Beep beep. Beep beep. Beep beep.

My room went silent for a few seconds before the annoying ‘beeps’ started up again. It took me a minute to remember why I needed an alarm clock on a Saturday morning. I knew it wasn’t because of work, nor did I have to do anything with Leilani.

Then it hit me, I was spending the day with Isaiah and his friends. The nerves were building up every second more I spent in bed. Sure, Isabelle and I were friends now but I really didn’t want to go. Then it hit me; I could just text Isaiah to say I was sick. Mum and Leilani were at the bakery all day and they wouldn’t know if I went or not.

My phone was on my chestnut bedside table with its screen down. I reached out of the duvet and grabbed it, taking out the charger.

Hey Isaiah. Sorry but I’ve caught a cold and can’t come today. Have fun though.

I pressed the ‘send’ button before falling back to my pillow. It was only half past ten; I could easily get another few hours of sleep.

When a reply didn’t come within a few minutes I dropped my phone to the table, falling back asleep within a few minutes.

.

“Beep beep. Beep beep.”

Those stupid sounds again… I reached over to my clock and hit the snooze button, but the beep’s didn’t stop.

I opened my eyes and sat up, immediately jumping back

Sitting on the end of my bed was Isaiah, his mouth moving to the same time as the beeps. He had a nice, dark-blue-and-light-blue-patterned button down t-shirt with black jeans to cover his legs which were hanging off the side of my bed. He was wearing a devious smirk which matched the glint in his eyes.

“What the hell?” I asked, my voice thick with sleep. At least that would help my case of being ‘sick’. I slumped back against my headboard and crossed my legs under the duvet; becoming very conscious of the fact I was only wearing bike shorts and an oversized jumper.

His laugh rang through my room as he crossed his arms contradictorily. “You’re not sick and you’re not ditching me today,” he informed me, in a very matter-of-fact manner. “Get up and get ready.”

 I groaned but didn’t dispute his comment. All I asked was, “How did you know?”

He raised his eyebrow dubiously. “Oh come on, Lena. I knew you’d back out. It’s you.”

“Why are you making me go again?” I asked, rubbing the sleep out of my eye. My hair would have undoubtedly looked like a birds nest and my eyes would have had dark bags under them. I wanted to go back to sleep.

“Because it’ll be fun. Come on.” He pleaded.

I shook my head. No, I wasn’t going. Call me stubborn all you like but I wasn’t moving from this bed until Isaiah was out of my house.

“Are you really going to make me make you?” He groaned, rubbing his forehead in frustration.

“You wouldn’t,” I said.

“I would and will if you don’t get your ass out of bed.”

No, he couldn’t make me go anywhere. I shook my head again. “You can’t make me.”

“You wanna bet?” His mouth pulled up into a smirk.

“No.”

“Then get up,” he said.

“Nope.”

“Pleaaase,” he pleaded, putting his golden-brown hands together in the praying gesture. “Pretty please?”

He tried the puppy dog face; his bottom lip jutted out and his green eyes wide and ‘sad’. It didn’t work.

“I’m not going,” I crossed my arms across my chest.

“Fine. You’ve left me no choice but to make you.” His face lit up in an evil smile as he inched his way towards me.

“No no no no no,” I chanted, shaking my head.

“Are you going to stop being stubborn and come with me?”

“No?” I said, more like a question than a statement. He rolled his green eyes.

“I’m not going to leave until you come with me.” Isaiah finally said, crossing his arms as he stood by my headboard.

That did it. I wasn’t going to have him in my house all day, annoying the living day lights out of me.

“Fine.”

He did a double take. “W-what?”

“Fine. I’ll come. Can you let me get dressed?” I asked, motioning for him to get out the door.

“Sure,” he grinned, making no move to leave. I shot him my best glare which made his face turn to one of worry, probably for his personal wellbeing.

“Okay, I’m leaving,” he raised his hands in the universal sign of surrender and backed out of my room, closing the door behind him.

The sun was shining through my window as I picked through my chest of drawers. Even though it looked warm it wouldn’t get higher than twenty, so I picked out my favourite denim jeans and hopped into them quickly, very aware that Isaiah was still somewhere in my house.

I found my black singlet and tied a red flannel shirt over the top, leaving it unbuttoned. I went into my ensuite and looked in my full length mirror. My blonde hair was falling in loose waves to just past my waist. My hazel eyes had bags under them so I covered them up with a bit of concealer. Other than that I left my face untouched.

Going back into my room I got my phone and put it in the back pocket of my jeans. Then I went over to my desk – where my wallet lay – and got a fifty dollar note out. I had no idea what we were going to do but Isaiah said we’d be gone for the whole day, so I assumed money would be needed.

It occurred to me that Izzy said we might be sleeping at her house, but I figured I could always come back and get stuff if I needed to, or if I wanted to sleep there anyway.

Double checking that I had everything I needed, I opened the door to my room where I found Isaiah leaning against the wall beside it. He raised his eyebrows when I emerged until a grin broke out on his face, but he didn’t say anything. He just shook his head at something in his head and chuckled quietly as we descended the stairs. I didn’t ask.

I grabbed my house keys off the bench when we got downstairs and followed him to his car where I got in the passenger seat without question. I couldn’t wait until I got my licence. Then I would be able to go wherever I wanted, whenever I wanted. It’d be great.

Isaiah pulled out of my empty driveway and in the direction that the sun was coming from, which warmed our seats perfectly. The soft sounds of The Script’s album No Sound Without Silence was resounding through the car at a volume that wasn’t too loud that I’d become deaf, but not too quiet that I wouldn’t be able to hear it. But more importantly, I loved The Script, so it was a good start to the morning.

“Did you know that the longest recorded flight of a chicken was thirteen seconds?” Isaiah said with a straight face.

Where the Hell did that come from? I thought. Despite my confusion, I started laughing at the suddenness of this fact.

I was about to ask why he said that but he face-palmed, shaking his head. “God. It’s hard to act cool in front of you. Whenever I see you my brain is like ‘she’s beautiful, say something stupid.’ And I’m like, ‘awesome idea, brain.’ And then I say something stupid because I’m an idiot.” He explained, or at least tried to. He was just rambling but I found it cute.  

“You are an idiot,” I agreed with a grin, not paying attention to where we were going.

“Yeah I know. But it’s all your fault,” he informed me, sounding like a five year old blaming the dog for smashing a window.

“How?” I asked, pretending to be offended that he was putting all the blame on me.

“Because you’re all smart and gorgeous and cool and you make me look and sound like an idiot,” he pouted, his hands gripped around the steering wheel.

I was going to dispute this until I realised where we were. We used to call it Cobblestone Lane, because that’s what it was, a lane with the ground made out of Cobblestone. It was always vibrant but especially on Saturday mornings, that’s when the market was. The market brightened up the lane, with stall-owners decorating either side with their products (flags, posters, artwork) and one stall always had music going, the type you would find at a music festival for hippies.

Isaiah parked the car and I got out without complaint, forgetting all about my nerves or whatever I should have been feeling. The music drifted to where we had parked and as we walked closer, it got louder. A smile covered my face involuntarily and when I looked up at Isaiah, he was smiling too.

“Come on. Izzy said to meet her at the café near the end,” he said, taking my hand and leading me through the abundance of people. I kept looking around at the stalls, all so filled with colour that I wanted to stop and look.

“But I want to look around,” I said, a certain necklace catching my eye in the stall with the prayer flags.

“And we will,” he laughed. “But first we need some breakfast.”

Right on cue my stomach grumbled, so I made a mental note to return to the necklace before following Isaiah to the café. It was all beautiful wood and plants everywhere; a combination that worked perfectly.

Isaiah held the door open for me and I walked through, spotting Isabelle and Dave in the corner of the café. They smiled when they saw us, Isabelle standing to hug me before we all sat down.

“Sorry, we’re late,” Isaiah apologised, before looking around and frowning. “Where’s Leo?”

“Oh right, I forgot to tell you. He’s sick,” Izzy said, frowning too. “It’s just us for today.”

“And tonight,” Dave added, his face brightening.

“Oh yeah! Another thing I forgot to say. I decided to invite you all over to stay at my place tonight if you want,” Izzy smiled, taking a sip of her coffee or whatever she was drinking. It was in a cute patterned mug, matching the vibe of this place.

“Sounds good,” Isaiah said, nodding.

I didn’t say anything and thankfully the conversation continued to flow. We ordered breakfast, ate, payed and left, all the while the three of them chattered constantly. I contributed once every so often but didn’t feel like talking.

When we went back into the marketplace, Izzy linked arms with me and we started walking ahead of the guys.

“Are you staying tonight?” She asked, her eyes hopeful.

“I don’t know…” I trailed, biting my lip before turning back to see Isaiah. He and Dave seemed deep in conversation and were falling behind more and more.

“Please, Lena? Pretty please? I don’t want to be stuck with the boys all night,” she pleaded. I smirked.

“Well I know you want to be stuck with one of the boys. Hey, I know. I could convince Isaiah out of going and then you could have the whole night with Dave! Oh, also. Did you talk to him about the kiss on Thursday?”

“Ha. Ha. Funny, Lena,” Izzy’s voice dripped sarcasm while I laughed. “But please come, I promise it’ll be fun! And no, I’m doing that tonight I think.”

“That’s another reason I shouldn't go, so that you can talk to him about it,” I tried to convince her but it wasn’t working. We wandered back past the shop with the necklace and I stopped walking, unlinking arms with Izzy to look at it.

“I’ll do it tomorrow then. Just please come.”

The necklace was a black rope with a circular turquoise pendant hanging off it. It was so pretty.

“I’ll think about it,” I said to Izzy, before noticing the price and that I didn’t have that much money on me. I could’ve always returned the next weekend.

I smiled at the grey-haired lady in the stall before we wandered off, stopping at different places to browse.

“No you can’t just think about it. Plus, Isaiah is going to be there. Isn’t that all the more reason to come?”

I paused to look at her, my eyebrows raised suspiciously. “Why would that be an incentive for me to come? Sure, we’re friends,” I said, emphasising the word ‘friends’ “but that won’t have me jumping out of my skin to go.”

“Oh please Lena,” she said, rolling her eyes. “You like him.”

I looked over my shoulder and saw him laugh, his whole face lighting up. I smiled unconsciously. “Fine, I’ll go,” I said, not responding to the previous comment, not knowing how to answer.

“Yay!” Isabelle celebrated as we left the lane, turning right towards the river. “Ooh this is going to be so much fun!”