Breaking Her Rules

Chapter 24

Julian and I get coffee and sit on the sand, watching the waves. It's a windy, miserable day and the two of us hunch against the biting wind. We stay silent for ages, just watching the waves crash and sipping on our coffee. Julian has his hood up against the wind, while I have my hands tucked into the sleeves of my jacket.

There's a couple walking their dog along the sand, but when they pass we have the beach to ourselves. The sun starts to set behind us, turning the water from dark blue into roiling black waves, and we watch dark clouds chasing each other over the horizon.

When it starts to drizzle Julian says, 'I don't want to go back to reality.' He is watching the white tipped waves tackle each other in the shallows and race towards the shore. His bare feet are buried in the sand, but he wiggles his toes and they're like little worms emerging from the ground.

'You can crash at mine tonight if you want,' I tell him. 'You can borrow some of Dan's pyjamas.'

Julian nods and kicks his feet free of sand. He stands up. 'Okay, we better get back to the city before your dad starts wondering where you are.'

I take one final look out at the ocean, thinking about the day I'll fly across it in a plane, destined for other places in the world, and then I stand up and follow Julian back to his car. The traffic back to the city is pretty congested. We grab drive through burgers on the way and eat in Julian's car and sing along to every Two Soap Dolls song at the top of our lungs.

Julian parks his car across the road from my house and the two of us head inside just as the rain reaches the city. Dad is in the kitchen and I yell out a hello to him and then follow Julian into my bedroom.

'I think I have sand in my underwear,' I say miserably, trying to readjust my jeans.

Julian laughs and sits down at my computer desk. He wiggles the mouse, bringing my computer to life, and pulls up a movie to watch.

'I'll get you some pyjamas,' I say. 'You want a shower?'

'Yeah, I'll need one,' Julian says.

'I shot it first,' I say, but I go into Dan's room to grab Julian a pair of pyjamas.

'Hey,' Dan says when I walk in. He's wearing headphones but he pulls them off to talk to me. 'Have you talked to Lucas today?'

'What?' I say, confused.

Dan shrugs. 'He texted me and asked me to tell you to get in contact with him. He said it was pretty urgent.'

I pull out my phone and look at the text message from the unknown number. "M, we REALLY need to talk." I realise it must be from Lucas. In grade ten, after he spread rumours about me and ditched me for Duncan, I deleted his phone number out of my contact list so I was never tempted to drunk dial him and cry about how much I missed him.

I have no idea how to reply to Lucas's text message. Lucas and I haven't texted for years, and the thought of texting him terrifies me. Texting is such a casual form of communication and there is nothing casual about my relationship with Lucas.

'Hey, also,' Dan says, grabbing his own phone. He pulls up a webpage and shoves it into my face. 'Tour dates!'

'Tour dates?' I ask, confused. I scroll to the top of the page to see whose tour dates Daniel is talking about. 'Tour dates?' I suddenly scream. 'Two Soap Dolls is touring?'

Dan grins at me and snatches his phone back. 'They're doing a trip all around Australia! We're going to see Two Soap Dolls!'

I shriek and pull Dan into a hug. 'This is so exciting!'

Julian bursts into the room. 'What are you guys yelling about?' he asks.

'Two Soap Dolls is touring around Australia!' I say to him, grabbing Julian and pulling him into the hug. 'This is the most exciting moment of my life. We have to get tickets, all of us!'