A Walk On The Beach

Chapter 15

Girl

I’M SITTING ON a bench in the empty park opposite the hotel, reading. Mum has been trying to get me to go dress-shopping with her. I’ve been holding her back for as long as possible. I know I’ll have to go with her one day.

As my eyes scan the pages, paragraphs, the lines, the sentences, the words, the letters, I keep thinking about what happened yesterday. Cameron and I had gone to her favourite restaurants, right? Well we were just finishing the meal when I went to the bathroom. I saw Stephanie there. Odd place to see her, actually. What was she doing in Hong Kong?

Anyway, I was coming out of the bathroom when I walked right into a boy. The impact was so strong; I'd knocked him into a trolley of clean dishes. That was really bizarre because I can’t knock dust off a shelf. He must have been dazed, just stumbled back himself. Well, the dishes broke and he’d cut himself. I felt so bad, and was so close to crying. I can’t go anywhere without making a mess.

Then his family came and Cameron came to find me.

“Come on,” she said to me, taking my arm. “I’ve paid for the meal and the broken stuff. Let’s go.”

She didn’t seem mad, though. Her eyes were dancing. When we got out of the restaurant, she said, “Well, what happened there?”

“I don’t know. He fell,” I told her. “And thanks for paying for the...stuff.”

She waved it away. “If Daddy gives me money, I splash the cash, okay? It’s not fair that Diana only gets to spend as much as she wants on pointless stuff.”

Cameron is nice, unlike Diana.

My mind keeps going back to that boy’s face. I think I’ve seen him from somewhere before. His eyes, his hair – it replays. I keep seeing his features and I know I’ll see him again.

My phone rings, startling me so my book falls from my lap and onto the concrete floor. I pick it up and look at the caller ID. Jasper.

“Hello?”

“Mum wants to know pink or blue?”

I roll my eyes. “Oh look! A pigeon! See you later, Jasper.”

He chuckles. “See ya.” He hangs up.

That...was probably the first proper conversation I had with Jasper since...he turned fourteen.

My phone rings again. Dad. “Hello?”

“Ally! Want to go and watch a movie or something?” he asks brightly.

“Erm...”

He whispers, “My siblings are driving me up the wall!”

I laugh. “Okay, Daddy. Let’s go and watch a movie. I’ll wait for you in the hotel, okay?”

“Perfect. See you, sunshine,” he says.

I pack my book into my tote bag and then go back to the tall hotel. Time to spend some quality holiday time with my dad.