The ocean-front house the girls had rented was something else. Located in Carbon beach, it was magnificent. With five bedrooms, they all could have their little privacy. Alison's room was facing the ocean and she could only imagine the sunsets she would be able to witness this week. Putting on a marine one-piece swimsuit, she looked at herself in the mirror. She really loved that bathing suit; it made her look even more desirable as it shaped her body in all the right places. Tucking her long blond hair in a ponytail, she puts on her sunglasses and headed outside thru the french doors in her room.
Aria, Spencer and Hanna were already on the beach laying on the sand. "You know what is missing?" Hanna questioned. Both girls turn their heads to face Hanna "what is there missing?" Spencer answered, "that place is perfect". Hanna looked at them seriously as she glides down her sunglasses on her nose "our boyfriends are missing" she said, "I wouldn't complain having Caleb half-naked in front of me right now". Aria almost choked as she was taking a sip from her water bottle, "it wouldn't have been fair for Alison since she is not seeing anyone". "Come on" Hanne replied, "you know damn well she could go on the beach right now and pull up anybody that passes by". Knowing none of the girls had seen her approaching, Alison joked "are you trying to match me with someone Hanna?". "I'm not trying to match you with anyone" Hanna answered, "all I'm saying is that with you looking like that you could easily get the attention of anybody. If I were into girls, I would totally be into you" she replied with a tempting smile. Alison laughed, "all right, Don Juan, if you say so".
Alison hasn't been in a relationship in a while. In fact, she hasn't been in a relationship in four years. Of course, she had had some things here and there, but nothing serious as it was mostly one-night stands with models she would encounter at her job. It's not that she did not want to be in a relationship, but she wasn't looking for one. She had trouble letting people in. Emily walking away affected her more than she like to admit. Even after four years, Alison couldn't let down her guard. She hadn't felt warmth and love in a long time. All her encounters were cold, strictly physical, meaningless. Even if on the outside Alison seemed happy and untroubled, she was consumed by a dark abyss of loneliness. Her heart was shredding, and her body felt hollow.
Removing her sunglasses, she winked at Hanna "between, I would be into you too". Not that she was interested in Hanna in anything other than a friendly way, but Alison knew Hanna would love the attention coming from the tantalizing comment. "I know you would" Hanna replied with a smile.
The girls spent half of the afternoon on the beach tanning and catching up on their lives. Lying beside Alison, Hanna was explaining to the girls what her job consisted of. Doing almost the same job as her, Alison didn't pay attention. So, when Hanna's phone started to ring, Alison picks it up unthinking. Looking at the screen, her heart almost stopped. Her head started spinning. It was her. She felt hollow. Finding the motivation to speak, she almost threw the phone at Hanna "someone's calling you". She needed to get some distance between her and that cellphone. Now. As she got up and started walking toward the ocean, she overheard one of her friends mumbling something. Ignoring it, she put her sunglasses back on. She was going to need a drink.
Unfortunately, Emily did that to her, she always had. Alison always had been attracted to the girl. It took some time for her to come around it, but once she realized it wasn't platonic, she went up to tell Emily. The brunette had loved Alison for a long time, and it was what scared Alison the most. She wanted to be enough for her. Their relationship was something out of a love story and Alison felt at home with Emily. Therefore, their breakup and the silence around it devastated her. She didn't saw it coming. After months of trying to contact Emily, realizing she was getting nowhere, she drowned herself in work. She spared no efforts to numb her suffering. Within bars and rebounds, she finally felt her heart beating again. Over time, the agony she was feeling diminished, but not the emptiness.
Walking on the beach, the thoughts kept running in her mind. She wanted to scream. Emily leaving seemed so easy, as if Alison didn't mean a thing, as if the relationship they had was bullshit. Was it something she said or something she did? Maybe it was only a cruel twist of fate. It was nonsense, they loved each other. Knowing she was just torturing herself with those thoughts, she shook her head. Looking around, she noticed she couldn't see the beach house they rented. She must have been walking for a while. Turning around, she decided to make it home running, as she wouldn't be able to go to the gym this week. Keeping her rhythm, her mind wouldn't stop reaching to Emily. She had tried so hard to bury her feelings deep within her, but it didn't change a thing. It would always be her. Realizing the house was nearby, she slowed down her pace. Walking over the small dunes to enter the backyard of the house, she hoped none of her friends would talk to her about Emily.
The sun had set, and the night was falling upon Malibu. Over the dinner, nobody had mentioned the fit Alison had earlier. She didn't know if the girls were ignoring it or if they didn't notice. Either way, she was happy they did not bring it up. The dinner was lovely, and it made her forget the earlier event. Drinking the wine Hanna brought, they looked back on their younger years, each of the girls talking about their memories. "Let's go put on our bathing suit", Spencer suddenly said. "Oh my god, yes!", Aria replied. Hanna and Alison exchanged a smile, "looks like we're going swimming!" Getting out of the table, Alison took her plate and left it in the sink. As she turned back to take her glass, she noticed it was almost empty. Opening another bottle of wine, she poured some in her glass before taking a sip.
Because the bathing suit she had on earlier was still wet, she decided to put on a black, high-waisted bikini. She looked out the windows of the french doors in her room; her three friends were running on the beach like teenage girls. She could hear them laugh. Hanna was pushing Aria around, who didn't stand a chance. Spencer was looking at the sky with her arms above her head, her glass of wine in her right hand, cheering them up. Smiling at the scene, Alison took the beach towel that was laying across her bed and began walking to her friends.
"What took you so long," a clearly intoxicated Hanna said. "Yeah, putting on a bikini doesn't take this long", Aria added. Spencer looked at her friends with a grin on her face and turn her head to meet Alison's eyes, "who says she was only putting on a bikini, for all we know, she could have been occupied doing something else". "Spencer!" Alison replied, surprised that her friend was so daring, "don't try to talk dirty, it's not your thing". Spencer walked toward Alison, stopping right in front of her and replied with a tempter smile, "Toby doesn't mind". Astonished, there was a moment of silence before all four girls began to laugh. Spencer had never been the most outgoing, but the liquor she had been drinking during the evening was getting into her. Hearing a shriek, the girls turned their heads toward the noise. Aria was in the water, exhorting her friends to come to join her. It was all it took for Hanna to start running toward her smaller friend. Spencer took Alison's hand and dragged her to the water. Throwing her towel, not caring where it landed, she let herself be pulled.
Playing in the water with her friends had been exhausting. Hanna and Spencer had gotten out of the water and were sitting on the beach alongside a fire they made. Aria and Alison were sides by side, looking at the sky. Floating on her back in the water, Alison was staring up at the stars. She wondered if they were staring back at her. "Ali", Aria said. "mmh", Alison answered, still looking at the sky. "I know I may be a little drunk right now, but I need to ask you something", Aria replied in a more serious tone. Alison put herself back up in the water and looked at Aria, "what is it?"
"Why did you run away when you realized it was Emily calling Hanna?"
There it was. Of course, one of her friends would have noticed. Trying to find a reason, she replied, "I didn't run away, I just wanted to see the neighbourhood."
"Come on Ali, I know you", her friend replied.
"I don't know why you are even asking me this, there is nothing to say except that I wanted to walk and see the impressive houses," she said in a less friendly way. She was getting annoyed with Aria's questions.
Not impressed by Alison's tone, Aria tempted "have you talked to her?"
"Talked to who?" Alison said, feigning innocence.
"I'm being serious Ali. When did you talk to Emily for the last time?" Aria knew she was asking too much from her friend, but she wanted to know. She knew Alison had trouble expressing her emotions and even if the girl acted as everything was all right, she could see the sadness in her eyes.
Slowly taking in what her friend asked her, she thought of a way to answer her. She turned her head to look at the beach. "Oh my god", Alison chuckled. Hanna was throwing up on the sand while Spencer was holding her hair, mumbling something. Taking that as a chance to leave the conversation, she began to swim toward the shore to go help her friends. She heard Aria let out a downcast breath before she quickly began to swim behind her.
After managing to get Hanna inside the house, the girls alternatively looked over her. At this point, it was Alison's turn to watch her friend. Laying on the bed beside Hanna, she was on her phone. Going over her emails, she was surprised that none of what she received was about work. Leaving the application, she opened Instagram. Scrolling down her feed, she liked and commented on a couple of posts. The earlier conversation she had with Aria was still playing in her mind. Curiously, she opened the search bar and began typing. Emily Fields. Alison didn't follow the girl – she was not that dumb. She knew following Emily on Instagram would just hurt her and so, she unfollowed her a couple of years ago. Clicking on Emily's profile, she immediately regrated it. Seeing her pictures, Alison's heart ached. Scrolling down in a daze, her eyes stopped on a picture. The brunette was standing next to an absolutely stunning blonde girl, who was looking at her with tender eyes. It was just a picture, but she could see the intimacy between them both. Who was she? For all she knew, it could just be a friend. Her heart was racing. Feeling daring, she clicked on the picture to see if the blonde girl was tagged. Of course, she was. Ophelia Ecclestone. Trying to click on the tag to reach the girl's account, she double-tapped on the picture. Shit. Fuck. FUCK. Quickly, she unliked it, hoping Emily wouldn't look at her notification. Feeling stupid, she let her phone down and looked at Hanna. She was breathing slow and seemed peaceful. Carefully getting out of bed, she walked over to Hanna's side and replaced the cover on the girl. She tipped toed out of her friend's room and headed to hers. Walking into her bedroom, she removed her bikini and grabbed an old T-shirt that was in her luggage. Hanna had refused to let Alison get back to her house to grab other clothes. Her friend was scared she would try to lock her out of her house to escape the unexpected one-week vacation. Putting on the t-shirt, she made a few steps toward her bed while she looked at her phone. 01h00. Letting herself fall into the mattress, she almost immediately went to sleep.
Awake, Alison was still in bed. She had been up for some time now, but she hadn't heard noises yet. She knew her friends were probably still asleep because they were smashed last night. She took her phone to look at the clock. It was already 9 a.m. Deciding it was time for her to get up, she left her bed. After a few stretches, she walked toward the hall, still wearing the old T-shirt she was using as a pyjama. She stopped to see if she could hear something. Just as she thought, none of the girls were up yet. Not wanting to wake them up, she silently closed their bedrooms door before making her way to the kitchen.
Sitting on a couch in the living room with a coffee cup in her hand, she was looking out the window. Even this early in the morning, there were people on the beach. She had been awake for over an hour now and the girls were still sleeping. She smiled as she saw a girl run on the beach with her dog. The dog reminded her of the one she once had, Pepe, a Shetland sheepdog. Unfortunately, the animal had run away one day. Later, her brother, Jason, admitted it was his fault as he let the backyard gate open. Alison had always loved dogs. She wanted to adopt one, but she didn't know what breed to choose. Maybe a Golden Retriever or a Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever, she thought. As the runner and her dog get out of sight, she got up from the couch. Being the only one awake was getting boring. She put down her coffee cup on the small table in front of her and headed to her room; she had decided to go for a run.
It was already hot outside and so, Alison had put on a black sports bra and running shorts. Looking at herself in the mirror in the house entrance, she placed her hair in a ponytail and put on a black cap. Before opening the front door, she plugged her earphones in and texted the girls to let them know she was out for a run. She looked at her phone and pressed play on her Spotify playlist, while she opened the door and closed it behind her. Not knowing where to go, she opened a running application on her phone and looked at the different circuits it proposed from her position. Choosing one, she walked toward the street and took off running.
Alison never really liked running but recently, she had started to appreciate it. When she was at home, she enjoyed running early in the morning. She loved that time of the day when it was just her and the morning sun. On those occasions, most of L.A. was still sleeping. The city could almost feel serene. It was noiseless, peaceful. Running was for her an opportunity to calm her mind.
She ran a loop, passing in front of many upper-class homes. Before she knew it, she was back in front of the rented house. Walking toward it, her eyes were locked on her phone screen. She didn't notice the car standing in the driveway. Entering the house, she could hear noises coming from further away. Removing her sunglasses, earphones, and cap, she walked to the kitchen. Spencer was standing in front of the toaster, waiting for her toasts to come out. "Good morning, Spencer", Alison said joyfully. "Someone is feeling happy this morning" Spencer replied, turning herself to look at her friend, "good morning to you too! Where did you go?" Taking a bite in a toast that was on a plate on the counter, Alison replied, "I don't know, but I ran about five miles if I rely on Strava". Spencer looked at her friend. Alison was barely in sweat and didn't even look out of breath. "You make five miles look like a walk in a park", she replied giggling. Alison smiled, "it's not as easy as it looks, trusts me." She walked to the refrigerator and took out a water bottle. Taking a sip, she added, "I'm going in the shower, I'll join you and the girls for breakfast after". Spencer replied something, but Alison didn't hear. Heading to her bedroom, she entered the leaving room. Noticing a silhouette, she turned her head to the couch to see who it was. Someone was sitting on it, her back toward Alison. Alison felt her heart racing and her head getting dizzy. She rested a hand on the table beside her, trying to proceed with her thoughts. Slowly, the person turned her head to meet Alison's eyes.
"Hi, Ali".