Page 17 of The Beach House
I raised an eyebrow. “What’s up? Did you leave something in here, or are you just missing our room so much already?”
“Our room?” Rachel echoed. We both looked over to see her blinking at us, confusion all over her face. “Did you guys…I thought you and Noah shared this room?”
Lee laughed, reaching over to ruffle my hair. “As if. Nah, me and Elle have always shared. Noah got his own room, since he’s the oldest.”
“Oh. Oh, right. Sure.”
Rachel’s usually bright smile seemed stiff, and she quickly turned back to plugging in her phone charger. I shot Lee a look. Hadn’t he mentioned, when he told her about the beach house, that we shared a room?
Not that it had ever mattered to us, but…Well, I could see how someone likehis girlfriendmight find it weird.
“I’m so glad to have a different roommate for once,” I told Rachel, trying to lighten the mood. “Someone who’s, like, actually tidy. And doesn’t snore.”
“Speak for yourself,” Lee told me. “Anyway. I didn’t come here to be insulted.” He lowered his voice to a whisper. “I came because we’re switching rooms.”
“Huh?” Rachel and I shared a look of confusion.
Lee rolled his eyes at me. “Just get in there”—he jerked a thumb over his shoulder—“for, like, an hour or something. I want to spend some alone time with my girlfriend, if you don’t mind.”
I grinned, biting back a laugh. “A connecting bathroom between you guys and us girls isn’t exactly the best way for your parents to keep us separated, I guess.”
“What they don’t know won’t hurt them. We’ll switch back in a bit. Now shoo.” Well, I didn’t need to be told twice. Lee called quietly after me just before I disappeared into the bathroom, “No hanky-panky, Shelly! These walls are thin.”
I snorted, and Rachel questioned, “Hanky-panky, Lee? Seriously?”
I paused before I went into Noah’s room, remembering I was in my pajamas. I didn’t care so much that I had no makeup on; the past few days I hadn’t bothered wearing any, since we’d been down at the beach. But the threadbare gray shorts and the shapeless navy tank top that fit me like a sack weren’t exactly the kind of thing I wanted my boyfriend to see me in.
I looked at myself in the mirror for a moment, then muttered, “Whatever.” Noah had seen me in a worse state than this: he’d held my hair back for me when I got too drunk at a party and puked my guts into a toilet bowl. Compared to that, old pajamas were glamorous. When I yanked open the door to Noah’s bedroom, though, I saw I didn’t need to worry. The room was almost pitch-black, so I could barely even make out the bed. I threw a hand to the wall, finding it after a few moments, and started walking forward tentatively, my other arm feeling around in front of me.
“Noah?” I whispered. I was afraid to talk too loudly in case we were all caught out.
“Polo,” he whispered back, chuckling under his breath. “And you’re supposed to say ‘Marco,’ you know.”
I scowled slightly. “Couldn’t you have put the light on? I can’t s—”
My foot caught the airbed that Lee was sleeping on. I crashed down, arms flailing. My elbow whacked the end of Noah’s bed and I grunted as the air was knocked out of me. There was a long pause, like we were both waiting for someone to burst in.
“Ouch,” I mumbled, face in the airbed.
“Are you okay?” Noah whispered. I heard him climb off the bed.
“Fine. Just hit my funny bone. Ow. Lucky the airbed broke my fall.”
“Good.” And then, half laughing, he said, “Klutz.”
“Jerk” was my only comeback. He chuckled again and I felt a hand on my waist, an arm pressed against my back. His hand found mine, and I managed to get to my feet without falling over again.
“Sneaking around, Elle?” Noah said, mock-scolding me. His warm spearmint breath tickled my face. I giggled quietly and went to kiss him, but missed and ended up kissing his chin instead. He laughed, but then he kissed the side of my nose.
I bit my lip to muffle a snort, and Noah stepped back, pulling me along with him, until we were both sitting on the bed.
“How do you always manage to fall over, Elle?” he said, playing with the ends of my hair. My eyes now adjusted to the darkness, I could just about see Noah’s face, and it looked like he was smiling. Not smirking, but giving me that smile that showed the dimple in his cheek.
I shrugged in answer. “Guess I can’t help falling for you.”
He chuckled, and his forehead rested against mine. “You’re such a romantic.”
“Is that bad?”
