Chapter 5 - Sandcastles

Monday

Jeanette yawned as she drifted down the hallway. It was early in the morning and she had just woken up. Being an early-bird, she was used to getting up before everyone else. She adjusted her glasses as she walked into the room. She noticed Alvin was still sleeping on the pull out couch, loudly snoring with his mouth wide open. She quietly made her way into the kitchen, trying her best to not wake him. She opened up the cupboard and grabbed the box of corn flakes sitting on the shelf. It wasn't her first choice for breakfast, but she didn't want to be rude and be noisy enough to wake Alvin up. She slowly closed the cupboard, trying her best not to make a sound.

"God, could you be any louder?" Alvin snottily and sarcastically muttered in a gravelly morning voice from the living room. To Jeanette's surprise, Alvin seemed to be a light sleeper.

"Sorry, Alvin," Jeanette apologized. "Did you sleep well last night?" she asked as she opened up the box of corn flakes.

"Slept as well as someone could on a pull out couch."

All Jeanette could muster to say was a mumbled "sorry" as she poured the cereal into her bowl. Every small, unpreventable noise Jeanette seemed to make while making cereal for herself, opening and closing the fridge, pouring the milk, grabbing a spoon, caused Alvin to grunt in frustration. After her cereal was ready, she opted to eat her breakfast outside, even though it wasn't something she was entirely thrilled about. She quietly made her way to the porch and shut the door gently behind her.

The living room was back to being eerily quiet. After a moment, when he thought the "noisy" distractions were over, Alvin laid his head back down on his pillow and closed his eyes again. He slowly started to drift back asleep.

That was until he was rudely awakened by the sound of someone messing around in the kitchen.

Alvin let out a frustrated shout as he sat up, immediately looking at the source of the noise. It was his brother, Simon, opening the fridge.

"Well, good morning to you too," Simon sarcastically quipped. He pulled a carton of eggs from out of the refrigerator. "Would you like some eggs for breakfast?"

Alvin let out a mumbled "whatever" as he stood up. "I'll take that as a yes," Simon said, grabbing a skillet from one of the cupboards.

"Your girlfriend is outside," Alvin snipped as he walked up to Simon.

Simon leered at his brother as he turned on the stove and placed the skillet on one of the burners. "She is not my girlfriend."

"Don't you like her?"

"...Yes, I do, but-"

"Then why haven't you asked her out already?"

Simon let out an annoyed huff, clearly over Alvin's antics. "I will when we are both ready." He felt like a broken record at this point.

"And when will that be?"

"I don't know!" Simon exclaimed, throwing his arms up in the air. He had clearly had enough of Alvin's nonsense.

Alvin rolled his eyes. "Whatever," he muttered as he walked away towards the hallway. "I gotta go take a wiz."

Simon grumbled at his brother's juvenile behavior as he proceeded to crack an egg over the now hot skillet, praying that breakfast would put not only him but his brother in a better mood.

The sand on the beach was a soft gold. It's warmth was just hot enough to feel cozy, like a warm hug. Brittany laid on her back on her hot pink beach towel, her eyes closed and the sound of the waves crashing making her feel like she was about to doze off. Her heart shaped sunglasses matched her blindingly white two piece swimsuit. She felt so sophisticated and relaxed just by laying on the beach.

Her comfortable daze was, however, cut off by a sudden shadow looming over her, ruining her tanning session. Brittany scrunched her nose. Her eyes were still closed but she just knew it had to be Alvin messing with her.

"Ugh!" Brittany scoffed. "I swear to god, if you don't move out of the way I will-"

"Hey movie star. How's it going?"

Brittany's eyes snapped open. It was not Alvin. It was Max, standing over her, flashing his signature friendly, warm smile.

"Oh my gosh!" Brittany sat up immediately, pushing her sunglasses up to sit at the top of her head. "Hi Max," she smiled as she sprung up to talk to him. "Sorry, I thought you were one of my friends."

Max laughed. "No problem." He glanced at Brittany up and down for a second. "Getting your tan on? Looks good," he said in a genuine tone. It came across as more supportive and friendly than flirty. Nevertheless, Brittany couldn't help but stifle a giggle. "Thanks," she responded back in a cool and collected manner.

"So, I was thinking... We should get to know each other better," suggested Max. Brittany blinked. "Really?" she asked, trying to restrain herself from twirling her hair in a comedic flirty fashion. Max nodded. "Yeah. My friends and I are gonna have a small bonfire later tonight. You should come."

"Yeah! Totally," Brittany agreed immediately without even thinking. "I'll be there."

"Are your, uh, friends gonna be there too?" Max asked, pointing to behind Brittany. Brittany turned her head and saw Theodore and Eleanor making a sandcastle. Brittany bit the inside of her cheek. Her friends and family were nice and all, but she knew that they could be seen as kind of "lame" to some. And she definetley didn't want to seem like a boring dork in front of her new crush and his friends. She turned back around to Max and shrugged. "Only if you want them there."

"Hey, they're free to hang with us," he said as he started to pick up his surfboard. "See you then!" He called out as he trotted away.

Brittany waved goodbye as he walked away and felt her face turn pink. She couldn't believe it was really happening. It wasn't like Brittany had any trouble getting any guy she wanted but this was different. The boy of her dreams was placed right in front of her, as if it was fate when they met. Like he could be the one for her.

"Jeez Britt, you could at least pretend you're not drooling over him."

Brittany whipped her head around to look at the person who made the snide comment behind her. It was, of course, Alvin. Brittany was surprised. Wasn't he just surfing a second ago? Her emotions quickly changed from startled to annoyed.

"I am not drooling over him," Brittany replied, crossing her eyes and furrowing her brow. "I'm just being nice."

Alvin smirked. "Yeah, right. If that's being nice, I don't know if I want to see what you would do when you actually flirt." He made air quotes with the last two words and Brittany was fuming. Before she could cuss him out, he swiftly changed the subject. "What was he even talking to you about anyways?"

"Wouldn't you like to know?" Brittany snarled.

"Was he trying to get into your pants?"

Brittany scoffed. "Gross! If you must know, Seville, he asked me if he wanted to hang out tonight. He's having a bonfire."

"Ah, so I was right!" Alvin held his head up triumphantly, taunting Brittany.

"Actually," Brittany leered at Alvin. "He's having it with his friends. He invited all of us."

Alvin raised an eyebrow. "Really? So, are you going to tell them?" He gestured toward Theodore and Eleanor. Brittany stared at them. They were still sitting there, smiling and giggling while making sandcastles as if they were young children. Brittany tried to hide her grimace from Alvin. "Of course I am!" she replied as chipper as she could manage to muster as she walked over to the two teens.

"Hey, you two!" she called out in a friendly voice.

Eleanor turned her attention to her sister as she approached. "Hi Brittany! Have you been wearing your sunscreen?" she asked. "You don't want to get sunburned."

Brittany rolled her eyes in a playful fashion, a little annoyed but still appreciative of her sister looking out for her. "Yes, of course," she replied in a tone as if she were a little kid being scolded by their mom.

"So, what's up?" Theodore asked as he flipped a pail full of sand onto the ground.

"Well... Max invited us to a bonfire with his friends later." As Brittany was explaining, she couldn't take her eyes off of Eleanor and Theodore continuing to make their sandcastles. Theodore stuck his pointer finger into one of the "castles", making little windows. Brittany tried not to grimace at their childish antics. "So, are you interested in going?"

The two teens glanced at each other. "That sounds fun," Theodore said. Eleanor nodded. "Yeah! It would be nice to properly talk to them. I guess we'll be there!"

Brittany whipped her head around to face Alvin and gave him a told-you-so look. Alvin let out a little huff in frustration.

"By the way, where are the two nerds?" asked Alvin, changing the subject. "Doing nerd stuff?"

Eleanor glared at Alvin. "If you're talking about Simon and Jeanette, they went to go look at the shops down the street."

"Just as I thought," nodded Alvin as he rolled his eyes and picked up his surfboard. "Nerd stuff."

Brittany watched Alvin trot away, back to the ocean once again. She grumpily blew a stray piece of hair out of her face and went to go lay back down on her beach towel. She leaned all the way back and closed her eyes, letting the sounds of the beach and the thoughts of her dreamy crush calm her back down.

Jeanette couldn't help but smile as she brought the cup to her lips to take a sip of her drink. The ambiance of the cafe she and Simon sat in gave her a soothing feeling. It felt almost as if she was home.

"I have got to say, Simon, this has been truly wonderful," admitted Jeanette. "You know, you didn't have to by me a drink."

Simon shook his head. "Oh, don't worry about it. It's the least I could do after Alvin bugged you this morning."

Jeanette smiled as she took another sip of her drink. She couldn't keep herself from looking around at the cafe and admiring its atmosphere. "This place is really lovely."

Simon smiled. "I'm glad you like it. There's nothing better than spending some time at a cafe after picking up a good book from the bookstore."

Jeanette nodded. "I'm glad I was finally able to find the book I was looking for. It sure can be tough looking for a book that is out of print." She lightly patted the book that was sitting in her tote bag.

"Oh, I know that feeling. There was this one time where I was looking for this specific book and-"

"Hey, you two!" A voice chimed. Jeanette and Simon turned their heads to the voice. It was Olivia and Erwin, two of the friends of Max. Olivia happily waved with an iced coffee in her other hand. Erwin was slowly chewing on some sort of pastry.

Jeanette was a bit surprised. "Oh! Hello." She smiled at the two teens in front of her. It was nice that they seemed to remember her and Simon

"Well aren't you two cute. How's your date going?" Olivia asked.

Jeanette felt her face turn red. Simon saw Jeanette's expression and quickly scrambled to defend himself. "Oh! No, no we aren't dating. We're just friends!" He waved his arms and chuckled nervously. Although he wish they were more than friends, he didn't want Jeanette to feel uncomfortable by implying that they were closer than they actually were.

"Ah, I see," Olivia slyly said, hinting that she knew what was going on between them.

"Are you going to the bonfire later tonight?" Erwin asked, totally ignoring that he was still chewing on a mouthful of pastry.

"A-a bonfire?" Jeanette asked, still taken aback by Olivia's impression of the two.

"Yeah," Olivia nodded. "Our friend group is having a bonfire. You two should totally come." The way Olivia

Before Jeanette or Simon could say anything, Olivia's phone buzzed and she pulled it out of her pocket, looking at the message. "Shoot, we gotta jet. See you guys!" Olivia waved as she left and Erwin followed her out.

Once they were out of sight, Jeanette and Simon stared at each other, both totally silent and bewildered. Jeanette felt so flustered, like she could hear her own heartbeat in her ears. What was Simon going to say to her?

Finally, Simon spoke with a quip. "What a peculiar group," he remarked.

Jeanette let out a shy chuckle. "Yeah. A bit strange." She was feeling a little weary. Was Simon going to say anything about what just happened?

There was a beat of silence until Simon spoke up again.

"Well then, what were we talking about again?" Simon asked, completely brushing off the conversation that just happened.

Jeanette was a little surprised at Simon's dismissive attitude and tried her best to not to seem too frazzled. "You were talking about a book you were looking for," she said as earnestly as she could.

While pushing up his glasses, Simon nodded. "Ah, yes. Thank you. As I was saying, I was looking for this physics book that had been out of print for a while." He went on to ramble about his story about trying to find a specific book. Jeanette stared into Simon's eyes, slowly spinning her straw around in her drink as she tried to listen to the person she was staring at right in front of her.

It wasn't like Jeanette to tune out of whatever Simon was talking to her about, but there was something on her mind that she couldn't let go of.

[A/N] Sorry if this chapter was a bit short or not that exciting! The next chapter will be more interesting, I swear. I was originally going to use my idea for the next chapter as this one, but I felt the pacing was too quick and it would basically skip an entire day in the story. I also didn't want to add it to this one and have it be a suuuuper long chapter. Nevertheless, I hope you still enjoyed reading my writing!

Also, I don't ask this much, but if you like this story, please leave a review or (if you like it that much) a like/follow! I honestly haven't been feeling motivated lately and would love to hear your thoughts and support. Thanks and I'll hopefully see you soon!