4am

ten

The sunlight filtering through the curtains is what eventually wakes Saffron as the time approaches midday. She groans and rolls over, pulling her pillow over her head. Her head hurts and she does not want to face the day.

    "Wake up, sleepyhead," says her Mum as she pokes her head around Saffron's bedroom door. She whines in objection, but does remove the pillow.

    "Why?" Saffron drawls in a voice still croaky from sleep.

    "Honestly, Saffron, you are useless at remembering anything - we're having the neighbours round for a barbecue, I told you about this."

    At this, she perks up a little, even dragging herself up into a sitting position. "You mean the neighbours on that side?" She jerks her thumb in the direction of Noah's house.

    "Yes," her Mum tells her. "it was such an enjoyable evening before, we wanted to do something similar., to mark the end of the summer."

    Saffron thinks back to the evening of the dinner party, which she spent the duration of hoping nobody spoke to her and feeling overall extremely uncomfortable. She's thinking about how that is definitely not her definition of enjoyable; but then she remembers first speaking to Noah and the almost unnoticeable flutter in her stomach when he smiled at her.

    Maybe it wasn't that bad after all. Besides, it will be infinitely less awkward now that she and Noah have (for the most part) gotten over the social-anxiety hurdle with each other.

A buzz of nerves mixed with the anticipation of seeing Noah for the first time since their night at the beach hums within Saffron as their doorbell resonates around the house. She hears her parents cheerily greeting their company and figures she's going to have to come out her room eventually.

    Noah's parents pass her door without even glancing towards her open bedroom door, imminently followed by her own and then Leila. Her heart may or may not skip a beat when she sees Noah lingering behind them a little. His hands are dug deep into his jeans pockets and he's walking with the slight slump she'd noticed when she'd first seen him, as though he isn't quite aware of his actual height.

    As if feeling her eyes on him, Noah spins around and grins.

    "Hey, Saff," he says gently, taking a few steps towards her. She leaves her bedroom and inches forward to stand just in front of him.

    "Hi there, boyfriend," Saffron remarks, laughing quietly at how the word feels coming from her mouth. "Hey, now I think of it - do your family know about, like, us?"

    "Nope. Yours?"

    She shakes her head.

    "I reckon we shouldn't go ahead and tell them just yet; I feel like it would result in more unnecessary awkwardness and we've already had enough of that," Noah explains.

    "Agreed. But we should probably go join them," Saffron sighs as she untangles her fingers from his. She didn't even remember them actually linking hands, but obviously one of them did.

    "Fine," he agrees, beginning to head after his family before suddenly turning back around and hurrying back to her side.

    A small gasp slips from Saffron's lips as he kisses her quickly.

    "Sorry," Noah utters, sounding almost breathless despite the fact the kiss had only lasted a second. "I just had to do that."

    At that, she can't help but beam at him. It's feels pretty remarkable to make somebody else feel like that about her.