The Kissing Booth has now hit over 7,000,000 reads!!! WOW!!! How amazing is that!? Mind blown... I think that calls for a celbratory upload, don't you? Haha ;) I think this chapter's pretty long, too, so double yaay!

:) Seriously though - wow. 7 million. Now that, my awesome fans, is pretty darn amazing. And because of you. So thank you very, very, very much indeed! xx

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Chapter 5

Monday morning, I woke up after a bad night’s sleep at the crack of dawn: Seven in the morning.

I groaned, tossing about and tumbling off the bed.

“Sorry,” Lee whispered loudly. “Did I wake you up?”

“A rampaging bull in a china shop is quieter than you, Lee,” I grumbled, dusting the sand off my pajamas and throwing my bed sheets and blankets that I’d pulled off back onto my bed in a pile. I rubbed my eyes and yawned. “What’re you even doing up already?”

“Rachel’s coming today and…” He trailed off, since that was explanation enough. Whilst there was part of me that thought it was adorable how Lee was getting up so early when we were on vacation to try tidy things up so the room wouldn’t be a complete wreck when his girlfriend arrived, I still narrowed my sleepy eyes into slits at him.

“What time is it?”

“Seven.”

That was when I threw my pillow at him.

He laughed and caught it, tossing it back over onto my bed. I shot him another glare for waking me up so early, grabbed my bikini and a pair of shorts, and went into the bathroom. I wasn’t going to be able to get back to sleep now, but maybe a shower would wake me up properly.

I pulled both doors shut on either side of the bathroom; the only lock was on Noah’s door, and it had never even worked properly. We had a very simple system – if the doors were shut, the bathroom was occupied.

The bathroom wasn’t big anyway, but with Lee’s dozen or so hair products scattered everywhere and my girly toiletries laid out neatly, and Noah’s few things thrown down anywhere, it seemed a lot smaller and a lot more cluttered. I shoved Lee’s stuff to the edge of the shelf to put my clothes down.

I waited for the shower to heat up, and leaned over the sink to splash some cold water over my face, hoping to stop myself from falling asleep on my feet in the shower. It didn’t really work. Stupid Lee, I thought irritably.

I had just lathered up my hair when I heard a door open. I sighed sharply through my nose and stuck my head around the shower curtain, shampoo trickling down the sides of my face. “Lee, I don’t care what time Rachel’s coming, your hair gel can wait till when I’m not in the –”

Noah took one look at me and started laughing.         

“I so need to take a photo of that,” he laughed, meaning my annoyed face and lathered-up hair. I just glared. I couldn’t even be embarrassed; I was tired and grumpy and pissed off already. He was not doing me any favors.

“Get out! The door was shut! I’m in the shower!” I all but yelled at him, stepping back behind the curtain and starting to rinse out my hair, my fingers digging into my scalp so much it hurt, but I was that grumpy.

“What, you don’t want me to join you?” I could just picture the smirk on his face right now.

“Noah!”

“What’re you doing up so early, grumpy pants?”

“Lee’s not exactly a quiet person,” I said, still snappy.

“Thought you might say that. Anyway, listen, do you want to do something tonight?”

“Noah! I’m in the shower! Go away!”

I heard him chuckling. “Okay, fine I’ll take it as a no… I was only asking… Jeez…”

I snatched the shower curtain, jerking it back to poke my head out again. “We’re all going out later anyway so we can’t do anything tonight but maybe tomorrow. I’d love to. Now. Go. Away.”

He laughed again. “You’re really not much of a morning person, are you, Shelly?”

“Now he notices,” I grumbled. I shut the shower off and stretched one arm out from behind the shower curtain to grab blindly for my towel. I didn’t know why I bothered keeping myself concealed in a way; I mean, it wasn’t like Noah had never seen me naked. But it just felt different. Maybe it was the beach house making it feel like old times, like he was still just Lee’s big brother.

Once I had my towel wrapped around me, I stepped out of the shower to find Noah cleaning his teeth, standing in just the pair of gray sweatpants I guessed he’d worn to bed. He just shot me a pleasant little smile, and I could see the teasing, devilish gleam in his bright blue eyes that told me he was mocking me for being so grumpy.

“Shut. Up.” I knocked my hip into him to budge him out of the way so I could get to my stuff. Namely my toothbrush and hairbrush.

Noah just kind of hovered by the side of the sink though, arms folded lightly over his chest and his eyes on me. I tried ignoring him, my temper still short given my early morning start, but it wasn’t easy.

Once I’d put my hairbrush down I looked at him. “What?” I snapped.

He shrugged. “Just thinking.”

“About what?” Curiosity got the better of me; but it still came out in a grumpy, agitated tone.

“I love you,” was his simple answer, accompanied by a small, genuine smile.

My glare softened, but only a little. I could be absolutely terrible in the mornings, especially when I was meant to be on vacation… But I kind of had to give in to that just a little bit.

He leaned over the sink to give me a small kiss on the lips, only a light, little one. His arms curled around my waist and he squeezed me closer to him for a moment before saying, “Okay, I’ll let you get dressed before you bite my head off, Miss Grumpy.”

He turned away then but I said, keeping my short-tempered tone, “Hey, you don’t get away that easy, mister.” And I kissed him full on the mouth, a smile forming on my face and my early morning grumpiness quickly vanishing.

**

It turned out Rachel was arriving a few hours earlier that we’d expected. Lee’s mom went to collect her from a bus station or something, and Lee looked so excited, I had to stop being mad at him for waking me up so hideously early. The beach house wasn’t really built for an extra person, but we’d make do; Lee had an air bed in Noah’s room. He didn’t mind the air bed so much, really – it was more the fact he had to share a room with Noah that bugged him.

When we heard the car finally pull up outside with June and Rachel, I was totally shocked when Lee wasn’t bounding out of the door.

He noticed me giving him a weird look and said, “What? You think I want to look clingy?”

“You are, though,” Noah said simply, flicking through channels on the TV set.

“Yes, but she doesn’t need to know how desperately in love with her Lee is,” I explained, and shot him a grin. “Just make sure I don’t have to wear something gross to your wedding, okay?”

“Ha-ha,” he retorted sarcastically. “By the way, Dad said we’re all going out tonight to some steakhouse to welcome Rachel or whatever.”

“Since when?” Noah asked, looking up from the TV.

“He said at breakfast,” Lee told him.

“Oh. Whatever.”

The door opened, letting in Rachel’s excitable voice and June calling out, “Hello!”

“Dad’s still looking for the air bed!” Lee yelled back, and then went out into the hallway. I heard him saying hello to Rachel, then saying he’d show her the bedroom – “You and Elle are sharing, by the way, but that’s okay, right?”

“Sure!” she chirped back. I threw myself down on the couch next to Noah and a split-second later Rachel appeared around the doorway, saying, “Hi guys!”

“Hey!” I said, shooting her a big smile. I knew it was going to be weird having her around, but I’d probably like having the girly company for a change. (Lee’s mom didn’t count; she was a mom.)

I looked at the TV, and saw that Noah had settled on watching some Formula 1 race with a British commentator. I watched it for about twenty seconds, then said, “No way are we watching this. There’s got to be something on. Like cartoons.”

“Cartoons? You’re kidding me, right?”

I scowled at Noah, and made to grab the remote from where it was on the arm of the couch. He snatched it up and held it above his head though.

“Noah!” I complained, and scrambled up on the sofa, trying to reach it – but he kept moving it out of my reach, and I ended up falling across him, almost straddling him, our noses very nearly touching. We looked at each other for a long, long moment, and I was biding my time, waiting to lunge for the remote again.

Noah reached up with his free hand to brush some hair behind my ear, and his fingertips lingered near the base of my neck. Then –

I shrieked, falling back onto the sofa and trying to scramble away. Noah was too fast though, and was lying across me, pinning me down, tickling me ruthlessly. I gasped for air, I was laughing so hard. I tried to wriggle, kick my legs, push his hands away. It didn’t really work.

But I was wriggling so much that I was on the verge of the sofa, and Noah let the two of us tumble onto the floor with a loud thud.

“Noah!” I shrieked. “Noah, stop it!”

He chuckled, grinning mischievously, a devilish gleam in his electric blue eyes. But then his mom called from down the hallway, “Keep your clothes on!”

We both paused. My cheeks started turning red, I could tell, and Noah bit his cheeks, holding back a laugh. I swatted his chest while my hand was free, because the look on his face was making me want to burst into giggles too. I bit the insides of my cheeks hard.

He was just looking at me though, in such a way that I touched my cheeks and my chin and my nose. “What?” I asked. “Is there something on my face?”

“Nothing.”

“Why are you looking at me like that, then?”

He shrugged. “No reason.” I touched a finger tentatively to my nose again, and he chuckled, pulling my hand away from my face. “It’s nothing, honestly.”

“Oh.”

“You’re beautiful, Elle, you know that?”

He shot me one of his rare smiles then. Not his trademark, sexy smirk, or even a half of a smile. It was the one that flashed the dimple in his left cheek and was so infectious, I had to smile back at him, getting that warm fuzzy feeling in my stomach.

“So tomorrow night then.”

“Huh?” Did I miss something?

“I told you earlier, we could do something tonight,” he said, and I nodded, “but we can’t because we’re all going to this steakhouse, apparently. But we’ll do something tomorrow.”

“Do what?” I asked. “Did you have anything in particular in mind?”

He tapped his nose. “I’ve got a few things up my sleeve.”

“It doesn’t involve a monster truck rally, though, right?”

He laughed, and tweaked my nose, making me grimace and scrunch up my face. “No, it doesn’t. I know you, Elle. Trust me, you’ll love it. If it goes to plan.”

“Goes to plan?”

He shrugged. “It’s a surprise.”

I groaned, frowning at him. “What’s with you and surprises? Can’t you just tell me what we’re doing if we’re going to do something? It sucks not knowing. I feel like an idiot. You can’t just tell me?”

He grinned impishly, looking startlingly like Lee for a moment. “Now where’s the fun in that?”

“You just like teasing me like this, don’t you?” I pouted.

“Yup, pretty much.” He dipped his head down to give me a quick kiss on the lips before jumping to his feet and offering me a hand to help me up too. I sighed, still pouting at him, but took the hand and stood up too.

“Are you going to watch the rest of the race with me, Elle?” Noah asked, his voice taunting. I looked from him to the car race still going on the TV, and raised my eyebrows as if to say, ‘You’re kidding me.’ Noah laughed and sat back down; I sat right down next to him, snuggling up, and even though I really didn’t want to watch the race, I was really, really happy.

**

After maybe half an hour or so, Rachel had unpacked the essentials – namely her swimsuit and a beach dress, sun block and flip-flops. Once she was changed and ready, we all headed down the beaten track in the sand to the beach.

I yanked off my t-shirt and stepped out of the shorts I’d put on over my red polka-dot bikini. “I’m going swimming. Anyone else?”

“Um… maybe in ten minutes,” Rachel told me with a bright smile.

I didn’t bother looking at Lee or waiting for him to answer, I turned straight to Noah, who was scrolling through his iPod. I pulled on his elbow. “Come on. Race you.”

He looked at me with a smirk, one dark eyebrow going up. “Race? What do I get when I win?”

“If you win,” I corrected him pointedly, “hmm…”

“I’m sure I’ll think of something,” he told me, winking, with that cocky arrogance I used to wonder why girls swooned over. He dropped his iPod over his towel, and threw his sunglasses down on top of them.

“Three,” he said, “two –”

We’d both already taken off, kicking up sand, on ‘two’, like we both knew the other would run early to get a head start. I was laughing, a massive smile plastered on my face and the sea breeze making my hair tangle as I ran. Feet slipping on the dry, fine sand, it felt so childish, racing him down to the water.

I loved it.

And I loved Noah. But man, I so wanted to beat him right then.

I was pulling ahead; he was about two steps behind me when I dared to glance back at him. The sand was becoming damper and more solid – I could win this race, easy. My feet were almost at the water’s edge now, too…

Until Noah breezed past me and spun to face me in the water, smirking hugely, the water around his ankles, and I stopped in my tracks at the shore, too shocked at losing at the very last second.

“No fair,” I pouted.

He laughed skeptically. “I won fair and square, Shelly,” he said teasingly. “You owe me…”

I took a couple of steps, cringing momentarily at the freezing water licking over my feet. “Ah, but we never agreed on a bet…”

He scoffed, still smirking. “We both know there’s a big fat IOU with your name signed at the bottom,” he teased. “Even though we both knew you were going to lose, so it wasn’t really much of a race.”

“I nearly won.”

“Sure,” he said, in such a way I started to wonder if he’d let me pull ahead and think I could’ve won.

I felt a scowl pulling at my forehead, but then I smoothed my expression out to give him a small, flirty smile and step closer until there was only about an inch of space between us, my arms slipping up around his shoulders.

I saw the tiny twitch of his eyebrow going up expectantly, waiting for me to kiss him, and that trademark arrogant smirk of his slipped onto his face again. I went up on my toes to reach him, leaning in slowly to kiss him…

I shoved him back as hard as I could.

It only worked because I managed to catch him so off guard. It was still like pushing down a brick wall though – a brick wall with some seriously hot abs, at that – but his eyes widened a little and his mouth formed a tiny circle as he toppled back, off balance, caught totally unawares.

He landed with a massive splash!

The cold water soaked him completely and I cringed, shrieking a little, as it hit me too and splattered me wet and cold too.

Noah blinked, taken aback. Then a feral kind of smile took over his face, and he started pushing himself up off the seabed, coming at me.

“Oh, no,” I laughed, putting out my hands and shaking my head. Drops of water flew off the wet ends of my hair. “No!”

I did the only thing I could think of in those circumstances – stumbled back and then ran around him, splashing through the sea that was up to my knees.

I knew it was a futile effort, just like I knew I’d probably lose our little race.

He tackled me from behind, his arms curling around my waist and lifting me up into the air backwards. Shrieking with laughter, I thrashed around wildly. “Noah! Noah, stop it! Put me down!”

“If you insist…”

“No!” I screamed, and he launched both of us sideways, into the shallow water. He made sure I landed on top of him though, so he didn’t crush me. Not that that stopped me from getting totally soaked, though. My hair hung in a dark, dripping curtain, hiding both our faces. I giggled, and he smiled back up at me. It was more of a smirk, really, but his eyes creased at the corners and his dimple showed a bit.

“I love you,” I said quietly without even thinking about it, water crashing over our tangled legs.

He looked at me for a brief moment before putting a hand on my neck and pulling my face down to kiss me. It was probably a bit too rough and heated for a public beach at eleven in the morning, but I don’t think either one of us even thought about that; at least it wasn’t too busy where we were.

“You still owe me,” he murmured before pulling me into another kiss.

“Oh yeah?” My lips moved against his, my voice muffled. “How’d you work that one out?”

“One IOU for losing our little race, and one for pushing me. I figure you just paid back half your tab.”

I giggled. “Well then, we’ll have to come to some kind of agreement, won’t we?”

He chuckled, and with that, pulled me into another kiss, one that still sent sparks through me and gave me that mind-blowing firework feeling.

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Next chapter will be up probably Friday, since I'm busy Thursday :)

Hope you liked this one though - drop a comment if you can, and don't forget to vote if you liked it ;) xx