Sweet & Salty

Chapter 37: Crumbling Walls

Matilda's POV
The past few weeks seemed to fly by faster than I can paddle to the line up. Everyone here at Bells Academy have fallen into routine.

Every morning, I'm woken by my awful alarm and hit the beach for Beth's morning training. I then shower and go to school. After school, we all do Scott's training then the combined surfing session.

Today's Saturday, tomorrow marks one month since arriving at Bells Academy. I can't believe one month has gone and that I only have eleven left here.

It's funny, when I left home I felt like being away from my family for a year would feel like forever. Now, it feels like a year with my new friends isn't long enough.

Training has been intense. We've had three training sessions everyday, on Sunday's only two. It's challenging, but I can see the impact its had on my body and my surfing.

"Tilda are you coming?" Milly asks, popping her head around the door and peering at me.

"Yep, let's go!" I cheer, jumping off my bed and runny down stairs with Milly to meet the boys.

Today, we have our first free weekend. At the end of each month, Scott and Beth have given us a weekend away from training to do whatever we please.

"Are Vicky and Blair coming?" I ask.

"Nah, they're off doing all that lovely couple shit," Kai laughs, wrapping his arm around Milly's shoulders.

Milly and Kai have the cutest relationship. They're really close, but nothing more than friends. I could almost bet money on them becoming a couple, but both of them assure me that their feelings are nothing more than friendship.

Today, we're going to the fair. I haven't been to a fair since I was small, so saying I was excited was an understatement.

"So," Justin says as we walk "what do you want for your birthday?"

"I don't want anything!" I whinge. My birthday is next week. I'll be seventeen.

"Tilds, come on," he urges, bumping into my side.

"No, seriously, I don't want anything," I confirm. I don't want everyone to make a huge fuss over my birthday and I certainly don't want people to spend money on me.

"That's a lie," he says, continuing to harass me.

"Okay, your right I do want something," I say, looking up at him. His eyes widen, gesturing to continue. "I want the perfect swell," I laugh.

"Guys hurry up!" Milly yells from ahead. They're already at the entrance waiting for us.

I take one look at Justin before taking off into a sprint.

"Hey I wasn't ready!" Justin yells, I turn around flashing him a smirk, as I run over to Kai and Milly.

"I'll get you back," Justin whispers in my ear, as we walk through the gates of Bells Fair.

Kai instantly drags us to the rides and we go on nearly all of them. I love rides, so I was perfectly fine, but as for Justin, that's a different story. After the first ride we went on, he looked awful, yet we still forced him on the rest.

Justin and I now sit at a table in the food court. Justin's leaning on the table with his face in his hands, groaning about feeling sick and that it's all our fault.

"How can you be eating that?" Justin asks with a groan, pointing to my plate of pancakes and ice cream.

"Quite easily actually," I smirk. "Hey, do you want some? It's delicious," I tease and he sends me a death glare.

After eating, Milly forces us on one last ride, the Ferris wheel, which I hardly call a ride since it goes so slow.

Milly and Kai were rushed over to fill another carriage, so Justin and I sit in a new carriage alone, until a boy holding hands with a girl walk in.

"Well, well, well, look who it is," Ella snickers, but my eyes don't dart to her face at all, they're strictly fixed on the boy.

"What are you doing here Will?" I ask, immediately thinking the worst. Why is he here with another girl? It's not like this girlfriend in town! And with Ella of all people! How does he even know her?

"I could say the same to you," he says, indicating that I'm with Justin.

"You know that's different!" I say, suddenly getting fired up.

"How would you know? You haven't exactly let me explain," he say and I shake my head. I don't need an explanation. Just looking at them, it's easy to tell.

"What the hell is happening?" Ella's annoying voice fills my ears.

"You're here with my boyfriend!" I almost yell at her, not lowering my voice when I see her flinch. "That's what's happening."

"Boyfriend?" Justin mutters. I don't know wether he's angry or shocked or looking for an answer, but I burry my face in my hands.

"Tilda" Will says, eventually breaking the most defiantly uncomfortable silence. "Please let me explain."

"No," I sigh. "Not here, not right now. Come to the academy tomorrow and we'll talk."

The rest of the ride is spent in uncomfortable silence. Not even Ella dares to speak. When my feet make contact with the ground, I feel a sense of relief wash over me.

"I want to leave," I say to Justin. "I can walk myself."

"No, I'll walk with you," he assures me and we walk out of the gates.

"Are you okay?" He asks after a few minutes of silence.

"I'm perfectly fine," I mutter, a stray tear falling down my cheek. "I'm, I'm just, I'm just fine."

"Why didn't you tell me about Will?" He finally asks. I knew he'd want to talk about it.

"I didn't tell you because I didn't want to hurt your feelings," I sigh.

"And why would it hurt my feelings?" Justin's scoffs, like he doesn't care about me in the slightest way.

"I don't know!" I say exclaim.

"Whatever, I don't care anymore. Let's leave, I don't really want to be around you right now," Justin says sternly, leaving me in the highest state of shock. He turns around, leaving me alone in the dark of the silent beach with nothing but heartache.

A/N so pretty eventful chapter! Leave your thoughts below! I'd love to hear some feed back.

:) xx