Errr…as I already do all of the author's notes, I will also take over responding to reviews. It feels weird not responding, as I have done it to pretty much every chapter of every story I've written. :) They will be found at the bottom after the chapter.
-Charlie's POV-
That splitting pain in my head isn't normal. I know it isn't normal. Neither is the searing pain that stabs at my eyes when I try to blink them open.
Groaning a little, I roll onto my side and glance around the room. Alex and Taylor are both sleeping in their respective beds, seemingly out like a light. When my vision completely focuses, I see several bottles still scattered on the floor and a few more in the trash can. The mini fridge is swung completely open.
Suddenly the night before hits me full force, and I clench my eyes closed again.
Connie.
I groan again and cover my face with my hands, half to block out the rude sunlight and half out of humiliation. I was kind of hoping that was a dream…would've been a nice dream… a very nice dream, at that, but if Connie remembers it…ooh, the awkwardness. As if it wasn't bad enough already…
At least we didn't do anything too stupid. I'm still dressed, and she's not in here, afterall.
But still. Ugh, I sincerely hope she doesn't remember…because the weirdness would just be…weird…and make this trip very uncomfortable. If she says anything, I will pretend I have no idea what she's talking about. Yes, I am a good pretender.
Forcing myself to sit up, I swing my legs off the couch and rest my feet on the thickly carpeted floor. My eyes graze the empty alcohol bottles again, and I sigh, knowing I should pick them up. Maybe if I'm lucky, Tay and Alex didn't see them last night…otherwise I will likely be hearing about it for awhile. They think it's fun to taunt me…though I usually fail to see the fun in it all.
I gather up the bottles and toss them in the trash can, kicking the mini fridge closed again.
Seeing the trash can full of empty bottles, I decide I should probably go ahead and take out the trash while I'm at it. I pull the plastic bag out of the plastic trash can, tying up the top and walking out into the hallway.
Before I even have the chance to close the door, I find myself face to face with Connie. Instantly all the words in the English language leave me, and that semester of speech class does me absolutely no good. So much for real-life application.
"Uhhh…hey," I managed to stutter out with a nod, making my pounding head hurt even more.
"Hey," she says in a slightly strange voice as she glances down at my chest, face instantly flushing.
My own face instantly burns when I realize I forgot to put on a shirt before coming out of the room. Good move. Make it worse.
"I was just, uh, taking out the trash," I say, holding up the bag and nodding as one of the maids walks by.
"Would you like for me to take that?" the maid asks, tilting her head at me.
I feel my face grow hotter. "Uh, yes please," I say, stiffly shoving it into her hand. "I'm gonna go back in there," I say to no one in particular, jabbing my thumb at the room behind me. I turn on my heels and go back into the suite, accidentally slamming the door behind me and throwing myself face down on the couch again.
Smooth. Very smooth. Way to not act awkward at all.
I hear shifting from the beds, and when I look, I see Taylor and Alex pushing themselves out of bed.
"What was that?" Taylor asks, rubbing his face.
"What was what?" I ask.
They both look kind of like zombies. Taylor moreso than Alex, though.
"The door slamming…?" Taylor says, blinking.
I look between them. "I didn't hear anything."
I roll over so I'm facing the back of the couch. I pull my covers over my head again and go back to trying to repress the mild humiliation still left over from the hallway. I will eventually have to leave the room and act normal, so I should get this all out of my system now…
…which is at least slightly easier to do now that I don't have to worry about emptied bottles scattered about the room prompting any weird conversations with Tay or Alex.
"We're heading down to the lobby. You getting up?" Alex asks me.
I shake my head into my arms. "Nah, I'm good. You guys head on down." Those nails being driven into my skull are still pounding away.
Once Taylor and Alex leave the room, I grab my clothes for the day, grab a towel, and go into the bathroom. It doesn't take me long to shower, dress, and generally prepare for the day.
After sufficiently scrubbing my teeth and getting ready, I leave the bathroom, down a few aspirin with a glass of water, and leave the room again.
I get down to the lobby and see everyone except Connie congregated in one area.
"Hey, you decided to join us," Alex comments when I walk over.
"Yep. Where's Connie?" I ask.
"I think she's still up in the suite," Elisha says with a nod.
"Would someone mind getting her? We all need to discuss how we're going to separate out for the day," Mr. Moreau asks.
"I will. I forgot something up there anyway." I say, though in truth, I didn't. Well, unless Connie counts.
"Alright. We'll be waiting," he says as I nod, heading back up to the suite.
When I knock on the door of her side, she answers it with slightly tousled hair, looking about the way I feel.
"Hey…again," I say as, once again, my eloquence with words just knocks me of my mental feet.
"Hey," she says as an awkward silence falls between us. I try to study her without notice to try and sense if she remembers 'the incident' last night. How dramatic that sounds, 'the incident.' Maybe she doesn't remember, and I'm psyching myself out and being a drama queen for nothing.
Not that I'm a drama queen. Because I'm not. Really.
"So…everyone's downstairs," I say with a nod. She nods back.
Silence.
"You coming?" I continue, raising my eyebrows.
"Oh, yeah," she says a little shortly, turning back around into the room and slipping on her sandals. I see her pop an aspirin in her mouth just as I had.
When she comes back to the door, we look at each other for a minute, and I again try and assess what she seems to remember. When she seems to put a wall blocking her thoughts from escaping out her eyes, I give up. We'll say it never happened….although that was my plan anyway.
"Let's go," I say, taking a few steps back to let her out.
"Let's."
Not very talkative this morning, that's for sure.
We walk back down to the lobby and meet up with her family. I occasionally glance at her out of the corner of my eye and know that she's acting strange. I thought I caught her glancing at me too, but I have a pretty active imagination, so it's hard to tell.
"Sheryl and I are taking Shawn to look at souvenirs, so you five are free to do whatever you want for the day as long as you have someone with you and you all make it back by five o'clock this evening," Connie's dad says as Shawn wanders over to stand by him and Connie's step-mom Sheryl.
"Good deal. Guess we'll see you then, dad," Taylor says, and we all wave goodbye as the walk off to fulfill Shawn's souvenir needs…despite the fact that it's only our first whole day.
"So how are we splitting this up? Charlie and Connie, I assume you guys are doing something?" Alex asks, and I feel myself stiffen. Connie and I glance at each other, which sadly is not missed by Taylor.
"Hmm, is there something you're not telling us?" he teases with a small smirk.
She stiffens too and is able to summon speech faster than I can. "No, Tay, there isn't. We're still hanging out. What would you like to do, Charlie?" she asks, seeming pretty in control. If I hadn't seen her pop the aspirin in her mouth earlier, signifying that she likely has a mild hangover as well, I would think I had completely made up last night in my drunken haze.
"Umm…beach?" I suggest.
"Beach, it is," she says with a surefire nod. I just nod back, hoping that her sudden loss of awkwardness will rub off on me.
"Since there's no way I'm getting stuck shopping with Elisha, I will join you guys," Taylor says.
"Hey, neither am I. I guess that means you're stuck with us, Elisha," Alex adds with a nod to his sister.
Elisha makes a face and shakes her head. "Jeeze, what a sacrifice, going to a Hawaiian beach," she says. "I guess Connie and I will hit the shops afterwards?" she questions, and Connie nods back.
"Then that settles everything. Let's go."
Famous last words.
When we get to the beach, Elisha lays out to tan, and Alex and Taylor make a beeline for the surfboards, not-so-subtly attempting to impress the blonde Baywatch lifeguard.
Connie and I stand beside each other in silence, looking around the area. I can feel sand in my sandals already.
Without a word, she walks off to lay by Elisha, while I stand here looking as if I have no place to be. Which I don't.
But hey, I'm on a Hawaiian beach. Who needs a purpose when you can wander around a Hawaiian beach?
I casually glance over at Connie and Elisha and see that they're applying suntan lotion. I peel my eyes away and become very interested in the waves as to prevent staring. I will stick to only one embarrassing moment with Connie in a twenty-four hour window, if it can be helped.
However, the guy standing next to me doesn't seem to think that staring very blatantly at them is rude or inappropriate or embarrassing at all.
I glance evenly at him out of the corner of my eye to see that he's looking them up and down, a small smirk on his lips. My blood boils at the very thought of his eyes grazing my Connie.
Err…umm, not my Connie, but…my…friend Connie. Who I've known a very long time and am perfectly entitled to be protective of. Yes. I am simply protective of her because she is being violated and she doesn't even know it. This is good reasoning.
And although my reasoning is practically flawless, that does not void the fact that he's now making his way over to my…best friend Connie and will likely hit on her in her in five, four, three, two…
Yes, and he takes one more look at her before likely launching out some insanely corny or inappropriate pickup line. He looks like the type. Well you, Surfer Boy, have got another thing coming. There is absolutely no way Connie will fall for your sun bleached hair, beach tan complexion, surfer look.
Ack, who am I kidding? I should get over there quick before she falls for his sun bleached hair, beach tan complexion, surfer look.
Not that I care.
I'm just concerned.
I watch for a moment longer and see Connie stand up, now fully lotioned. She sends a sideways glance at me before turning back to Surfer Boy and giggling in an uncharacteristically Connie way.
Which concerns me slightly. Why is she still talking to him?
Oh, and she reaches down and gets the suntan lotion. He's of course checking her out in a blatantly inappropriate away. Again. Probably told her he needed more suntan lotion. My bet is that was his excuse for intruding on their sacred ritual in the first place. Though it seems to me he has got more than enough lotion, as I feel like the sunlight reflecting could blind me if I look in their general direction much longer. He's gleaming in a very unnatural way. People aren't supposed to be shiny.
I would tell them that, but Connie would just say I'm jealous, which I'm not. Why would I be jealous? He's only the kind of guy that girls always gush about in a slightly obsessive and lustful way. I have no reason to be jealous that Connie is talking to him and smiling at him and sharing her suntan lotion with him. Not at all. Because I for one am not a jealous person in the slightest. Not even a little bit. Okay, so maybe I might have the slightest, tiniest, most insignificant crush on Connie, but I'm not jealous. Nope. Not me.
Okay, crush might be a tiny understatement. More like I…kinda sorta worship the ground she walks on…just not so much because that's too obvious. Obvious is bad. Obvious is bad and embarrassing and warrants peals of laughter, as it would be received as a joke.
And how is it I go off on these tangents? This talking to myself thing really can't be healthy at all.
Okay, he's flirting with her, and by the slightly smirky and amused look she just shot me, I must have a weird expression on my face. Fantastic. Just fantastic.
Time for an intervention.
I walk over and give an overly friendly smile to Connie. "Ahh, hey Cons. Any lotion left, or did Sunshine here use the rest?"
She quirks an eyebrow at me. "Nope, there's still some left."
"Wonderful," I say, taking the lotion from him and plastering on a fake smile. "So who's you're friend?"
She gives me another look. "Well, his name is Seth, and he ran out of suntan lotion, so he asked to use ours."
"Mmhmm," I say, using my amazing self control to restrain a disbelieving look shot in his general direction.
She quirks her eyebrow a little more, a small smirk forming on her lips. "Why, you jealous?"
See, I knew it.
"No," I say shortly. If Connie wasn't standing right there, I would smack that obnoxious smirk forming on Seth the Surfer Boy's face so fast…
"You her boyfriend?" he asks in this very annoying way.
"No," she interjects – a little too quickly, I might even say. I'm slightly insulted. "We're just friends. Since birth, actually."
"Oh, how nice," he says with a crooked grin.
Restraint. Restraint. Restraint.
"Yes, I'm actually very single," she says in an obviously flirty way. I bet she's doing that just because she knows it's getting on my nerves. She wants a reaction because she can tell it's flustering me. She gets a kick out of annoying me. Yeah, well, mission accomplished because I am definitely ready to beat this guy senseless…though I won't.
Because two can definitely play at this game.
Sarah- I'm glad you like it so far! Thanks for all your reviews. :)
Hockeygirl90- Thank you so much for the reviews! I'm happy you're enjoying the story.
SuperGirl96- Yay Charlie/Connie. :)
Charisma- Hehehe, thanks. Love ya! Handses and ises!
Tiff- Thanks, I'm glad you like them! I try. :P I'm always happy to have your support!
charlienconniefan- Glad you like it. Heh.
Banksiesbabe99- Hee hee, we're all about the playful arguments, yo. :) :giggles: I know right! Bad Connie! Be nice to Charlie. ;) :hides that from Meme: Heh. Yes. Thanks for your unconditional support, Sarah dearest. :)
ShadowofMoonlight- Thanks Adriana. :)
HellsGuardien87- Thanks Emma! Glad you like it. ;)
Blonde-brain- Hee, I'm glad you like their banter. Thanks for the reviews!
zshp1411- Thanks. Heh, go Charlie and Connie. :squishes them:
Pure-Pen- Ha ha, thanks Katie. (Err, I have no idea what you are talking about...:shifty eyes: I would never say that Averman tells bad jokes!) Thanks again, darling!
Sween- Heh, yep, Charlie and Connie. Glad you like it. ;) Thanks for the reviews.
Punkteacher- Thank you so very much! Glad you like the banter. Hee.
SweetNJuicyXO- I think they are quite cute together as well…thus why Meme and I are writing this. Hehe. I'm glad you're enjoying it.
Firecracker12- Thanks! I'm glad you like it!
MsRiley77- Hee, thanks Melissa:scoffs and giggles at your penname: Good stuff. Thanks again!
Me (You!)- Thanks. :)
Emma- Thank you. :) Don't worry. I'm a sucker for romance, but don't tell anyone. :P