Despite the fact that I slept wonderfully with a smile on my face, I wake up next morning in the complete opposite way.
"I don't think this is a good idea," Lacey tells me, eyeing the water below us.
Lacey, Simone and I agreed to go boat cruising this afternoon after some group of people did theirs this morning. I only joined them hoping it'll lift up my mood a bit.
It doesn't.
I'll talk more on my ugly mood later on.
Let me focus on the two lovebirds on a boat across Lacey's and I. The boats we found were tiny and could only manage two persons on it, but Simone suggested we take two boats. Meaning Lacey and I share one and she invites Tom over to use the second boat with her.
So basically, she ditched us for him.
Their combined weights makes the boat dip in the middle, pulling them towards each other until they're touching almost everywhere. They lock gazes for a long period of time, and I can almost hear Sebastian and the sea creatures singing 'Kiss the girl'.
Young love.
"I think they're cute," I say.
Lacey frowns. "I think they're not."
I give her a look. "What? I just don't like him. He looks dumb. One time, at night, I saw him at the beach looking up to the sky while walking. And when I asked what he was doing, he told me the moon was following him."
"Yikes."
"Exactly," she says, then her face contorts into a perverted smile. "I saw Noah coming out of our room this morning. Did he take care of the cookie jar?"
"Cookie jar?"
Lacey rolls her eyes. "It's metaphor for Vagina."
"Jesus Christ. Get your mind out of the gutter. Nothing happened between us."
That's partly true, and partly a lie. I know within myself something did happen last night, and my mind won't stop replaying the image, or forget the feel of his lips against mine. The kiss was tender, thrilling, and hotly arousing. It was slow at first, but when his tongue traced my lips, I couldn't help but shudder in pleasure, opening to him as naturally as a rose opens to the sun. The taste of him was fresh, the scent of him airy.
He was drunk, I knew, but when he deepened the kiss gradually, I didn't care anymore. I became so brilliantly alive in his arms, aware of every frantic beat of my own heart.
And then it dawned on me that he could regret it in the morning, or not even remember at all. So I pressed a hand to his chest to stop and catch my breath, wondering what the fuck I just did.
We fell asleep on my bed, but when I woke this morning, he was gone. It kinda hurt to know that there is a possibility that kiss was something only I would remember. He must've been shocked to wake up on my bed this morning, shirtless, and I don't know if he's been avoiding me, but I haven't seen him for the whole of the day.
"Really? Nothing happened?" Lacey replies. "Well that's a shame."
"I don't..."
She cuts me off with a loud scream, staring at something behind me with terror. "IT'S A SHARK. WE'RE GOING TO DIE!"
I turn around to see a dark large shape of fish move underneath the water, swimming to our direction. Before I can calm her down and tell her it's just Dolphins, she panics and jumps on her feet, causing the tiny boat to tumble over and fling us both into the water.
Great. Just great.
We pop our heads out of the water at the same time as she continues screaming so loud, even if she already scared the Dolphins away.
"Lacey... it's just..." the sound of her screaming don't let me finish what I have to say. The only way I can think of shutting her up is when I raise my palms and hit her hard across the cheek.
She stops. "Thanks. I needed that."
"They were Dolphins, and you scared them away."
"Oh."
I squeeze my eyes shut and ball my fists to refrain from hitting her again. "Let's just go back."
We swim back to the shore of the beach, leaving Simone and Tom who didn't seem to notice we're gone.
"I'm never hanging out with you," I tell Lacey, bending my head to the side as water falls out from my ear. I do the same with the other ear.
"Hey. Is this a bad time?" I look around for the owner of the voice seeing Noah standing behind me, looking like a beautiful statue. My eyes dart to his lips and yesterday's image pops into my head again.
"Not really," I answer casually and clear my throat. "What's up?"
He scratches the back of his head. "We need to talk." He looks at Lacey who steps in beside me. "Alone."
"Oh! Don't worry about me. I'll get going now." She gives me another perverted grin and walks away, yelling over her shoulders an "By the way, I can see your boner through those Jeans, Allie."
"Thats my dick," I yell back.
Noah's gaze shifts to my jeans, as if to check if there's really a dick there. "You said we needed to talk?"
"Yeah." He pauses, reluctant to say the next words. "Cory is missing."
Okay, that's not what I was expecting.
"What do you mean Cory is missing?"
"He didn't come back to the rooms after the day at Renee's office. I thought he only went for a stroll but it's been three days now. I've searched everywhere in that building but it's like he's disappeared into thin air."
I can't believe he's worried about Cory even after the fight. Maybe there's some little bit of warmness left in that cold heart.
"We need to find him." Noah says. "Do you have any idea where he might be?"
"Did you ask Alexa yet?"
"No. I don't want to talk to her."
I rack my brain for anywhere he might go to. If he's not at the gym, and if he's not with Alexa, then there's only one place left he's at.
"I think I know where he is. I'll go change my clothes. Get the truck keys from Miss Renee."
I'm about to dash off into the building when he gently holds me back by my wrists, the action sending electric jolts all over my body. "One more thing. I woke up on your bed this morning half-clothed, and I don't know how."
He doesn't remember the kiss. Fuck.
"I was just wondering, did I...? did we...?"
"Did we what?" He looks uncomfortable.
"You know... I drank too much alcohol and don't know if we..." Noah stares at my confused face. "DID WE HAVE SEX LAST NIGHT OR NOT?"
Heat spreads to my cheeks like wildfire. A few people loitering on the beach turn to give us quizzical looks. "N-NO. Nothing like that happened!"
He gives a breath of relief. "Then what happened?"
A brief pause.
"You came to my room drunk and I treated your injury." Not totally a lie.
"I saw that. Thanks." He waits for me to continue. "Anything else?"
"No. That's it." He stares at me hard, as if knowing it's a lie. "So uh... I'll go change now... and then we'll uhm... find Cory."
I force myself to look away from him as I drag my feet against the beach sand, heading to the building. I don't have to look back to know his gaze is burning holes at the back of my head.
You know that moment when you never really liked someone in a romantic way and everything is cool, and then all of a sudden, they do something small like touch your shoulders or make you laugh and you just kinda freeze and think.
I'm currently in one of those moments. But Noah didn't do anything small, which is why mine is a slight different case. He kissed me.
And I don't think I'm going to get over that for awhile.