The Beach House

Chapter 4: Wanna Race?

    "What're your names?" Soren says without breaking eye contact. His smile is easy and kind. I can't look away from him, like if I do he'll disappear.

      "This is Mariella. Over there is Emi, and Annika's upstairs. She's Tess" Ali says while wrapping her arms around my shoulders from behind the couch and smiling at Soren. She uses her eyes to gesture towards Tess who is leaning towards Soren in a feline kind of way.

       "Tessi if your nice," Tess says with a smirk. I roll my eyes but still can't help but smile at her obnoxious flirting. I love her, but it really is unbearable try to interact with her when she's got her eyes set on a guy. I would cringe, but I could never have the confidence to be as bold as her so instead I laugh.

       "I'm guessing you're Ali, then," Soren says, looking away from me for the first time in a while. "I got an earful about you on the way up from your loving brother." My whole body relaxes the minute his eyes move, as if I'd been holding my breath. The blood rushes from my face, which hopefully resolves the blushing issue I have going on right now. I grab Ali's arms which are still draped around my shoulders and nestle my head into her elbow just in case my cheeks are still red.

"Are you guys gossiping about me?" Luke says as he walks over to the couch and takes the space between Tessi and me. His mouth is full of Cheez-It's.

Tess moves with exasperation. Luke blocked Soren's view of her boobs, but Soren didn't seem to notice in the first place.

  "Always, Luke. The whole world is always talking about you," Ali says, her voice dripping in sarcasm.

"As it should be!" Orange crumbs fly out of Luke's mouth as he speaks. "I'm an extremely interesting topic of conversation!"

        "I do enjoy talking about you're shortcomings... and embarrassing stories... Ooh, like this one tim—" Ali launches into her favorite Luke story about a particular halloween where he got stuck in his onesie costume and peed his pants to an enraptured Soren. I've lived the story once but heard it's retelling thousands of times. It's a classic.

         As the conversation continues, I allow myself to stop listening. I stare into my lap. Soren's face is burned into my eyes, and even though I'm not looking, I feel like I can sense every little move he makes. It's maddening.

"You good? You seem tense," Ali whispers. I didn't notice she'd finished up story time. Luke shows Tess, Soren, and now Annika, who must've come back down the stairs at one point or another, his impersonation of the queen of England in a desperate yet weirdly successful way to swing the conversation back in his favor. The accent is extremely inaccurate, yet captivating all the same.

"All good," I say. Ali nods, but I can tell she isn't ready to drop it.

"Who's up for a swim?" Robin shouts to the group from the kitchen, interrupting any further prodding from Ali and the spew of vaguely british garble coming from Luke's mouth.

"Absolutely!" Tess says as she stands to go change.

"We'll be down in a sec!" Annika says as she follows Tess upstairs while tugging Emi away from staring longingly at Noel from the kitchen island.

        Ali and I follow suit and head upstairs after the girls. I look back as I take the first few steps to see Soren tracing my every move. I wonder if he's feeling as shaken up by me as I am by him. It's kinda doubtful. I'm not exactly the kind of girl that guys are usually mystified by. Except Noah. As soon as I picture Noah in my head I snap my eyes forward and hurry up the rest of the stairs, taking the last few steps two at a time. Ali and I grab all of our swimsuits and go over to the master bedroom to debate which ones to wear with the other three girls. We walk in without knocking which makes a topless Emi shriek and a nearly naked Tess laugh. Ali goes in first and I close the door discretely behind me.