Incomplete

Chapter 5, Alexander

"Where's Dylan?" I ask, even though I don't really care. Liam, Max and I are at the beach, waiting for Dylan and some chicks to arrive. The sun is shining bright on the sky on this Wednesday afternoon. I have a plain white T-shirt on which makes my six-pack visible.

"Probably making out with his college girlfriend," Liam simply answers, looking down at his phone like he couldn't care less.

I scan through the crowd of people on the beach, trying to find the girls that Max invited to join us.

Some kids are building a sandcastle next to the water. I watch their hands move quickly as they work on the perfect castle. One of them shouts something to, I assume, their mother and she turns her head to look at their masterpiece. The mother claps her hands together with a wide smile on her face.

I miss being a kid. Problems didn't exist and you could do whatever you pleased. Max and I have been friends for as long as I can remember. It has always been the two of us. We met Liam and Dylan on our freshman year in high school. They introduced us to the lifestyle of partying. I gladly took advantage of the opportunity to forget everything around me.

"Finally," Max announces and starts walking towards the parking lot. Dylan and five girls step out of a car. Dylan swings his arm over one of the girls' shoulder. That must be the famous girlfriend everyone's talking about. Behind them, the rest of the girls are giggling and fixing their hair every two seconds. I've seen some of them wandering around the school halls in high heels before, seriously, who wears heels to school? Liam is still too distracted by his phone.

"Well hello ladies," Max says with a stupid smirk on his face and runs his hand through his black hair. The girls giggle and greets him back.

"Sup?" I add to the greeting party and nod towards them. All of them are good-looking, but I have had enough of the basic high school bitches. Maybe I can still get a good make out session today. I look over at Dylan, who is now kissing his college darling and pushing her up against a wall. Max had been right, she is smoking hot.

Liam is finally approaching the group but doesn't seem too excited. I wonder what's up with him. He seems off.

"Should we take a seat? Max suggests.

"Seat on the sand? No thanks dumbass," I reply, mocking him. The girls start laughing. Here we go again.

"Are you all juniors or?" Max ignores my try to embarrass him.

"Yeah, except Elena, she's a senior," the shortest one answers.

"So what's up with you and Rachel?" One of the girls asks, looking straight into my eyes. "Are you guys a thing or what?" Why the fuck does everybody else remember me hooking up with Rachel but I don't have a single memory of it?

"There's nothing going on between us," I say with a little too serious tone. I just don't want anything to do with Rachel. God, can't everyone just forget that it ever happened?

"Good, I was worried here for a sec," the same girl who asked me announces and licks her lips, not tearing here eyes away from mine. I smile back to her.

"You guys coming to the party on friday?" one of the girls who has been standing quite the whole time questions.

"A party? How come I haven't heard of it yet?" Liam wonders, now paying attention to the conversation, still holding tight to his phone.

"It's Traci's birthday party, I can send you the address," the last girl with a big dragon tattoo on her right arm replies.

"Traci? Who?" Max asks with his right eyebrow up in the air. I have noticed that he does that gesture a lot.

"Traci Morton, also a junior," the girl who was staring at me a minute ago answers.

"Cool, we are totally coming," Liam says, now excited.

"Where are you guys heading?" Dylan and his girlfriend appears beside me. The college girl adjusts her red dress with her right hand and holds Dylan's hand in the other. Then she looks up and notice me staring. She gives me a small smile and then turns back to look at her boyfriend with dreamy puppy eyes. How in the whole world did Dylan get such a beautiful college girl to fall in love with him?

"A party on friday," I respond. "It's probably gonna be lame. A junior is hosting it." The words roll down my tongue before I have the time to think about that I'm standing in a circle with three junior chicks. Luckily they don't seem to mind. I wouldn't have had the energy to deal with dramatic sad girls.

"Sounds fun," Dylan's girlfriend states and throws her hair behind her shoulder. "But I will have to pass, unfortunately. Dylan and I are invited for a college party." Lucky Dylan. I guess college parties are epic.

"Yep, sorry guys," Dylan fills in. Bet he's not sorry at all, I can see right through him. If it were only we guys here, he would brag about all the sick things he has experienced at a party where we weren't with him.

***

An hour later we are still hanging at the beach. I'm alone with Isabelle, the girl who lowkey flirted with me. We are both leaning with our elbows against the sand that the sun has warmed up. The windy weather is making my brown hair a mess.

"You're not exactly how I thought you would be," Isabelle announces out of the blue and turns to look at me.

"How did you think I was?" I ask, actually curious for once. Isabelle puts a strand of her black hair behind her left ear before answering me.

"I don't know. I knew you were kind of douchey in the first place but..." she trails off for a second, "... nevermind." She finishes her sentence and turns her head back to look at the ocean. I study her for a moment, hoping to get something out of her but she remains silent. At last, I also turn my gaze to the sea.

The sandcastle that the children had built during the day has now been demolished by the waves. The sun has drifted behind clouds.

"Could I by any chance get your number?" Isabelle asks hopefully. I take a minute to think about it. The incidence with Rachel in the hallway. I don't have the energy to deal with a girl like that again. But Isabelle seems... nice? We haven't talked that much. Most of the time we have just been sitting here staring at our toes and listening to the sound of the wind howling. But then again, she would probably get it anyway.

"Sure, why not?" I say and see a smile creeping onto her face. Isabelle picks her phone up from the ground and hands it to me. I noticed her red nail polish on her long nails. I start typing my number which I know by heart. Isabelle watches me closely. It's kind of adorable. When I'm done, I give the phone back to her and she stands up.

"I'll text you," she assures me and starts making her way back to the parking lot.