but here in the sea she had to fight against her own buoyancy. She struggled and immediately forced her eyes to open. The salt water burned in her eyes, but she could clearly see the outline of the girl, which lay motionless on the bottom.
Celina's foot was caught in the loop of her bike pedal, and the weight of the bike had torn her down. In her exhausted state, she had quickly lost consciousness and could no longer free herself.
Melanie reached her and tried to pull her up first, but she couldn't. The bike was just too heavy. She fought against her own lack of air and finally released Celina's hand to get to the surface again. She was now fully aware of the seriousness of the situation. Once again she called for help, then she dived down again to save the other girl she actually hated.
She pushed down and reached Celina's hand again. Blurred, she could see the girl's open eyes, which were close to death. In her white dress, she looked like an angel from another sphere in her lifeless position. Her mouth was wide open as if her body was trying to breathe again when there was only water.
Melanie knew that Celina's life would depend on her alone. She had to bring the girl back to the water surface. Instead of trying to pull it up again, she shimmered down her body and finally reached her foot. The gymnastics shoe was pressed firmly into the loop of the pedal by the impact into the water. Normally it would not have been a problem to pull it out again, but in the meantime the shoe had become fully sucked with water and had become thicker. Desperate, she was now fighting for her rival's survival.
Almost blindly she groped for the shoelaces and finally managed to loosen them and free Celina's foot from the deadly trap. With the last of her strength she pushed herself off the bottom and grabbed the girl by the dress, which was tearing in. Even close to fainting, together they reached the finally saving water surface.
One of the men from the grill had jumped into the water and came to her aid. The brown-burned Croatian immediately reached for Celina and turned her so that her mouth and nose were over water. His colleague stood on the bank and screamed hectically into his cell phone. Melanie hardly registered all of this. She was happy to keep herself afloat, even if her thoughts were mostly with Celina.
***
The door opened and Melanie entered the hospital room. It was quite bright and friendly, even if she lacked a comparison with German hospitals. Celina was alone in the room, even if there was another bed inside.
"Hi," she said narrowly.
"Hi," Celina breathed.
"I brought you something to read," Melanie held a bag in which she had packed some of her manga and a few magazines from her mother.
The girls looked. After Celina almost drowned, she was taken to the nearest hospital by ambulance. It was only the next day that she was opened again and the doctors wanted to keep her there for a few days to watch. Melanie had been declared a great heroine by the press. Even in the picture newspaper there was a picture and a few lines of text that some reporter had come up with.
However, the incident had not changed the relationship between the two families. Celina's parents blamed Melanie for everything. However, Celina himself was no longer so sure of it.
"Thank you," she said finally.
"Please," Melanie replied almost automatically.
"No, I don't just mean for it. Also for saving and stuff."
Melanie smiled slightly. The only reason she went to Celina was to do something about her own guilty conscience. Unlike her father, who ignored his rival's hostility, Melanie took Celina's parents' accusations to heart because she knew that without this stupid race, Celina would not have ended up in the hospital.
"Oh, it was logical," she finally gave back. She embarrassed her if she thanked Celina with her now. Actually, she wanted to apologize to her. In Celina's facial expressions, however, Melanie discovered an unknown soft streak, as if she were suddenly looking at her long-time intimate enemy with completely different eyes. Both smiled. And within a heartbeat there was a warmth that touched Melanie deeply.
She went to her bed and put the bag on the small box next to it. Both girls looked at each other again, more intensely. Celina, who had always worked so hard on Melanie, now grabbed her hand uncertainly and pressed her. It was not a handshake, but rather a touch looking for help, like that of a child, that reaches for his mother's hand. For a moment there was only silence between the two girls and they looked at each other embarrassedly.
Melanie settled on the bedside. Her young hands were still united. She could feel Celina's uncertain tremor and she too felt incredibly open and vulnerable for a moment. They squeezed their palms. They touched each other in a strange way without changing a word. It was only their eyes that were sending messages at that moment that none of the girls understood at that moment.
The touch felt strangely good and they thought they felt the heartbeat of each. It was a surreal intense feeling that made the body merge into one for a moment. For the first time, hostility had disappeared from the faces of the two opponents. She felt something else, indescribable, which only seemed to exist in this place between them at that moment.
Without warning, the door opened behind them and a middle-aged woman stood in it. She looked at the scenario somewhat confused as the girls turned to her.
"What is she looking for here?" Asked Margot, Celina's mother with a shrill tone, which every all-arm siren could compete with. "Disappear. You have done enough. You and your family, you destroyed our vacation, isn't that enough for you?"
"I ..." Melanie stammered confusedly and instantly let go of Celina's hand. It wasn't what Margot thought. It was worse. Melanie felt caught and immediately betrayed. She immediately got up while Celina pulled her blanket protect against her chest. She also felt strangely caught without being aware of her own feelings.
"Disappear!" The mother stiffened.
Melanie ran past her in tears from the room. Even though she had learned to endure the harshness of her fellow human beings, she deeply hurt the harsh, surprising words of Celina's mother. But she wasn't alone with that. At that moment, Celina's heart hurt when she saw the tears in Melanie's eyes. Perhaps this was the first time that Celina felt something like compassion for the girl, whom she had always tortured with the help of her friends.
"And don't be seen here anymore!" Margot called after the girl when she fell out of the room and almost ran around a Croatian nurse, who was also completely amazed by the outburst of anger of her patient's otherwise fragile mother.
Kommentare
Kommentar veröffentlichen