"When are you going to tell me where we're going?" Ester asked for the third time and Sierra rolled her eyes.
"I told you already. When it's too late for us to turn back." Sierra shifted in her seat before the red light turned green and they were driving again. Ester was in the passenger seat of Sierra's car and sighed.
"This was a mistake. You're probably going to abduct me in the woods or something because I'm slowly getting better at dance and you can't stand competition." Ester joked and Sierra scoffed, playing along.
"For your information, I can stand competition. At least, I think so. I mean I've never met somebody as good as me." She proudly raised her chin up high.
"Of course. You Stones and your prides." Ester rolled her eyes.
"You can't tell me you don't have a pride as big as an elephant. Weren't you the one who insisted she didn't need to stretch last week, even when you got a cramp in your leg?" Sierra glanced at her friend.
"Oh, do let that go already." Ester groaned, making her friend laugh.
"Wait until I tell-" Sierra suddenly stopped in the middle of her sentence and took another glance at Ester, who frowned at her suddenly odd behaviour.
"Well, wait until I tell mom." Sierra shrugged.
"I'm happy you guys talked it out. But if she ever asks me about it, I'm going to deny it." Ester rolled her eyes again.
"We'll see." Sierra said and when she glanced at Ester again, she saw her eyes glued on her phone.
"Work again?" Sierra raised an eyebrow. She was getting quite the amount of texts lately and Sierra knew it wasn't her work. It's been a week since the dinner where she got a text and told Sierra it was from work. The day after that, Ester was all over her phone, making their adventurous hike day boring as hell.
"Yeah, no. It's Olivia." Ester knew Sierra was getting suspicious. But she had yet to find out her admirer's identity. And if it were to be her brother, she'd definitely not tell her. When Ester looked up from her phone and glanced at Sierra, she saw her friend shrug.
"What does she need?"
"Uh- just a pen." A pen? Ester could've slapped herself right then and there. Out of all things, she was looking for a pen? Good job, Ester thought sarcastically.
"A pen?" Sierra lifted an eyebrow in question.
"Yeah, it's this special pen she got me for my birthday last year. And the ink has a certain colour she needs for an essay." What the heck was she talking about? No one even wrote essays per hand anymore.
"Doesn't she have a laptop?" Sierra asked, so not buying it.
"Yeah, but her history professor is one of a kind." Ester shrugged. Ugh, she's so bad at lying. But Sierra simply shrugged it off as she continued driving. Ester inwardly sighed in relief before looking down at her phone display again.
You sure? Because it's staring at me as if it wants to kill me.
Ester smiled at his text and quickly hurried to answer.
Well, he's probably just hungry. But if you feed him, he'll come back. So, trust me. Just ignore him.
Her secret admirer had a strange cat on his balcony and it didn't have a collar. According to him, he was there for the past few days just walking around. Ester has been telling him to just ignore the cat, but her admirer kept nearing the balcony.
They've been texting for a week now. At first, Ester was hesitant to answer his second text. But after Olivia spent an hour explaining to her how harmless it was to just text a guy, she decided she'd just go for it and see how it turns out.
He still hasn't told her his real name, but she learned quite a few things about him. He jogged almost every morning. She realized that when he kept texting her good morning texts at like 5 a.m. and one day he told her he just got back from his morning jog.
And she also found out that he goes to the club a lot. He texted her drunk three times since they started talking. And he was a good listener, she noted. Whenever she'd tell him about work, he'd ask her how that specific thing was going even days after.
She was slowly but surely starting to like that secret admirer of hers. But something pulled her back from completely trusting him enough to like him like that. She wished he'd just come out already.
Ester looked at her phone again when it vibrated.
We'll, I can't pay attention to him now anyways. I'm meeting my mother in half an hour, gotta get ready. I'll text you tonight. Xo
Ester felt sad and quickly shook her head. She shouldn't feel sad about that. She didn't even know him for heaven's sake. Again, she hurried to reply.
Alright, have fun. I'll be waiting for your text. :)
Was that too much? Was she really going to wait for his text? Ugh, she shouldn't have sent it. Now he probably thought she was extremely into him. But she wasn't, really.
Or was she? No, Ester shook her head and shoved her phone back into her pocket. When she finally looked outside, she noticed a street sign with waves on it. Ester's never been this far away from her home and they've been driving for ages now.
"Are you sure we're not just on a road trip to the other end of the town?" She asked Sierra.
"Yes. In fact, we're almost there. Let's say twenty minutes." Her friend answered. Ester refrained from asking about their whereabouts and just slumped back against her seat.
Twenty minutes? It's been at least an hour when Sierra finally parked the car. When Ester glanced outside, she realized the sun left and grey clouds blocked their view of the sky. It was definitely going to rain and she would've done everything to be at home and have hot chocolate in her freezing hands.
"Doesn't look too good. We should hurry before it starts pouring." Sierra said as she exited her car. Ester followed her friend's action and looked around herself. They were in the middle of nowhere.
"Sierra, where the heck are we?" Ester asked, while sniffing the air and realizing it smelled like salt and fish. She could also hear waves not too far away. Sierra gave Ester a look and then took a grip of her shoulders, leading her around the car.
"Where do you think we are?" Sierra smirked upon seeing her friend's reaction.
"The beach." She answered, eyes looking mesmerized. Ester hasn't been to a beach in ages. She knew Tenakis had great beaches.
But she never found time to visit them. There were only a few buses that drove out there and they weren't exactly cheap. Besides that, she was too busy with work and stabilizing her life since she moved here to even think about the beach.
"And? Did I manage to surprise the great Ester Celeste?" Sierra's voice pulled her out of whatever day dream she just had.
"What's that supposed to mean? But yes, you did. Congrats."
"Good. Now let's go to the house, before it starts raining. It's not far away. We just can't get the car to bring us there, since I want to surprise Devon." Sierra successfully dodged her first question. But Ester didn't even mind that. She was too busy gaping at Sierra.
"Devon? Are you insane?" She asked Sierra with a glare.
"I knew you'd be upset. But it's too late to turn around now. So, come on." With that, her friend walked past her and made her way towards the beach. Ester quickly followed with her hands placed on her hips.
"Sierra, why did you bring me with you? We can't stand each other and I thought today was supposed to be fun." Ester complained with a pout.
"Oh, don't act like you're not curious as to what the heck he does all day. Besides, annoying him is always fun." Her friend scoffed.
"If you want to know what he's doing, why don't you just ask him over text?" Ester threw her hands in the air.
"I have, but all he ever answers whenever I ask what he's doing is 'nothing, you?'."
"Well, why bring me then?" Ester asked again.
"You're my only friend that doesn't swoon over him and whenever you're around, he seems even more peeved than when we're alone. So naturally, you had to come." Sierra answered, causing Ester to roll her eyes.
"You're a horrible friend and an even worse sister." She told her.
"How dare you, I love my brother." Ester could see the mischievous sparkle in her friend's eyes when she continued.
"But I love annoying him even more." She simply shrugged and they continued their war to her family's beach house.
"I hate you for doing this." Ester murmured, but she couldn't help the spark of excitement that hit her when she heard about Sierra's plan. She hasn't seen Devon in almost two weeks. She wondered how he'd react once he saw her.
But at the same time, she was kind of nervous. What if he were her secret admirer? Would he act differently? Would he tell her? Thinking about it now, she wished he wouldn't tell her. Even though Ester said she wanted her admirer to come out already, if it were to be Devon, she had no idea how she'd react herself.
She'd rather have that benefit of doubt and play secret still. Because once the secret's out, her life would turn back into boring and uneventful.
"Earth to Ester." Sierra waved a hand in front of Ester's face.
"Yes? I'm here." Ester quickly said and her friend raised an eyebrow, before shaking her head and pointing at a big house a few feet away from them. Ester gaped at it.
"This is it. I was thinking we go in through the backdoor, I hope he's not in the kitchen at the moment." Sierra explained and Ester frowned.
"I thought you said it was a beach house."
"It is, can't you see? The beach is right in front of it." Sierra said.
"That, my dear friend is a damn mansion!" Ester scoffed.
"Same difference." Her friend shrugged carelessly.
"Except the enormous gate around it. How do you suppose we get over that?"
"We climb over it. It's not a big deal."
"And if the alarm goes off?" Ester asked.
"It won't. It never goes off when we go on vacation." Sierra scoffed.
"Well, that's probably because you live there!" Ester threw her hands in the air in frustration.
"This is a bad idea. I'm not doing this." She declared and turned around, but Sierra was quick enough to grab her elbow.
"We can't chicken out now. The alarm won't go off. Just trust me." Oh, this was a bad idea.
But Ester followed her friend and they were soon standing in front of the huge iron gate.
"They're surprisingly way smaller than I remembered them." Sierra thought out loud.
"How long has it been since you've been here?" Ester couldn't help but ask.
"Maybe around ten years." Sierra shrugged and Ester scoffed.
"I can't believe we're doing this." She said as she watched her friend grip the gate and swing her legs over it. Sierra successfully landed on both of her feet after jumping and looked back at Ester with a proud smile.
"Come on. We don't have all day. You have work tomorrow." She teased her friend, who looked to her left and right before following Sierra's actions. Just a little less gracious as she fell face first.
"Ouch." Ester groaned and weakly got up, rubbing her nose. Sierra was on the ground, giggling uncontrollably. But she soon hushed when Ester reminded her of the situation.
"What now?" She asked and Sierra looked around.
"Come with me and-" Before she could finish her sentence, they heard the alarm go off. Ester froze for a second too long.
"You stay here and distract him. I'll surprise him inside." She heard, but only realized that she was alone when Sierra's presence left hers. Ester wanted to go after her, but she took too long and had no idea where her friend went.
"Oh no." Ester muttered under her breath right before the front door opened.