(Kirstie's POV)
I wake up and see that it's dark outside and hear that it's quiet in the house. I look at my phone and it's about 2:15 in the morning. I get up and walk over to the window and look out at the moon light beach. I can see the waves crashing. I am so upset and hurt by what Jeremy said to me. I know it is all lies, but he has always known exactly what to say to me to hurt me. I grab my oversized hoodie and put it on and step quietly outside into the hallway. I tiptoe past Mitch's room and Scott's room. I head into the living room and realize how quiet the house is when everyone is sleeping. I go to the kitchen and grab a glass of water and head down to the basement; I never did get to check it out. I am instantly surprised at the size of the basement and realize that it's almost as large as the upstairs. I walk down the stairs and notice that the walls are very thick and have foam on them, must be soundproof. I go down and see a large sectional sofa, big screen TV, board games, movies, and books. I look over to the over side of the room there was a giant studio equipped with the latest and greatest technology. I run my fingers along the board and now know why Kevin was down here for hours. I see our music out on the table along with some new songs. I look at them and see my parts and frown. I put them back down and think to myself, am I even good enough for this group? I head over to the movie selection and scan through the hundreds of titles. I grab an old musical that I love to watch, The Sound of Music. I put it in the DVD player and relax on the oversized sectional that is probably big enough for ten people. I am getting to the part where Maria is singing about her favorite things and I am humming along to myself, when I hear someone coming down the stairs.
"Hello," Scott calls from the stairs.
"Hi Scott," I say as I lower the volume on the TV.
"I saw the light on and wondered who was down here. Wow, this room is amazing! I would never have expected it," Scott says looking around.
"I know, right," I say.
Scott comes over to me and sits down right beside me and leans over, "How are you doing, K?"
"I could be better," I say leaning onto his shoulder.
He looks at the TV and we watch for a little bit. He grabs the remote and hits Pause and turns towards me. "Kirstie, you are so talented. You are amazing. Don't believe a word of what that dumbass said to you. You are one of the best singers that I know."
I shrug.
"Don't shrug, know it. You are. Can I kick his ass the next time I see him, please?" Scott says with leaning back onto the couch.
"No, he's not worth it," I say.
"You don't believe him, do you?" Scott asks.
"No. It is just that words hurt sometimes, I hate that saying, words never hurt me, however it goes, but, for me, they do hurt," I say.
"I know," Scott puts his arm around me and comforts me.
"Then let our words raise you back up. I know three other members of this group who think that you are amazing!" Scott says.
"Thanks, you guys are amazing too," I say.
We sit and watch the movie and I fall asleep to Maria singing again.
(Scott's POV)
I hate seeing Kirstie like this, she's in a funk. She needs to be happy Kirstie. I look over and see that she fell asleep. I get up slowly, which is hard to do on a large leather sectional. I try and make minimum noises and laugh at myself in my mind. I grab a blanket and cover her and turn the TV volume down some, but still leave it on if she wakes up. I walk up the stairs into the kitchen and head back to bed. I wake up in a couple of hours and it is about seven in the morning. I get up and walk over into the living room and see Kevin busily making some breakfast and Mitch making some coffee. Avi is cooking some bacon. I walk over and say, "Hey guys," and sneak a piece of bacon that just finished cooking.
"Hey Blondie, how did you sleep?" Mitch asks.
"Okay, I got up in the middle of the night because I was hungry. But, I went back to sleep. Hey, Kevin, you didn't tell us how amazing the basement was!" I said remembering the basement.
"Guys, it's so cool. It's got everything down there." Kevin says cooking some eggs.
"Really, I want to go see," Mitch says grabbing his coffee and walking towards the door.
"Wait, not now. Kirstie is down there, sleeping, I think, unless she came back up," I say.
"What?" Mitch asks.
"Yeah, I was hungry, so I came in here to get some food and I saw that the basement light was on. I was curious to see who it was and I went down there and she was watching a movie. We watched it for a little bit and she fell asleep." I say pouring me a cup of coffee now.
"How is she?" Avi asks.
"She's not great. She's upset about everything that Jeremy said to her. I could seriously hurt him for what he said." I say.
"Hi everyone," Kirstie says coming up from the basement.
"Hey girlfriend," Mitch says hugging Kirstie tightly.
"Okay, okay, Mitch. I love you too," Kirstie says smiling.
She walks over to get some coffee as we all look at her.
(Kirstie's POV)
Oh my goodness, they are all staring at me. Every last one of them, this is just a little bit more than I can handle right now. I grab my coffee and lightly smile and head outside to look out at the beach in the morning and hear the waves. Maybe the sound of the waves will cancel out the sound of my own thoughts in my head. I sit in one of the rocking chairs and place my coffee on the small table. I bring my knees up to my chest and just sit there and look out at the waves.
(Avi's POV)
I see Kirstie and give Scott the tongs to take over on bacon duty. If he's cooking it, he'll stop eating it, I think to myself. That boy can eat and you would never know it from his size. He gladly takes over and I head to the back deck. I slide open the door and walk over to Kirstie. I just want to hold her in my arms, but we aren't quite there yet. Are we anywhere? I don't really know where her mind is at. I sit beside her in a nearby chair and say, "How did you sleep? I heard you fell asleep to a movie downstairs, which one?"
Kirstie looks over at me and says, "Sound of Music".
"Kirstie," I say.
"Yes."
"I just want to know if we are okay." I say reaching out to hold her hand.
She takes my hand and looks me in the eye and says, "More than okay."
I smile and touch her cheek and then lean in and give her a small kiss on the cheek. She smiles a little bit and I say, "I almost saw you smile."
This makes her smile more and I love it because I love seeing her smile. I love the way her brown eyes sparkle and her dark hair falls messily around her face in the morning.
"Can I tell you something and you won't completely freak out," I say.
"Okay," she cautiously says.
"You look absolutely gorgeous in the mornings." I say.
This makes her blush and she then realizes that her hair is a mess. She looks at me and says, "Avi, I don't even have my hair fixed, makeup on, nothing. I'm in my pajama pants and a large oversized hoodie."
"Exactly, absolutely beautiful," I say.
This makes her smile and she leans back in the rocking chair and stares at me. We sit quietly and look out at the beach and she rubs her fingertips along my arm. "Come on; let's get back inside before Scott and Kevin eat all of the good food."
"I'll be in a minute. I just want to sit here for a little bit more and finish my coffee." Kirstie says.
"Okay, but, if you don't come in, I'm bringing food out to you." I say standing up.
"I'll be in, promise." Kirstie says reaching for my arm.
I could definitely get used to all of this affection between us right now. I lean down and say, "Okay, see you in a bit." I give her another small kiss on her forehead.
I walk inside and the guys are all looking at me with smirks.
"Awe, you guys are so cute!" Mitch exclaims as he comes over and hugs me.
"Okay, Mitch. Enough of that," I say.
(Mitch's POV)
I am so excited for Avi and Kirstie, they totally deserve each other and Kirstie deserves to be with a man who will treat her like the princess she is. I tell Avi of my plan to have Kirstie's cousin, Emma, come stay for a week to cheer Kirstie up. But, I don't know if Emma can come yet. She hasn't gotten back with me yet. Emma is about one year younger than Kirstie, but they are so close. Their moms are twins. Emma is about the same height as Kirstie, but instead of olive skin, hazelnut brown eyes, and dark brown hair like Kirstie, she has fair skin with freckles, gray eyes, and light brown hair. But, she always brings fun around. She is so positive and upbeat and that's just want Kirstie needs. We all settle around the table and Kirstie comes back in from outside. Scott and Kevin managed to save some of the bacon for us and we were thankful. We ate everything and tried to keep it light hearted. Scott had turned on SpongeBob in the background and Kevin asked, "Is that show always on?"
"It's not, it's actually one of my DVDs" I say laughing.
"Wow, I thought that show was always on for some reason." Kevin said laughing.
I feel my phone buzz and I pull it out and look at the message from Emma. I jump up and am so excited. "Kirstie, guess who is coming to stay here for the next week?"
"Who," Kirstie says with hesitation, and then adds, "Do I get a say in this guest?"
"You will love this person; you already do love this person. It's Emma!" I say.
"Seriously, Mitch, Emma is coming! Oh my gosh! Thank you. How did she get out of work?" Kirstie asks knowing that Emma was a camp counselor in the summer at the local camp.
"We worked it out; I told her that she was needed here." I say.
"Mitch, I could kiss you." Kirstie says as she comes around and hugs my neck from behind and gives me a kiss on the cheek.
"Kirstie, we all love you and you need to know that you are loved, you are talented, and you are amazing!" I say.
Kirstie smiles and pulls out her phone to dial Emma right away and heads to her room. I hear her excitedly talking to her on the phone.
"You earned some major best friend brownie points there, Mitch." Scott jokes.
(Kirstie's POV)
I am so excited to have Emma come here, I can't contain myself. I haven't seen her in almost a whole year. I talked to her and she is on her way. I wanted to make sure that she wasn't going to get in trouble with work and she said that she just took this session off; she'll be back for the next session, no worries. She did ask if she could bring her friend, Olivia. I didn't really know Olivia that well, but thought there was no harm in having someone else come. The house was plenty big enough. I explained that we might have to bunk up and share the bed and she was fine.
"Kirstie, Olivia can be a little pushy at times, but she means well. I would love to surprise her with this trip. She's been so great this past year while you have been away. She loves Pentatonix almost as much as I do." Emma said.
"Wow, she's not going to be all fan girl?" I ask.
"Not after a couple of minutes of screaming. Just prepare the guys. See y'all later on." Emma says.
I think to myself, uh oh. I hope this doesn't turn out getting weird. I head back out to the main room to where the guys are and say, "hey guys" in my most sugary sweet voice.
"Oh no," Scott says, knowing the voice well.
"So, there might be two people coming to stay here for the week. Emma is bringing her friend, Olivia." I say with a smile biting my lower lip.
"Who's Olivia?" Mitch asks.
"She's a good friend of Emma's who has been there for her this year and she might be a big fan of our group." I say.
"Kirstie," Scott says.
I can hear Scott's speech before he starts and I talk before he has a chance.
"I think it'll be good, it'll be nice to have some other women in the house," I say.
"Emma is so thrilled to see everyone again, she misses all of you. Her friend will be fine. If she's great friends with Emma, she'll be fine." I add.
"Okay, I guess so." Scott says.
Mitch squeals, "I can already see it, slumber party!"
I look over at Avi and smile and walk up to him. "Do you want to go the beach today?"
Avi smiles and says, "Of course, anywhere with you."
"Meet you in twenty. I'll go grab my stuff." I head back to my room and look at my bikinis. I grab my pale pink one and put that one and look in the mirror. I feel like it really shows my tan because of the color. I comb my hair and just let it hang down. I put on my while cover-up and grab my beach bag with all of my stuff and head out. I see Avi already standing at the back door waiting for me.
We head out to the beach and find a good spot. We get ready to head into the water as I start to spray sunscreen on myself. Avi asks if I need any help and I let him spray my back. I hear him clear his throat and I turn and ask, "Are you okay?"
"Yea, I'm good," he asks and I think that he's blushing.
I turn to Avi and say, "You look nice in your suit, Avi."
"You look nice in yours as well, Kirstie." Avi says with a flirtatious smile.
He grabs my hand and we head into the water. We are in the ocean to where we are touching the bottom and our heads and shoulders are above water. Avi keeps staring at me and I stare right back.
"It's good to see you smile, Kirstie." Avi says.
"It's easy to smile around you, Avi." I say.
Avi reaches for me and pulls me in close. I feel his arms wrap around my waist and feel my heart beat faster. In this moment, I feel that it's only me and Avi in this entire world. Our eyes have locked in and we just move with the waves.
(Avi's POV)
I lean towards Kirstie and I hug her as I pull her closer to me. I feel her leg graze against mine and feel her arms wrap around my waist. I gently kiss her neck and then her cheek. I move to her lips and kiss her softly. The kiss is amazing and everything that I thought it would be. Fireworks go off in my mind and I could live in this moment. I pull back to look at her and she looks stunned.
She finally says, "I wasn't expecting that."
"I know. I wasn't planning on it, just felt like it was the right moment." I say.
Kirstie looks at me and says, "I felt like it was too." With that, she put her arms around my neck and kissed me again. We both stopped after a little while and laughed. It was our first kiss and it was in an ocean. We walked back to the chairs and both fell into them out of breath. We continued to laugh and talk for a little bit. We knew that the guys would have given us a hard time if they saw us kissing in the ocean like that. We wouldn't hear the end of it. So, we decided to keep the 'kissing' between us. Kirstie and I both reclined our chairs and enjoyed the rays of the warm sun.
To be continued…