7. Santorini

LARA'S POV

A couple of hours ago we arrived in Santorini, and from the moment we did it, I had locked myself in the bathroom. For a quarter of an hour, I was vomiting everything I had ingested, and from that moment until now, I spent it sitting looking at the wall, my mind invaded by thousands of memories with Cameron, but, above all, the pain of leaving him.

"Lara, I'm starting to worry, you've been in there for two hours. At least let me come in and be with you" Eli asked from the other side, but I stayed looking at the wall for a couple more seconds "Lara, I swear if you don't open the door for me, I'll knock it down. I just hope you're out of the direction of the door," she said seriously, and I waited a couple of seconds, her words reaching some part of my brain.

After a few seconds, I get up to open the door, and the moment I do, Eli appears pushing in my direction, causing me to stop her before she crashes into me. "Are you ok?" Eli asked after separating herself from me and staring at me. "Yes, you worried for nothing," I said sincerely.

"Of course, I didn't worry about anything, you didn't open the door or answer. How do you expect me not to worry?" She asked, crossing her arms. "It wasn't necessary, I'm fine," I assured. "I heard you vomit, are you sure you are?" my best friend asked again and I nodded. "Ok, perfect. Do you want to do something before we go to dinner?" She questioned and I denied, because I don't want to do anything.

"I hope at least you want to have dinner" she said and even though it's not what I wanted most at the moment, I also knew it's something I should do "Later, I'm not hungry now" Eli nodded and left the bathroom with me behind her and I went to the room and lay down for a while.

It's half past nine when we went down to dinner, and it's not like we talked too much during it, but I had a thousand things running through my head, things that could help me distract myself and not think so much about the situation Cam and I are in. "What would happen if I worked on the weekends?" I asked out loud and Eli just left her fork on the table.

"What are you talking about?" She asked seriously "I can go work with the guys on the team, and before you say anything, it doesn't have to be exactly getting in the car, I can help with the car, set it up, help with strategies, things like that" I said and Eli turned. She looks at me without saying anything and with a serious face. "Would that help you be better?" Eli asked and I shrugged, because I had no idea.

"I don't know, but I think it could be something to help me not constantly think about what's happening," I said honestly. "And what are we going to do with the press?" She asked after a few seconds of silence. "What are we supposed to do with the press?" I asked.

"The press will start making up stories about why you're not with Cameron, which is what's happening. What will go through Cameron's head the moment he sees what the press says?" She questioned, "Cameron will know nothing they say is true. He knows I would tell him before anyone said anything. Besides, the press doesn't have to know anything. I can ask the team to help me with that" I protested. I knew if I asked them, I didn't want the press on me and I don't want anything to come out about me in the press either, would help me.

"I'm not telling you this in a bad way, I just want you to keep that in mind, nothing more. But if you consider is the best for you, then do it" she said, with a big smile occupying her face. The rest of the dinner she was talking to me about everything we could do around here and everything we could visit while I don't go to work, and we could take advantage of when I don't have to work.

When we returned to the villa where, at least I would stay for a while, I went directly to the balcony of my room, sat on the chair, and started looking at the sky. It's a beautiful night, and we were lucky there are no lights nearby, it allowed me to see the stars much better, and in a way, it's as if I were at home.

Around twelve thirty, I decided to call Serena. I know it wasn't the best time to call her, but I needed to talk to her as soon as possible before spending more days doing nothing. "Lara? What are you doing to be calling me at eleven?" She asked in a confused tone.

"I need to get away from everything for a while and I wanted to know if I could work on the team" I said and I could hear movement on the other end of the line, like she's getting up suddenly or something "Work on the team? Is everything alright?" my boss asked in a worried tone and I nodded "Everything is fine, don't worry, I just want to be able to do something in the team without the press knowing I'm around" I responded "And how are you going to get in the car? The moment everyone sees you, they will know who you are" she assured "Serena, I can't get in the car. I'll tell you the moment we meet in person. I'm just asking you to help me, I need to be able to distract myself" I begged and heard her sigh.

"Alright. In the morning I will start making the calls to get all. You can come whenever you want. I would appreciate it if you stopped by Manchester so you could tell me what's happening and I can find a way to help you better" she said and I nodded "Thank you, Serena, I'll let you sleep."

"See you soon, Lara" With that, we both hung up and I looked for a ticket to Manchester to leave as soon as possible and distract my busy mind.

ELI'S POV

"Eli seriously, can you tell me where you are? Cameron is going up the wall because neither of you are answering him and he has no idea where you are." Bianca said and I denied even though I knew full well she couldn't see me. I won't going to tell anyone where we are, Lara wanted it that way and to be honest, I wanted it that way too. It helped me not to think all the time about what Bianca had done. "You know I'm not going to tell you. Let him be content with knowing we're fine and that's it," I said dryly, because I don't want to talk about Cam, at this moment I'm extremely angry with him for everything he's doing.

"Do you think that's going to help? He won't be calm until he hears one of you tell him" My wife protested. "I don't give a shit about it, Bianca, he had thought about what he did before. He's in this situation because of himself and no one else," I assured her. We had tried to talk to him thousands of times trying to make him understand what would end up happening if he continued as he was, but he decided to ignore us, so it was his fault.

"Is it his fault that you also left with my sister?" Bianca asked, and I can't believe she's asking me. "No, that's because of you. But if I'm here mainly it's to support your sister. Do you think it's wrong for Cameron we're leaving? You have no idea how your sister is doing, and before either of you say anything, because I know Cam is listening, let me tell you this is your fault, yours Bianca for what you did and yours Cameron for what you fucking did to your wife, so now don't play victims because you aren't" I responded and hung up, because at this moment I'm more than angry. Did they really think we had left for nothing? Sometimes I can't understand how stupid those two are.

I left the room to get some air, but I decided it's better to go to Lara's room for a moment where she should be asleep and I'm not surprised to not see her sleeping, so I leave the house in search of her. Since Cameron had started behaving the way we had left, Lara spends a lot of her time, especially at night, on the beach, so I supposed that's one of the reasons we came to Santorini.

A few minutes later, I see the silhouette of her body near the shore, so I slowly approach where she is and once next to her, I sit down and focus my gaze on the horizon. "Why the hell did this have to happen to us? Why the fuck doesn't Cam say what's bothering him?" Lara said after half an hour in silence.

"I don't have the answer to any of those questions. I suppose Cam thing has to be about something related to you. I don't mean he's mad at you or anything. I want to think at some point he saw something he didn't like that was happening with you, or he's so scared you're getting into a car again that he doesn't really know how to tell you," I responded, shrugging my shoulders, but I don't think it had anything to do with the car and Lara getting back in. Something is really bothering him.

"It's not the latter, I can assure you of that," Lara answered, more convinced than I had heard her say in recent months. "How are you so sure?" I asked out of curiosity "Apart from the fact in one of his drunken binges he told me he didn't want me to give up the competition, he still watches the races, especially the one from the years when he wasn't there. He also watches a lot of the race where he had the accident, but honestly, I don't know what's going on in his head... At first, I thought it was a kind of torture, because he repeats the part of the accident, but he told me no. It had nothing to do with that."

I nodded, because even though what she thought was entirely possible, I hadn't seen anything that told me Cameron had become obsessed with the accident. "Wait... at some point he said the car made something weird before the accident" I said, remembering what he had once told me "How so?" Lara asked, focusing her gaze on me. "He didn't explain it, so to speak, I just know what he said," I responded, shrugging my shoulders.

"In a few hours I'm going to Manchester," Lara said after a couple of minutes in silence. "So soon? I thought you would take a couple of days at least to relax" I said a little surprised "And I'm going to do it, but I want to talk to Serena before going with the others" she responded and I nodded "Do you want me to go with you?" I asked "No need, I'll come back today" she admitted and I nodded "Okay, I'll wait for you here then" I replied.

After about an hour, we returned to the house and I accompanied Lara to her room, because I don't think either of us were going to fall asleep, so we lay down and looked at the ceiling.

"What attracted you to Cam?" I asked curiously, "Well, I couldn't tell you... I couldn't stand him at first, he was always messing with me and it bothered me, at least that's what I thought... but then he changed completely and I started seeing him. His way of being, I don't know... attracted me, and why lie, he's a handsome guy... so it happened" my best friend wife said with a small smile on her face. "Maybe I shouldn't have left, I know that Cam it's still there somewhere inside, but I know this is the best for me right now too."

"You're doing the right thing, Lara. I know it can't be easy, but I think this will help Cameron see what's going on around him and realize he's screwing up monumentally," I said honestly, because I'm sure this would help him. "I hope, because then I don't know what I'll do with my life, to be honest," she mused. "Your life will remain the same. You'll see how Cam will realize what he's doing isn't right," I replied.

It must have been around eight in the morning when we decided to get ready and I helped Lara grab a couple of things so her trip to Manchester would be as pleasant as possible and hoping it wouldn't appear in the press.