the beach | noel miller

iii

8:30am SUNDAY, 4th of January

Rose leans against the cold island counter, scrolling through her phone chuckling at the influencers take mirror selfies with their "social media seriously harms mental health" stickers. Meanwhile her brothers stands across the room putting a new battery in his camera, getting ready to film a new vlog. Rose most times made an appearance in them, wether it's her flipping someone off or her cursing out one her roommates, she's often portrayed as raging bitch. Some nights when shes bored Rose will go through the comments. They range from the usual "what a bitch" but sometimes she'll get people defending her, replying to comments with "She obviously loves them, they're just joking" which is true. Sometimes she just wants to scream from the rooftops about how fiercely her love is for her friends and family, that she would walk through hell for them. Often she wonders if they know that. The way Rose shows her love if with her opinions and brutal honesty.

Locking her phone Rose glances at her brother, out of curiosity she asks "Did you find something to film for today?" Cody looks up from his camera "Yeah, I forgot to mention my buddy is gonna come over today and film something." Rolling her eyes at the though of having to prepare herself to meet another one of her brothers loud annoying friends, she mentions something about going for a walk and walks out of the kitchen.

As Rose feels the sun starting to burn her skin she decides to head home hoping that Cody has finished filming. It wasn't that she was an introvert it was more the fact she just hates everyone except for the group of people she selected to not be annoyed by. Most of Cody's friends not being one of them. Opening the door Rose kicks off her shoes, walks to the kitchen and and puts her bag down. Not hearing anyone she yells out a "hello" before her eyes land on some dude in a hat sitting on her couch. A little feeling of fear courses through her body before annoyance and curiosity overtakes it. "Who the fuck are you?" Rose abruptly lets out.

Noel cringes. After getting told by Cody that no one was home he was relieved at the idea of not seeing the girl who's dress he ruined. On her birthday. It wasn't that he was scared of her it was more that his ego was still bruised from their brief meeting. Cody has the brilliant idea of getting chickfila for lunch, in which Noel ended up staying behind to get the camera ready for filming. Which he now deeply regrets. Turning around he locks eyes with Rose who's name he learnt via Instagram. Seeing the realisation of who he was wash over her like a wave.

A few thoughts cross Rose's mind. The first being it's the dumbass who splits his drink on her the dress. The next being a brief thought of is murder still legal in Pennsylvania? Taking a deep breath Rose stands there a little dumb founded before doing what she does best. "Are you homeless now too or have you came to pay the dry cleaning bill?" Chuckling a little Noel decides if he should draw his weapons or not. Choosing not too he replies with a "No I'm just here to film with Cody, he just went out to get lunch" Rose rolls her eyes at the thought of Cody not giving her a heads up that his "buddy" will be in the lounge room. "I'm sorry again for the dress."

Snapping her out of her thoughts she takes note of how attractive her brothers friend is, breaking the silence she asks what are they filming Noel blanks for a minute wondering why all of a sudden she lowered her invisible gun and tells her that they were filming a skit. "A skit?" she raises her eyebrows "So you're an asshole and a wannabe comedian, makes sense." Noel growing tired of the whiplash he's receiving remarks with a "So you're Cody's sister right? He didn't tell me that the bloodhound would be off her leash" Rose stands, eyebrows still raised getting ready to attack until the sound of the front door opening hits her ears. Both pair of eyes snapping towards her brother carrying a takeaway bag.

Rose storms towards him muttering a "didn't realise we were a soup kitchen Cody" and slams the front door. Leaving Noel in the aftermath of her.