Forever.

Chapter 18: "To make us jealous... maybe."

Everybody had decided to go to the beach, play for some time, roam around and then be back by 4 o'clock to get enough time to get ready for the dinner that was going to happen tonight.

Veronica decided on wearing a black lace-up one-piece swimsuit while Laylah wore a black V-neck swimsuit, which had small cuts on either side of her waist. They'd wore their matching black beach cover-ups and headed to the beach house, where the boys were waiting.

As soon as Veronica entered the house, with Laylah behind her, Sebastian looked at her and couldn't peel his eyes away from her. She looked so... beautiful, as always. She smiled at him while he grinned back and tapped on the seat beside him, gesturing for her to sit there. She sat beside him while Laylah still stood there, leaning against the wall. Theodore took his own time checking her out, which was not left unnoticed by Laylah.

When his eyes met her, she raised an eyebrow at him, trying her best to keep her face emotionless, and without getting any reaction from him, she quickly turned her head and said, "I think I am gonna go stroll on the beach and leave the love birds alone, who can't stop ogling at each other,"

Veronica quickly got out of whatever daze she was in and snapped her head to Laylah, who was smirking at her, "Byeee," Laylah said and turned on her heel to be consequently followed by Theodore.

Sebastian cleared his throat and said, "You look... gorgeous." Veronica blushed at his words. She turned her head back to him and checked him out. He was in nothing but white swim trunks. His fairly defined abs were visible to her; the cross-necklace he wore added to his beauty. He looked enticing. She took a deep breath and said, "You don't look too bad yourself, too," She smiled at him, and they both got up.

Sebastian turned to Josh, who was still on his phone; his expression was now serious; Seb knew not to bug him when he had that expression, so he said, "We'll be out, join us when you're free,"

Joshua looked up from his phone and nodded, smiling at him, and returned to his phone.

---

"You guys are no fun. Seriously? You have left the girls alone, sUn bAtHiNg with their cover-ups on?" Joshua asked as he came to the beach. His work took half an hour, and when he got there, he was shocked to see the girls and the guys minding their own business. That was weird; the 'lovesick idiots' were acting like mere strangers. Weren't they supposed to be all snuggly-doogly and let Josh have his fun messing around with them on that?

In response to his question, the guys just shrugged. He was beyond confused at the moment. Theodore and Laylah not talking and being less couply was understandable. But what about Veronica and Sebastian, who looked at each other like they could rip each other's clothes off and start making out but still stayed apart.

Being Josh, he snapped his fingers and gathered everybody's attention to him.

"I'm going in the water," He declared, and Laylah got up, saying, "Thank God! Someone said that I'm joining you!" She shrugged off her cover, Veronica being equally bored, got up and shrugged the cover-up, and Sebastian observed each of her moves keenly. Her swimsuit complimented her body so well. Veronica wanted to be tan and was insecure about her fair skin, though she wasn't pale. But when Sebastian saw her, all he could see was perfection. Such a lovesick idiot.

Sebastian had always been a ladies' man. His handsome cute face, his boyish grin, and God, that damn body. But his eyes had always been for his best friend since the very beginning. And now that he had decided he was going to confess, he didn't know-how.

Even though he wasn't sure if she reciprocated his feelings, he wanted it to be perfect, so she'd be so happy if she did like him back. Like she was going to like me back. But there's no harm in hoping, right? Sebastian thought.

Veronica did have her fair share of insecurities, like stretch marks, being fair but thinking it's too fair. She wasn't jealous, but she was. It was complicated. But she never showed her insecurities; she walked with her head up, not giving two shits about what people thought. She never showed her insecurities like 'insecurities'; it was her body.

Her. Beautiful. Body. This realization wasn't really hard for her; she was proud of who she was.

Did she not go through bullying? She did.

Did she sit back? My arse, she did. She turned her bullies 'roasts' on them. After all, she did have her way with words.

Did it affect her? It did at first when she was young. Being bullied about your weight is no fun. But as time went on, she grew indifferent to stupid shit girls blurted out about her, like being fat is equivalent to being ugly. She didn't care then, she didn't care now. She didn't need to be 'beautiful' according to the people to get 'acceptance'. She knew she was beautiful, and being healthy wasn't a fucking problem.

While Laylah, Josh, and Veronica played in the water. Splashing it on each other, running around, Sebastian and Theodore were busy boring holes into Josh's back. He had picked both of the girls and tossed them in the water. They looked at each other, and Sebastian said, "Why is he doing this?"

"To make us jealous... maybe," Theodore said as he carefully looked at him and Laylah.

Sebastian nodded at him and his gaze diverted to two girls approaching them, giggling and talking with each other. It was obvious they were talking about the guys. Seb nudged Theo and told him to look at them. Theo looked at the girls and then back at Seb with a grin.

They knew exactly what they were gonna do. As the girls moved closer, they maintained eye contact and flashed some fake smiles toward them. The girls looked very similar but different at the same time.

"Hi! I'm Mayah," Said one of the girls to Sebastian. He nodded and smiled, giving his name. "I'm Sylvie," The other one said, looking at Theodore, who smirked at her when he felt Laylah's eyes on him and went ahead and took her hand and shook it firmly, "Theodore,"

"So let's get to the point," Sylvie said, "You see those two boys, the blonde and the brunette?" They turned around and looked at the guys Sylvie and Mayah were pointing towards. Seb and Theo hummed and looked back at Sylvie, "Those are our brothers who think we cannot get guys." Both of the girls rolled their eyes when she said that. Mayah continued, "So we told them that we could prove them otherwise,"

"We could see how you were stabbing the guy with your eyes while he was playing with the two girls who weren't even talking to y'all before when you were trying to talk. I know it sounds creepy, but we're observant. Moving on, we'd like to help y'all with your little issue there, if you're willing to just come with us and be all friendly and shit with us in front of our brothers, just for" She looked at Sylvie, who pouted as if she were in thought and said, "An hour or two?"

It was a lot to process, but the boys looked at each other, at the girls. They looked at Veronica and Laylah, who were now talking to each other and trying to act not-so-obvious that they weren't talking about them, but the guys caught it when both the girls looked at them and quickly looked away when they noticed them looking. Their answer was instant, "We're down." 

--x--

Double update in a week!! Yayy! lol 

So anyways, I hope y'all enjoyed!

Thank you so much for reading!

Until next time:)

- Estrel<3