Page 23 of The Beach House
“We’re not idiots, Noah.”
“You don’t even know the guys who invited you.”
“Sure I do. I added one of them on Facebook.”
“Elle,” Noah said, turning to me now. “Are you serious about this? You really wanna go that bad? I’m telling you guys, it’s not your scene—”
“You’re not the boss of her,” Lee interrupted.
“Yeah, well, neither are you.”
“I’m her best friend,” Lee snapped. “I’ll take care of her just fine.”
“And I’m her boyfriend,” Noah retorted. “I’m trying to look out for her.”
I stood up and walked off.
That got their attention. Lee called, “Shelly!” and Noah said, “Elle?”
I carried on stalking away from our little evening picnic on the beach. I didn’t walk very far, though, getting only a few feet away before I spun back round.
“Okay,” I said. “Look, Lee and I are going to that party tomorrow, and neither of us is going to do anything stupid. We’ll be careful. And I appreciate you, both of you, looking out for me, but—news flash—I don’t need either of you cataloging my every move and babysitting me. Got that?”
It was hard to tell who looked more stunned by my outburst—Lee or Noah. I was pretty stunned myself, since I hadn’t expected to rant at them like that when I’d opened my mouth.
Lee recovered first. “Sorry.”
“Fine,” Noah said. “Just promise me you guys will get out of there if things start heading south. Both of you.”
It was sweet, I thought, that he wasn’t only worried about me. I’d been ready to argue with him, thinking he was being kind of a jerk telling us not to go, but he was just looking out for us. Both of us.
“We swear,” I told him. “Right, Lee?”
Lee huffed, but said, “Yeah, we swear. We’ll be careful.”
I sat back down, reaching for some chips. I caught Lee’s eye and grinned at him. “Hey, Lee…beach party.”
He beamed back at me.“Beach party.”
Chapter 10
“I’ll be home when you guys get back,” Noah said, his arms tightening round me. “Time’s going to fly by.”
It sounded kind of like he was trying to convince himself of that as well as me, so I just squeezed him tighter and rested my head against his shoulder. I heard theclunk-clicksound of the trunk closing as Matthew finished loading his and Noah’s luggage into the car.
Lee and June were still standing on the doorstep, waiting for them to leave. They’d been waiting there at least ten minutes to wave Matthew and Noah off, since they’d already said their goodbyes.
“I bet I’ll hate it there,” Noah said, still trying to cheer me up. “I’ll be desperate to come back here.”
“I doubt it,” I mumbled into his shirt.
“Oh, come on. A bunch of preppy guys in sweater-vests and tweed? Not my kind of crowd.”
I laughed at his attempt at humor, but it felt fake, and I had a feeling it sounded fake. So I tried to smile instead, but it felt a bit more like a grimace.
“Shut up,” I told him instead. “You’ll love it there.”
“Sure. I’ll just love being surrounded by a bunch of do-gooders.”
