Zoah | Gia Brenda

~1~

I was lying in my bed at 4 am, reading the last chapter of my last book I hadn't read, when I heard the doorbell ring. I could hear Mum frantically rush down the stairs to greet our guests, she'd been cleaning all night, also keeping me awake.

Theo and Riley have been spending the summer with us since I was six years old. They've always been my bestfriends, even if it meant i'd be lonely all through the school year. Both of them were orphans, and went to a boarding school in Western Australia. They had no parents, and they're adopter was a woman who wasn't around all summer due to buisness. My mum was friends with their real mum before she died, and happily decided to have them over every summer. Theo was the eldest, 17. Riley was only about a year older than me, 15. However, it was uncommon to see Theo around the house, he was usually out hanging with friends.

I guess their presence made me feel like a third wheel, like I was the orphan and they belonged here, in Sapphire Bay.

"Theo! Riley!" my mum exlaimed loudly. I trudged down the stairs, a picture of the boys already in my head, already expecting them to be standing there with the same shaggy brown hair and skinny figure.

When I reached the bottom step, I immediately realized something had changed.

"We missed you, Carol." laughed Theo, embracing my mother. He turned to me,

"Gosh, you've changed Kat." he stated. He looked me up and down, before smiling and hugging me. We both giggled.

"And you've gotten a little taller, just a little." I chuckled, he rolled his eyes. Theo pretty much looks like he did last summer, apart from a bit more of a sturdy build now.

Riley stepped through the door with a straight face and let my Mum hug him.

"Hey Carol." he said dumbly, smiling while trying to shuffle past her. "Kat." he greeted me.

I didnt say anything back, knowing something was up. I watched him drag his suitcases into he and Theo's room, then shutting the door behind him. Theo nudged me and pointed to the towel cupboard, I smiled at him, "You go first, i'll just be getting changed."

I walked down the small pathway as the sand hit my skin like bullets, propelled by the wind. It wasn't storming, but cloudy and a little gusty. I pulled my towel around my dark green bikini so the sand wouldn't hit my legs.

"Here here, Katrina!" he yelled, flicking his hair back in the wave. I laughed and ran in after him, letting my towel fall next to his sandals and tshirt. I dived under the first small wave, and rose up in the next. I swam a short distance until I was side-by-side with Theo.

"I couldn't wait for you to come back!" I said. Theo grinned,

"Me either."

Then he pulled me under a wave by my leg, I pushed myself up.

"Hey! What was that for?!" I gasped, pulling my caramel, waist long hair back from my eyes.

"Sorry..."

I jumped forward and touched his arm roughly, "Tag!" I shouted, diving under the water as far away from him in possible. He quickly recovered from shock and chased after me,

"So thats how it is then!" he growled playfully, dragging my through the water by the foot as I laughed. He picked me up in one arm and then threw me into an oncoming wave, I quickly grabbed his arm and took him with me.

"Bro you've got some strength!" he remaked, stepping up onto a sandbank, "Wanna trade?" Theo flexed his biceps.

"Ew no!" I replied, giggling. I beat myself against him in attempt to push him over but failed. He stopped fighting me and gently swam towards the shore, I followed him. Once we reached the sand, Theo lay down on his back and looked up at the sky. I do too.

"You have no idea how much I would give for this sunrise at home."

I sighed. He continued to scan through the clouds.

"This is your home, Theo." I said, gripping his hand tightly. He turns his head towards me and smiles.

"Mum got a new boyfriend again." explained Theo, "It's as if we're not even there anymore. And on weekends she's stopped taking us for lunches at our place. It's like, our life has just been torn to peices coz of this guy!"

"I'm sure thats not true," I stated, wanting to believe myself, "She's probably busy with work."

Ever since Mrs Ferris got a divorce with Theo's adopted father, she'd been drinking and living under horrible conditions. She ended up taking the brothers to the other side of Australia to get away from her ex, and left them in a bording school. It felt weird. Me, the youngest, comforting the eldest of us. But I liked it, the feeling of maturity.

"But thats the thing, she doesn't even have a job. She uses stuff from the government to pay for schooling, and I reckon during the day she sleeps around." he admitted sorrowfully.

I felt for him, but I didn't know what to say.

"How was the plane over?"

"Horrible, but the flight chick was hot." he giggled. I gave him a disaproving look and tried to hide my laughter.

"But somethings changed about you Kat, you could wipe the floor with that attendant!" he chuckled. I stood up and flicked sand at him, then ran but to the house with my towel around me, him following.

The morning bled into the afternoon as I played playstation with Theo. I couldn't seem to forget how Riley acted this morning, my eyes kept drifting over to his bedroom door.

"I'm getting sick of this." I admitted to Theo midway through a game of Mario-Kart.

"Don't be a sore loser Kat, Just because I'm beating your ass doesnt mean you have to feel bad about it!!" he exclaims.

I put down my controller and walked down the corridor to Riley's room. I wasn't sure what I was going to say, but after what Theo told me, I could imagine why he was upset. I knocked, but no one replied. I carefully twisted the doorknob and let myself in, Riley was sitting on his bed with his airpods in, he hadn't seemed to have noticed me.

"Riley?" I signalled to him but he ignored me, "Riley?!"

"What?!" he exclaimed, removing his airpods. I shuffled around through the piles of clothes on the floor to reach the end of Theo's bed, and finally slumped down.

"You're acting weird." I told him. He looked at me like I was strange.

"You're acting weirder."

"Look, you can't just deny what you did this morning," I stated, looking away from him, "You're not the kind of guy to pass up a swim with T and I, and you looked troubled."

Riley stares at me coldly, "I'm fine" he says angrily. I look at him in disbelief. He's never like this.

"I know somethings wrong, you can tell me y'know?" I remind him. He didnt take what I said well.

"Fuck off, its my room, not yours." he remarks bitterly. I stand up and climb over the piles of clothes and belongings.

"Ok."

Deep inside he knew I was just trying to help. But why was he pushing me away? Why was he acting so strangely?