Surf's Up

Chapter 8

Calling arriving home a relief would be the biggest understatement ever made. The rest of the day at the Surf Shack was literal hell, I have never felt so awkward in my life. I slump my back against the door as it shuts behind me finally relaxing. I let out a sigh and make my way to the kitchen.

"How was work sweetie?" I'm startled to a full kitchen of my whole family and Melissa staring at me as I walkthrough the door. Oh right, this is girlfriend meets the family night. I smile and lie about my day before taking a seat. Melissa is jogging her knee up and down clearly extremely nervous. I go over to her and pulled her into a hug to offer some form of comfort, just knowing how overwhelmed she must feel.

"So lovely to see you again Melissa, this one here doesn't stop talking about you!" I wink at her and she holds in a chuckle.

"Em... Shut up." I can feel Finn glaring in my direction trying to play it cool whilst fiddling with Melissa's hand.

"Well I'm glad he's talking about me rather than another girl!" Melissa laughs. Her statement provokes a laugh from Casey in the corner.

"Casey, Holy crap. how are you?" I scream running around the kitchen ungracefully, knocking my hip painfully against the corner of the table and shaking it just to reach her.

"Language Emilie." My dad pretends to care, clearly to keep up appearances for Melissa.

"How has my older sister been? You left me alone with Finn, for two weeks, I'm going insane." I ask dismissing my dad's comment. She laughs care-free at my absurd statement.

"It's been okay. James and I are settling in to our new place, but it's a little too far from home for my liking." She explains. For someone that acts to care she doesn't make the effort to visit very often. I sit back down at the table as mom ushers us all to sit down. It's funny watching my mom and dad attempt to make us look like a formal family, despite how we were quite the opposite. Melissa soon joins in to the conversation and even manages to make dad laugh. Which is some what impressive. All in all it's a lovely meal, and amazing to be surrounded by everyone I love at once for the first time in what feels like forever.

Melissa stands up and thanks everyone for the lovely.

"Sorry but I must get home." She tells us before saying goodbye to everyone.

"It was our pleasure I assure you," my mom tells her, "and I hope to see you soon, Finn's really lucked out to have someone as lovely as you!"

Her face goes red and she looks really flustered smiling massively. Finn holds her hand and begins to walk to the front door. I follow.

"So nice to see you." I tell her bringing her in for a hug, "we have to meet up without this loser some time!" I say pointing towards Finn who was scowling at me. She laughs and nods before getting in Finn's car.

Running back inside I ask Casey if she wants to watch a movie.

"Sorry Em, I have to head home." She makes another excuse. Classic. I never see her anymore. She went from being my big-sister, my mentor in life, the person I went to with any problem to a complete stranger. I nodded and she kissed my forehead.

"Hey, I'll catch you next time." She adds before leaving. Mom came over and put her arms around me seeing that I'm hurt.

"She's just a little busy at the moment sweetie." She kisses my forehead. I nod and excuse myself upstairs. I hear the door slam downstairs and then mutterings before I can hear footsteps on the stairs. It's Dylan. It's true that you can determine a person by the sound of their footsteps. I've always been particularly good at it, perhaps as a safety feature as my room's closest to the stairs. It comes in handy quite often, for example, when mom has told me to get out of bed three times, and I hear her footsteps coming up the stairs for the fourth time. I have just about enough time to launch myself out of bed so I can pretend to be getting ready and avoid a telling off from my mom.

My door creaks open and Dylan's head peeks through.

"You okay Em?" He asks softly before strolling over to sit on my bed. "Heard you're a little down and in need of some movies?" I smile and come to the end of the bed to hug him. He always knows what to say. He inhales deeply holding me tight and I feel... Safe.

I curl up in bed whilst he flicks on the TV and puts Mean Girls in the DVD player. He saunters over and I open the duvet so he can get in. Readjusting myself I rest my head on his chest so I can hear his heartbeat. That in itself is particularly calming and I find myself with heavy eye lids within minutes. Before falling into the realm of sleep I feel Dylan's hand make it's way to my hair as he begins stroking it.

I wake up the next morning with a piercing migraine and alone. Fun, and now I have to drag my sorry ass out of bed, in a freezing shower (because knowing my luck nobody has turned the hot water on) and down to the most pleasant being I know... Oh if only, no. I have to face the animal that is Noah.