Red

Chapter Twenty Three

I only blinked once when Tanner gently peeled my protection back. I was met with big worried eyes, and I felt bad for making him feel concerned for a matter he wouldn’t control or help in. 

‘Alana,’ he gently cooed. ‘Blake’s home in two weeks and you haven’t even attempted cleaning this room. It’s a fucking obstacle course to get to this bed.’ A small smile appeared on my face and he seemed to have noticed because a knowing look appeared on his face. ‘Look, I’ve broken out into a sweat.’ He gasped, wiping away imaginary sweat from his forehead.

He fake panted and fanned his face dramatically which I couldn’t help but laugh to. 

‘Or maybe you’re sweating because its 40 degrease today (Celsius to any non-Australian readers).’ I joked half-heartedly. 

Tanner approved of this because a grin broke out on his face. ‘There’s the Alana I love. Now get up, get dressed. It’s fucking boiling and we are going to the beach. I’ll buy you an ice-cream on the way home if you behave.’

‘Thanks dad,’ I mocked him.

‘Just be a good girl and I’ll let you get some sprinkles as well,’ he played along, petting my head and kissing my cheek with a wet and sloppy kiss.’

‘That’s just gross,’ I muttered and shoved him arm. He had ended up half laying half sitting next to me and the action caught him by surprise. He went tumbling down to the ground and landed with a heavy thud.

‘My abs,’ he groaned. ‘My perfectly toned abs. I landed on,’ he paused and shuffled around slightly.

‘What the fuck is this?’ he questioned curiously holding up what he just fell on top of.

‘A laptop charger,’ I chuckled. 

That must have been really painful, I thought to myself.

 Muttering some not nice words, Tanner stood to his feet and told me to get ready.

***

I’m not sure how long we spent in the water, but by the time we got out, our fingers were pruned from the water and our skin was burning from the sun. I could feel the sunburn stinging my face, arms and legs from where my skin was exposed to the sun and not protected from my wetsuit.

Strapping our bags to Tanner’s car roof and throwing our towels in the back, we slowly peeled off our wetsuits to inspect the burns.

On both of our bodies in the perfect shape of the wetsuit, were burn lines. Bright red and painful, I shuddered at the thought of sleeping tonight. 

From just above my elbows to the tips of my fingers was a bright red. Same goes for my legs. A few inches above my knees to the tips of my toes was the bright red of sunburn. I hadn’t seen my face and almost felt scared to look in a reflective surface, so I just hoped for the best and pretended it was okay.

‘Woops,’ I muttered as I looked at myself. I glanced up at Tanner and he looked as if he was about to cry. ‘Suck it up princess, it’s just a sunburn,’ I teased him. I went to nudge him but thought better of it. It would hurt the both of is.

‘Look at my stomach!’ he exclaimed. 

I looked down at his stomach and sat three tiny, small black marks.

‘Your fucking laptop charger cable bruised me. Look!’ he exclaimed outraged. I laughed loudly at this. He didn’t give a shit about the red covering his body, but instead all he cared about was the three minuscule bruises on his stomach. The smile was completely wiped off my face when he spoke next.