The Beach House (a The Kissing Booth novella)

12: The Beach House

            “I don’t know,” Lee said. “Probably not much later than midnight, I guess. But don’t wait up.”

            She gave us a wry kind of smile. “You think I’ll be able to sleep easy if you’re out at a party?”

            “Noah’s been going to them for years,” Lee pointed out. I could hear the slight tone of annoyance in his voice, like he was annoyed his mom wasn’t letting him do things Noah had always done.

            “And?” She laughed a little. “I never got to sleep until he got home.”

            There was a moment’s pause, then Lee said, “Oh.”

            “Don’t be too late,” June told us, the severe mom look back on her face.

            We both nodded. “Alright.”

            “Have fun!” she trilled, turning back to her book and mug of coffee (I guessed it wasn’t decaf, if she was really going to stay up until we got home).

            “See you later,” we called back, and slid the doors closed behind us.

            The night was warm, and the sky was clear. The red and blue flashing lights of an airplane went across the sky, and there were stars twinkling up there too, against the inky backdrop. It made me smile. I wanted to spin around in a circle, with my face tilted up to the sky like that.

            “Go for it.”

            So I did. Laughing, I spun around in circles with my arms flung out all the way down the beaten sandy path between the shrubbery until I lost my footing and fell over into a bush.

            Lee was laughing too, and jogged over to give me a hand up.

            It wasn’t hard to find the party. It was a little past eight, but there were a lot of people around. There were ice boxes, and a couple of small campfires. People had dragged around some logs to make circles, and if they weren’t sitting down, then they were milling around.

            As we got closer, I saw that the people there were mostly around college age; a little older than us. But there were a ton of kids our age, too, and a few younger.

            And, I couldn’t help but notice, there were a hell of a lot of girls in dresses.

            At that point, though, I couldn’t really care. I was here to have fun. I wasn’t here to impress anyone – especially boys – and despite the fact I’d been worrying about what to wear earlier, right then, I honestly didn’t care.

            “Come on,” I said, grabbing Lee’s hand, dragging him toward the nearest box of ice and beer cans. “I’m thirsty.”

            “What happened to, ‘No, I won’t drink at all, don’t worry’?”

            “I never said that. I said I wouldn’t get drunk. There’s a difference.” I bent down and grabbed two cans of beer out of the slowly melting ice box, handing one to Lee. He (somehow) managed to crack it open with his teeth, whilst I fumbled to open mine a little.

            “Show off,” I muttered, but I grinned.

            “Hey, Lee, you made it!” We both turned around and saw a guy walking up to us. It was kind of dark, so I couldn’t really make him out – until he got close enough that I recognized him. He didn’t seem to be able to see me as he walked up though.