Being Popular 101

Chapter 6

CHAPTER 6

The car ride to the beach was taking longer than we first expected.

The original hype of getting out of college for the day had started to die down and now we were just bored. 

We had all managed to squish into Jason's bright orange Volkswagen Kombi. None of us were wearing seat belts, as there wasn't enough, so every shape corner we took sent everyone in the back flying. 

We had been listening to an hour of non-stop One Direction. When ever anyone asked to change it, Sophie would just glare at them until they shut up. Even Jason, whose car it was, didn't bother to ask his tiny but feisty girlfriend.

He knew her too well.

Tom was laying with his head in my lap and his legs draped over Simon's legs.  As I subconsciously ran my fingers through his dark curls, I suddenly became aware that it was putting him to sleep.

His face was so peaceful, making him look at least 5 years younger.

Suddenly Simon groaned, "DUDE, get off me, my legs are going numb!" Jolting Tom awake.

He stared around confusedly for a few seconds, figuring out his surroundings. He rubbed his half closed eyes and slumped back on the seat.

"Oh, my little baby woke up." I cooed at him.

Ignoring my teasing comment he asked Jason how much longer it would take to get their. Jason, sick of this much asked question gritted his teeth and replied in a tense tone that we would arrive in about 5 minutes.

And we did, slowly pulling into the car park at just after 10:30am. The rest of the girls and I rushed down to the sand, with just our towels, searching for a nice strip of beach, leaving the boys to bring the rest of our gear.

We laid down our towels in a line and quickly stripped off. I wasn't even shy anymore, I just wanted to get my tan on after waiting so long, I really was getting pasty. Some boys behind us let out a round of wolf whistles, that we ignored.

I can't say the same for the boys. Jason practically shot daggers out of his eyes, and I noticed Tom with a very similar look. So over-protective.

To distract him I asked Tom to help put the sunscreen on my back. He practically ran over to help me. Well at least that got his mind off of them. Once everyone was creamed up, the boys took off towards the ocean, yelling and shoving each other the whole way.

Me and the girls simply plugged in our iPods, flopped down onto our towels and relaxed. After a while I felt the skin on my shoulders practically sizzling so I decided to apply some more sunscreen. It would be fun to see if Tom would come all the way in just to do it.

But at that exact moment I was hit in the chest with a handfull of icy cold ocean water. From the sound of Anna's high pitched scream and Julia's growl of anger I figured they had been hit as well.

But unlike the other who just grumbled and laid back down, I sprung up and took off after the figures sprinting along the beach.

I gradually over took Liam, Jason and Simon. They we all really fit but I was faster. Tom was the only one I hadn't caught up to yet and I knew he was the one to dump the water on me. He was much faster than the others so it was going to be a while before I caught him.

The muscles in my legs started to burn but some how I managed to make my sore feet move even faster over the scorching sand.

Soon I was just over a metre behind Tom. I was so tired and out of breath I knew that I wouldn't be able to get any closer than that. So I did the one thing that would stop Tom. I leaped off of the sand and launched myself, arms open, at Toms bare, glistening back.