Flynn - a kissing booth fan fiction

Races

The four of us - Lee, Rachel, Elle and I - have just got down to the beach after Rachel settled in and Elle's trying to get everyone to go swimming. I'm sitting on my towel, scrolling through my phone when Elle pulls on my elbow.

"Come on. Race you."

"Race?" I smirk at her, raising one eyebrow. "What do I get when I win?"

"If you win," she corrects me. "Hmm..."

"I'm sure I'll think of something," I say with a wink, confident about my chances of beating Elle in a footrace. I drop my phone and sunglasses on my towel and get to my feet.

"Three, two -"

We both take off on 'two', just like I knew we would, neither of us waiting for 'one'. Elle's laughing, and my massive smile echoes hers. I let her pull ahead of me as we race down to the water, just to mess with her a little. But when she's just steps away from the water's edge, I pick up my speed and shoot past her, spinning around to face her once I'm knee deep.

"No fair, " she pouts, while I smirk at her. Oh, Shelly. Did she really think she could beat me? I only have to take one stride to about two of hers, after all.

"I won fair and square, Shelly," I laugh. "You owe me."

She takes a couple of steps forward into the water. "Ah, but we never agreed on a bet."

I scoff at that, there's no way I'm letting her off the hook for this.

"We both know there's a big, fat IOU with your name signed on the bottom," I tease. "Although, we also both knew you were going to lose, so it wasn't really much of a race."

"I nearly won," she insists.

"Sure," I smirk.

Elle's expression clouds over for a second, but she brightens quickly, stepping closer to me and slipping her arms up around my shoulders. She stretches up to kiss me... and then suddenly shoves me, backwards, into the ocean. I only have a second to register what's happening before I crash into the water, the only consolation being that the massive splash I made splattered her as well.

"That," she says sternly, "is for throwing me in the pool on our first night here."

Laughing, I heave myself out of the water and shake off my hair. "Sounds fair."

I pull her into the kiss I thought we were going to have earlier, but make it a little bit more.

That night my parents take us all out to dinner, with Lee and I sitting on one side and Elle and Rachel sitting opposite us. Lucky for me, Mom and Dad sit down at Lee and Rachel's end of the table, so they take most of the focus of parental conversation. Elle's seemed unsettled all afternoon, and I wonder if having Rachel here has changed the dynamic too much for her. I know Lee's the one who normally hates change, but right now I'm thinking maybe Elle isn't coping too well with it, either.

So, I make an effort to show her the upsides of our changed situation. My leg is pressed against hers under the table, and every now and again I reach across to brush her hair away from her face, or take one of her hands in mine. It's not like it's a hardship. Every time I touch her skin, my fingertips tingle a little, and when her eyes meet mine across the table, it feels like my stomach clenches a bit. I'm turning into a sap, but I don't really care. It feels good. Plus, making Elle blush is always fun.

We've just ordered dessert when Rachel turns to me. "Oh, hey! I never said congrats on getting into Harvard, Flynn. That's so fantastic!"

Not a topic of conversation I want to focus on right now, and I shift slightly in my chair before responding.