I danced around the house singing while eating some pretzels. I was pretty proud of myself and once I told Copper how it went, he started dancing with me too. I was mid-song when we got a call from our neighbors telling us to shut off the music and go to bed. We laughed our way all the way up to our bedrooms and into our different beds.
The loud ringing pulled me from my deep dream state and back to the demanding reality of life. I blindly grouped at my bedside table, my fingers sliding over my phone and knocking it to the floor. The ringing stopped temporarily, but started back up in a second. A loud moan escaped my throat as I grabbed my phone and looked at the caller id, Darcy Grey.
"Is there a reason you're calling me at five in the morning?" I mumbled into the phone, my mind still half in the dream world.
"We have places to be!" She shouted and I held the phone away from my ear a little bit. "We have places to be! There are thousands of parties going on all over the coast!" I moaned lightly and sat up; looking around my room at the bags I hadn't started packing yet. "We're going to come get you at like seven and then we'll be on our way to the coast!" She cheered happily.
We had had a pretty quiet week in terms of Shay and I was happy be getting to the beach. We had a long boat ride ahead of us though, so Darcy wanted us to leave early.
Every time I saw Shay, I still had to bite my tongue to avoid asking him to explain himself. He had tried to call me a few times, but I just ignored them all. Now I was going to the coast with all my friends and my brother. I mentally rolled my eyes, but I couldn't just leave him at our house alone. I didn't know the whole list of everyone that was going, but I knew that we were going to take Darcy's friend's boat. There were supposed to be a lot of people, but we were going to get a hotel once we got there. We had a nice long four day weekend to look forward to and the coast was going to be packed. This was the last step for me to get over the nonexistent relationship with Shay. I was going to find a cute guy and officially get over the whole situation and never talk to him again. I had already set my mind that I wasn't going to be involved with people who seem as dangerous and risqué as they were.
Every time I looked at him, all I could think about was that kiss. Well, the kiss that almost happened in my kitchen. I was thankful for the interruption before the kiss because he was totally praying on my emotions and it is that much harder to get over someone once you've realized that they are a good kisser. Granted, I'm just assuming from rumors that Shay is a good kisser but it seems like a pretty safe bet. That's just another con to getting involved with him. He has been known as a bit of a player over the past few years. Who knows what kinds of diseases he carries. In regards to the whole wolf thing, I decided to just ignore it and pretend it all never happened. That method seemed to be working for me so far.
"Hello? Earth the Aubrey! Are you going to be ready by then?" Darcy yelled in my ear and I winced.
"Oh yeah sorry, I'll be ready, but you have a ride set up for Copper and I right? We can't get to the dock at this time without a ride because we can't leave my dad's car parked there." I said already up and packing.
"I can pick you up on my way there. I'll pick you up a like 6:30 so we can be there by 7! See you soon!" She squealed and hung up.
6:30 rolled along and right on the minute Darcy rang the door bell and we all piled into her car. When we pulled up to the dock, everyone was already there and loading up.
The boat was pretty big, but there were more people than I thought there were going to be. I was the last one on the boat and at that time there was only one seat left. I was itching to claim a seat and get lost in my book. The last one open was next to a guy that had a cap pulled over his face so I couldn't see who it was. My heart skipped a beat when I saw the cap because I instantly thought of Shay. I rolled my eyes at my own stupidity and mentally hit myself for getting so excited at the thought of him.
Knowing that he would never come on a stupid trip to the coast with all of these people I plopped down in the seat next to the guy. He had his hat pulled over his face and had his arms crossed as a way of telling everyone that he didn't feel like talking. He was listening to his music so I didn't say anything.
I smoothed my skirt out and crossed my legs. I was just about to start to read when I was splashed by a bunch of kids jumping into the water. We all laughed and the guy next to me lifted his head.
Shay.
Shit.
He did a double take on me then smiled. "What are you doing here?" He asked, lifting his cap a little bit so I could see his black eyes. He had huge black bags under his eyes like he hasn't slept all week. Maybe he wanted to come on this trip for the same reason I did, to avoid each other. There was still evidence of the beating he received from Emile on his face, but it was looking a lot better.
"I was just about to ask you the same thing." I answered and looked for another open seat but there weren't any. I sighed and crossed my arms. I made eye contact with Darcy across the boat and glared at her while she just shrugged. I gave her a very basic summery of my past few weeks which mostly just consisted of the fact that Shay had rescued me from the horrible date with Ryan. She had been hearing all of the crazy rumors going around the school recently though. They ranged everywhere from Shay and his gang being swinger, to me dating him, and even as far as me being pregnant.
"You do realize that wasn't me in the meadow right? That was Axel and Ivy. I'm sorry they scared you so bad, but that wasn't me. I've been trying to get in contact with you all week but, you are a hard person to find. We aren't swingers," Shay chuckled, "Axel and Ivy have been dating for a couple of years. They shouldn't have shifted and chased after you and I know that was scary but they never would have hurt you." Shay explained quickly and the smile never left his face as he looked me up and down.
Axel? That did make sense. They had been going out for as long as I knew them and Axel does wear his hat on the back of his head like the kid I saw in the meadow. Oh my god! That was Axel!
"But it looked just like you!" I exclaimed, and I could tell that Shay knew I knew it wasn't him now, but I was still on the fence about the whole situation. I found myself racking my brain for a reason why I shouldn't give them a chance and was almost disappointed when I couldn't think of anything. I just wanted to be normal but the fact that I shifted into a wolf proved to me that I couldn't be.
"Have you seen Axel? He does look just like me. He's my brother for God's sake!" Shay laughed and my mouth fell open. "Close your mouth babe, you might catch some flies."
I closed my mouth so fast that it hurt. "I didn't know you two were brothers. I mean, sure he looks just like you and you two have to same muscle structure but still." I laughed, embarrassed of how immature I had been acting.
"What kind of girl looks at our muscle structure and then compares them? Face it, you've got it bad for me," He paused with a smirk on his face while I just rolled my eyes and shook my head. I looked into his flat black eyes as the boat started. I jerked into him and he wrapped his arms around me.
I looked up at Shay and saw Copper behind him, glaring at me. I sighed and Shay let me go. He had a questioning look on his face, but I ignored it. I whipped out my phone and texted Copper all the details about what Shay had just told me and he burst out laughing and screamed that he was trying to tell me that for, like, ever. I smiled and sat back against the seat, shrugging Shay's hand off my thigh and attempting to lay my clear boundaries. I saw Darcy give me thumbs up. Shay chuckled a little bit when I brushed his hand off but proceeded to drape his arm over the back of my seat.
"What happened to your gang?" I asked looking around.
"My gang? They are up driving the boat silly." He whispered in my ear making my heart flutter.
I sat up out of his arms. "Driving the boat? All of them?"
He laughed and grabbed my hand, leading me up the stairs to where all of Shay's pack was. Axel and Ivy had climbed a ladder so they could steer the boat. I looked up at them admiringly until Shay lightly squeezed my hand. Axel had his arms wrapped around Ivy's waist and she was leaning into him.
"Want to try?"
"Oh I don't know. I don't want to crash Darcy's boat or anything."
Shay laughed, but I didn't know what was so funny so I made a face. "It's my boat. Axel! Ivy!" Shay called and waved them down. They climbed down and Axel smiled at me as I climbed up to where they were. I could tell from the sheepish look on his face that he didn't want there to be any acknowledgment of the other day and I was fine with that. I was still on the fence about Shay but I couldn't fight the fact that I felt some kind of feelings for him. I had no idea where these feelings came from but I obviously wasn't good at fighting or hiding them. It felt like a new being inside of me that was possessive over him and I couldn't help but wonder if my wolf liked him more than I did.
I stood, looking at all the different buttons like an idiot, until Shay wrapped his arms around my waist. I stiffened for a moment but forced myself to relax a little bit. I reminded myself that I needed to give him a chance and that there was nothing dangerous about this. I felt like I at least owed him that much after jumping to conclusions with Axel. He guided my hands through a bunch of complicated motions before we had the boat moving again. Then he put my hand on the throttle. We kept the boat running steady for a while before I finally relaxed.
"It gets easier, believe me." He whispered in my ear and I smiled. He kissed me on the cheek.
"How long are we on the boat for?" I asked as I stepped away from his grasp and looked out over the water.
"We should arrive to where we are staying tomorrow afternoon if we stop driving to sleep. Why, sea sick already?" I could just hear the smirk in his voice now and I lightly hit him in the thigh.
I looked out over the ocean and all I saw was a brilliant shade of a light sea blue and it took my breath away. I turned to look at Shay and I saw he was watching a little screen to my left. It looked like the topography under the water.
"Why don't we go have some fun?" Shay whispered in my ear and I shot him a questionable look.
Shay and I climbed down from the top and Bender took our place instinctively with a sigh after Shay shot him a simple look. It was pretty obvious that Bender tended to get the bulk of the grunt work.
"Go change into your bathing suit. Let's have some fun!" Shay said and started blowing up the huge aircraft. I smiled and told Copper to change too. I took one of my bags and looked at all of my possibilities of bathing suits. I had brought three. One was a light blue that had a bottom that was too small, one was a black and white polka dot, and the last one was a black and white one with stripes which fit me really well and went really well with my skin tone. Striped bathing suit it is.
I put my bathing suit on and walked out on deck to meet Copper. He was wearing his plaid swim trunks.
By the time I got back up to the deck where we were before, Shay had already completely blown up the raft and was throwing it in the water. He hadn't changed yet. He turned to me when I walked up and smiled wide. I was suddenly extremely self conscious in my skimpy bikini around all the guys. I didn't plan on spending time with the pack but instead was hoping to snag myself a weekend fling. If I had known that I was going to be with the pack, I may have packed a one piece or something.
"That's more like it!" Shay said and pulled me into him. I couldn't breathe for a second, but when I finally did I blushed and stepped away slightly. He laughed and pointed at the little boat. "We can go first." He winked at me.
My eyes got huge. "What? I don't think I will be able to stay on that thing! It's tiny!"
"Don't worry, I'll hold you tight." I walked over to where Emmett was holding the boat out for us. It was even smaller than it looked and I hesitated. Shay stepped around me and plopped himself into the boat with a splash that made Emmett fall over the side of the boat.
We all cracked up as he splashed Shay until he fell into the water too. I laughed as Emmett started climbing up the ladder and Shay ripped him off it and tossed him away. Emmett came up and spat water in Shay's face.
Shay hoisted himself out of the water and looked down at himself. He sighed and pulled his shirt up over his head. He had a completely flawless stomach that said that he spent a lot of time in the gym and all the sudden I felt a little embarrassed at my body. Emmett climbed into the boat too and whipped his shirt off to reveal another flawless complexion. I couldn't help but wrap my arms around my stomach to hide its lack of definition. They both threw their shirts at Luna at the same time and she screamed. We all laughed except for Ivy, who went over, protectively to Luna's side. Axel received a really evil glare from Ivy for laughing but he just shrugged.
Shay sighed and took his hat off, shaking all the wetness out of his hair. He shot me a crooked smile and I laughed.
Shay took a step towards me and leaned over to whisper in my ear. "Stop covering yourself up, you look beautiful." He whispered and I felt my face going red.
We both climbed into the raft together and he tied the raft to a really long rope that connected to the boat. Shay screamed for Bender to start going. We started off slowly and I let my guard down thinking that that was as fast as he wanted to go.
Bender shot the boat forward all the sudden and I almost fell off, but Shay was sitting behind me and he caught me. I tried to sit up again, but I was stuck leaning back because of the wind and my total lack of any kind of abdominal muscles. Shay just laughed behind me. I covered my eyes and screamed. He lifted me up on his lap and I had no idea how he was staying on because he wasn't even holding on. He plopped me down on my stomach and he lay down next to me. I held onto the handles there as my hair whipped all around.
"Just tell me if you want to stop." Shay whispered in my ear and I smiled at him. We both laughed for a good while and until Shay started to stand up.
"What are you doing?" I screamed at him, but he couldn't hear me.
He stood all the way up and rode the raft like a surf board. I sat there looking at him with my mouth hanging again. He looked down at me and gave me a confident smile. He held out his hand for me to take and I did, trusting him. He lifted me up and Bender slowed the boat so the raft would come to the back. Shay climbed onto the boat first and I noticed three scars going straight down his back parallel. I was stuck looking at them for a moment too long because I tumbled over the side of the little raft. I climbed up the ladder on the side of the boat, now soaking wet. I sat down next to Shay but I didn't look at him.
It was getting late by the time we stopped the engine and laid out a bunch of beds on the boat. It was probably about midnight by the time everyone was ready for bed. We were going to save all the parting for when we actually got to the coast. I slept between Shay and Copper. Shay wrapped his arm around me and he smelled like the ocean and the forest. I sighed and rolled over so that my back was to him.
"You let me know if you get a little cold all the way over there." Shay whispered in my ear with a little laugh at the end. I turned to look at him and rolled my eyes. He kissed me lightly on the top of my head before we both fell into a soundless sleep.