RECAP:

I only made it a couple of meters before Josie spoke up.

"No, Becca please wait." Josie sighed in frustration but I kept my back to them.

All of them.

"I need to tell you something." She paused and when I turned around, Ethan had his arm resting on her small waist.

"WE need to tell you something." She said and pulled my brother closer to her side.

I couldn't quite define the strange tension that currently filled the dining room table.

Susan was happily waffling away to us all, unaware of unusual silence and the lack of eye contact being shared.

But the 4 of us?... we were beyond aware.

"Pain au chocolat, darling?" Susan offered me one of her freshly baked pastries with a warm smile.

My eyes soften as I accept one of them, placing it on the colorful and handmade plate beneath me.

"Thanks." I reply quietly and look up to see hurt flash in her aging features when she glances at the rest of the full tray.

Breakfasts have been like this for the last week.

It would start with Ashton coming back from a run or swim and neither of us locking eyes. Soon, he would arrive minutes later and seat himself opposite me.

Only difference to this morning's meal was that Susan had taken her time to whip up a batch of her famous pain au chocolat's that everyone seemed to decline.

"I wouldn't have made as many if I knew no-one but Rebecca wanted them." She laughs cheerily to enlighten the mood and quickly returns to the kitchen.

As I dug into the chocolate filled breakfast, I made the mistake of glancing up, only to be met with an awkward gaze from Josie and a furious one from Ethan.

It wasn't as if he didn't do the exact same thing with my best friend.

My empty plate now sat before me as I pulled my finger to the corner of my lips and slouched backwards into my chair.

I felt childish.

The situation. The silence. It all felt so immature to me.

Then everything hit me... I was going home soon, I was leaving Marseille behind until god-knows-when and I am currently wasting away the precious time that I have left with people that mean so much to me.

Susan's voice caused my eyes to flutter open, when I wasn't even aware that they had closed.

I hadn't slept at all last night, and I seemed to be paying the price.

"Hey kiddos, As Rebecca and Ethan are going home soon, I'm going to go shopping to grab a couple of things for the dinner party." Susan called as she re-entered the room with her hands filled with reusable shopping bags and her chunky keychains.

"Mrs Miles you don-" Ethan started but Susan cut him off.

"Oh shush, it's the least I can do for the both of you." She pauses. "And please,It's Susan." She reminds him politely, knowing that this entire trip she has told him the exact same thing.

Another silence covered the table like a thick and murky fog that made me lightheaded and uneasy.

Or maybe it was the lack of sleep...

Anyway, this silence lasted so long that the distant sound of the front door echoing shut was the only thing to disturb it.

That's it. I thought. I'm done wasting time.

I scanned the room without hesitation this time, locking eyes with my best friend and brother and finally looking ahead of me to see My Brother's Best Friend.

Ashton didn't hold the same aura as Josie and Ethan. He didn't look guilty or angry.

Infact, I couldn't quite tell what Ashton's aura was. He stared directly back at me, his eyes searching mine, traveling straight past my pupils and not stopping until they reached into my soul.

I hated that he could do that to me.

I actually hated a lot of things that he could do.

I hated his need for control and dominance, the same need that caused me to break away from his calculating eyes after feeling vulnerable before him.

He shouldn't have that power, but damn does he use it to his advantage. I thought and crossed one leg above the other to dissipate the thoughts of his strong body tangled with my own.

In my peripheral vision, I could see him housing a familiar smirk as he bit his inner cheek and drew his tongue across his upper teeth sexually.

"Ithinkthisisreallystupidasweareliterallyleavinginlessthanaweekandwearebeingsoimmature." I huff out, giving a pleading look to Josie to help me out.

"Slower Becs" Ashton tells me and I feel his leg graze up my own beneath the table.

"Um, well I-" I suck in a sharp breath as I feel Ashton's foot daring to go up my white pleated skirt but try and brush it off.

"- Honestly think that we need to stop being so immature as Ethan and I are going home in less than a week and I don't want to regret not sorting this out earlier when I'm back home. You guys-" I have to pause when Ashton drops a spoon on the floor and crouches beneath the table to pick it up.

"-All mean so s-" I continued until I felt a cold squeeze on my upper right thigh.

"-So much to me and it would be a shame if we don't make the most of our time together. After all, who the hell knows when we are going to see eachother again?" I finish and Ashton emerges from the table whilst raking his free hand through his messy hair.

This boy...

"I agree with Becca, Ethan. I know that you aren't ok about the two of them but please remember that you also went against this 'Sisters off limits' rule" Josie speaks calmly, rubbing a calming thumb on Ethands hand which she held from across the table.

A chair screeching across the marble floor caught my attention as Ethan rose from his seat from beside me.

"I have to agree otherwise I'm just a hypocrite like mum." Ethan spits with distaste, which is understandable due to what she did to our family, and then shifts his attention back to me. "Just don't count on me when he breaks your fucking heart back in England." He speaks coldly and heavily strides up the flight of stairs leaving us all where we all started.

In an unbreathable silence.

Ethan's petty speech was hardly a blessing.

My emotions were so mixed to the point where I found myself grabbing a pen and a hardback book to make a list of what to make of everything:

Positives:

•Get 2 be with B for the last week that we have together even though E isn't 100% ok with it.

Negatives:

•When B moves back, things become complicated.

•Seems weird that our siblings are practically dating and have apparently been for the last 6 months.

•Long dist is a bitch.

•She will probs get bored of me.

•She said 'ew' about dating me a while ago, so probs doesn't even want a relationship in the first place.

I sigh and rip out my writing after seeing the negatives outweigh the positives when I hadn't even finished. I then crumpled it with my fist and launched it across my bedroom, only for it to roll around the edge of the bin and hop off the side.

"I guess I've always had a better shot than you anyway." A voice speaks from the doorway of the shared bathroom.

"You like to think you do." I reply back, a smile subconsciously appearing on my face from being in the presence of Becca.

Yeah, I know...whipped.

Although we acted distant at meal times, we had been sneaking around for this last week not being able to take our hands off each other.

Someone needed to give us an oscar.

A pause in conversation caused me to look up from the tapping of my pen on the plain notebook, just to find becca positioning herself next to me on my bed.

"Whatya writing?" She questions with a smile, similar to my own, when her hands make their way into my hair.

"Nothing really. Just thinking." I reply and my eyes can't help but close from the calming pressure on my head.

"Mm you're good at that." I murmur and she laughs a little and shuffles closer into me so that my arm can wrap around her.

"A girl of many talents." She adds and stops the massage from her fingertips but leaves her hand in my ruffed up hair.

We lay for a couple of minutes, heat radiating from our bodies when I hear her breathing relax and look up to find her eyes fluttered closed.

I tilt my head towards her momentarily, noticing my lips inline with her forehead. Without thinking, I lean forward slightly and place a kiss on her and pull back to see the corners of her lips lifted and her face scrunched.

"What was that for?" She asks and opens her eyes so that they pierce into my own.

"I thought you were asleep." I replied, knowing that it avoided the question.

I didn't even know what I did it for...

"Ashton?" She called after a moment of comfortable silence which escalated my heart rate.

I guess that hearing her call my name will forever have this effect.

"Yeah?"

"What's going to happen when I go home?"

And suddenly, there was another question that I couldn't string an exact answer for.

I didn't even know what was going to happen....

However, what I did know was that my phone began buzzing with a new stream of messages.

"It's ok, you don't need to answer." She spoke up, probably noticing the panic on my face and thinking that she caused it.

But she didn't.

The messages did.

Maybe it was the group chat that I have with Jake, Leo and Gabrial. I tried to comfort myself, but I knew that none of them had contacted me after the night that Jake had kissed Becca.

Another thing that was left undiscussed between us.

"Look, forget I said anything. I'll catch you later." She spoke with sad eyes and I felt an uncomfortable stab of guilt rush through me.

After that, she got up and hurried out of my room despite me calling her name to come back.

She didn't even turn around.

Which only left me with a familiar contact in my phone and a stream of messages that dared to be opened.