The Beach House (a The Kissing Booth novella)

11: The Beach House

            “Um,” Noah interrupted. “I don’t think so.”

            “What?” Lee and I both turned on him, wide-eyed with pure confusion.

            “Do you even know what goes on at these things?” he said. My expression turned stone. Like, I practically felt my face turning to stone, freezing in place with annoyance as I glared at him. I knew where this was going – he was going to go all overprotective and jerky and then we’d have another fight, and I’d feel bad about going to the party…

            “We’re going,” I told him.

            “Elle,” he sighed, with a look on his face that I completely ignored.

            “No, she’s right,” Lee interrupted. “I’m going. And Shelly can’t not go if I go. Therefore, we are both going.” I was so tempted to make a comment like, ‘Therefore? Wow, that’s a pretty big word for you, Lee,’ but I was too interested in what he had to say. “Besides, you can’t keep track of where she’s going and what she’s doing every single day.”

            “Well, the beauty of social networking means I kind of can,” he joked.

            “Whatever. But I’ll be there. It’ll be fine. Chill. What’s the worst that can happen?”

            “She could get really drunk and try to go swimming in the sea and drown?”

            “Alright, but we’re not going to get that drunk. I’ll keep an eye on her. We’re not idiots, Noah, and you’re not the boss of her.”

            “I’m still here, you know,” I interrupted; neither of them seemed to notice I was even there anymore, though.

            “Yeah, well neither are you.”

            “I’m her best friend,” Lee snapped. “I’ll take care of her just fine.”

            “And I’m her boyfriend,” Noah retorted. The muscle in his jaw was jumping. “I’m trying to look out for her.”

            I stood up and walked off.

            That got their attention. Lee called, “Shelly!” and Noah said, “Elle…”

            But I carried on stalking away from our little evening picnic on the beach. I didn’t walk very far, only a few feet away, before I spun back around.

            “Okay,” I said. “Look, Lee and I are going to go to that party tomorrow, and neither of us are going to get very drunk because that’s just not a smart thing to do when you’re close to the sea. And I appreciate you – both of you – looking out for me, but newsflash, I don’t need either of you cataloguing my every move and babysitting me, got that?”

            It was hard to tell who looked more stunned by my outburst – Lee or Noah. I was pretty stunned myself, since I didn’t expect to rant at them like that when I’d opened my mouth.

            Lee recovered first, though. “Sorry.”

            I smiled at him, to let him know I wasn’t mad; because I wasn’t really mad at them, it just annoyed me that both of them seemed to think I was this naïve little girl who constantly needed a babysitter to take care of her. Admittedly, maybe I was naïve, in a lot of ways – I still had a lot of growing up left to do. But I wasn’t entirely stupid, and if they were going to be so damn overbearing, how was I ever going to stop being naïve?