Un Sejour Dans Le Sud De La France Ch. 08

That last drive through the French countryside back towards the city of Nice was one of the most gut-wrenching things I've ever had to do. I wanted to stay here forever - despite the fact that I looked forward to seeing my parents again and that pretty soon Beth and I would be headed to York to start a brand new and potentially very exciting chapter in our lives, it felt like the end of an era. But I knew we would be back, the glorious Mediterranean coast of France had got under our skin and there was no denying it. We would return to Madame Verache's villa, we would return to our little cove, we would return to the île Solharvre - it was only a matter of when. When we were all together again, when we had completed our studies and when we could afford to go.

The flight back to England was pretty uneventful, save for a little turbulence, and after two hours in the air we finally touched down at Gatwick airport to be greeted by a grey and drizzly English afternoon. Once we had passed through the routines of customs, passport control and baggage reclaim, we finally exited into the arrivals area and welcoming us home we were overjoyed to see our mum and dad. Mum, having had the last two weeks to recuperate from her appendix operation, looked bright and healthy, a far cry from when we had last seen her at the hospital. Terri's mother was there too although while our parents greeted us with hugs and kisses, Terri's mother simply greeted her with a little peck on the cheek.

It was then that we finally went our separate ways. Beth, Terri and I hugged each other tightly in farewell. I heard Beth whisper in Terri's ear that she would be welcome to come and visit us any time at our flat in York and also to wish her good luck with having to go back home to her mother and the rest of her conservatively Methodist family.

As we sat in the back of our parent's car we recounted our stories of our holiday, obviously leaving out 'certain' events for obvious reasons. But we told them all about Alex and Jenny and about how they were making their way around Europe and that they had promised to come and visit us in York. We gave them a little present that we had bought while we were in Monaco, to thank them for letting us go on our own.

As finally, we pulled up in front of our house once again in our little seaside town on the Sussex coast - the grey-green waters of the English Channel being a far cry from the azure blue waters of the Mediterranean we had left behind that morning - we unpacked our things and went back inside the house where this whole crazy adventure had started back when Beth had first entered my room and asked me if I didn't mind stripping off to show her friend what a naked boy looks like. It was so very recent but already it felt like an entire lifetime ago. We were different people now, Beth and I, and we would soon be embarking on a whole new adventure together.

But that's another story.

FIN

Well, that's the end of the story! I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I have enjoyed writing it. I would like to thank everyone who took the time to post nice comments and for those who sent me such encouraging feedback, especially one person in particular (you know who you are!) your kind words helped keep me going with this so thank you for everything!

For all those who have followed this story from the start, I can confirm that Terri, Beth and Tommy will return in a new story next year, but in the meantime I hope you can take the time to enjoy my other stories: The Boys of Colony Theta, and Two Thousand and Ten.

In the meantime - Peace and Love y'all!!

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