Drenched | ✓

tres

He rolled his eyes at me, but I could just about see a smile making his lips twitch. I grinned myself.

"Wouldn't dream of it," he said as we reached the bottom.

The beach was only on the other side of the road now, and already hear the music blaring and other people make their way down onto it.

"How long are we going to stay?" I asked, biting my lip as we got closer to see the amount of people already there.

"You want to leave already?" He asked with a smirk.

I rolled my eyes, but couldn't help smiling a little. "I just want to be aware so you don't have to drag me away."

He picked up on my joke and smirked. "An hour, maybe two. We won't stay too long."

I nodded, and followed him across the road.

He gave me a hand over the brick wall, which stood at about knee height. I probably would have been fine without him but with the sun receding, you could put money on me misjudging it and falling on my face.

"Nicolás!" A voice said almost as soon as we'd touched the sand. A guy came over, hair slightly longer than Nicolás's and eyes far darker. He looked toward me, smile slipping in surprise. "¿quién es ésta?" (Who's this?)

"Nadie importante," Nicolás said, dismissively.

"Rude," I muttered, punching his arm. He laughed.

The guy seemed to pick up on our dynamic and let that large smile spread once again. "I'm Maceo." I took my hand out of Nicolás's, pushing away the question in my mind of why I'd left it there for so long, and met Maceo's.

"Julie."

"Come on," he said, slinging his arm around my shoulder, accent thick. "A friend of Nicolás is a friend of mine. Everybody's waiting."

I looked behind us to see Nicolás following, so kept walking.

"¡Todo el mundo!" He said as we approached a group all sat around with a beer in hand. "Esta es Julie." I gave a small wave. "Julie, this is Antonia," he pointed to a blonde haired girl sat closest to us. "Diego and Sara," he pointed to a couple leant against a cooler. "And Carlos." The final guy was busy smoking, drawing the cigarette to his lips and taking a breath as we made eye contact. He nodded at me in greeting, to which I smiled back.

Antonia was first to get up and hug me. I froze for a moment before hugging her back. "It is so nice to meet you."

"You too," I said, smiling lightly. I let her take me over to where she had been sitting and start asking me all sorts of questions, to which I answered as honestly as I could.

"¿Donde esta Valentina?" (Where's Valentina?) Nicolás asked. My ears perked up at the sound. Was that his girlfriend? Probably.

Maceo answered, but I'd already tuned out of what they were saying. I did notice, however, Nicolás and him go in the direction of where most people were. I quickly lost them in the crowd and now settling darkness.

Diego and Sara got up after a while and went, I assumed, home as they gave everyone a kiss and went on their way.

I took a sip of my— I don't know how manyth— drink. I'd lost count a while ago.