better than this

Chapter 38

Blair

I'm woken up by my phone beeping multiple times. That's weird. My phone is always on silent at night. I groan and reach over to turn off the ringer but see that it's Hunter texting.

Hunter: Blair? You awake?
Hunter: Blair?
Hunter: I'm not stopping until you get up, lazy bones.
Hunter: When you wake up just know that all this was completely intentional.
Hunter: I turned your ringer on earlier.

Me: Hunter!! That's so annoying.

Hunter: Current 2AM thought: how did the first person to ever make a clock know what time it was?

Me: You're so random. It's cute. Don't think this makes me less annoyed at you.

Hunter: Aw thanks babe. Now do you know the answer?

Me: Because originally, to tell what time of day it was and to figure out when nightfall would be or when sunrise was approaching they'd have sundials which were pretty much clocks. And then to develop from that I guess they put numbers on it.

I wait a while but he doesn't respond for another two minutes, by which time I am almost fully awake.

Hunter: Sorry it just took me a while to read and process all of that.
Hunter: My girlfriend is smart holy shit.

Me: That may be completely inaccurate but I'm thinking it may be true...

Hunter: Have I ever told you Blair

Me: Ever told me what?

Hunter: That it's extremely sexy when you use long words that I barely understand when you're talking to me.

Me: Nope. You never mentioned it. But I'll be sure to take it into consideration the next time I make your acquaintance ;)

Hunter: Like extremely...

Me: So anyhow, why am I awake right now?

It says Hunter is typing for what feels like forever before he finally calls me. I answer and hear him shuffle a little over the phone. "Hello?"
"Miss Blair Evans. What a pleasure it is to hear your gorgeous voice." I laugh at his posh accent. "The feeling is mutual Mr Collins. Now why did you wake me up?" I respond in an equally posh accent making him chuckle softly. I feel my skin tingling hearing his voice in my ear. "Well I think that, if you look at the date then you shall see that it is exactly two months since we met and one month since we started dating." I quickly take my phone away from my ear and look at the date. Wow. It kind of feels like much longer. I'm surprised, I had kind of expected him to forget. "Those are facts. Why does that have anything to do with me getting woken up?" I ask him, grinning because whatever this is it's to do with our anniversary so it's got to be good. "Well, do you remember what we did the night we met?" He says and I hear a door close in the background of the phone call. "Well we went to a party and you got drunk and spilt your drink on my head. And then vomited." I say and he laughs. "Yeh sorry about that." He says lightly, "And then..." he urges me to continue so I do. "And then we got chips and...went swimming." I say cautiously because I have a feeling I know what this is. "At what time?" He asks me and I look at the clock and laugh. It's half two in the morning. "Around three am." I say and roll my eyes. "But Hunter I don't know if you remember the part where we almost froze to death." I inform him and he laughs. "I'm outside. Make sure you bring warm clothes and wear nice underwear. No swimsuits. Just the way it was before." I groan at him, this is so inconvenient. What do I tell my parents?

I quickly get changed into warm clothes and bring an extra set with me, making sure to wear matching underwear. Hunter doesn't stop texting me that he's cold and bored the entire time I'm getting changed. He says he has towels so I just put my clothes in a bag and text my mum with a long and detailed paragraph telling her exactly where I'll be and why, hoping and praying that she won't freak out. When I leave the house Hunter is lying on his back on the floor with towels on his stomach while on his phone. I laugh quietly as I close my house door, careful not to make a loud noise so I don't wake anyone up. Hunter quickly jumps to his feet, the towels under his arm in seconds.

I take in his appearance. He's wearing the exact same outfit that he wore before: his black denim jacket, jeans and a white t-shirt. He's grinning his stupid grin at me and I can't help but match it with one of my own. I've been dating this idiot for a month. That's something considering he's never had an official girlfriend. I walk over and go to kiss him but he refuses and swerves away.

Hunter

I tap my finger on her nose as she stands there, staring at me. "It's our anniversary and we can't kiss?" She says, sounding slightly irritated. "Because, we are going swimming. And it's going to be just like that first night we met." I tell her which seemingly satisfies her as she begins to smile widely. "Okay then what are we waiting for? Let's go!" She says enthusiastically, I laugh and start walking to my car, taking my keys out of my pocket and opening the door.

I think she's nervous, I can tell by the way she keeps continuously glancing at me sideways every two seconds. I ignore it and park just down the road from the chippy. Neither of us quite fancy one so we skip that part of the night and walk down to the beach. I wore the exact same thing that I wore on the night right down to the black boxers. Not that I generally wear anything else. I put down our towels next to her bag on the wall and start to strip, taking my jacket off first, followed by my top. Her eyes linger on my bare chest and she smiles nervously, just like that night. I grin as she unzips her hoodie and takes off her own top. We both quickly take off our shoes then I pull down my jeans and so does she. I look her up and down and grin. "Okay but before you get any ideas I have a boyfriend." She says with a cheeky smile, I laugh and she raises her eyebrows. "I'm starting to rethink the whole no kissing thing." I admit as I look at her perfect body and she smiles at me before holding out her hand and we walk to the ocean.

We step into the ice cold water and both look at each other, terrified. After a few seconds I burst out laughing. I don't know what it is about this situation but I just feel so happy and can't stop laughing. She looks confused but eventually joins in, us both delirious. We walk until we're around waist deep, for her the water is almost at her chest. I pull her close to my chest and she looks up at me, that look is one I want permanently embedded in my memory. One of adoration. I wonder what she sees because I know that I'm looking back at her the exact same way. "Say something to distract me. What's that clock for?" I whisper and she glances over at the colourful clock and smiles, her teeth shining in the moonlight. "It was for drunk idiots who decide its a good idea to go swimming at three in the morning." She says back quietly, our eyes are locked and neither of us even glance away. "I'm so glad I moved here." I say to her and look deep into her bright green eyes. I wrap my arms around her waist and she wraps her hands round my head and for a moment I forget about the mind-numbingly cold water surrounding us and about everything else going on in my life right now. I forget about everything but her. Because in this moment, she is all that matters to me. "I love you." She says quietly to me, almost a whisper, as if she can read my mind, I move my face closer to hers, not breaking eye contact. "I love you." I whisper to her. I don't know why I whisper because there's no one else here. She smiles her perfect little smile and I move in to kiss her. Her lips are soft against my own and my body feels warm all over. I love her.