One of the Boys

Chapter 10 - Rockaway

I'm just generally lying about, reading a couple of books and looking up some words in Japanese to start solidifying my learning when I decide I'm bored and decide to go hunting through the library for something else to do.

All the same, I start to become a bit scared that becoming more popular is going to make me lose interest in books, and I don't want that. But today is an exception. I just can't concentrate on anything I pick up and try to read. Not even some of my favorites, not even books in Spanish or Italian or French. Zilch.

I can't even pick up an interest in starting to learn a new language or anything like that. Finally my phone rings, giving me a distraction. It's Seth.

"Zoe, I'm picking you up in twenty minutes." He announces. I cough.

"Excuse me?"

"We're going to the beach."

"Uh, it's fine. I don't really want-"

"Cool, I'll see you soon!" He says with a cheery tone. "Bring some extra clothes and some pyjamas, 'cause we're having a sleepover at Nate's."

And the line goes dead. I feel like screaming, but on the other hand I want to thank Seth for trying to get me involved all the time. I truly owe him so much. He's changed my life, and even if there's only one year left and that's the only shot I have at my teenage years, it's better than have nothing, which I would have had otherwise.

I lay on my bed, closing my eyes and daydreaming the daydreams that had been in my head for so long. I'd always dreamed about being able to go to a beach with friends and mess around, have a water fight. The kinds of things they do in music videos. I wanted to do it. Maybe now I can.

Moving as little as I can I wriggle into my favourite two piece, some shorts and a crop top, eventually giving up on being lazy and going through to the bathroom to do my hair and put contacts in. I place my glasses in a case and take them back through to my room.

Finally, I get up and fill a Vans rucksack with extra clothes, pyjamas and my glasses, as Seth told me to. I add a hairbrush and the new Polaroid camera I got from some family relations, then I go downstairs. Thank god it's only ten in the morning, otherwise we'd never get there.

It's not long before a large 4x4 pulls up in front of the house. I take a few steps forward as the window rolls down, uncertain of whether it's them. Nate smiles at me from the driver's seat.

"Coming or not?" He asks me. I walk over, opening the back door and climbing in, finding Seth and Caleb. Caleb shifts over and I sit between them, which is still a pretty daunting achievement for me.

"We're picking up Eliza and then we're going." Seth explains.

"Okay." I say, plopping my bag on his lap and stretching my legs out. "Why the rash decision?"

"Can you talk normal?" Luke says with a grin, turning to face me from the passenger seat.

"Why did you guys make such a quick decision to go to the beach?" I rephrase with a smirk.

"It isn't." Caleb says, laughing. "We've been planning it for the whole week." He glances at Seth. "Seth was supposed to tell you."

"She wouldn't have come if I'd told her, okay?" Seth defends himself.

"Who says that I wouldn't have?" I ask innocently. Seth groans, defeated.

"Whatever." He says and we drive in silence for a moment until Nate pulls over again and Eliza comes up to the car. She opens the front door.