the beach | noel miller

xviii

"Hi," she says, a smile creeping up on her face.

He returns the smile, "hey Rose."

"You look like you were having fun" he teases.

She rolls her eyes, "I was in fact, having fun."

He laughs, "you want a drink? I saw a red bull in one of those coolers" he asks pointing over to the stack of alcohol.

She nods and goes to walk over before he stops her, "I'll get it, need a refill anyways."

Noel stops midway through walking over and turns around, "find us chairs!"

She chuckles at the fact they'll be hanging out again but takes up his offer anyways. Throwing on her t-shirt and shorts, before going and finding some flimsy beach chairs.

Noel sneaks up on her, planting the cold red bull can on her shoulder, to which Rose nearly screamed at.

"What the fuck?!" she tells him trying to hide a laugh.

"Fuck you" she tells him, before accepting the drink.

They talk for awhile about their week, Noel telling her what he's been doing with videos and Rose telling him she ordered a new surfboard.

She tried to play off the excitement but he knew by the detail she was going into she was, and he found it cute. They're conversation is interrupted by a somewhat welcome intruder.

"Hey Kelsey" Noel greets her, before Rose pats a seat next to her.

"What are they doing now?" Rose asks knowingly.

"About to play vo-"

"Noel!" Cody yells out.

"Come play!" he tells his best friend before running over and making him go.

Rose raises her eyebrows and cracks a smile at the unamused face of Noel.

"Have fun" she says teasingly.

Kelsey finally finishes her sentence, "about to play volleyball."

Rose grimaces, "how can they even see?"

Kelsey laughs, "that's the point."

This makes her chuckle, shaking her head at the idiots in front of them.

Pushing away the feeling of disappointment now that Noel isn't near her, she pulls out her phone. Replying to texts, scrolling on Instagram and talking to Kelsey about their day is how she occupies herself.

Rose listens as Kelsey tells her the stressful day she had teaching, Rose pitying the fact she has to put up with those gremlins everyday.

The conversation goes quiet for a while, both of them not seeming to mind until Kelsey speaks up again.

"Hey Cody and I's 6 month anniversary is coming up, do you uh have any ideas what I should get him?"

Rose almost, the keyword almost wants to say how she would know and call it a day but she finds it sweet how she's making an effort.

"To be honest he isn't really into that. I don't think so anyway, I mean probably with you but uh... he's big on photos and capturing memories. Maybe framing a few photos of you two would be cute?" Rose offers.

Kelsey smiles at the idea loving it, "that's so helpful thank you Rose."

She returns one back.

A few other of the girls who were there eventually come and join Kelsey and Rose. Rose lost interest about 5 minutes into the conversation and refocused her attention back onto the ongoing volleyball game.