Carolina [h.s]

chapter five

"You're one to talk, you never come around anymore." he nudges her as they all sit down in front of me.

"Hey, V." he then smiles at me.

I smile at him and his best friend as Benny eyes me with a familiar look. Hey," he says casually.

As he sits next to me, I offer him some of my funnel cake. He rips a piece off as our best friends continue  catching up, and we joke about left over powdered sugar on my chin.

With the beach now crowded with people, almost the entire town is here. To get away from the chaos, we sit at the edge of the water further left from everyone else making our own private spot on the sand as we for the fireworks show to start.

Catching up with these childhood friends is like a breath of fresh air. It was like old times when we all met in freshman year and hung out all the time. Before some complicated stuff happened with Michael and Juliet.

The sort of complications like he had feelings for her but it was too late because she had already fallen too hard for Zayn. We eventually drifted at the end of senior year and haven't really talked since. But it was nice for a second because I remembered how much I enjoyed having them around.

Benny sits close by me. Knees up to his chest our shoulders are touching and I find his breathy laugh comforting as my head gets lighter from the alcohol.

It was like the last time when we were hanging out at the beach party. The innocent touches and glances. Never saying what was really on our minds. But I think we both knew the obvious attraction for each other.

Benny was sweet, he was the picture perfect boy type you take to meet your parents. Something about it didn't seem right to me though. He was all I deserved, yet I couldn't find myself wanting him at all.

Because I should be excited about the boy who looks at me like I put stars in the sky. He should make me have butterflies and all that stupid gushy stuff. But for some reason to me, it just wasn't enough.

At exactly sunset a huge BOOM! crashes through the air and we all jump. Startled, we look to the sky to see the colorful fireworks erupt one after the other.

We're all mesmerized by the show in the sky, as the fireworks boom colors across the water. But then like I can feel a weird tension, my eyes travel to the right of us across the beach of people but land on a specific group. My smile drops.

Across the large body of sand and crowds of people, they stick out like sore thumbs. The group of four misfits move through the crowds of people like they're searching for something.

My eyes land on their leader who is always posted in front of the other three as they trail beside him. Suddenly his piercing green eyes somehow find mine, and even though we're far away, I can see the sinister smirk pull on his lips.

I quickly look away in hopes he loses me again in the crowds of people in front of us. I turn to Li.

"Uh, we got a slight problem." I whisper to her.

She glances at me, frowning. "What?" she asks, confused.

"Your piece of shit boyfriend and his friends are here." I say and her eyebrows drop before she's sitting up.

"What, where?" She says like she's annoyed and my eyes travel back to where I saw them last but don't find them there anymore.

"They were just there," I say, still looking at the spot "I'm pretty sure Harry saw me though."

Juliet groans. "Great, cue psycho boyfriend." she rolls her eyes.

"Your boyfriend is here?" Michael's annoyed too.