A Summer Romance . . . Or Maybe Two

Chapter 2

Chapter 2

"Let's go to the beach!" Tessa says excitedly, which earns her incredulous stares from the five of us.

"The beach? We can go to the beach anytime in California! We're in Florida! Don't you want to do something different for a change? Something we can't do in California?" I ask her. 

"Fine," she says, fixing her lips into a pout. "But you have to promise me we'll go to the beach sometime before we leave."

"We have two whole weeks, Tessa. Trust me, we'll go to the beach," Katy cuts in. 

"Let's go to War Memorials," Micheal says.

"We are not going to War Memorials," I say dryly. 

"Why not? It sounds like fun," he whines.

"Yeah, learning about a bunch of guys shooting each other sounds like a lot of fun," I say sarcastically. Crystal sees Micheal's glare and interrupts whatever he was about to say.  "What about the Knott House? It's all about poetry." At this, Micheal snorts and turns his attention to Jason. 

"Dude, what would you rather do? Go read a bunch of stupid poetry or go learn about war?" 

Jason looks between Crystal and Micheal slowly. "I'm down for whatever," he says finally. They argue for a couple more minutes and sometimes Katy throws in a suggestion while I study the brochures on the table. 

"Are we gonna sit around here and wa-"

"What about Lake Ella?" I suggest, cutting Katy off and getting everyone's attention.

"What's that?" Tessa asks, genuinely interested.

"It's says it's a park lined with shops so I'm guessing they'd have something we all like which means problem solved?" I say, phrasing the last part as a question to make sure they all agree. I get nods of approval from Crystal, Katy, Tessa, and Jason. I look at Micheal with my eyebrows  raised and he grudgingly nods also. 

"Perfect. Then it's settled. We'll go to Lake Ella."      

                                                                                        ***

"Ooh, did you see that? That guy is hot and he was totally staring at me!" Katy squeals into my ear. 

"Mmm-hmm," I say half heartedly, knowing he was really looking at me but also knowing that it's better to just let Katy think what she wants.

"You don't think he was staring at me, do you?" she asks slowly. I sigh, knowing  this is most likely gonna escalate into an argument.

"Katy, I didn't say he wasn't looking at you," I say, not wanting to full out lie to her.

"You also didn't say he was."

"Does it really matter who he was looking at?" I ask her, exasperated.

"You think he was looking at you!" she accuses.

"It doesn't matter, Katy!" I yell. "So just let it go!" She's silent for a couple minutes as we stroll along the walkway. I gaze up at the trees lining the path and think how beautiful a day it is. I sigh and risk a glance at Katy. She doesn't look mad. She looks more . . . thoughtful. Uh-oh. I can tell by the look on her face that she's up to something. I regret my suggestion that once we got to the park we should all split up and do what we want. 

"Let's make a deal," she says seriously. I groan, knowing when she wants something she can be very persistent.

"What kind of a deal?" I ask warily.

"Let's see who can date the most guys while we're here."

"That's wrong. It messes with other people's feelings," I say, frowning at her.

"Okay . . . chicken."

"I am not," I say, gritting my teeth. Before I can tell her to stop acting childish she's dancing around me in a circle bawking at me at the top of her lungs.

"BAWK-BAWK! CHICKEN! BAWK-BAWK!" 

People are staring and I know my face is bright red.

"BAWK-BAWK-BAWK!" "Katy, stop it!" "BAWK-BA-"

"Alright, I'll do it! Just stop doing that!" I shout angrily.

"Okay," she says and walks back to my side like nothing out of the ordinary ever happened. "Shake on it." She holds out her hand, which I reluctantly shake. We start walking again and my phone buzzes. It's a text from Tessa.

'You ready to go? Just met up with Mikey and Jason and they're saying they're bored.'

'Sure. Where are you?' I replied.

'Beverly Way.' I gazed up at the sign marking the path we were on and then I glanced at the map in my hand. They were on the path up ahead and to the left. 

'Wait there.' I sent back. Katy and I started walking that way. Just as we turned onto Beverly Way, Katy blurted out "The deal officially starts tonight. I'll explain the rules to you later, before we go out."

"We're going out?" I ask, confused. No one told me we were going out. She looks at me and rolls her eyes.

"Duh."

Tessa, Crystal, Micheal, and Jason start walking toward us.

"Ready?" Jason asks. "Yeah." I sigh, looking around, mentally saying goodbye to the serenity of this place in my head. We all start walking towards the car and drive back to the hotel. I take a nap while the others go out to walk around.                                                                                                

                                                                                        ***

FOUR HOURS LATER

"Come on, Izzy, time to get up," a soft but deep voice says and I feel myself being shaken lightly. I open my eyes to see Jason kneeling beside the bed. "You gotta get up now or you'll be up all night and you'll sleep all day tomorrow," he says, gently sitting me up. I nod at him, yawning and rubbing my eyes. I look around to find that everyone except for Jason is sitting in front of the T.V watching a cartoon. I got up and joined them with Jason following. I looked at my watch and saw that it was almost 5pm.  We sat there watching T.V for the next few hours and then Tessa announced that it was time to go out. She was the only one who'd ever been here before and that was a couple years ago with her family. She said the club that she had always wanted to go to but was never old enough to get into, of course, was called Nightlife Unleashed. I went to the bathroom and got dressed in a black and red and very short dress with black leather boots. When I walked out of the bathroom I got the satisfaction of seeing both Jason's and Micheal's jaws drop open. I smirked at Micheal. 

"Hey, Mikey . . .," I said in my most seductive voice. He looked at my face, his eyes hopeful. "You're drooling." Katy, Tessa, and Jason burst out laughing while Crystal gave me a dissaproving frown and Micheal blushed. I don't like being mean but if he can tease me, I should be able to tease him, too. We all piled into Tessa's Nissan Maxima and drove to the club.

It was time to have some fun. ************************************************************************************************************ Author's Note Sorry for the slow and uneventful chapter. I was having trouble thinking and I'm not feeling very well but I wanted to get this posted for you guys. So, the comment question is a bit random. What is your favorite color? Thanks for reading and thanks to the people who commented on the previous chapter. You guys are great! :)  

P.S- The external link will take you to see the dress you wear to the club. The lady wearing the dress is not Isabelle.