Hey guys!

So thank you everyone for 10K (13 now?) just in time for my birthday!

Bare with me on this one, I wrote it on word instead of in my notebook then types up, but this is one of my favourites I think, this is a longer chapter than usual.

I feel like I ramble too much, so here's the chapter

I'm gonna stop going on about it and I'll just put a thanks before I show you the chapter.

By the way, it's half term here so I have a week off so I might write and upload another chapter :) No promises!

Okay it's 1:05 AM I've been writing since 10...yeah I should go sleep.

Thanks

Lauren :D

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The sweet musical tones of birds singing greets me from my slumber as I stop the buzz of my alarm, I rub my eyes and swing my legs out from under the crisp blue cover.

Last night was exhausting, but I'm still feeling a little bummed about it, I mean I love Murray and everything, but does Dan not understand that it wasn't all for the cat, that maybe I wanted to spend time with him?

Murray meows from beside the small wicker bin, his tail moving gently, he looks up at me with those tawny owl -like eyes and then repeats the sound.

"Well good morning to you, you little troublemaker" I say crouching so I can stroke the fur on his head, he begins to purr and rubs his head against my shoulder as he walks over to my bedroom door and disappears behind it.

"So you found him then?" says James, his eyes following Murray.

"Yeah, in the park, pretty scary actually...and it was a nightmare trying to get Daniel to not give up looking, gosh I felt like slapping him, but he's Daniel..." I trail off staring into the distance.

I quickly glance back at him, his eyebrows are raised, he takes a deep breath, closing his eyes as he does, and then he speaks:

"Okay I have two questions for you now" he closes the door behind him and leans against it, crossing his arms.

Uh oh

I adjust the scruffy ponytail on the back of my head and I tuck a lose strand of hair behind my ear, while he watches me closely.

"Yeah?"

"Okay; so why are you sitting on the carpet?"

"I was stroking Murray"

"And why is Daniel so special? You've smacked me before!"

"You're my brother, and Dan...I don't know"

I turn away from him as my cheeks tingle pink.

"Oh it's 'Dan' now is it?"

"Shut up, I've always called him Dan since I was about 5, you know that! Don't you have parenting to practice or something?"

"Not for a while no; and I'm only looking out for my little sister, I don't want you getting hurt again Hazel, I don't want another Harvey"

I stare at him, he's said the name that we all agreed would never be mentioned in our family ever again (I mean yeah I told Daniel, but that's different), he's broken our family's conspiracy of silence.

He looks ashamed of himself and he avoids my shocked eyes.

"Nice painting" he says nodding to the sea side scene on the wall where a little girl with blonde curly hair and a white dress, that is decorated with red poppies has been painted building a sandcastle.

"You said his name!" I say pointing at him, he raises his hands in surrender.

"I'm sorry, please don't tell Mum and Dad!"

"Whatever, I don't give a damn about that idiot anyway"

He sits on the edge of my bed, running a hand through his matted locks of hair.

"That's really brave of you to say, it hurt you so much"

Images shoot through my head of me sobbing as James tried to get past me to the front door:

"Let me go and give him a piece of my mind Hazel!"

"NO! I told Dad no and I'm telling you the same"

"Let me talk to Tilly"

"Oh god...please James, don't do this!"

"Hazel?" says James looking at me worriedly as I face him again.

I blink quickly and then I look at him.

"Yes I know, James can we not talk about this!"

He nods quickly, leaning forward to look at me more carefully.

"I'm not saying anything about him from now on"

"Good"

"Does Daniel know?"

"No" I lie

"Good, his Mum's a bit of a gossip"

"As if he'd tell his Mum, I trust him 100%"

"So you did tell him?"

"James don't you have a girlfriend to see to? I hear she had a rough night, is she okay?"

"She's okay now, I think she needs a bit of air, Mum, Dad, Heather and Mark suggested we go to the beach today"

"I'm in"

"Awesome, oh and a girl called Kirsty called? She wanted me to write this down for you, I assume it's her mobile number"

He pulls something out of his navy blue dressing gown and hands me a ripped piece of paper with a

number written hurriedly in blue biro.

"Thanks bro"

"Okay, I'll see you in a minute, Mark's made us a special breakfast of croissants and those chocolaty ones"

"Pain au chocolat?"

"Oh listen to my intelligent little sister" he says, getting up and ruffling my hair.

I roll my eyes at him and he winks before walking out and closing the door behind him.

Okay; I'm going to pretend that he didn't just compare Harvey and Daniel, Harvey was a git who only cared what he thought, loved attention and was the guy who smoked and drank illegally at parties, Dad was furious when he found out I was dating him, innocent me and Harvey Springer? I think everyone was confused on that one. Dad agreed eventually and said if it was what made me happy then it was fine, although he pretty much ignored him whenever we hung out at my house.

But did James just say him and Daniel are similar people? He did, I'm sure of it.

I need to confront him on that because although we've only been here for what...a week and a day? (Something like that anyway) Daniel is one of the kindest people I've ever met, he listens, he always makes me feel good about myself and he's just amazingly trustworthy, there's so much about him I like.

And yeah I sort off...well, I do...like him.

There I said it.

Yeah I know what you're thinking, obviously, I'm just confirming it!

And I'm still sitting on the floor, wow, slow day.

I get up, having a chance to properly stretch as I do so, I quickly brush my hair and tie it into a high ponytail secured with a red and white polka dotted clip.

I reach for my empty crystal water glass from yesterday evening and then I walk onto the landing, tripping as I do on my vans from last night which lay crumbled by my door, did James put them there then?

"Clumsy" I hear my Dad say as he walks past my bedroom laughing.

"Mum says I got it from you!" I yell back defensively

No superman here this time.

***

The radio blasts out the familiar tune of Roar by Katy Perry as I enter the kitchen.

"Morning Hazel!" says Mark giving me a hug

"Ummm, morning?"

Since when does Mark give me hugs?

"Croissant or Pain au chocolat?"

"Pain au chocolat" I smile

"Someone's got a sweet tooth, just like Daniel!" he says

I look over at Dan who waves with a smile, he has obvious bed hair; his normally flat hair sticking out in all directions, his bright and cheerful eyes crinkled at the sides due to his smile.

"Hey Hazelnut!" he says, his voice deep and husky, I guess it's true what they say, a boy's morning voice really is attractive.

"Hey Dan" I say, thanking Mark and then sitting opposite him and next to Ellie, who waves. I place the white china on the blue and white chequered table cloth.

"Sleep well?"

"Yeah I did thanks"

"Hazel!" Laura chirps grabbing me by the hug in an awkward backwards hug.

"Hi Laura"

"You okay?"

"I think the more important question is if you are?!" I say as she sits down next to Daniel.

The only sound is of the parents chatting at the far end of the table as she goes silent, the grin wiped from her face as she fiddles with her fingers.

"Laura" James encourages from next to her.

She looks up, her blue eyes looking sort of lost and a little teary.

"It was a rough night" she says although she barely whispers it.

James puts and arm round her and she turns to bury her face in his shoulder; his own blue eyes are focused on the top of her head, he looks up at me, his eyes swimming with pity for his girlfriend.

"She was sick a lot and it was awful to see her like that, she woke up feeling a whole lot better, we think a little air will help too, the sun will warm her up and we might go paddling, right Laura?"

She looks up at him and smiles.

"Yeah...yeah, sorry, it's just I've not been coping well, but I think we're going to be okay" she says.

She goes back to snuggling into James' torso and I glance at Daniel who looks back at me, I motion to Laura with my eyes and he shrugs.

I quickly pull out my phone and I add Kirsty's number, I text her:

Hi, it's Hazel

The sound of the text being sent gets Daniel's attention, he wants to know who I'm texting I can tell by the way he raises his eyebrow, but he's too polite to ask or he doesn't want to seem nosy.

"Kirsty" I say showing him the contact number.

"How did you get her number?"

"I can answer that, she called the home phone and I picked it up being the only one in the living room and your Dad yelled that I should get it, she asked me to write down her number and to give it to Hazel" says James

"You could've got it off me" Dan says, barely taking in what James said.

"I didn't really ask for it, she probably wanted to tell me something and forgot or maybe she just wants to talk"

My phone beeps, it's a picture message:

I found this, don't show Dan, it's of him and Bella last year.

The picture fills up my screen.

He looks generally happy, this must've been at some party, but he's wearing a tie but it's not formal. Wow she's pretty, her hair is dark brown and wavy, a bit like mine then, and she wears a white jumper. But I don't know something doesn't look right between them, his smile seems almost false and she looks uncomfortable.

Dan clears his throat and raises his eyebrow again as I look up from my phone.

Honestly, it's none of his business what she texts me!

"Oh she was just saying that the weathers nice"

My phone bleeps again.

Heard you're going to the beach, wear a bikini ;)

Uh okay.

Well I was going to anyway, but how the hell does news travel so fast around here?

So Bella and Dan just kind of separated? Hmmm I'm not sure I believe that, but Daniel wouldn't lie to me right? I think he still loved her and they separated as it wasn't working, I think that's what he said and then she moved away?

Yeah, that's what happened.

***

I wear my white cotton sun dress with the sweetheart neckline over the top of my tangerine and white striped bikini, my hair now hangs over my shoulders and I'm wearing a pair of dark coffee flip flops (that Laura actually leant to me).

There's a knock on my door, and I spin round to see Dan standing in a light grey vest top that has a faded-looking black and white union jack on it, knee-length jean shorts and that familiar pair of black sunglasses that he wore when we went out on his red scooter.

"You look lovely" he says as he slides his sunglasses up, revealing those intense green eyes, to above his fore head and amongst his dark hair.

I nearly say "so do you" but I stop myself and he carries on talking:

"So are you ready to go?"

I grab my white purple and grey ruffled beach bag, I slip on my plastic light blue framed sunglasses with the black lenses and then I nod with a small smile.

I walk after him down the carpet stairs, determined not to slip. Dad waits patiently at the bottom with Ellie, both in shorts and a t-shirt, Ellie also wears a black baseball type hat with a sparkly E on it which I know straight away that I would never wear something like that, Ellie has her hair in pigtails that look really pretty emerging from under the hat and Ellie sighs impatiently at us as we reach the bottom.

"Okay so you two will be riding with James and Laura, is that okay? It gives us more room"

We both agree and soon we are sitting in the leather décor of the hired yellow mini, Laura and James keep giggling from where they stand resting against the front bonnet as the plans are finalised between our parents, James glances at us and whispers something to Laura, she shakes her head and swats his arm.

And I thought we were the teenagers?!

He better not have been talking about what he was talking about earlier!

James and Laura finally get in the car, smiling at each other, I roll my eyes and sit back in my seat, securing my seat belt.

"Let's go to the beach!" says James

"Yay" I say sarcastically, watching both my parents and Dan's parents plus Ellie clamber into the silver seven seater that sort of stands out in the sunlight, my arms are crossed and I probably look really miserable.

"Oh come on Hazel! A bit more enthusiasm, please?"

I glance over at Dan who looks a little hurt at my response, a frown evident by the crease in his forehead.

"Great!" I say with a smile

Dan's smile reminds me exactly of the time when his Mum dropped his ice cream when he was 7 and then his Dad bought him a new one, disappointment to feeling happy again.

***

Daniel P.O.V

The golden sand burns my feet slight as I dash after Hazel into the sparkling sapphire ocean; as soon as I manage to reach water I sigh in relief as the water soothes my almost blistering feet. Hazel splashes me and I wade in further to meet her, she squeals when I splash her back, then tosses her hair back laughing and repeats the action.

"This beach is great! The water is practically freezing, but I'm past caring!"

It really fills me with joy to see her this happy and content as if the events of a few weeks ago never happened, she has this sudden confidence to her today that I haven't seen for a while.

Our deck chairs sit close buy covered with our towels; Ellie, Laura, James and my Dad are tossing a beach ball at each other and mum, Clarissa and Graham have gone to get us fish and chips from the colourful shops that sit directly behind the beach. The fish and chip shop is next to the souvenir shop that is always full of tourists willing to spend money on shell necklaces and fossils or a coloured personalised stick of peppermint rock that they will take home, and on the other side stands the equipment store where you can buy a bucket and spade, a body board, some googles, spare swimming trunks and more things that people buy and always seem to lose by the time the holiday is over. The ice cream truck names 'Mr Whippy' is parked by the east set of stairs, the man is currently handing a blonde haired mother a bright blue bubble gum flavoured ice cream, and I'm definitely getting one of them later.

Dad calls us over when the others return and we all tuck into the freshly battered cod that could have been caught by Dad by all we know, these chips are the best for a mile and we eat happily, discussing the previous trips to this beach that seem to be coming back to everyone's memory.

Eventually; Mum agrees to ice cream and I receive my bubble gum one, Hazel has a lemon ice and Ellie gets a raspberry ripple, Laura says she's craving a vanilla one and her and James share it, my Mum passes and so does Clarissa, but Dad and Graham both buy lemonade lollies.

We stroll along the pavement eating our frozen beverages (or in Mum and Hazel's Mum's case, sipping a smoothie) breathing in the salty sea air and enjoying the calm and peaceful atmosphere around us that was tense and upsetting last night.

"I'll bring you back here some time on my scooter, if you want" I say to Hazel as everyone else stops to talk to the man who Mum buys all her beach paintings off of.

"I'd like that" she says

A mischievous smile fills her face and suddenly I've got some of her ice cream on the tip of my nose, I shake my head and laugh with her as she wipes it off and then I run after her, trying to desperately get her back.

It's just like the days when we were young, when everything was perfect, because right now and I'm not sure how long it will last, this day is picture-perfect like a scene on one of the paintings that Mum is examining closely and I wouldn't change it one bit.