Chapter 9

Part 1

For the past hour, Xela and I have been waiting for Rebekah and Will at the community centre, which was the assigned meeting place. Apparently, the four of us are supposed to go to the beach even though it’s still Winter and snowing outside? Xela and I have yet to receive any texts from them, after the million texts we sent them asking where they were. Across from me, Xela is still on her phone calling, texting, or trying to find any way to get a hold of Rebekah.

“She’s not picking up. They set us up. They just totally set us up,” Xela complained.

“Calm down, they did not just set us up.”

Right as I said that, my phone vibrates and I receive a text from Will.

Will: Have fun at the beach! ">

“Yep, they set us up,” I told her.

“What, are they not coming now?”

“Probably not.”

“Should we just go back home then?” she asked.

“Nah, they organized this for us to have fun. Let’s give them what they want. Besides, you looked really excited to go the beach.”

“Why would they leave the two of us to go alone then?”

“I think you know exactly why” I replied.

“.......”

“......”

“J-Just so you know, there’s nothing going between us. Okay??” she said, now blushing.

“I never said there was.”

“You just did,” she argued.

“No… I said that they think there’s something going on between us. Why are you so red? Do you actually want something going on between us?”

“N-no,” she stuttered, blushing even more than before. “Saying that stuff is embarrassing. Any girl would blush if you said that to them.”

“I wouldn’t know…,” I remarked.

“That’s your own fault,” she said bluntly.

“How?”

“I’ve seen it before. These attractive girls always start hitting on you but then you start acting all awkward so they get the wrong message and think you don’t want to talk to them so they walk away.”

“How do you know it’s not because you’re there too?”

“They wouldn’t even approach you if that were the reason…”

“Then, how do you know that’s the reason they walk away? What if they have somewhere to be at that time? People are busy these days,” I said, still in denial.

“Because the exact same thing happens to me and boys. That’s no coincidence.”

“Ooooh, that explains why you’ve been single all your life,” I said with a smirk.

“Says you.”

“Haven’t I already told you about that one girl-”

“That doesn’t count!” she interrupted.

“Why not?”

“She used you to get another guy…”

“It’s not like I didn’t use her too. Where do you think I got all these hoodies from?”

“So you both used each other… How does that help your case in any way?”

“I don’t know. Can we not talk about her?” I asked, admitting defeat in our argument.

“Fine. Shall we leave then?”

“Yeah, let’s start driving.”

Part 2

After 2 whole hours of driving and bickering with Xela about my driving speed, we finally reached our destination. As expected, the water completely froze to ice and all the sand was replaced to snow. The volleyball nets which would normally be there during summer were taken down and it was completely empty of people, meaning we had the whole beach to ourselves. The only problem now, figuring out what the fuck we do here.

“So… now what?” Xela asked in confusion.

“Why are you asking me?” I replied.

"You were one who said we’re going anyway even though they ditched us.”

“I wasn’t the one who had the idea of going to the fucking beach on a cold Winter day, now was I?”

“What??? That wasn’t me either!” Xela exclaimed.

“Yes, but when they proposed the idea, I wasn’t gonna go. But no... you were all like ‘Come on Johnny, you’re never any fun’ and ‘Please? Please? Let’s all go to the beach together!’”

“It sounded like a good idea at the time!”

“How does going to the beach during Winter sound like a good idea in any way???”

“I think my brain was in summer-mode 4 months too early,” she said.

“Of course it was.”

After some more aimless walking on the beach, I started noticing an unusual amount of sneezes coming from Xela. I look over to her to see if everything’s alright, and notice she doesn’t even have a jacket on!

“What the fuck!” I yelled. “Where’s your jacket?!”

“Oh, haha.” she laughed. “Looks like I got too carried away when I heard we were going to the beach.”

“Are you an idiot? Why didn’t you say something?”

“I didn’t even notice until now. Haha, silly me.”

“That’s a lie. You’ve been sneezing this whole time.”

“and only now you say something?” she whispered, almost to the point I couldn’t hear.

“What?” I asked, pretending not to hear what she just said.

“Nothing.”

“You’re going to get sick. Here, have my jacket,” I offered her as I start to take mine off.

“No!” she exclaimed. “You’ll get sick then! I’m fine, I promise.”

“I’ll be fine, I have a hoodie on.”

“So do I….”

“You know what, how about this? I’ll give you the jacket and I’ll wear your hoodie under mine,” I suggested.

Her face suddenly became red again as she blushed. “L-like wear my hoodie, and I-I wear your jacket?”

“Yes…”

“No! That’s embarrassing!”

“Don’t worry, I don’t have cooties”

“That’s not the problem!”

“Then what is???” I asked.

“Who knows what perverted stuff you’re going to do with my hoodie?” she said with a disgusted face.

“Really? I’ve seen you sleep twice already. Don’t you think if I was some perverted sex offender I would’ve done something by now? Also, it’s a fucking hoodie, what could I possibly do with a hoodie?”

“Ugh, fine,” she agreed reluctantly.

“Thank you,” I said, tossing my heavy winter jacket to her.

“Okay, turn around now,” she said as she was about to take off her hoodie.

“Why? You’re just taking off a hoodie…”

“Sometimes when I’m taking off my hoodie, my shirt comes up too.”

“Okay, fine. If you really want me to…”

I turned around as she said, and waited for her to take off her hoodie and put on my jacket.

“Are you done yet?” I asked her.

“Yes.”

“Did your shirt come off?”

“No.”

“See?”

Part 3

We spent the rest of the day making snow angels, building snowmen, and sliding down a small hill with a makeshift toboggan until it was getting darker and we could see the clear, evening sky. Xela and I are now sitting with our legs out on what’s supposed to be the edge of the beach but has become the border of the fully frozen lake and really snowy land.

“Today was definitely not what I expected,” Xela said, breaking our long silence of just looking at the sunset.

“Haha, where’ve I heard that before?” I said, referring to that one night where we drove around all night.

“I’m impressed, you remembered my quotes.”

“I have a natural gift for remembering really useless stuff.”

“Let’s see if you’ll remember this one then,” she began. “The moon looks beautiful tonight.” She looked directly into my eyes and was slightly blushing.

“What the fuck?” I looked at her in confusion. “The moon? The sun hasn’t even finished setting yet.”

“Never mind, you don’t get it.”

“What? What don’t I get? What does that even mean?”

“I’m not telling you.”

“Fine, I’ll search it up on the internet right now.”

“That’s cheating. You’ll find out one day.”

“Why don’t you tell me now,” I still pleaded.

“You have to figure it out yourself.”

“Fine,” I agreed reluctantly.

Shortly after, we broke off into our usual silences once again, just waiting for one of us to say something first. Finally, after another 20 minutes of more looking into the sunset, it was once again Xela to say something first.

“So… What do you think those two are doing right now?”

“What a lame conversation starter,” I remarked.

“Well, I don’t see you coming up with anything.”

“Don’t get me wrong, it’s still lame, but I’m not much better when it comes to this stuff.”

“Then shut your mouth and stick to the topic.”

“Right, those two bastards. Probably flirting with each other.”

“Who’s flirting with who, you think?” she asked.

“Will’s definitely flirting with Rebekah.”

“No way, Rebekah’s the one who’s flirting with Will.”

“Are you kidding? Will will take any chance to say something 'sweet' to impress the ladies."

“Rebekah’s really good at that kind of thing too. She even does it to me unintentionally sometimes when we’re texting. She’s got that natural charm factor any guy would fall for.”

“Yeah, I learned that the hard way.”

“Come on, missing your chance because you were too pussy to say anything, and then her randomly coming back four years later, only to find out she’s interested in another guy isn’t so bad, is it?”

As she said that, I choked on my own saliva. “How do you know all that?”

“Remember… She tells me everything.”

“Right,” I said. “Ugh, we’re so sad. Talking about other people on our own getaway.”

“What else do we have to talk about? We don’t have anything else in common.”

“Ironic how I have the most in common with you,” I commented.

“Yes, because we’re going to talk about hockey and anime all day right?”

“Good point. Let’s talk about how our days went then?”

“Do you really want to hear the story about how I woke up, did some homework, and then came here with you?”

“No, not really.”

“Exactly.”

“Should we go home now then?” I suggested. "I'm really tired. Better we go now then later."

“Yeah, let's go home. You can just drive me to your house for my brother to pick me up. I don’t want you driving for an extra 20 minutes in case you fall asleep on the wheel.”

“No, I think your brother will start having suspicions if he needs to pick you up from my house again. Besides, what’s an extra 20 minutes gonna do anyway?”

“You can fall asleep in those 20 minutes and get us both killed.”

“Just keep talking to me then,” I told her.

“Great, more talking! What is there to talk about even?”

“I don’t care, anything you want.”

As the two hours of driving back and talking about stupid shit to keep me away flew by, Xela did, in fact, make it back home alive without her brother gaining any new suspicions about us. Most surprisingly, I somehow made it back home too.