the beach | noel miller

xxii

Noel walked her home in the early hours of that morning, making sure she got in safely before turning around and walking to his car. Not many words were spoken between the two after Rose's joke, they both just sat there in presence of each other. Both Rose and Noel still knew things between them weren't better yet, but their conversations did help.

Rose got in the house successfully, mumbling a few 'fucks' after tripping on shoes but she didn't manage to wake anyone up. She crashed as soon as she snuck back to her room, the emotional turmoil of the night creeping up to her. A quick thought of dread crossed her mind at the fact that she was going to bed at the time she normally would be waking up but eventually that was overtaken with sleep.

Noel was in the same situation, he had to wind down the windows to stop himself from falling asleep. The early morning traffic didn't help either but he eventually made it home. Basically crawling to his bed.

It's still pretty early in the morning when Rose wakes up, the repercussions of the alcohol immediately settling. Yeah this is why I don't drink she thinks, standi- stumbling up to go get herself some water. And maybe take a shower. She's not surprised when she sees Marcus up knowing he's normally the first one awake out of her roommates.

"Morning" he says mid laugh at her state.

"Yeah yeah, have we got advil?" she asks impatiently.

Marcus directs her to a cupboard, Rose almost sprinting to it. She takes pain relief and sighs, leaning against the counter to try to process the previous night. Rose unfortunately remembers everything about last night, scrunches her eyes up when she replays the multiple conversations with Noel. It still stings to even think about him. Rose also thinks about how willingly friendly she was when she's drunk and vows to never do it.

She mumbles "I'll be back" to Marcus and takes a shower to try to ease everything tense in her body. It works for the most part, but that headache doesn't seem to be going anywhere.

By the time she's out of the shower and ready everybody is awake, talking in the kitchen.

"Hi" she greets everyone. They all talk for a while, slowly waking up when Cody directs his attention to Rose.

"By the way, the wedding is this week" he tells her tiredly.

Rose frowns, "during the week?"

Cody nods, "it's stupid I know, we leave Tuesday morning. Technically Monday since it's at 3 am."

Rose doesn't even have time to yell at him for the flight time over the dread that just set in, "I don't even have anything to wear" she tells him picking at her nails.

Rose was not thrilled to be seeing her family. Like at all. She loves them, for the most part but can't really stand them for more than an hour. That being said she is excited to see her mom and dad but the rest, she would be fine with not seeing.

"Will grandma be there?" she asks already knowing the answer.

Cody laughs knowing the history, "yes Rose's it's her grandkids wedding."

Rose takes a pout, "surprised she hasn't dropped dea-"

"Rose!" Cody pretends to be shocked as Kelsey is sitting next to him but ends up laughing at his sister's twisted sense of humour.

Rose grins at his reaction, finding it funny herself. Her grandmother was probably the one family member she can't stand the most. She's aware most old people are bitter but this woman takes it to a new level. Years of belittling not only both her and Cody but other members of the family still hasn't gotten her shunned which Rose thought was completely fucked.