I Found You, Something Told Me To Stay - (Jason Berry/Zacky Vengeance)

Chapter Eighteen.

As we walked along the sand, I could hear the sound of music becoming closer and closer, like someone was playing a guitar. Along with it were the sounds of chatter and laughter, and the crackling of the fire.

It soon became evident to me that all these sounds were coming from the girls’ friends. The beach was pretty quiet by now, as the sun was getting lower in the sky and people were beginning to go home, but their friends seemed lively as ever.

I studied them all with a smile on my face as we approached them. There two girls and three boys, all of which had a drink in their hand, except the guy that was playing the guitar.

“Hey, guys!” Linds called out as we stopped in front of them.

They all turned to greet us with huge grins on their faces, their eyes instantly darting to me.

“This is our cousin, Midge.” Charlotte announced. She turned to me and nodded towards the girls, pointing to the one on the left with purple hair. “That’s Sierra, and next to her is Wednesday.”

“Hey.” I waved, to which they did the same, both returning my greeting in an extremely friendly manner.

“And the guy playing the guitar is Dylan,” Charlotte continued. I smiled at Dylan as he lifted one hand off the guitar to wave at me, and then continued playing. “That’s Riley.” The brown-haired boy looked up from his beer can to grin at me, also waving. “And finally, that’s Ad—‘’

“I’m Adam.” The blonde guy cut Charlotte off, standing up and holding his hand out to me. “It’s nice to meet you.”

“You too.” I replied with a smile, politely shaking his hand and placing my own back by my side.

“Do you want a drink?” He then offered, reaching into a cooler bag by his side and tossing me a can. “Sit down.”

“Thanks.” I opened the can, instantly taking a sip, and then went to sit down next to Adam, though my name was called out.

“Hey, Midge?” Wednesday called, making me look over. I noticed she and Sierra had separated so a space was between them. “Come sit with us.”

Glancing at Adam, I sent him a friendly smile and then got up again, wandering over to where Sierra and Wednesday were now sat with my two cousins.

They were looking like they wanted to say something to me, but their eyes kept darting over to the guys.

“Just watch out for Adam.” Sierra was the first to speak, as I sat down, rolling her eyes as she glanced at him.

“Why?” I frowned.

“He’s a total Avenged fan...” She explained, but of course, I still didn’t fully understand.

“Isn’t it a good thing that he likes our family’s music?” I questioned, looking at Charlotte and Linds.

“It is.” Wednesday answered for them with a nod. “But he’s totally obsessed with them and he’s tried it on with both Linds and Charlotte, purely so he can try and get close to the family. And when I say he’s tried it on, he’s not been very subtle about it.”

“He’s a creep.” Linds also nodded.

“Why do you guys hang around with him?” I laughed.

“Dylan and Riley have been friends with him their whole lives. Those three are like a package deal, so we just put up with Adam because the other two are awesome.” Sierra chuckled. “We just thought we’d warn you.”

 “I’m glad that you did.” I laughed again, raising my eyebrows slightly as I glanced over at Adam to see him watching us.

“Anyway, enough about him.” Linds said. “Let’s have a good night.”

**

It was hard to see through the darkness.

I felt myself stumble and fall into whichever one of my cousins was in front of me as the three of us drunkenly staggered through the house. I wasn’t sure of the time, but I knew it was definitely past three AM, and we’d all had far too much to drink.

“Ow!” Charlotte said from in front of me, at which I tried to suppress my giggles.

“Sorry!” I replied, trying to keep my tone hushed.

The only light we’d be able to put on was the kitchen, as the foyer and living room light would be far too near to upstairs, and we were trying—whether we were failing or not—our absolute hardest to not wake Matt and Val up.

It seemed like an absolutely eternity before we finally managed to get into the kitchen. Linds felt about the wall, finding the light switch and lighting the room up, before dragging her feet over to the kitchen island.

I just stared around the place, not really knowing what to do. I wasn’t tired yet, that was for sure, but we were pretty limited on what we could do.

“I’m hungry.” Charlotte announced out of the blue, then sighing a somewhat happy sigh.

Linds and I both glanced at her for a moment, processing her words in our minds, before I suddenly felt my stomach beg for food as well.

“Yeah, me too.” Linds slurred with a nod, laying her head down on the kitchen island. “I want bacon.”

“We have bacon!” Charlotte yelled.

“Shh!” I giggled, placing my finger against my lips and pointing to the ceiling. “Your mum and dad are asleep.”

“They’re deep sleepers.” Charlotte waved it off, stumbling over to the fridge. “Man, I am really wanting that bacon now. You want some, Midge?”

I thought about it for a moment. I didn’t see how we were going to be able to cook it quietly, and I wasn’t sure if this was a regular occurrence for Linds and Charlotte. But I didn’t really care.

I was still really drunk and happy from having such a good night.

So as I nodded, we got started, probably causing a lot of trouble for ourselves.

As we loudly began to sing while frying too much bacon at four o’clock in the morning, while Charlotte’s parents were directly above us.