"Cook! Would you mind not lighting that in here?" Katie groans as I spark a joint beside her.

"Calm down, Kit Kat," I chuckle, the spliff balancing between my lips. "Freds, crank down that window there, would you?"

We're all heaped into Emily and Katie's family car, heading to the nearest beach, which is about an hour's drive.

Emily just recently got her novice, so she's driving. Naomi is in the passenger seat next to her. Katie took ages getting ready, so she got shoved in the very back, beside me. JJ, Freddie, Pandora and Eve are squashed together in the back seats.

Unfortunately, there are no seats in the very back, so Katie and I are perched atop some uncomfortable bags, Katie gripping for dear life onto the headrest in front of her.

"Don't understand why you couldn't have driven," she mutters, craning her neck to see out the front windows.

"Because I'm not going to drive under the influence, babes, am I?" I smile at her, puffing out smoke. "I'm responsible, me."

"Right, Cook, responsible," she rolls her eyes at me, a small smile tugging at her lips.

"You know, there's a window back here," I nod my head at the rear window behind us.

"I'm trying to get away from that stench," Katie wrinkles her nose at me, her neck still craned.

"What are you on about?" I laugh, blowing out my cloud of smoke in the opposite direction of where Katie is sitting. "What stench?"

"Weed," Katie whines. "It's vile."

"You're vile," I retort. "I swear I've seen you toking on multiple different joints on multiple different occasions."

"Must've been Emily," Katie giggles, shoving me with her foot.

I shove her back, smiling. I seem to have shoved her too hard, as she loses her balance and falls sideways into the pile of beach gear that's crammed in beside us. A half-closed bag falls on top of her, spilling its contents of suncream and water bottles onto her head.

"Cook!" She shrieks, flinging a bottle of suncream at my head.

Emily swerved violently. "Fucking hell, Katie!" She shouts, glaring at the pair of us through the mirror. "Stop yelling! You almost made me crash the car!"

"It was Cook!" Katie protests, fixing her hair as she straightens herself up.

"Cook, your scream has gotten awfully high-pitched," Naomi comments sarcastically, poking her head around the passenger seat to smirk at me.

"Yeah, need to lay off the joints, methinks," I laugh, holding up the half-finished spliff.

Eve cranes her neck to look at me. "Can I've a puff?"

"Go ahead," I smile, handing her the joint. "You and Freds can finish it off."

"Thanks, Cook," Freddie says as he rolls down the window even more.

"How much longer?" Pandora asks Emily, her face pressed against the other window, her breath leaving a condensation cloud on the glass.

"Not long," Emily answers back, her eyes on the road.

"I bags sitting in the front on the way home," I shout, receiving a groan of protest from Naomi.

"Toddler," she mutters, and I grin at her.

"Snooze, you lose," I shrug.

Summer has been going well, so far. Everyone has been taking turns in letting me stay at their houses. I've made up with Freddie, there's no weird tension between us anymore. It's almost as if as soon as Effy left, everything's gone back to normal.

I can't get her out of my head, though. Effy. I need to know where she's gone, if she's coming back.

I look at the back of Eve's head. She let me stay in her house for three days. It was fun, I smoked a spliff with Milo every morning and evening, and had dinner with them. It felt nice, to feel welcomed into a family setting.

Obviously, I was always welcome in Freddie and JJ's homes, but I never felt fully at home. Karen was always a bitch to me, as if she can't stand me, even though we've shagged. I can tell Freddie's father doesn't like me very much.

JJ's mother is a bit strange, she's nice to me but I can tell she thinks I'm a bad influence. Fair enough, I am, but at least I help JJ to step out of his comfort zone.

JJ turns around to talk to me now. "Will you go swimming with me, when we get there, Cook?" He asks me, smiling.

"Obviously, man," I ruffle his hair. "Freds will join us, won't you?" I tickle Freddie's ear with my finger.

Freddie presses his ear against his shoulder in response. "Stop it!" He laughs, batting my hand away. He straightens up. "Yeah, I'll go swimming."

"Lovely," I grin, drumming my hands off my thighs. "The three boyos take on the North Atlantic."

-

Everyone cheers as Emily parks up the car, after finally arriving at the beach. We all clamber out, Katie waiting impatiently for someone to let her out while I climb over the seats in front of us, receiving groans of protest from Freddie and Eve.

I straighten up as I finally get out of the car, stretching my back. "This is brilliant, lads," I sigh in content, squinting at the sparkling water. It's a beautiful day. The sun is beating down on us, accompanied by a light sea breeze.

"Cook!" Freddie calls me over to him. He's holding out a bag full of beach towels. "Can you take these?"

I suck my teeth, dragging my feet as I approach him. I take the bag from him, holding it between both hands so I won't be asked to carry anything else.

"Where's the alcohol?" I ask him.

He points to JJ, who's holding a large cooler. "He's the least likely to drop it, so."

I grin. "Fair enough."

"Right, that's everything," Freddie announces, dragging the final bag out of the boot and slamming the door closed. "Let's go."

I whoop in excitement, leading the group as we head off the car park and towards the sand.

"Just plonk everything down here," I say, stopping on a spot.

"No, you idiot, that's such a shit spot," Naomi scoffs.

"What's the fucking difference?" I mutter, but I obey and trudge onwards as we let the girls decide where we're sitting.

"Don't sit too near the shore," JJ speaks up. "The tide will come in soon enough."

"True," Emily agrees.

"Here's fine," Katie says, a couple feet away from us. "There's no rocks or anything either."

"Well, yeah, it's a beach, not a gravel pit," I chuckle, and she kicks sand in my direction.

I carelessly drop the bag of towels on the sand and take off my t-shirt.

"Cook, you've gotten sand all over our towels!" Katie groans, picking up a once folded towel and shaking it out.

"There'll be sand on them either way, thicko," I say as I open the lid of the cooler and rummage through.

"Cans, anyone?" I ask the group.

Everyone responds with a yes, please, apart from JJ.

I hand out the beer cans and crack open one as I'm done, taking a large slug. I look around, examining the people on the beach. There's plenty of girls our age, all in bikinis. I look at our girls.

They're all still in their clothes.

"Come on, you lot, get into your bikinis, then," I say, motioning at the girls with my can.

"Shut up, freak," Naomi scoffs.

I put my arms up in defence. "How am I a freak? Youse are the freaks, still in your clothes on the beach."

Eve shakes her head at me, smiling. She whispers something to Naomi, giggling.

I turn to Freddie and JJ. "Swim?"

Freddie nods. "After I've finished this," he says, pointing to his can.

"Fair," I nod, taking another sip.

I kick off my shoes, wiggling my toes in the sand. I look at Pandora. "No Thomas, again?"

"Shut up, Cook," Emily mutters.

Pandora shrugs. "Think he's gone home."

"For how long?" I ask her.

"Dunno, maybe a month or something," she responds, despondent.

I walk over to her, putting my arm around her shoulders. "I'll keep you company in the meantime."

She smiles up at me, awkwardly. "Thanks."

Eve catches my eye, shooting me a look. I raise my eyebrows at her, and take my arm off Panda.

She turns her back to me, taking her top off over her head. I watch her for a moment, then busy myself by grabbing a towel.

Emily, Katie and Naomi are now in their bikinis, Emily standing sheepishly while Katie's clearly showing off.

"You look lovely, girls," I nod at them, smiling.

"Shut up, Cook," they say in unison.

"What?" I frown. "You're my friends, I'm not trying to shag anybody."

Naomi raises an eyebrow and glances at Eve, who's now bent over, shoving her clothes back into her bag, when I say this.

I throw up my two fingers at Naomi in response. She smiles at me, knowingly, then turns to Emily. "Swim?"

Emily nods and Naomi takes her hand. "Katie, Eve, you coming?"

"Yep," Eve straightens up, fixing her hair. She looks great, in a pink low-cut bikini. She catches me looking, and I grin at her. She smirks back at me, then turns to Katie.

"Coming?" She says to her. Katie glances at Naomi and Emily, still hand in hand. Eve offers her hand to Katie, and she takes it, smiling.

"Panda, come on," Katie says to Pandora, spare hand outstretched.

"One tick," Pandora responds, flinging her dress off over her head and rushing over to the girls, taking Katie's hand.

They all take off, toward the water, giggling.

I turn to Freddie and JJ. "Just us, so."

Freddie nods, his eyes fixed on something behind me. "There's girls coming our way."

"What?" I ask, turning around. Sure enough, there's a group of four girls, all of them approaching us.

"Sweet," I grin at the two boys, and they smile back. JJ looks awkward, still in his t-shirt.

"J, get that shirt off, man," I say to him. "Sharpish."

JJ nods and pulls his t-shirt off over his head hurriedly.

I turn my back to the girls, sipping on my can nonchalantly.

"Are yous all drinking, then?" A girl says from behind me.

I turn around, looking at the girls. "Which one spoke?" I ask, smiling.

"I did," a blonde girl says, looking me up and down as she speaks.

"What's your names?" I ask the girls, looking between the four of them.

"I'm Ava, this is Mia, Sophie and Lily," Ava says, pointing between her and the rest of the girls beside her.

"So your friends can't speak for themselves?" I ask her, smirking.

She blinks at me. "What do you mean?"

I shake my head impatiently, chuckling. "Never mind."

"Why are you talking to us?" JJ blurts out, bluntly.

"Straight to the point, man," I laugh, patting him on the back.

"Dunno, you seemed bored," Ava says, sidling up beside me.

"Oh look, the girls are coming back," Freddie ignores the desperate girls and points at our friends emerging from the water.

"Lovely," I mumble, my eyes on Eve.

"Who are they?" One of the other girls, I think it's Mia, speaks up.

"They're our friends," Freddie smiles.

"That we shag occasionally," I add, sniggering.

Freddie elbows me. "Hi," he greets the girls as they become within earshot.

"What's all this, then?" Katie asks us, eyeing the girls.

"This is Ava and her group of mute friends," I introduce everyone to each other.

"Nice," Eve mutters, looking at how close Ava is getting to me.

An awkward silence falls over the group. I clap my hands together, looking and JJ and Freds. "Right, boys, swim?"

They both nod eagerly, and we take off in a hurry.

"Do you think we should've left them alone?" JJ mumbles, glancing back over his shoulder at the girls.

"They're going to kill us when those girls leave," Freddie titters.

"Whatever," I shrug. "Not my problem. It's summer, yeah? So let's enjoy ourselves."

"Yeah," Freddie and JJ answer in unison.

We reach the water. "Do you think it's cold?" JJ asks us, drawing his toes back as the water laps at them.

"Only one way to find out," I murmur, looking up at the two boys and grinning.

"No, Cook, wait-" JJ protests as Freddie and I grab him and carry him. He squirms desperately in our arms as we wade deeper into the water.

He shrieks as we dump him in, his shrieks turning into laughter as he emerges to the surface.

"You bastards," he gasps, blinking sea water out of his eyes.

We laugh together for a few moments, savouring the warm sun beating down on the water, the surface sparkling.

"Let's not let any shit get between us this summer, yeah?" I say to the two boys as we splash around.

"Yeah," they smile in unison.

"The three musketeers back on it," I smile. "As it's meant to be."

Freddie grins at me, with a smile that feels genuine for the first time in so long.

I smile back at him.

I've missed this.

author's note

HATE THIS CHAPTER LOOOLLLL that's why it took me so long to update, sorry. I just hated wiring this I don't even want to read over it. it's so boring it has no substance but whatever it's SUMMER BABY (i wish).