Whirlwind Summer (Mark McMorris Fan Fiction)

Chapter 22 - The Party

The taxi dropped us outside the address Coco had given us - a house right up on the Oahu shoreline, which I can already guess probably has a garden which leads onto the beach. We ventured closer, hesitating just outside the door. "I feel like this might be a little awkward seeing as we literally do not know anybody here" commented Tessa. "No shit" I replied, dryly and then rung the doorbell since nobody else was brave enough to do it. We stood in silence, nervously waiting for someone to answer. Thankfully someone did.

A slender brown-haired girl with striking green eyes and a super bronzed tan opened the door, letting the noise of the party seep out into the neighbourhood. She smiled at us. "Hey you must be the girls Coco invited" she said, nicely, ushering us in. "I'm Anita". We introduced ourselves, allowing her to lead us into the throng of people. I smiled at some of the people we passed, too shy to introduce myself. We stopped by a group of people congregated in the living room around a game of table football. Coco was with them and turned to greet us when Anita announced our arrival. She embraced me, "I'm so glad you came Alix". "Thanks for inviting us to an authentic Hawaiian party" I replied, grinning back at her welcoming face. She was back to her bubbly self, completely ignoring the elephant in the room. I decided to go along with it because it was way less awkward this way. She introduced us to her friends and her brother. "I'm Makoa" he said, shaking my hand and then spinning me round, which caught me by surprise. "Omg" I squealed, as I righted myself. "You are one pretty lady" he added, goofily. I blushed. Coco cleared her throat loudly. "I'm Alix" I told him. His face dawned with realisation. "Oh" he coughed, looking sideways at Coco. She just rolled her eyes at him. I had a feeling he knew about the whole Mark thing, but I wasn't going to bring it up, after all we were at a party.

He changed the subject by handing me a beer from the ice bucket. I accepted it gratefully because even though I was wearing some denim shorts and a skimpy top I was still hot and sticky in the humid Hawaiian weather and the dense group of people crowded in the room. I took a swig, enjoying the coolness of the yeasty liquid. "So what brings you to Hawaii" asked one of Coco's friends. I think she had introduced herself as Grace or Gracie or something like that. "We're on an extended summer vacation to celebrate the end of" Anastasia told her, filling her in on our stops so far. "Oh so technically I should be taking this beer away from you" joked Makoa, threatening to take it away. I forgot the drinking age in the US was 21. I held it at arms distance away from him. "Nah I need a bit of alcohol" I told him, grinning. Especially because I was partying with Mark's ex. He let me keep it.

We spent the next hour chatting away about random stuff until someone turned the music up and then that was the end of conversations and the beginning of some wild dancing. By then I had consumed enough alcohol that I was so completely relaxed that I had no problem just dancing without caring about what other people thought. But to be honest that was the same with everybody else in the room. Coco grabbed my hand and led my into the middle of the room. We swayed and twirled around, bumping into people and just having a good time. The others had disappeared into different corners of the room. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Tess making out with Makoa against the table football table. You go girl! He was pretty fit. I nudged Coco, raising my eyebrow and gesturing in their direction, she laughed, shaking her head. I looked around and spotted Anastasia and Bea talking to a group of guys on the patio. People had started to spill out into the garden, drinks in hand. I pulled Coco towards them, in need of some fresh air. She followed.

I sighed deeply, breathing in the salty air. "How cool must it be to live right on the beach" I commented, jealous as hell. "It's nice" Coco agreed with me. "Hey why don't we go down to the beach for a little bit?" suggested Coco, turning to me with a huge grin on her face. "Sure why not" I replied, "As long as we don't go swimming because I'm a little too fucked up. I'm scared I might drown". She laughed. "We're not going swimming", she conceded. We walked to the end of the garden, passing by a ton of people who smiled and said hi to us. I waved at Anastasia and Bea, catching their attention. "Check out Tessa" I shouted to them, pointing back inside where she was still busy with Makoa. They gasped loudly, whipping out their cameras to take a video to show Tessa tomorrow morning to remind her if she forgot what happened.

We reached the sand. I slipped off my wedges to so that I wouldn't dirty my shoes and we walked across the beach towards the shore. We stopped before reaching the water and sat down, looking out to sea and admiring the view (even though it was dark and we couldn't see much). Coco cleared her throat. "So Alix....about Mark" she said nervously, getting my attention. This just went a little weird and awkward again. "I don't want to ruin the party mood. You're so sweet and I'm genuinely having a good time hanging out with you...." she started. I smiled, "Same" I told her. Coco was really a very nice person and she was pretty cool to hang out with.... "I'm still not over Mark" she said, suddenly, looking at me straight in the eye.

"I know" I replied, "It was obvious telling from your reaction when you first found out about Mark and I". Her face relaxed. "Better that it's not a surprise" she laughed softly. "But I know that you and him have a thing" she continued, biting her lip nervously. I nodded and taking a deep breath told her, "I love him". Her face dropped and she nodded in resignation. "I thought as much" she said, smiling at me sadly. "He is very lovable isn't he" she added, her eyes tearing slightly. "Yeah" I replied softly. I rubbed her shoulder, trying to console her. "Look I'm sorry about how it ended between you two" I told her, giving her a hug. She rested her head against my shoulder for a second and then pulled away, wiping a tear from her eye. "Thank you it means a lot" she said, her voice slightly raspy. "But I'm happy for you" she continued, smiling sadly. "And I'll get over him". I gave her another hug.

We sat in silence for a few minutes, collecting our thoughts as we gazed at the gently moving waves, the sound of the ocean drowning out the noise of the party behind us. In this moment everything felt so peaceful, even though Coco and I had just had a very hard conversation. I felt sorry for her, because of the way everything with Mark ended. Their love was so great that I'm pretty sure they would have ended up marrying each other in a couple of years if everything had gone smoothly. And they shared many memories, many experiences together - something that made me a little jealous because I'd only known Mark for the grand total of a little over a week. But we loved each other and that's all that mattered because all that could come afterwards....the only bump in the road was me meeting Coco by chance.

After sitting outside for a few more minutes just enjoying the gentle lapping of the waves against the shore line and the sounds of nature calming us, we returned to the party. Coco and I separated our different ways. I was no longer in the party mood and so I looked for the others to get them to go back to the hotel with me. I found Anastasia and Bea sprawled on the couch, leaning on top of the guys they had been talking to earlier. They were still chatting away. I went over "Guys I'm tired can we go?" I pleaded with them. After a bit of grumbling they conceded and got up slowly, saying goodbye to their newfound friends. "Have you guys seen Tessa" I asked, looking for our final member of the group. They shook their head. I spotted Anita talking to a guy named David and rushed over to her. "Do you know where Tessa is?" I asked, waiting for her reply. "Yeah I think she just popped to the loo", pointing me in her direction. "Thanks" I replied hurriedly, going over to where she had said Tessa was. We waited a couple minutes until the loo unlocked. Tessa came out, looking a little sick and woozy. "Hey" I caught her by he arm, pulling her towards us. "You okay?" I questioned, although I already knew the answer. "No" she groaned "I have a splitting headache and I feel sick". I rubbed her back, lightly. "Ok we're going back to the hotel immediately" I said. We made the rounds saying goodbye to everyone. Coco had disappeared so I asked Gracie to tell her we'd left. We then piled into the taxi we had ordered and sped back to the hotel.

As soon as we got to our hotel room, I collapsed on to the bed. I'd had a hell of a day. I would explain everything to the others tomorrow, when we were focused and sober. Right now I just wanted to sleep.