"That's not fair!" Cadence whined, throwing her head back as she splashed her hands against the water. "You guys cheated!"

Angel laughed, almost tripping over in the water. "We didn't cheat, you're just a sore loser!"

"Am not!"

"Are too!"

Am not!"

I snorted and jumped around in the water, hissing when the cold intensity of the water splashed onto my face.

"Are too!" They continued back and fourth and Charlotte walked over to me, trudging through the water. We weren't too deep into the water so it only came just above our knees.

"I have an idea." She whispered to me and I looked at her. I could see a glimpse of amusement on her face.

"Tell me!" I whispered back and place my hands over either arm, like I was warming myself up. But wasn't, the water here felt super nice and warm against my skin.

She cupped her hands around her mouth and leant close to my ear. "We'll both dunk them down into the water on the count of three. You do Cadence and I'll do Angel."

I laughed into my hand. "Good idea!" She sent me a firm nod and I hopped in the water over to where Cadence was standing. I laughed quietly to myself and Charlotte sent me a nod with a cheek smile on her face. We both took ahold of their shoulders and on the count of three, we pushed them down under the water.

They both came back up seconds later, breaking free through the surface of the water.

"IT'S SO COLD!" Angel screamed loudly and me and Charlotte bursted out laughing. I hunched over, grasping my stomach.

"That's one thing I am agreeing with you on!" Cadence jumped up in and out of the water and scraping her soaking wet hair back with her hands.

"Cadence! Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Angel asked, sending 'then look to her. Me and Charlotte watched as Cadence and Angel laughed with each other. Everything was paused, or frozen in time and I had a feeling that they were up to something..

"LET'S GET THEM!" Angel shouted and pointed towards us.

In a matter of seconds Cadence and Angel were charging after us and me and Charlotte hopped and jump further into the sea, splashing about the place. Me and Charlotte laughed out of nervousness whereas Cadence and Angel laughed out of evilness.

Charlotte was way in front of me so she held out her arm for me to take. When I did she pulled me further into the ocean, deep enough for us to finally swim. I screamed as I felt the water hit my upper body, submerging my shoulders under the glistening, clear water in seconds.

"THEY'RE GETTING AWAY!" Cadence shouted and I looked back, keeping my head up above the water as I continued to swim for my life. I saw them both swimming after us with wide grins on their faces. I looked over at Charlotte's alarmed face and screamed.

"No they are not! I've got this!" I heard Angel shout back and she swam faster. Kicking my legs up and down under water and making sure to make enough splashes for them to get distracted, I finally grew tired and gasped for air. I har never taken part in such physical and energy wasting activities before.

Suddenly, I let out a throat wrenching scream as Cadence grabbed ahold of my leg, stopping me from swimming altogether. "Can we come to some sort of compromise? Please!" I floated back, hands coming up in defence. In the corner of my eye I saw Angel continuing to swim after a laughing Charlotte.

Cadence threw her head back, laughing. "No can do!"

I squealed and tried to swim backwards, splashing my legs around but Cadence very reluctantly grabbed me and dunked me under. The feeling of the water surrounding me made me swim to the surface of the water almost immediately. I jumped up and gasped for air, fingers squeezing at my eyes and hair, wrenching the water out of it.

"IT'S SO COLD!" I shouted and Cadence swam over to me, wrapping her arms around my shoulders from behind and she laughed. I looked over and in the distance I saw Angel pushing Charlotte under the water and Angel screaming 'Victory!'

Charlotte and Angel both swam back over, and when they came back over to where we were, we all burst out laughing. I was laughing so much that I ended up stumbling backwards, my foot getting caught onto a couple smooth rocks beneath me. The girls all looked at me with wide eyes and it was as if I was falling in slow motion. As I tipped backwards my body collided and fell straight under the water.

I scrunched my eyes shut and pushed myself upwards, back out of the water. I stayed shoulders deep under the water and I watched dumbfounded as they all threw their heads back in laughter.

It took me back to how I fell over in the store in front of Theo and Stephanie that one time. I genuinely now think I could actually be one of the most clumsiest people to ever exist in this universe.

"Come on! Let's get out of the water. I'm starting to freeze my ass off now!" Cadence rubbed her hands up and down her arms and I nodded in agreement. I wasted no time in getting out of the water.

We made it back onto the beach and I groaned in discomfort at the feeling of my leggings sticking to my legs. I had brought no towel and no change of clothes. Thank the lord for LA being such a warm place that I should dry off pretty quickly. I wringer out my hair and tied it back up into a ponytail, shivering at the expense of my stupidity of going swimming.

Wiping my feet with my hands and pushing them into my dry socks and shoes, I laughed curtly at Charlotte's pained face as she did the same.

"Well that was nice and refreshing." Angel commented, stretching her arms over her head.

"Refreshing... yeah. But not so nice." I groaned again and pulled my shirt away from my body and wringing it out too.

I bent down and picked up my milkshake and phone, slotting my card into my phone case. I knew it was risky leaving my card alone for anyone to take, but it wasn't like anyone was going to actually take it... I didn't think..?

"Hey.. isn't that Theo?" My muscles tensed at the sound of his name. I couldn't help but look at where Charlotte was pointing. Quickly regretting my decision as our eyes locked for a second before a wave crashed down on him and enveloped him, making him disappear from view.

I needn't have worried as his head bobbed up a few seconds later.

So that was where he ran off to this morning. After his argument with Stephanie he must've came here, or home.. who knows.

"Oh man!" I heard a man's voice pipe up excitedly. "That's the biggest wave I've seen all year! I'm talking mammoth bro!" I forcefully dragged my eyes away from the water and saw a group of men all patting each other, staring out at Theo who was effortlessly glistening in the sun.

I couldn't help but smile as I looked over in Theo's direction, only to catch his muscles tensing as he hoiked himself up onto the board and settled himself.

That wasn't something you saw everyday..

He put his hands through his shaggy hair only to mess it up even more. Did he know how cute he looked when he did that?

The light could not have been any better either. As the sun melted slowly into the horizon, it casted its hazy, warm glow of browns and pinks and oranges... creating an almost magical halo around him.

I looked around me. Was anyone else seeing this? I wondered.

I wanted this guy to be mine.

♔♔

I traced my baby blue highlighter across the words in my chemistry text book. I had already been set homework for various classes and they were due in this week so I thought it would be best to start on them all now. My chemistry homework was unfortunately due in tomorrow and I totally forgot to do it on the weekend.

Warm in my lime green sweater and grey sweatpants, I grabber my tote bag that was on the end of my bed and took out my pencil case. I sat back down in my desk chair and tipped it upside down. Everything flew out of it, clattering messily onto my desk. After coming straight back from the beach I hopped into the shower. I couldn't bare feeling sticky and wet. I also didn't want Theo looking at me when I looked like a total mess.

In the back of my mind I couldn't stop thinking about how hot Theo looked in the ocean. The way water droplets dripped and slid down his torso, the way his dark hair was only a fragment of his beauty I seemed to be drawn to. But I couldn't like him. Not only was he one of my brothers best friends, but also that he had, a thing with Stephanie. She already hated me so adding fuel to the fire would probably end me. She would probably end me.

"Focus." I scolded myself and brought my eyes back down to the textbook, pressing pen to paper. "A compound." I bit my teeth onto the back of the highlighter as I tried to remember what a compound was. "I know this already." I sighed and slammed my head down onto my desk. We had learnt all parts of Chemistry last year, and all the years before that but I couldn't seem to remember what the basic definition of a compound was. I must of really been out of my mind.

I lifted my head up from my desk and clicked the lid back onto my highlighter, tossing it down onto the table. I picked up my phone and scanned through it, a sudden notification from the group chat pinged and I pressed on it. I would study for an extra hour after this. I told myself.

Beach day this

weekend?

Heck yes. Maybe

we can have a bbq too?!

YES

Where did you

come from??

ur mom x

OMG are we

sisters??!

🤦🏼‍♀️

🤦‍♀️

Where's Charlotte Web?

Doing something

productive. Unlike us.

I'm trying to be

productive and study but

I can't focus.

Is it because of

Theo?

Yes..

He looked EXTRA

hot in the water.

He did indeed.

I've gtg for

dinner now. By bae's.

Bye bae xo

Bye bae👋🏼

Okay where the

hell did you come from?

ur mom x

It's supposed to be dad

not mom. Airheads.

I'm enjoying this.

But you were enjoying

something even more. Or

should I say, someone..? ;)

ANGEL!

That's my name ;)

But you'd very much

rather wanting to shout

someone else's name.

Wouldn't you?

I'm GOBSMACKED.

I have chem hwrk

calling my name..

This is my queue to

leave🚪🏃‍♀️

;) Try focusing

this time.

-_-

I laughed into my hands and grabbed my airpods from my bed. I plugged them into my ears and tied back my hair into a plait. I closed my eyes and breathed in and out slowly, re-gaining back my attention to what was more important. My Chemistry homework.

I picked the highlighter back up and pushed Theo all the way into the back of my mind, carrying on highlighting and answering the questions that were given to me.

I ended up spending an hour or two surrounded by papers and text books whilst I was sitting down on the floor. But I still had a couple more mind-boggling questions to answer.

I sat up and looked outside. The sky was slowly setting and my eyes were slowly but surely fluttering closed. A yawn broke free and I closed my eyes, leaning into my hands.

After a few minutes I pushed myself up onto my feet and gathered together everything, placing it down onto my desk to sort out after my late dinner.

Mom and Callum weren't here yet again. Mom was at work — she unfortunately had to work nights tonight at the hospital but that didn't really bother me knowing she was out there saving people's lives and all. Callum was God knows where but I could only imagine he was at Jackson's or someone else's.

I slipped my fairly cold feet into my bunny slippers — a daily reminder of when Theo saw me wearing them in front of him last Friday — and walked downstairs into the kitchen. I was no master chef or anything so I grabbed myself out a microwaved dinner from the freezer and stab a knife through the plastic, shoving it immediately into the microwave.

I poured myself some orange juice into my favourite heart patterned glass and took a couple sips from it. With the glass in my hand, I walked over to the doors of the patio and pushed them open to allow some light breeze in. The sunsets here in LA were absolutely amazing.

The microwave pinged and I set down my orange juice and carefully took my now unfrozen dinner out and tipped it out onto a plate. A chicken curry.

I wasn't a fussy eater so I'f quite literally eat anything in sight.

"Ugh." I whined as I was just about to sit down. I ran back upstairs and grabbed my phone and switched off the desk light.

I didn't really like being alone at home, or anywhere. It was definitely eery and I could picture myself in every single horror movie I had watched, or to ever exist.

Leaning my phone against the fruit bowl, I ate loudly — might as well since no one was home — and rather quickly, I finished up my dinner. I stood up and put the plate and cutlery into the dishwasher and walked back upstairs with my phone and cup of orange juice in my hands. All the doors were locked. I had checked multiple times.

I placed my cup and phone down on my desk and ambled my way into the bathroom. I scraped the loose strands of hair back with a headband and switched on the cold tap, drowning my face with the water.

After that I collected a lot of the homemade TeaTree face mask in my hands and smothered it onto my face. I hadn't necessarily had bad breakouts, just a few spots here and there and I couldn't think of a better product to use. Nothing else worked but TeaTree, (though it stung hella bad).

Wiping it all over my face, I rinsed off my hands and dried them, walking back into my room to finish up with my Chemistry homework. Leaving on the face mask for about twenty minutes I pulled my duvet off my lower half and placed the now finished homework into my bag.

Definitely didn't take me hours to complete.

I ran into the bathroom, taking my AirPods out to rest on the side whilst I rinsed off the face mask. I shivered at the feeling of the cold water running down onto my stomach. I splashed the cold water onto my face and gently wiped my face dry.

Humming to myself at one of Coldplay's songs, I squirted on some serum. I mixed it in lightly and picked out my toothbrush from the glass holder, squeezing all my might at the tube. I really needed a new tube of toothpaste.

I looked at myself in the mirror as I finally placed my tooth brush into my mouth, moving it around. I hadn't really been able to properly look at myself. I didn't like how I looked bare faced without any makeup. Only I could see myself this venerable. No one else could.

I pulled at my face in front of the mirror and I felt a sudden pang of sadness in my chest. Was I beautiful? Was I like all those other girls who could grab Theo's attention? Would he actually go for someone like me?

I ft my chest tighten and I spat out the foamy suds of the toothpaste into the sink.

'You are better than this, Willow.'

I wiped my mouth with my towel and dropped it into the hamper.

'You are beautiful.' I sadly told myself and nodded, closing that sensitive discussion locked shut and walking back into bed, AirPods clutched in my hand. I relaxed back into the warm sheets of my cozy, warm bed.

With one last blink of consciousness, my eyes fluttered closed and my breathing slowed down as I dropped into a deep sleep. The thought and image of Theo lasting in my head until I awoke next.

A/N: