Rubbing my eyes and squinting as I adjust to the darkness, it takes me a few seconds to realise where I am. Rolling over and coming face to face with Ric, still sleeping and snoring gently, memories of the previous night's activities come flooding back to me. I begin to mentally panic, but feeling Ric's arms around me and hearing his regular breathing I feel so safe and secure. Looking at the clock I see that it is only 7am – if the girls had a night partying as good as we did (although I really doubt that could be possible), hopefully they won't surface for a while. With that, I close my eyes and drift back into the land of dreams.

I am awoken by a shaking and Luc's voice in my ear. "Quick, wake up, I can hear the girls moving upstairs, we'd have one hell of a lot of explaining to do if they caught us like this" he whispered urgently.

"OK, OK, I'm getting up" I reply groggily.

Disentangling myself from Ric's arms I slid out of bed and begin frantically searching round for clean clothes to make myself look presentable before we are invaded by the girls.

"Have I ever told you how hot you look in the morning getting dressed?" a voice asks me from the bed.

"Are you trying to distract me on purpose!" I reply, trying very hard to keep a straight face and resist the temptation to jump back onto the bed for just five more minutes. "Just get dressed!"

As I watch Luc scurrying around the room frantically throwing clothes on I can't help but smile. But then I feel a horrible sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach. The girls? What are we gonna do? After everything that's happened, getting through the day, having to behave like nothing's happened is gonna be hell. I never imagined that things would turn out like this. Luc's girlfriend is one of my best friends and her best friend is my girlfriend. But how can I regret something that was so good and that we both so obviously wanted? Life's too short for regrets – Flynn's death had taught us that.

Just as I finish buttoning my shirt up, there's a knock at the door - luckily by this point Ric has got out of bed and is looking pretty decent – and there standing in the doorway is Mattie and Cassie. "Morning girls" I say, trying to sound bright and awake. "How was the party?"

"It was good, you know, the usual, we had fun didn't we Cass?"

"Yeah, you missed out on a lot" she replies. "Did you boys have fun without us?" Cass asks?

"Yeah", I say, somewhat guiltily. Ric just briefly catches my eye and smiles. "So you girls got any plans for today then?" I say, desperately trying to change the subject.

"Well, we were thinking of going down to the beach since it looks like it's going to be a pretty nice day out there today."

"Yeah, you guys can surf, or whatever it is you do out there, and me and Cass will top up our tans on the beach" added Maddie.

My attempt to change the subject had just landed me in an even worse situation. Why can't I just keep my mouth shut!

The look on Luc's face when the girls revealed that they planned to spend the day on the beach is priceless! It's a mixture of horror and delight! I can see that we're gonna have a lot of fun today…..

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As I walk down to the beach, Ric and I make an effort to talk to Cass and Maddie, but letting them ramble on and on and on about how fantastic last night's party was. About how much fun we missed, about how we 'so should've been there'. I think about how much fun we had last night, how much we both wanted it. These good memories start to melt into guilt as fast as they had arrived. Maddie doesn't deserve this, she hasn't done anything to make it right to have a boyfriend like me, one who has the capacity to do something that would hurt her so much. And what if I'm some kind of rebound? Flynn's been dead about 6 months now, Ric's never really had a positive male figure in his life until Flynn, and now he's gone…I can't imagine what would happen if I lost Dad or Jack. Maddie's words snap me out of my reverie, "Earth to Luc, Luc to earth! Are you there? We're at the beach!" How much time had I spent mulling things over in my head? Oh well, time to put on a brave face.

Watching the girls lying on the beach, I realise what a situation I am in. Most lads my age would kill for a girl as hot as mine, yet I was sitting here and I was daydreaming with eyes for only one person (who just so happens to be sitting a few feet away from me lying next to his girlfriend). As the time passed and it became apparent that the girls were probably gonna be lying here, sunbaking, for a while yet, an idea formulates in my mind. "Luc, do you wanna go for a surf in the sea?"

"Errr…yeah…go on then", he says tentatively. As we walk into the sea, Luc opens his mouth as if to say something.

Before even one word escapes my lips, Ric splashes me so hard that I fall underneath a wave, caught unawares. As I splash him back, a play fight ensues. As I look at him, I see that same spark in eyes, the one I had seen the previous night, lying in bed next to him. Before I know where I am, I feel his lips crashing down onto mine.

As I pull away from the kiss, I say the first thing that pops into my head, "I love you Luc" and, surprising even myself, I really do mean it.

Not knowing how to respond, I run out of the sea and down the beach. I run and run and run, faster than I have in my entire life. Why did he tell me that he loves me? Maybe he really is on some kind of weird rebound – to block out the pain.

What have I done now! Maybe I've just imagined everything that I think has gone on between us. There's just one thing to do – I run.