Chapter 7

Belly POV

The next morning I woke up to the sound of the waves crashing against the shore. Remembering the day I had yesterday I couldn't wait for today. I quickly got changed into a yellow tank top and red shorts with my black bikini underneath (just in case Jeremiah wanted to go swimming straight away again). It wasn't until I touched the door knob that I felt a touch of nervousness; I had avoided a confrontation with Conrad yesterday but today it might be inevitable. Same as yesterday, I into the hall way across from each other's bedroom, the kitchen, then the living room. Again he wasn't in any of them. He was probably sleeping in again; strange. Conrad always got up early; he very rarely slept in and never for more than one day. I started wondering if I should have been worried about it when Jeremiah came down the stairs.

"Well, hello gorgeous," Jeremiah said cheerfully, "you look as stunning as the sunrise this morning. Not that you aren't always beautiful."

"You were up when the sun came up?" I asked raising my right eyebrow in a questionable look, "I thought you never got up before at least 10 o'clock; if then."

"I had something I had to do this morning."

"And it required you to get up at 6 am?"

"Yeh."

"What could be so important that you were willing to get up that early for?"

"Well," Jeremiah said with a brazen smile playing at the corners of his mouth, "I could tell you, but … that would ruin the surprise."

"A Surprise? What surprise?" I said with excitement swelling up inside my chest.

"You really don't get the concept of a surprise do you?" Jeremiah taunted. With all the excitement still making me feel giddy - the fact that Jeremiah wouldn't tell me and was mocking me with the knowledge he had over me – made me unconsciously start to pout. "No pouting Belly, remember." Jeremiah teased and when he saw that I was still pouting, he added on, "Don't worry sweet heart, all will be revealed soon," while poking the tip of my nose. "Now, let's go gets some breakfast. We can't have all the fun we have planned on an empty stomach."

After our breakfast (mine a bowl of golden crisps and his fruit loops), as I had expected, Jeremiah suggested we go swimming again. As I was ready this time, we just grabbed our towels and headed to the pool. We spent the rest of the day bouncing between splashing each other in the pool and lying on the sun beds, just talking while soaking in the sun's rays. We reminisced all the good times we had here when we were kids and made plans for the future (but nothing serious like the wedding: less permanent stuff like what colour walls we are going to have in our offices).

At around 5 o'clock I was beginning to get hungry and suggested that we order something from the sea food restaurant or something. I was just about to get up and get the phone when Jeremiah placed a hang on my elbow to stop me. He then turned me round so I was looking him in the face. "How about we wait a little while before we start ordering take out." Jeremiah asked, almost nervously.

"Umm," I said, not sure where he was going with this, "What did you have in mind?"

"I was thinking we could go for a walk first."

"Oh. Ok. Sure. That would be great." With that he took my hand in his and started leading me down to the beach. The feel of the soft sand on my feet was comfortable and the constant crash of the waves was soothing, making me relaxed. Walking side by side with Jeremiah, holding hand and looking at his brown eyes which were practically glowing in the evening light. It was magical.

For some unknown reason, just as it was about out of site, I looked back to the beach house and to my disbelief I saw Conrad. He had just come out of the house and was settling himself into a deck chair. I shouldn't have been surprised as he was staying there to and had every right to go outside. However, I hadn't seen him since Jeremiah and I first arrived at the beach house and I was beginning to think he was avoiding us (this was only encouraged by the fact that Conrad only came out after we left) which was odd as I thought he said he wanted us to go back to being normal; like we were when we were kids. But that didn't seem to be the case anymore as he chose to ignore us. Then again he could just be giving us a little bit of space so Jeremiah doesn't freak out again.

Just as I was turning back to Jeremiah I got one last look at Conrad and only then did I notice some things that were quite odd. First he was still wearing a strange bandana like what he had he had been wearing yesterday and the day before, only in deep blue this time. Not only that but was wearing baggy trousers again but just with a black t-shirt on this time instead of an ill-fitting hoodie. Without the hoodie, I could now see he had lost a lot of weight and was quite skinny now. It was weird to see him like this as he was always big and strong. I then forced myself to turn away and focus on Jeremiah as he held my hand and led me down the beach.

Jeremiah POV

Leading Belly down the waterline, I felt very nervous. Would everything go alright? Would she even like the surprise I had planned for her? I suddenly released the breath I had been holding: trying to get a grip and force myself to calm down. Everything would be OK. So I pasted on the best smile I could and looked at her. Wow, she was best looking girl I had ever seen; it was to believe this was Belly-button – the girl I grew up with and knew forever. She saw me looking at her and began to blush which somehow made her even cuter.

As we came across the quieter part of the beach which not many people knew about, I could see that what I had set up was still there. I let out a sigh of relief. A few feet away from the rock pools, I had set up a blanket with two cushions on it with different coloured shells scattered around it (I knew how much she loved them). I saw Belly give a confused look at me as I went over to the rock pools, and from the shaded little cave where I hid it, I pulled out a basket of food for us. Turning round to her to see the joy shining in her face as I said "Surprise!" With that I went over to the blanket and sat down before patting the spot next to me for Belly to join me. Happily, she took a seat next to me on one of the cushions as I started unpacking the contents of the basket: sandwiches, crisps, strawberries, apple slices, a fairly basic salad (just lettuce with a couple of cherry tomatoes in), biscuits, a couple of candy hearts (a little bit on the sappy side maybe but she thought it was sweet), a packet of twizzlers and a jug of coke. At the site of the twizzlers and the coke she grabbed a cup of coke and a twizzlers and drank the coke with the twizzlers as a straw like I knew she would (it was something we always did – some of our best memories). After a while she looked up at me and smiled.

"So, this is what you were busy with this morning?" She asked dreamily.

"Yeh," I answered, not really wanting to talk about it, but just wanting to enjoy the moment of us two being alone, "I had to get up early to get down here and set it all up before you woke up."

"Well this is amazing," she said looking me in the eye and I could see how much she meant every word she said "You really didn't have to do this."

"I know. But I wanted to. I wanted a little alone time with my girlfriend" With that we turned to look at the sun setting over the sea as she snuggled up into my chest. After a while I lifted her chin and turned her face towards me so she was looking at me and searched her face looking for permission. As she started biting her bottom lip, I took this as a go ahead and leaned in and kissed her; lightly at first, but as I kissed her again I added a little more force and she started kissing me back. We made out until after midnight. It might not have been sex but it was still one of the best feelings ever.