The Lake

Breakfast

When I awoke wrapped in a pair of tanned, muscular arms, I almost screamed. Then I saw Noah's face, and it all came flooding back to me. The swim, the stars, falling asleep tucked tightly against his chest.

He was still asleep, the light fanning softly over his midnight lashes. We'd spent last night as friends... and I knew, deep down, that there was no chance of something more. He was beautiful, and I was not. That was the simple truth of the matter.

And god, he was beautiful. Strong jaw and elegant nose, a deep tan washing over the panes of his face. Beneath the innocent lashes, hidden by sleep, startling amber eyes shone, flecked with darker chocolate.

I raised a finger to trace the line of his cheekbones, but lowered it again. There was no point. We would never see each other again, he would probably forget this night before the end of the week. We went to the same school, but we might as well have lived on different planets. We'd spent three years going to half of the same classes yet he hadn't even known my name.

Heart surprisingly heavy, I wriggled out of the sleeping bag. He let out a little noise of discontentment, before waking with a start. He seemed surprised to find his arms empty.

"Hey," I said, and he jumped.

"Kenzie! There you are. I thought you'd disappeared."

"You're in my sleeping bag, dimwit."

"Oh yeah. Phew. I thought you'd left, and I still haven't got you number for biking!"

I felt my heart do a little one-eighty turn from it's spiral of sadness. Mountain biking! My saving grace. There would be something other than bittersweet memories left over from this night.

I suddenly felt almost giddy with happiness. It was completely irrational, but just the thought that he couldn't forgotten me that quickly made me want to dance for joy.

"Come on," I said, "We'd better get back before everyone else questions what we were doing alone on the island all night."

"What, stargazing?" he asked, feigning innocence.

"One word: Asher."

He face palmed. "Hell, we gotta get out of here."

***

When we reached the shore, the camp was so silent it was almost creepy. I guessed everyone else was still sleeping off the effects of a hangover.

"You know, it's surprisingly nice not to be the hungover one," said Noah, "Thanks, Kenzie."

"Always happy to help curb your alcohol addiction with weird midnight swimming trips to random islands,"

"Yea- wait, I don't have an alcohol addiction!"

"Whatever," I said, "Imma gonna find me some breakfast."

"That couldn't even be counted as speaking english,"

"It's pre-breakfast english," I said, before heading off to complete my very important task of finding food.

***

I didn't feel like cereal, so I started up the fire again, this time keeping it much smaller than the bonfire we had last night. I'd found a packet of eggs, a loaf of bread and some butter, so I set about making fried eggs and toast. That was, at least, until Noah turned up with a bowl full of pancake batter.

17 pancakes and four eggs later (8 pancakes for Noah and 9 for me) we were both so stuffed we could hardly move. I guess it is quite impressive to eat nine pancakes. And two eggs.