"MASSSIEE!" Kristen called out to her dark haired cousin, who at that moment in time was lying on her bed, plugged into her iPod. "Mass. Seriously. What's his face is gonna be here in like ten minutes and we haven't eaten yet. Let's go grab some food downstairs."
"His name is Derrick. And I'm beginning to regret letting you sleep in here. If you were in the other room, you wouldn't be able to wake me up so early and make me go running with you." Massie grumbled. Kristen and Claire had switched rooms so that Kristen and Massie could be room together and Dylan and Claire would be together. The only downside for Massie was Kristen made her go on a five mile run at seven. And Massie wasn't a morning person.
"Negative Nellie!" Kristen tossed a pillow at Massie. "Come on! I'm starved."
Kristen grabbed Massie's hand and led her downstairs to where warm chocolate chip pancakes where waiting, courtesy of their live in housekeeper, Lupeita. Kristen sat down at the table and Massie went to the refrigerator to grab the jug of orange juice.
"Oh crap." Kristen stopped mid bite as a look of realization dawned over her face. " I just realized we forgot to tell Derrick out address. He's not gonna know which house on the bluff to go to!"
"Relax, Kiks. I've got it all taken care of. I texted our address to Alicia and she's giving it to Derrick. I gave Alicia my number last night but I guess you weren't paying attention. You were too busy with Josh." Massie smirked at Kristen and returned to savoring the chocolately goodness that was the chocolate chip pancakes. "Mm. Lupeita has outdone her self."
"What? No I was just being friendly." Kristen blushed and stabbed her pancakes. "Why? Did it look like I like him?"
"It looked like he liked you." Massie grinned at Kristen. She pushed away her plate. "All done!"
"You eat fast." Kristen marveled at Massie's pancake devouring skills. "But you think he like me?"
"That's what it was looking like." Massie stood up and tucked her chair in. "I'm not the most reliable source since I haven't spoken more than two words to the guy, but it seemed like you guys hit it off."
Massie went back up the stairs to grab her stuff, leaving a delighted Kristen in her wake. Once she was back in their room she started gathering stuff and putting it into her Tory Burch beach tote. Massie grabbed her iPod, some shoes, a worn copy of "The Great Gatsby," the June issue of Teen Vogue, and a towel. She still felt as though something was missing, and realized it was her aviator sunglasses.
Massie scoured her room for the sunglasses, and when she turned up empty handed, she decided Claire might have mistaken them for hers. Massie tiptoed into the room next door where Dylan and Claire were dead asleep and probably a little more than hung over. Massie crossed to Claire's side of the room and opened up her purse. Inside were random receipts, lipgloss, her phone and gum. Massie grabbed a piece of gum and was about to close the purse when Claire's phone started buzzing with a new text message. Massie grabbed the phone and opened it. The text message was from Chris.
"Massie?" Claire squinted at her younger sister, who was squatting on the floor next to her bed. "Its like six freaking o'clock in the morning. What are you doing in here?"
"I was looking for my aviators." Massie surreptitiously slid Claire's phone back into her purse. "Do you have them?"
"Oh. Yeah, check my beach bag." Claire mumbled and turned back around. Massie looked and sure enough, there were her aviators.
"Thanks. I'm going on my friend's yacht with Kiks. We'll be back later." Massie whispered to Claire's motionless body. Claire grunted back in reply.
Massie went back into her room and tossed the sunglasses into her tote. After a quick once over to confirm she had all the necessary items, Massie went to find Kristen on the first floor. While she paced the downstairs hallway, waiting for Kristen to finish grabbing her stuff form upstairs, Massie went over the situation with her sister and her cousin. Well, she didn't know if it was a situation. The facts were, Dylan had already claimed Chris as her official summer crush, but Claire was going behind her back and flirting with him. And Chris was obviously flirting back. If it were to escalade to more, then Dylan was bound to get hurt.
Massie was brought out f her ruminating by three sharp knocks on the door. Massie slowly stalked over to the heavy wooden door and opened it, revealing Derrick.
"Uh, hey." Derrick nodded at Massie. "You guys ready to head out?"
"Yeah. Let me get Kristen." Massie turned to yell up the stairs at Kristen. "We're leaving now!"
"I'm here!" Kristen scurried down the stairs and tossed her eco friendly Marc by Marc Jacobs canvas tote over her shoulder, nearly knocking Massie down.
"Okay lets go." Derrick said tersely and went back outside. Kristen shot Massie a look and they both resisted the urge to giggle. Massie was wondering why Derrick was so reserved around her. He was polite, but it seemed like he was avoiding her.
The three of them got in the backseat of the black Lexus SUV, and Derrick pulled the door closed behind them.
"Oh. This is my brother Jeff." Derrick gestured to the dirty blonde haired guy sitting in the driver's seat. "He goes to Dartmouth."
"Hey." Jeff turned around and smiled at them. Then he twisted the radio tuner to some obscure hard rap station and turned up the volume.
"Jeff has a weird obsession with 'hardcore rap.'" Derrick explained to Massie and Kristen with air quotes. "And since he's driving, he's in charge.
Massie nodded and tried to ignore the obnoxiously loud voice that was blasting form the speaker next to her ear that was rapping about how "the bitches ain't shit." This was going to be a long ride.
--
Finally, Massie thought as Jeff stopped the car to let them out. Once they were out of the car and heading towards the docks, Massie took in a deep breath of the salty air.
"You guys are here!" Josh bounded over to them. Massie could see Alicia waving like a mad woman from the deck of a yacht. From Massie's vantage point, Cam and Griffin were also in view.
"We made it." Kristen and Josh shared a smile. Massie didn't know whether to fawn, or vomit. She elected to stay as she was.
"Should we go now?" Derrick nudged Josh out of his moment with Kristen and started walking towards the dock.
Once they were on the yacht, Massie and Kristen went up to the deck to see Alicia. Kristen and Alicia layed out their large beach towels, and Massie followed suit.
"Where are the boys?" Kristen asked Alicia as she rooted through her bag for sunglasses.
"They're probably driving the boat or else they're playing Guitar Hero." Alicia pulled off her cover up and reclined on her towel.
"Cute swimsuit." Kristen told Alicia. "Wait, how do you have Guitar Hero?"
"It's down in the cabin or whatever. They go and play that, I tan. They will probably come hang out with us later." Alicia rolled over onto her stomach.
Massie tossed her jean shorts and her tank into her bag and pulled out her iPod. She went to her playlist, "Whatever and Ever." Her favorite song, "I'm Yours" by Jason Mraz.
Massie was three quarters of the way through the song when she heard her name being called. She took out her earphones to face Alicia and Kristen who were looking at her.
"So?" Alicia looked at her expectantly.
"So what?" Massie pressed the pause button on her iPod and turned her attention to the two girls who were watching her intently.
"Do you like Griffin?" Alicia asked her. Massie tried to keep the look of bewilderment off her face.
"Why on earth would I like him?" Massie wondered aloud. Sure, he was pretty hot and nice, but he wasn't her type at all. From her conversation with him the previous night, Massie had gathered that Griffin was pretty much a spoiled rich boy who thought he was a rebel because he wore skinny jeans. Of course they were Diesel skinny jeans.
"You seem to have caught his eye." Alicia winked at Massie. Massie looked form Alicia to Kristen. What were they thinking?
"Easy there Yenta. He is so not my type." Massie rolled her eyes for effect.
"Really? Ohhh I smell tension!" Alicia giggled. Massie grabbed her sunscreen and squirted some at Alicia. "Oh no you didn't."
"Oh yes I did!" Massie ducked for cover as Alicia grabbed the sunscreen and started squirting Massie and Kristen.
"Whoa. What's going on here?" Cam appeared out of the cabin, flanked by the rest of the boys. The watched in awe at the giggling, bikini clad girls who were squirting each other with sunscreen. As soon as Massie saw them standing there she straightened up and wiped off some of the sunscreen.
"Don't stop on our account." Griffin winked at them. Massie was confused. What was with these people and winking? That was the second time in five minutes she had been winked at.
"Shut up perv." Alicia squirted the last of the sunscreen at him, which he successfully dodged. "So what do you guys want? Or are you just going to stand there awkwardly?"
"Uh. We were going to see if any of you wanted to play Guitar Hero." Josh managed to say, his eyes on Kristen.
"I'm in." Kristen smiled shyly. Josh grinned back at her and the two of them went down into the cabin.
"Well count me out. " Alicia flipped her hair over her shoulder and returned to her towel.
"I'll stay with you." Cam laid down on Kristen's towel next to Alicia.
Realization dawned on Massie. She hadn't realized that Alicia and Cam were together, but now that she knew, it made a ton of sense. Massie said goodbye to the couple who were occupied playing twenty questions, and went down into the cabin, followed by Griffin and Derrick. Down in the cabin, Kristen was rocking out to Barracuda while Josh watched admiringly from the couch.
"I gotta use the bathroom." Griffin went off in the direction of the small bathroom.
"Do you guys have any drinks?" Massie asked. She was starting to get thirsty and she hadn't drunk anything since her orange juice at breakfast.
"Yeah. We have sodas. Uh, Derrick can show you." Josh never took his eyes off the T.V. screen. Massie looked over at Derrick. He looked like a deer in the headlights.
"Um. Sure." Derrick collected himself. "This way."
Derrick led Massie into the kitchenette and opened the fridge. There were a ton of sodas and food. Massie grabbed a Sprite and Derrick grabbed a Dr. Pepper.
"So what's your deal?" Massie asked Derrick. He paused in the doorway and turned around to face her.
"What do you mean?" Derrick looked confused.
"I met you last night, and you already seem to hate me!" Massie burst out. "I don't think I did anything to you but if I did, I'm sorry!"
"I don't hate you." Derrick murmured. He combed his sandy blonde hair back a let out a sigh.
"Then why do you act like whenever I am around, there's someone's foot up your butt?" Massie exclaimed. She was getting fed up.
"No one's foot is up my ass." Derrick chuckled. "Nice imagery though. It just complicated."
"It can't be that complicated." Massie tapped her foot. "I just want to know why you seem to dislike me so much? Or why you act so weird around me?"
"Look, I barely know you." Derrick mumbled. "But why do you care so much whether or not I dislike you?"
"It just matters!" Massie huffed. "If you just plain out don't like me, then tell me. I just want honesty."
"Honesty is overrated." Derrick cracked open his Dr. Pepper and took a sip.
"B.S. Why wont you tell me?" Massie slammed her can of Sprite down on the counter.
"Its because I like you!" Derrick whisper yelled at Massie.
"Seriously? Has the whole ignoring thing helped you get girls in the past?" Massie raised her eyebrows.
"Funny. I was ignoring you because, me trying to get you or whatever, would be a bad idea." Derrick explained.
"Why would it be a bad idea?" Massie inquired.
"Trust me." Derrick told her. Derrick brushed past Massie on his way out of the kitchenette and Massie felt as if the part of the arm that made contact with his skin was on fire.