all our stars, bench trio

chapter twenty-three

"Yup, Red's driving everyone over."

"Okay, good. I think we're ready, then."

Laney plugs her phone into the aux and shuffles her playlist.

Harry Styles' Golden thumps softly through the speakers. I turn back to Liv.

"Do you keep your hair out because braids and locs take so long?"

A soft smile blooms on her face. "Well, partially, yes, but I also just like my hair out. I like how it looks."

"And, hey, you said you work in a pub, right? If any shit goes down you can use your hair as a helmet against projectiles. It'll just... like... bounce off." Liv laughs hard at this.

"That's... an excellent point."

"I know. I'm just a creative and logical genius like that." Giulia snorts from the front seat.

"Giulia, I heard that, and I'm writing you out of the will for it."

"You have a will written?" Laney asks. I don't respond, seeing as truthfully answering "no" would ruin the mood of the banter, and saying "yes" would get Will calling in a gang of mental health professionals. The Louvre by Lorde fades in as Harry Styles fades out. I take a deep breath in and exhale out. Let's do this.

The rest of the drive is anticlimactic, mostly, seeing as Tommy and Red aren't here to instigate anything. We pull in. It's a nice, rocky shore, empty too. Red and Ranboo are airing out towels. Toby is apparently trying to strangle Tommy. Ah. There's the chaos we all know and love.

"Hey, losers!" Laney cups her hands around her mouth to raise her voice. Everyone snaps their neck to look at us. Guilia brings her shades down to her eyes like she's the main character. Wilbur gives exactly no reaction or indication that he's pleased to see them. We make our way over. Toby has successfully pinned Tommy down and is smearing sun cream on his face.

"HUUEEEGGHH, TOBY, THIS IS DISGUSTING."

"DO YOU THINK I ENJOY THIS? THIS IS SO UNCOMFORTABLE THAT I'M ABOUT TO PUKE ON YOUR FACE. HOWEVER, I'D RATHER YOU NOT GET BURNED AND HAVE TO DEAL WITH YOUR BITCHING."

Liv cackles and says to them as passes: "You're both sheets of paper. You need sun cream, Tommy." She tracks down Will and pats him affectionately on the cheek. "That means you too, white boy. Let's get you greased up."

Wilbur makes a face. "Never use the phrase 'greased up' again."

Liv laughs.

"This better be the best fucking sandcastle to ever be built, because there is no way this is worth the sand behind my knees." I mumble. Toby laughs.

"Don't you even worry, this shit's gonna rival... uh... I don't know any architects.

"I don't either."

"That's alright, then, it's gonna rival... us. Yup. We're gonna outdo ourselves." He looks over at Tommy, who's scrupulously digging a massive hole and supplying us good sand. Good man. "And Tommy's gonna outdo the Hole to China." Tommy flips us off, still digging with the other hand. Our mound doesn't have much shape yet, though we're working on that. Laney's trying to help too, though trying to pour handfuls of water into Tommy's hole isn't actually useful, because most of the water slips through her fingers on her way back from sea.

Liv, Giulia, Will, and Ranboo are all having an animated conversation with each other, though what about, I'm not sure.

Toby is diligently molding the sand. He brushes his fingers through his hair, trying and failing to keep them out of his eyes. Giulia hands the both of us bottles of water. I wipe the sand caking my hands on my swimsuit and open the cap. I'm probably dehydrated, because the cold water feels more like a breath of fresh air than it should. I stick the bottle upright in the sand and turn back to the castle. Toby is packing in the side and top. It's currently just a box. Feeling a need to be useful, I start carving out details — a front door, windows, pillars.