chapter 4 

"This is so nice..." I moaned, stretching out on my towel.

The next morning I was on the beach with Kate and Beverly. A heat wave had hit, and the temperatures were unseasonably high. The sand was warm on my toes, and the hot sun was beating down onto my bikini-clad skin. To put the metaphorical cherry on top, I had a large ice cream in my hand, which Kate had insisted on buying me as a 'welcome present'.

"The view is even nicer," said Beverly, from her towel to my right, "look who's turned up,".

I sat up, squinting behind my sunglasses. Walking down to the shore was a group of three boys, all carrying surfboards, all with unzipped wetsuits, and all with bodies that looked like they had been shaped by the gods themselves.

Watching as they splashed in the shallows, my mind twigged that I recognised one of them.

Noah.

"Oh look, it's Lois' favorite person," said Kate. My cheeks flushed pink as I remembered my little outburst the night before.

Beverly giggled. "What has he even done to upset you?"

"Nothing in particular," I said, shrugging. "He just seems quite arrogant."

Understatement of the century.

They both laughed knowingly.

"Course he is," said Kate, "he's the biggest man-whore you'll ever meet.".

Beverly nodded, "he's never been with a girl longer than one night. Good in bed though, apparently."

I took a bite of ice cream, intrigued. "So he's never had a girlfriend?" I asked.

"Never even been on a date," she confirmed.

"It's strange though," Kate said, furrowing her brow, "he's always been quite private. He was in the year above us at school and only ever really had two friends.". She nodded at the boys, who were now zipping up their wetsuits. "Miles and Tyler."

The conversation moved on to a different subject, but my mind remained fixated on Noah. The fact he slept around wasn't really a surprise to me- his cocky demeanour and flirty quips gave that impression. The lack of relationships on the other hand seemed more shocking. Watching him in the waves, I had to admit that it was hard to believe that there were no girls willing to take up the role as his girlfriend.

He must just genuinely not care about girls at all I thought, sucking on my ice cream. I had experience with boys like that, back home. Sex-crazed and uncaring, they made no effort to disguise that their intentions with girls were to fuck and then chuck them. Thinking about how I had seen some girls treated in the past made me watch Noah surfing with a newfound vengeance.

Although, it's not as if I'd had much dating experience myself. I had gone on the odd date but nothing ever progressed any further. A relationship had never appealed to me; I was so focussed on my schoolwork and university admissions that it had never really crossed my mind. A distraction in the form of a boy was the last thing I needed, and so I completely shut myself off from the possibility of one forming.

"So, we'll be round at ten," said Kate, breaking me out of my own thoughts.

"What?" I asked, wildly confused.

"The bonfire tonight. We're getting ready at yours. We'll be round at ten." Kate said slowly.

"Julie asked us to make sure you went," Beverly said, filling me in.

"I'm meant to be working 'till close tonight," I said. Already feeling guilty about missing out on working yesterday evening, I felt that I really needed to do tonight.

"Julie also told us that she's letting you go early." Kate said, and then before I opened my mouth to respond, "she said that you're not allowed to feel guilty, and that you're going to this bonfire if it's the last thing she does."

I shut my mouth.

***

"Whoa, someone forgot their suncream," Noah's voice said from behind me.

After saying goodbye to Kate and Beverly, I ran back to the pub to start my afternoon shift. It was only when I got in the shower that I realised my skin hadn't reacted too well to the bright sun, and that my limbs and chest had taken up a rather unflattering pink hue.

I spun around, preparing to roll my eyes at him when I saw that he was leaning casually against the kitchen counter, eating a chip off a plate.

"Is that plate going out to a customer?" I asked, eyes wide.

"Yeah." He shrugged, "they aren't going to notice a few chips missing."

"Noah!" I said in shock, "that's awful! They are paying for those chips! Not to mention the fact that you are breaking about a million hygiene regulations!"

Rolling his eyes at me, he walked out of the room, towards the main restaurant, with a plate in hand. "At least I don't look like a lobster."

Resisting the urge to smash something, I looked up to see Lewis, one of the chefs at the pub, smiling knowingly at me. Lewis was a very good looking (and, unfortunately, very gay) man in his twenties who was first introduced to me on the night of my surprise party.

"What!" I said sharply, folding my arms.

"Nothing!" he said, chucking to himself. "Nothing at all."

The rest of the shift passed quickly, and before I knew it, Kate and Beverly had arrived and were pulling me up towards my bedroom.

"Come on, Lois," Kate said impatiently as I untied my apron, "it was meant to start at ten!".

I quickly realised that the beach bonfire was a very casual affair and as such the 'getting ready' consisted of chucking on a top and a pair of denim shorts and applying a fresh coat of mascara.

"Your eyelashes are incredible," Kate said in awe. As they had come over already prepared, they had been sitting, waiting for me to get ready. "Mine are so blonde you can barely see them!"

Beverly laughed, "comes in handy when it comes to body hair though!". She inspected her arm. "Look at how dark my arm hair is! I look like a gorilla."

"At least you don't wake up looking like an actual thumb with no eyebrows!" Kate said, laughing.

I smiled along. It was nice, hanging around girls again. With the stress and intensity of the exams I sat last summer, it had been a while since I had chatted to anyone my own age so lightheartedly.

"I'm so jealous of your dimples, though," Beverly said, looking at me in the mirror as I applied a coat of lip gloss to my lips. I made eye contact with her in the mirror and sent a small smile. My dimples were one of my favorite features- they came directly from my mum.

"Look at your curls!" I said in reply, reaching to stroke one of Beverly's perfect ringlets. She thanked me, giggling.

"Now that we have established we're all gorgeous," Kate said, impatiently, "can we get this show on the road?"

***

The bonfire on the beach was large and smokey. By the time we arrived it had gone eleven, and the moonlight reflected off of the gentle waves lapping the shore. There were about forty or so teenagers on the stretch of beach, some dipping their feet in the shallows, others sitting on wooden logs closer to the fire, faces bathed in the amber glow of the large flame. The air was a lot cooler now the sun had gone down, and I was suddenly thankful for the large quarter zip that I had eventually decided to bring with me, not only for the warmth but also to hide the sunburn I had obtained earlier in the day.

"Drink up," said Kate from beside me, thrusting a half- drunk bottle of wine at me. Giggling, I graciously accepted and took a large gulp.

I was drunk.

Somehow, between arriving at the beach and ending up sitting on one of the logs in front of the fire with Kate and Beverly, I had consumed enough alcohol to make my vision blur and my head spin. Between the heat and the smoky fumes of the fire, I began to feel a bit funny.

"I'm just going to pop down to the shore for a second," I said, standing up and feeling all the blood rush to my head.

Kate's face appeared worried, "are you okay?".

Beverly chimed in, "do you want us to come with you?".

I smiled and shook my head, reassuring them I was alright. Walking the twenty meters or so down to the shore and away from the smoke of the fire already had my head feeling a lot clearer. Sliding off my flip flops, I dipped my feet in the cool waves, relishing the feeling of the sand under my toes.

"All alone?" asked a voice from my right. I knew who it was before I looked up; Noah was standing, hands in his pockets, in the surf beside me. Even with my head spinning, I could see he looked stunning; the dancing light from the fire highlighted his sharp cheekbones and angular jaw, and his dark hair looked beachy and windswept from the slight breeze coming in from the sea. A sudden wave of self consciousness came over me about my casual attire and I couldn't help feeling I should have made more of an effort.

"What's it to you?" I asked, folding my arms and sticking out my chin, trying to remind myself that this Noah was the same one who kidnapped me, the same one that tried to light a cigarette in my bedroom.

Not to mention, the same one that stole a customer's chips!

"Whoa, sweetheart, calm down" he said, a smile playing on his lips, "I've only come to check up on you."

"What makes you think I need you to check on me?" I asked, suddenly reminded of how he patronisingly looked at my arms after he offered to protect me against rowdy customers.

"You're drunk and in the sea alone- it's the right thing to do."

"Maybe," I said, beginning to pace back and forth, "the right thing to do is to leave me to make my own decisions. I don't need your help."

"Don't be stupid, Lois," he said. Despite my spinning head and rising anger, I registered that this was the first time he correctly pronounced my name. "Of course you need my help. For starters, you'd still be looking for that ketchup if I didn't you where it was."

"I could have asked someone else!" I said, temper rising. "And that's exactly what I don't like about you. You're patronising and condescending and a major dickhead but in your head you've somehow twisted it so that you're the hero," I paused, looking up at his face. His face was strangely stony; his familiar smirk had fallen from his lips.

"Don't act like you know me," said Noah. "You don't know the first thing about me."

I let out a cold laugh, "I've met guys like you, Noah. Arrogant, cocky, expecting every girl in a ten mile radius to fall at your feet.". I look him dead in the eye. "I'm not falling.".

"Good," he said, maintaining eye contact, "I wouldn't want you to.".