I know, I know, it's a late upload... I've just been very busy lately! Lots of school work and general stuff going on, so... Oh, and also, NaNoWriMo. More about that at the end though :)
For now, just sit back and enjoy the next chapter... Hope you like it!! xx
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Chapter 4
The next couple of days went past weirdly fast. We weren’t even doing all that much. We’d get up late, go to the beach and body-board or swim, maybe play some Frisbee, go back up to the beach house for lunch, and either go back to the beach or stay around our little pool for the afternoon. Usually in the afternoon, Lee and Noah would fall asleep. I didn’t know how they could fall asleep like that for a couple of hours, but at least Lee wasn’t bugging me to do something fun instead of sunbathing and reading a book.
Sunday, Lee was getting all pent up. He was like an excited puppy dog since Rachel was coming the next day. But that also meant he was all over the place. He told us he was going to get ice creams, but came back with a pair of flippers.
I didn’t even ask.
He was texting Rachel so much, I said, totally exasperated with his phone bleeping every four seconds, “For Pete’s sake, Lee! Just go call her! Jeez!”
Noah chuckled, but Lee just said, “Okay!” really chirpily, and was already dialing her as he walked off.
“He is so whipped, it’s stopped being funny,” Noah told me gravely. “How long do you think it’ll be until I have to put on a penguin suit for the wedding?”
I laughed. “Hmm, I say two years.”
“That long? Really?”
I laughed again, tipping my head back up to the sun. I could feel the sweat beading on my back, on my forehead. “I’m really thirsty,” I said suddenly. “Do you want to grab a Coke from the bar?”
There were a couple of beach houses near to ours, and the stretch of beach that the houses were lined up against was like a private beach. I was never a hundred percent sure if the beach was actually private, but we always had to go a little further down the beach to the little beach shop, the surf shack and the bar.
I loved the bar on the beach; there was something about it that made me think Caribbean. It had a thick straw roof, shaped like a giant umbrella, and the drinks were always served with little paper umbrellas in them.
“Sure,” Noah answered me. He dug underneath his towel for his wallet, taking out a few dollar bills. “Let’s go.”
We were talking about something really random; a new song, or something like that, waiting for the barman to get around to serving us. I was glancing around, and caught a couple of guys talking, and they were looking at Noah. He half had his back to them, so he didn’t see, but I got the feeling they were talking about him.
“Do you know those guys? Over there?” I asked before I could even think about what I was saying – because knowing me, I could’ve just been overreacting and they weren’t even looking at him.
Noah looked around, right at the guys who were looking at him. I guessed they were maybe around our age – soon-to-be-seniors or freshmen at college.
I was about to smack at his arm, thinking that it was stupid for him to look at them so obviously, but then I realized that Noah most likely didn’t even give a damn. He turned back around, not looking fazed at all, but before I could say a word the barman got to us.
“What can I get you guys?”
“Two Cokes,” Noah said, pushing the money over the counter.
“Noah!” I exclaimed quietly, swatting his hand when he didn’t say anything. “Do you know them or what?” I sent another fleeting glance at them and said, “They’re still looking over here.”
“Yeah, if it’s the guy I think it is, I think I punched him last summer,” he told me flippantly. “I made out with his ex-girlfriend or something? I don’t even know. Might not even be him.”
“What? When did –”
“You know all those beach bonfires and parties and stuff? You and Lee never went to them?” I nodded. Noah jerked a thumb over his shoulder in the general direction of the boys looking at him. “I think it was at one of those.”
“Why did you –”
“He was probably asking for a fight. I barely remember, Elle. It doesn’t even matter.”
I opened my mouth to argue, but didn’t know what to say.
Sure, Noah got in a lot of fights. I knew that. I knew he was violent. But it really, really bugged me when he used that tone, the I-don’t-give-a-damn tone, if he ever mentioned about getting in fights.
Two tall glasses of Cokes were set down in from of us, and I mumbled a thanks, taking a sip of mine. I could change Noah for the better and make him commit to a relationship, instead of being the player he always was – but I didn’t think anyone would ever be able to make him stop getting into fights.
We picked up the conversation I’d interrupted earlier, talking easily until we finished out drinks. But I couldn’t help it; I kept looking past Noah, my eyes flickering over to the boys who’d looked at him before. The one had a sneer on his face and the other two were laughing. It gave me a queasy kind of feeling in my stomach.
When we got up to leave, I still tried to keep one eye on them. The queasy feeling was still there. I didn’t have any doubts about Noah taking on three guys if they tried to throw a couple of punches his way or something; I was more worried about Noah being an idiot and doing some serious damage to one of them.
Noah bumped his shoulder into mine. “You’re worrying over nothing.”
“I’m not worrying,” I denied, automatically defensive.
He smirked and shook his head slightly. “Sure, Elle, whatever.”
Maybe I was overreacting. It wouldn’t be the first time. Maybe Noah was right, and I was worrying over nothing.
It still shocked me though, when someone suddenly slammed into Noah. It was completely on purpose, but the guy – the blond guy who’d been sneering in Noah’s direction – backed off, saying in a scathing tone, “Whoa, sorry, dude, didn’t even see you there.”
I saw the muscle in Noah’s jaw jumping.
He shoved the other guy back – not even hard, it was like a poke more than a shove. “Why don’t you watch where you’re going, huh?”
The guy scoffed, and his two friends had stupid grins on their faces, too. “Right, right, sure.”
Noah fingers were curling into fists at his side, flexing out again. I looked from him to the three guys, wondering who’d throw the first punch. You could practically feel a fight brewing in the air; out of the corner of my eye, I could see people sat at the bar or stood around there looking over, watching and waiting.
I reached out and touched Noah’s wrist. “Come on, let’s just go.”
The blond guy looked at me, then sneered at Noah again. “So whose girl did you steal this year, Flynn? I think there’s a bonfire in a couple of days. Might be time for some payback this year.”
Noah scoffed, looking at the blond guy like he would look at a piece of dirt on his precious motorbike. “Get over yourself already. Dick.”
He started to walk off, and I was totally shocked for a moment; Noah Flynn, the most badass guy in the entire school, the violence junkie, walking away from a fight?
Wow. Maybe he really had changed.
But the blond dude and his friends weren’t having it; the blond guy moved into Noah’s way, shoving him back. I just kind of stood there, not knowing what to do. Where the hell was Lee when you needed him?
I looked at Noah’s face, and there was a twisted version of his smirk playing at his lips. I could see his fingers flexing slowly into fists again. “Come on, now, you really want to pick a fight in front of a lady?”
The blond guy made to shove Noah again to make his point; I almost missed it, Noah moved so fast, punching the guy in the side of the face before he had a chance to even touch Noah – whoomph! He stumbled back, and one of his henchmen-like friends caught him. He shoved them off, spitting into the sand.
“Elle,” Noah said.
I blinked a couple of times rapidly, to see he’d already started walking off. I scurried after him, almost tripping in the sand. I looked back a couple of times, and the blond guy was shaking people off him, storming away. It looked like Noah had damaged his pride a hell of a lot more than anything else.
“You think you might’ve made out with his ex-girlfriend last year?” I repeated, stumbling over my own feet somewhat before falling into step with him.
“Alright, so maybe I did, so what? What’re you gonna do, Elle, lecture me on how I shouldn’t get in a fight when someone’s asking for it? Call me a stupid violence junkie? You saw that loser, he was asking for it big time and you know it.”
“Yeah, he was, but – I mean, you –”
“What?” he asked, short-tempered and irritable. I was having to power-walk to keep up with his big, angry strides. We were nearly back to all our things now, he’d walked so fast. “What, Elle? What is it you’re going to say now, that guy wasn’t worth it? That I shouldn’t get in fights even when they’re not backing off? What?”
“He was asking for it, I know, okay?” I snapped back, but my voice was quieter than usual. “It’s just scary.”
I regretted it as soon as I said it.
‘Scary’ wasn’t really the right word I wanted to use. What I meant to say was that I genuinely didn’t like seeing people in fights. Sure, it looked cool when it was choreographed in the movies, but when it was actually happening it was different. I didn’t know what to do! The guy had been acting like an ass, and anyone – even Lee – probably would’ve had to take a swing at him, but that didn’t mean I felt comfortable with the situation.
It wasn’t so much that Noah was the scary part; it was the fighting in general.
But whether it was the right word or not, it made him stop and sigh. He locked his fingers behind his head and craned his neck back, so he was facing the sky. After a moment, he breathed out heavily through his nostrils, dropping his arms down, and looking me in the eye.
“You really know how to guilt-trip me, don’t you, Elle?”
“I didn’t mean to,” I said honestly, “it’s…”
“No, I get it,” he said. The corner of his mouth twitched up in a sad smile. “I get it.”
I opened my mouth, but I wasn’t entirely sure what to say. So I walked the extra two or three feet to my towel and sat down, taking off my sunglasses and then lying on my back with my head resting in my arms.
He dropped down next to me, on the sand. “Elle?”
“Yeah?”
“I don’t…” I heard his teeth grind together for a tiny moment; he hated talking about anything remotely emotional. When he carried on, he talked fast and his words were ever so slightly disjointed, like he really didn’t want to say them but had to. “I don’t want you to be scared of me.”
I contorted myself around to look up at him, squinting at the bright sunlight in the right of my vision. “I’m not,” I told him. It was true, because I’d always known that Noah wasn’t ever the type to even come close to hitting a girl. Now, I was certain that even if he got really, really mad, he’d still never come close to anything like that; he might be violent and rude and an ex-player, but something like that really wasn’t in his nature.
“Yeah, but…”
“I said, it was scary. As in the fighting, not you. There’s a difference.”
“Oh. Well. Um.”
I had to laugh at his momentary speechlessness, but I also laughed just to lighten the mood. Noah just forced out a sheepish smile then threw a sprinkling of sand over my shoulder.
“You’re incredibly cute, sometimes, Elle, you know that?”
I was caught off guard by the sudden change in topic, but I wasn’t complaining. I felt my cheeks warming up, and not because of the sun. “Um, thanks…?”
Noah chuckled and stood up, brushing his trunks off a bit. “I’m going swimming, you coming?”
“No,” I said lazily, closing my eyes to get the fully contented feeling of sunbathing. He chuckled again and I heard his footsteps fade away in the sand. Even if he did get into too many fights, I still loved him. Guess there are some things in life you just can’t help.
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So, I hope you all liked it! I'll try and upload Monday night, but I can't make any promises. I'll try for Monday night though :)
About NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month): I'm writing a teen fiction/romance/humour, similar genre to this but a completely different storyline. I've got a brief excerpt of the novel on my NaNo (I'm Reekles on there, too) if you want to read, but when I post a full chapter on NaNo I'll also post it on here, but I'm not sure if I'll be posting the entire story on Wattpad just yet :)
Also, if there are any of you doing NaNo, good luck!!
So... I think that's it! I'll see you all again for Chapter 5 on Monday, hopefully! Don't forget to comment and let me know what you thought :) xx