"You shouldn't have texted in the first place," I say and exit the lounge with Lacey behind, saying something about what outfit she'll rock to tonight's club party but I block her out when the evening wind hits my face. I take a few steps into the parking lot and look down at the water, which looks almost orange in the glow of the sun. I spot a few surfers out in the waves who looked like they weren't about leaving anytime soon.
It's going to be Friday night within a couple of hours, which means everyone is ditching their works already to get ready for clubbing tonight.
I'm not going.
As much as I love just the sound of the word 'party' itself, I'm going to have to bunk in on this one. Mom and Mabel have already scheduled out tonight to Skype with me. I didn't talk to them yet since I arrived in Hawaii, only random texts from Mabel telling me about Mom's attempt at a dating site and her stupid Kermit the Frog memes.
The sun disappears behind the horizon a few hours later when everyone is gone already, leaving just me between the walls of the hotel, or so I think. I squint my eyes hard enough to see a figure in the middle of the basketball court where I'm taking out the trash from the kitchen.
The sound of the ball bouncing on the floor becomes more audible when I head to that direction and I recognize Noah dribbling the ball in his hands before getting ready to shoot it through the hoop.
"He goes up for the shot and it's good! Kingston High Jayhawks victory for the record books!" I cup my hands by the sides of my mouth and do the imitation of the sound of a cheering crowd.
"I thought everyone left," He says.
"That's what I thought too." I snatch the ball from his hands and dribble, aiming to shoot it through the net but I miss.
"Not bad for a short person."
"How about I aim for your face instead," The ball shoots straight at him and hits his chest as he catches it. "Teach me how to play."
"I'd rather watch a dog chase it's tail."
"Are you always like this? A lot of people would hate you for this attitude. How do you sleep at night knowing there are people out there who don't like you?"
"With no underwear Incase they want to kiss my ass. Can you move? You're blocking my way."
My mouth slightly drops open and I promptly kick him in the Shin.
"That hurt," Noah tells me mildly.
"Teach me how to play," I repeat again and he takes a deep breath as if trying to refrain from saying something mean or nasty.
"Look, about what you said earlier, the version of me you created in your mind is not my responsibility. Get that," He says and balances the ball in one of my hands.
"Really? Then why do I have this apple?" I hold out an apple from my jacket pocket.
He stares at me like I just told him I grew a new pair of eyes on my butt cheeks. "I don't know."
"Okay so how do we do this thing?" Noah mutters something under his breath and steps in beside me, taking my free hands to balance the ball on my fingertips. I look down at his big tanned hands on mine, all the way to the side of his face and I blink furiously, trying to rid myself of the dirty thoughts that just ran through my mind.
"Eyes on the ball." My chin is brought up higher with two of his fingers to focus my gaze on the hoop but my mind is somewhere else. Noah's hands go down to my elbow to straighten it up and forward.
"Shoot when you're ready. Try rolling your wrists forward like you're trying to reach into a cookie jar on a high shelf."
"Ooooh, I love cookies," I say as he gives me a look that shuts me up. I continue extending my shooting arm up and out toward the hoop. I let the ball pop forward when my arms extends to the end, rolling backwards as I release it. The ball goes through the hoop with ease.
"Did you see that?!" I exclaim, feeling tad bit proud of myself.
"Yes Allie, I'm standing right here."
He brings out his phone from his pockets when it rings and places it on his ears, his gaze still fixated on me.
"What's up?" Noah says into the phone. His eyebrows furrow deeply and I wonder who's on the other end of the call. "Pregnant? Dylan, you're a boy, you can't get pregnant... You feel it kicking?... What are you... Are you drunk?... Hello?"
"What's wrong?" I ask as he ends the call.
"They're all wasted. It'll be a disaster if anyone of them drives back. I'll go," He walks to the parking lot where the second truck is and I hurriedly follow behind.
"Let me come with."
"No." I watch him dig his hands into his shorts to fetch the truck keys as his grip closes over empty air.
"Looking for this?" With a smug smile, I hold up the ring of keys I sneakily snatched from his pockets just seconds ago.
Noah's vivid eyes widen in shock. "You aren't cute and you aren't beautiful, but you certainly do know how to climb under a person's skin."
"Are you letting me come with, or you're going to walk all the way there."
"Fine, whatever." I throw the keys at him and he clicks a button on them to unlock the truck. The tail lights flashes as he hops inside, slamming the door loudly and making it clear he has no intention of opening the passenger's door for me.
Chivalrous.
I hurriedly slip into the truck. "Hey, you should let me drive." Immediately those words slip out my mouth, Noah hits the gas and sends the truck flying out of the driveway so fast I smack my head against the dashboard. "A simple 'No' would've been fine."
I glance over at Noah, expecting some sort of reaction but his attention is on the road. His jaw is square, and his mouth is set into a thin line.
I sigh and rest back on the seat as we barrel through the roads.
Tonight is going to be one long night.
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