-Will’s Point of View-
“Dammit!” I swore under my breath, when I sat up on the couch I was trying to sleep on. I really wanted to grab the alarm clock off the coffee table and throw it out the window for letting the time move so quickly. No matter what, I couldn’t sleep at all.
It was already 7 in the morning and every time I closed my eyes, my mind refused to let me sleep. It wasn’t because Derick and Cory decided to watch football reruns last night, or that Charlotte kept bugging Derick to sleep at his beach house, or even that I really wanted to punch Scott in his sleep.
It was because Shannon Richelieu kept appearing in my head.
‘Why the hell do I keep thinking about her?’ I thought, angrily throwing off the blanket wrapped around me and paced the floor without trying to wake up Cory -who was sleeping on the couch beside me, snoring like a goat.
More importantly, I couldn’t stop thinking about why Shannon was so fidgety last night. She wouldn’t even look me in the eye when I talked to her and I felt as if she was trying to avoid me. I knew she didn’t want me to notice, but I did. And it pissed me off.
Why was she acting so strange around me lately? Or better yet, why the hell was I so mad?
With nothing better to do, I grabbed my yellow surfboard which was leaned against the wall next to me and stormed outside Derick’s beach house. I needed to cool off. I needed to stop thinking about her.
I walked past the gates and the stairs that led to the shore. I dodged things with my surfboard so nothing would fall over and finally came up to the ocean ahead of me. Breathing in the morning mist and the rocky waves of the ocean, I sighed satisfyingly. The sun was barely up and it was the perfect time to not think about anything and surf.
I pinned the surfboard in the sand and took off my gray shirt so it wouldn’t get wet in the water. The waves started rising as I climbed onto my board and paddled into the ocean. Then, on cue, I jumped on and started riding the waves. The wind was blowing with every stride I took and I could feel the peaceful serenity of riding.
I rode on for a while before I saw Derick waving at me from the shore. I paddled to him and tossed my surfboard carefully on the sand once I got out of the water.
“Hey bro,” He patted my shoulders as I approached him near the coastline, “Your phone has been ringing nonstop. Business dealings and what not.” He smiled faintly like he knew exactly how I felt.
After the business convention with my uncle, people from all over the world had been contacting me to try to get a partnership with the Prescott Industries. I’ve been tending to them since my uncle had been stressed out with other things –marriage and all.
“Yeah, that’s why I left it.” I explained, removing the hair away from my eyes with the swish of my hand.
“That’s why I turned it off,” Derick laughed. I could feel him conspicuously looking at me for a moment, “You okay?” He asked with a concern tone.
“Never better.” I replied. He laughed again like he didn’t believe me.
I found myself asking him something that had been one of the things that was refusing me from a peaceful sleep. “What did you and Richelieu talk about last night?”
He didn’t turn his head and kept his face straight on the ocean. “Nothing really.” He put his hands into his cargo shorts, “I told her who I liked.”
I nodded, knowing who he liked already. “Did she say anything?”
“No.”
“Did she say anything about me?” I dawdled on with curiosity.
He raised an eyebrow. “You seem very concerned?” He laughed when I glared at him, “Kidding, dude. She talked about you.”
“Really?”
He grinned when he saw my face light up with interest. “This is fun.” He was chuckling until something (or someone) stopped him.
“Derick, hey.” Scott, appeared near us, with a surfboard in his hand and some sunscreen in the other. He had sunglasses on his face, but even with them on, I could feel him glaring at me. He turned his head to me next. “William.”
I waved him off, not even trying to acknowledge his presence.
“Come on, Will. Don’t be such a girl.” He looked over at the surfboard I had in the sand. “How about I challenge you to a mini surfing competition to spice up the morning?” His voice was downright irksome. I wanted to grab his board from his hands, chop it in half, and throw it into the ocean with him alongside.
“Wasn’t it enough that I beat you last year?”
Last year, this beach held a private surfing competition and as usual, Scott joined once he found out I joined. He kept sneering and insulting me before the competition to try to get me to lose, but I won. And I would win every single time if it was against him.
He smirked, ignoring my insult. “How about we change it up this year?” He said. “Instead of winning a trophy, we get a different prize?”
“No matter what prize it is, I will beat you regardless.”
“I highly doubt that.” He said right away.
Derick suddenly spoke out and calmly tried coaxing us to stop the cat fight. “Scott, just leave it alone.”
Scott didn’t miss a beat. “Even if that prize was your girlfriend.”
Instantly, I grabbed him by his shirt and pushed him up against the stone wall of the outdoor bathroom. I could feel my face and body boiling up with anger and I had my hand ready to punch his face when he smiled pleasingly.
“Typical Will.” He laughed. “Always resulting in violence.”
“Shut the hell up.” I demanded furiously. “And don’t ever talk about my girlfriend.”
He forcefully swatted my hand away from his shirt and pushed me away from him. “You shouldn’t really call her that, should you?” I could feel the anger rising up in me and I was ready to lunge at him to hit him, but Derick was holding me back. What the hell was he talking about!? “We both know that I’d treat her better than you.” He pressed on.
“Bro, come on.” Derick persuaded. Right, he wasn’t worth fighting. He would always have the same annoying personality no matter what I did to his face.
“I am never giving Shannon to you.” I seriously looked at him. I grabbed my board irately and walked away from both of them. Derick and Scott were talking profoundly to each other, but I ignored them as I got to Derick’s beach house.
Seething with anger, I placed my board at the front of Derick’s gated beach house and walked down the street to the restaurants and stores near the pier. I was not in the mood to talk to any of the guys at the house.
Or Shannon.
I cussed at myself for thinking about her again.
Somehow, I ended up at a sports bar near the end of the pier where most of the grocery shops were. Upon walking in, I was quickly tended to once they knew who I was. It was already lunch time so there were a lot of people inside so I sat by the windows -facing the pier and everyone who walked on it.
A waiter came by and took my order and handed me a complimentary drink. I took a sip of it until I noticed someone climbing into the seat next to me.
“Rough morning?” Soph came out of nowhere and sat beside me. She smiled.
I shrugged, not really showing how unsurprised I was that she was also at this bar, and put my glass down. She laughed as the waiter handed her a complimentary drink. “You seem angry, are you not?” She pried on.
“What do you want Soph?” I didn’t want to get angrier than I already was.
“Nothing really,” She joked around. “Just checking on my childhood friend.”
I unheeded her and watched the people walking by on the pier. My eyes second glanced when I saw a familiar girl exiting the grocery store. Soph must’ve noticed because she followed my gaze to see Shannon walking out of the grocery store. Shannon was trying to balance her bags with her hands and fell on her butt the second she stepped on the pier.
Soph immediately burst out laughing. “Well, would you look at that?” Not realizing it, I also tried holding back a laughter at her clumsiness. It seemed like suddenly all my anger was wiped away the moment I saw her. She rubbed her butt and looked embarrassed at the people around her until an old man helped her up.
She was such a handful.
We watched as she thanked the old man with a red face and pulled out breads from her bags to hand them to the homeless children around the corner of the grocery store. One by one, each of them looked at her like she was a complete angel and she hugged each and every one of them. The mother thanked her kindly and Shannon slipped some money into her hand.
For the first time this morning, I could feel myself forming a smile.
“Wow,” Soph pointed at my face and I quickly turned away from her, “You just smiled.”
“I can smile, I’m not a robot.” I fought.
She wouldn’t sit still in her seat and jumped up and down. “B-But you just genuinely smiled! I could feel rainbows and unicorns and crap from that smile. Wow …” She trailed on amused.
“I thought this was all fake?” She suddenly spoke and I looked at her confused. “What are you talking about?” I asked.
“Drop the act,” She took a sip of her drink, “I know you guys have been faking.”
I was about to ask her how she found out, but then again, Soph found out about everything. Even as kids, when we pretended to be Sherlock Holmes, she was always the first one to solve the mysteries. She was way smarter than people perceived her as.
But even though, I had to wonder if Shannon told her. “Did she tell you?”
She shook her head. “I’m just going to act surprised if she ever tells me.”
She stared at Shannon before she walked away from our view. “She couldn’t sleep last night. Op told me since they shared a room. She pretended that she was fine.”
That makes two of us.
“Will, can I ask you something?” She glanced at me. I nodded.
“This might be out of the blue, but if Charlotte asked for you back, would you go back?”
I thought for a while on that question. If I lied, Soph would know and if I told the truth, Soph would know so either way, I was stuck. So I went with the answer that seemed to express my chaotic, confused reality “I don’t know.” I answered. Because that was how I was truly feeling. Before I would’ve answered yes the second that question was asked, but it was different. Everything felt different and I was irritated at myself for feeling different.
She looked disappointed at my answer. “You should really figure things out.”
She sipped the last of her drink and the waiter finally came with my meal. “Shannon,” She smiled to herself. “She’s different, you know. She wasn’t born into this world so she doesn’t understand the hatred and hurt some people have for each other at Beverly Hills. She doesn’t get when parents are trying to drill their customs and fashions down your throat or how some friends would go so far into lying and plotting just to achieve their greediness. She’s too naïve with herself and she’s innocent.”
“Yeah, she is.” I didn’t realize myself agreeing with Soph until it came out of my mouth.
“Don’t hurt her, Will.” She spoke quietly this time. It seemed as if she didn’t even want me to hear that, but I did. It was shocking to see her personality completely shift from her outgoing, loud-mouth self.
Breaking the silence, Aiden comes out of nowhere and pecks Soph on the cheek. I didn’t notice it before, but she was wearing his sweater.
“Hey, sorry about that.” Aiden spoke to her and then he jerked with surprise when he saw me eyeing them in suspicion. He looked embarrassed as he shook my hand. “I-I’m just going to pay for the bill.” He said and walked away awkwardly.
I looked over at Soph with a raised eyebrow. She was my childhood friend after all, I used to tease her all the time. Sometimes Soph was just a bit to wild.
“What?” She protested, “Just cause some people had rough nights, doesn’t mean I had one.” She winked and I gagged at her. It was like our whole conversation didn’t happen and she was back to her perky self.
She blew a kiss at me before grabbing a hold of Aiden’s hand and leaving me at the sports bar, to think to myself.
Would I go back to Charlotte?
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“You know what we all should like play?” Pauline squirmed in the couch in between Derick and me. We had all moved into Derick’s ginormous beach house after a long day at the beach. Now everyone was seated around his warm fireplace, wrapped up in blankets and surrounded by the millions of pillows that Derick had.
“What?” Aiden moved in closer to Soph to grab hold of some blanket warmth. She pushed him away slightly so nobody would wonder about their recent hook-up.
“Like Truth and Dare.” She giggled. “Nobody can lie. We have to like tell the truth and only the truth.”
Everyone nodded their head and looked around at each other for approval while I was completely oblivious and typing away e-mails on my phone for Prescott Industries.
I looked over at Shannon, who sat next to me on the couch, to see her fiddling with her fingers. It seemed like she was avoiding someone’s eyes.
“Let’s play.” Scott put his hands behind his head and smiled. He was the last person who I thought would ever want to play a silly game like this. I snorted at the sound of his voice.
“I hate truth or dare.” Soph finally spoke up, “It’s like the thrill of Russian Roulette without the gun, but …” She trailed her words, “I think this will be really fun.”
Shannon held tighter to the warm blanket and sat closer to the fireplace while everyone started chatting about who would go first. She had been like this the whole entire day.
Pauline ended up doing it first because she was the one that brought up the game in the first place. She picked truth and Cory snickered while asking her if she ever had a one night stand.
She shook her head proudly and clung onto Derick giddily. Opaline baulked.
“Shannon, you’re next.” Opaline smiled at her and she looked away from the fireplace. I could see her face turning red when everyone faced her.
“U-Um, okay.” She said and fiddled with her fingers again. I could tell she was being careful which one to choose. “Truth.”
Aiden spoke up this time before anyone could ask her a question. “Who, in this room, was your first real kiss?” Soph hit him when he asked that question before Shannon’s eyes widened and she looked embarrassed. She shook her head, trying to show that she never had her first kiss before, and everyone gasped for some odd reason.
“Wow, Will. You need to step up your game.” Cory laughed and she looked at me apologetic. “N-No. There’s no rush.” She panicked.
“This game is stupid.” I looked back at my phone.
“Well then, it’s your turn.” Opaline smiled at me. “Truth or dare?”
“Dare, I guess.”
“Kiss the person you love in this room.” Charlotte didn’t stutter when she said this. Everyone grew quiet and Shannon flinched beside me. I didn’t turn my head, but I glanced over at Shannon looking at the ground, some brown locks of her hair falling over her face.
“I’m not doing that.” I huffed. Everyone started fighting back when Soph spoke up. “He said he doesn’t want to. Leave it.” I could feel Charlotte looking over at me a bit dissatisfied at my answer.
“Okay Scott, you’re turn!” Pauline pointed at him, trying to break the awkwardness.
“Dare.” He said in a heartbeat.
“Okay.” She tapped her chin.
“Same dare, slightly changed.” Charlotte smirked. She leaned at the edge of the chair with her hands intertwined. “I dare you to kiss the prettiest person in this room.”