10:45pm
31st December 2014
"The beach always looks dodgier at night don't ya think?" Lara said looking around nervously, like me, she wasn't used to being out when she wasn't drunk. And you could see she was clearly upset about missing tom's gathering, she's always had a thing for him and his seedy ways.
"Yeah, it's kinda like the park. Little kids by day and creepy men by night" I answered
Except tonight there were no creepy men to be seen. Just lots and lots of teenagers.
It was a warm night, I was wearing a flowy white dress and black sandals, my hair was loose and curled just a little bit, but not so it looked like I tried too much. If there was something I always liked about myself, it was my hair. Ever since I was little it had been long and blonde, and just the right thickness. I never had to stress too much about it like my friends did, which I was always for some reason greatful for.
I was also covered in a lot of glitter, Eloise had sprayed me with her can of glitter before we left, against my will. Apparently it was a tradition to do so on New Year's Eve.
The beach was laid out nicely with tents and speakers. Some people had even started a fire, which I'm almost sure wasn't allowed but looked very cool to their credit.
A couple minutes later we found our group of friends, the six guys were sitting on their foldable deck chairs with a beer in their hand. And the girls came running up to greet us.
We sat and talked about school and about people we hated, and the places we were going to go after we left school. We made plans together of meeting up when we went to our new universities, and travelling on our gap years to the same countries. Again we were always thinking ahead, thinking of the future.
Wishing ourselves into a life that was better than the one we had. I loved it, I loved thinking of a time when my life would finally be different.
I got up from my spot on the sand go grab another beer from the cooler, and while I was up I looked at the circle that was made on this crowded beach of all my closest friends. They'd known me forever, every one of them. We'd gone through literally all of our biggest moments with each other.
I thought briefly of how weird it would be to soon have these new friends that would know and share nothing with me. I couldn't decide whether I really liked this idea of new adventure and experiences or if I was in fact comfortable with sticking with what I knew. What was safe and convenient.
"Pip, what are you doing?" Isaac, one of my closest friends, called from the circle. "Come join us you doof, I've been watching you stand there looking into space for a minute now and I'm worried."
I walked over hurriedly, embarassed but laughing because I knew I had a tendency to go off in my own world a lot. They used to it so I didn't care too much.
"You're the one I'm most interested about" Isaac said looking at me, as I sat down in spot next to him.
"Isaac what are you on about"
"Who you'll end up with Pip! We were talking about who is most likely to end up with who, and all of them were pretty obvious I mean, there's definitely a pattern with Lara and Eloise."
He said nodding at them and their arms under their on and off boyfriends of 2 years. "But you Pip, you're always a mystery. No guy can ever seem to do it for you."
I shouldn't have taken it offensively, and I don't know why I did. But I did and I couldn't seem to shake it for the rest of the night. What Isaac said was true, I had been in relationships before, but I guess I had been, the word best to describe would be uninterested. Not in the guy himself, but what he stood for. The fact that he was there and he was available and he was just so.. Boring.. So attainable.. So.. In the present.
