There is no way that Saffron can be expected to sleep after the events of this afternoon. It's almost 1am when she decides to check if Noah - her boyfriend - is awake.
Sure enough, light is radiating from his bedroom window, through the shut blinds. As if sensing her watching, he suddenly pulls them up and she sees him slouching in his window seat, looking as wide awake as she feels. He waves and she waves back, noting that their kiss(es) and new relationship status have only served to make her feel even more jittery at the sight of him.
However, instead of the gap of heavy, humid air between their two windows, they're now separated by a torrential downpour of rain.
Deciding against opening her window and letting everything get soaked, Saffron tries to think of an alternative. Her face lights up when she spots an old sketchpad she never used. She grabs it, along with a permanent marker off her desk.
Hi :)
Noah quickly reads the paper them smiles, turning away from the window and disappearing from her sight. He returns a few minutes later, holding a notebook and a Sharpie.
Hi, good idea with the paper!
She notices that his handwriting is the same rough scrawl that originally wrote her the wifi code and, more importantly, his mobile number. The thought makes her chest contract; perhaps that's what it feels like to have a boyfriend you actually have a crush on.
For about ten minutes they exchange mindless notes and pointless doodles, until Noah's eyes glow with excitement and he begins quickly scribbling something on a new page of his notebook. At last, he reads it through then holds it up.
I've got an idea: let's sneak out and go to the Little Beach. I'll drive us there - it will be awesome.
Saffron thinks back to the wild-hearted laughter of their afternoon there previously, then thinks about how much better it would be now that they're together. The response is obvious.
Sounds great. Meet you round the front in like 5 mins?
Noah flashes her a thumbs up then turns around and grabs a jacket along with the keys to Leila's car. He'll pay her back for the petrol later.
When he gets outside Saffron is already there, sheltering from the heavy - although thankfully not too cold - rain.
"Hey," he whispers.
"Hey," she replies. Then, remembering that now that she's his girlfriend he can kiss her whenever he wants, Noah does just that. She smiles against his lips. "I've never sneaked out at night before."
"Me neither; I guess there's a first time for everything."
☆
If Saffron thought the Little Beach was amazing in the daytime, it would have to be described as awe-inspiring by night.
The sand is still soft between her toes; the sea still laps gently at the shore, but somehow the silvery light reflecting off the water makes it feel far more magical.
The rain continues falling persistently, soaking her clothes and plastering her dark hair to her head, but she doesn't feel cold.
Since they're already wet, they figure they may as well just go straight into the sea. So they do, plunging head first into the cold water with their fingers twisted together.
Laughter ripples through them both as they splash each other, the salty water stinging their skin and their eyes. Anyone onlooking would probably find them immature and silly, but they're alone on the beach - and, besides, they couldn't care less about anyone but each other.
Everything feels so much easier now they don't have to worry about awkward, accidental skin brushing skin. Part of Saffron regrets that they hadn't just gone straight ahead and been like this from the start, but she knows that's just not them. Their mutual awkwardness and anxiety is a part of them, not to mention how she reckons it somehow brought them closer together.
When the initial adrenaline and the thrill of sneaking out to their own private location rubs off, they fall still in the water. It reaches just above Saffron's pyjama-clad waist, the same point Noah's hands are currently resting on.
It feels new to her, all of the tender touches and gentle kisses; with Adam it was always thoughtless and wanting, though only when he wanted.
For the first time since they met, Saffron ventures ahead and looks up at at Noah, forcing herself to disobey a lifelong habit of glancing away when their eyes meet. Now that she's properly looking at his eyes, she can properly acknowledge their piercing shade of green that appears to shimmer in the moonlight.
"You have your mother's eyes," she murmurs before tilting her head upwards to kiss him.
Her heart still hammers in her chest; butterflies still dance in her stomach when their lips collide. Honestly, she'd happily kiss Noah until their lips go numb and they physically cannot stay awake a moment longer.
☆
"Did Adam do stuff like this when you were together?" Noah asks as he passes her his warm and dry jacket from the car. She wraps it around herself, eyeing him suspiciously. But he doesn't seem jealous or angry, just curious.
Saffron doesn't want to talk about her ex-boyfriend to him, but he wants to know and it seems unfair to keep it from him. Their friendship was too entangled in hidden truths and confusion, she doesn't want their new-found relationship to start off like that.
"Nah, he wasn't that kind of guy," Saffron says.
He has intertwined his fingers with hers and they're heading towards the rock Saffron had sat against to draw him on their last visit. They sit down on the wet sand, Saffron resting her head on Noah's shoulder. It's more an act of drowsiness than affection, really.
"What kind of guy was he then?"
"I don't know... just an idiot. He was kind of protective, but at the same time he only paid attention to me when he felt like it," she explains, realising in hindsight how much her relationship with Adam truly sucked.
"So why did you date him then?" Still, Noah's voice and expression are more inquisitive than anything else.
"Dunno," Saffron sighs, feeling a strange wave of sadness well up inside of her. It must be the insomniac-depression, she thinks. "I guess it was just the fact my nervousness prevented me from really having any friends, so when this boy starts talking to me and stuff, it seemed like the obvious thing to agree when he asked me out."
"How long were you together?"
"About two months," she tells him, finding out that it feels good to actually talk about it. "I ended it when we officially knew we were moving here, but he's been pestering me about it since."
They're quiet for a moment; Saffron watches the waves washing gently against the sand until Noah speaks again, using the same curious tone.
"Wait, so you only really agreed to go out with Adam because you had no other friends and he was actually giving you attention?"
"Sort of, yeah."
"Well, is that what it is with me?" Noah asks genuinely, biting his bottom lip in a way that looks so adorable Saffron can't help but give him a quick peck on the lips. It still feels weird being able to do that, but it's a good weird - definitely a good weird.
"No way - I was worried about that the first time, when I said no. But now I'm not. You're so different to him; you're funny and caring and cute and —" she stops herself suddenly, realising how lame she must sound. So much for playing hard to get, or whatever the magazines all tell you to do.
Noah, on the other hand, appears to be blushing. The pink dusting on his cheeks is just visible in the relative darkness, although his unabashed smile is easy to see.
"Hey, why'd you stop? I was enjoying that," he protests.
"I'm sure you were," she laughs, nudging his side with her shoulder. "What time is it, by the way?"
Noah glances down at his watch before his wide green eyes meet hers, looking mildly alarmed.
"It's just gone four o'clock," he informs her. "And I'm supposed to be up early; Leila's making me go shopping with her." At this, he pulls a face which makes Saffron giggle and in turn makes Noah smile, too.
The rain has now slowed to a light drizzle, although their clothes are still soaked through from the ocean, their hair still dripping onto the fancy upholstery of Leila's car.
The journey home feels easy, relaxed - much more pleasant than the last time they drove home from the Little Beach.
Noah turns on the radio whilst he drives through deserted roads, flicking between the channels until he lands on one playing an Ed Sheeran song he loves. The happiness, the simple joy of his favourite song happening to come on at this moment blossoms within him. He may be coated in sea water with no sunshine present to dry him off, but he feels warm.
He starts off singing along quietly, under his breath, gradually building as the song approaches the chorus.
At that moment he realises that Saffron is also singing beside him. She looks over at him and just smiles, because no spoken words are needed. Instead, their voices just build, growing so loud that by the second chorus they're practically yelling out the lyrics, belting them through the wound down windows and into the night.
This is it. Noah thinks to himself as he sings. This is all I need: a girl by my side who is willing to sit in the car, soaked through to the bone, and chant Ed Sheeran with me at four in the morning.
With another stolen glance at his girlfriend, his grin grows impossibly wider.
When the song finishes, Saffron holds the note for a comically long time, managing to also keep her voice spectacularly out of tune.
Finally, Noah cuts her off by placing a couple of fingers beneath her chin and angling her head towards him.
"You may have a beautiful face, but I'm afraid your voice doesn't quite live up to the high standards." He notices how she tastes like sea salt when he kisses her.
Then she squeals and pushes him off of her, pointing towards the empty road they're slowly cruising along.
"Eyes on the road!" she exclaims, in near hysterics. "I don't want the best night of my life to end in a car crash."
As they both laugh, for no specific reason, until their stomachs ache, Noah mentally agrees with her; this night has no competition against any others.
--
the song that they're singing is Thinking Out Loud of course but also Wake Me Up by Ed fits them so so well so you should listen to that too if you want