Island Vibes

22. break time

The whole rest of the week, we got smoothies for lunch. The only exception to our new routine was Saturday, when we switched things up and got smoothies for breakfast, instead, since Noah was having lunch with his girlfriend and I had plans to go shopping in the afternoon.

The day after saw us finally finish with the shell of the café. The walls were perfectly painted, the ceilings and floors were all intact and polished up, and we'd painted up the fixed counter, too. It was looking good, but Noah had been quiet all day and I wasn't sure what to say.

He hadn't been laughing as hard as he usually would, and he'd barely teased me even when I'd tripped over the vacuum that I'd left out. Noah on a normal day would've had material for weeks after that, but today he'd just kind of smiled and carried on after asking if I was okay. Things were weird.

I'd been contemplating all morning asking whether or not he wanted to grab a smoothie today again too, but conversation had been so stilted that I hadn't really wanted to bring it up. I was worried he'd say no, or worse, say yes and not mean it. I didn't want him to have to hang out with me all through our break if he wasn't into it.

I tried to think back over the week, to try to remember if I'd said anything weird, but I was pretty confident that Noah's weird mood wasn't anything to do with me. Like, he wasn't being rude or mean to me, he just wasn't being... Noah.

Eventually, though the seconds ticked by slower than usual, it rolled around to half two. That was around the time we'd try to pack up for an hour or two, so I put down the vacuum and switched it off, cutting the noise.

"Quittin' time," I said, drawling the words out kind of dorkily. I was definitely overcompensating for Noah. "Well, not quitting time, but... break time."

"Mm," Noah nodded, heaving out a small sigh that seemed to require a lot of effort. He took a step back from the recently-painted bar and his current task of hooking up the taps in order to shrug his navy hoodie off, and then he tied the thing around his waist. "I might just stay and work on this, I d'know." He blinked up at me, and my face must've given away the concern I felt. "I'm not hungry, I swear," he said, forcing a chuckle.

I twiddled a strand of hair that'd fallen free of my bun. "Me either," I lied, hoping he hadn't heard my stomach growling for the last half an hour, "but maybe we could just go for a drive? Clear our heads, y'know?" I laughed, looking around at our work. "I mean... this place still reeks of paint, even with all of the windows open."

He cracked a half-smile at that.

"You wanna go for a drive?" Noah asked. He still didn't look sold on the idea, but he had at least stopped working and he seemed to be considering it, at least.

I nodded fervently, looking out at the sun-bathed town around us.

"It'll do us some good. Windows down, shades on... you can listen to that garbage radio station you like," I teased.

Noah shook his head, holding back a grin. "Fine. You're lucky I don't play you my CDs, you know," he said, running a hand back through his scruffy hair. "You'd hate them even more."

He smiled over at me at that, and some of my concern washed away. This felt better. More normal, more Noah. We weren't totally there yet, but maybe he'd just needed the break more than he'd realized?

He then clapped his pockets checking for his things, and a small frown tinged his features. He 180'd and made a quiet ah noise when he spotted his phone on the otherwise bare shelving behind him, then took the device and wiggled it in the air at me.

"Got it. Ready to go?"

I nodded back at him and grabbed my bag, fishing out my phone and my sunglasses as we stepped out. Noah locked up behind us while I scrolled through my Instagram feed.

"Brie's surfing today?" I said, ticking my voice up as if it were a question even though I had the evidence in front of me.

Noah grinned down at the picture of his sister that I had up. Her hair was wet and casually pushed back off her face, and she sat cross-legged on a surfboard on the beach. I turned around, as if I'd be able to see her. The beach wasn't far away at all – we could see the waves rolling in, but not quite where they would crash. I figured we wouldn't be able to see any surfers unless they were out pretty far.

"She's surfing most days," he shrugged. "Since when do you follow her?" Noah cocked his head at me. "You guys had the roughest of rough starts," he joked, and I was happy to see him poking his head out of the shell he'd retreated into all morning.

"So did we." I frowned, wondering if Noah knew about how Brie had tried to look after me at his party. Well, kind of look after me, anyway. "We turned out okay, right? So I'm optimistic," I said, wondering if Brie and I ever really would be friends.

"Really?" Noah's eyes were lit up, now. "You should come out with us tomorrow! She's been trying to get me to surf with her all week. I could use the company, Brie can be, uh, a lot," he laughed.

"Wait, to surf? I don't know how to surf--" I began to protest.

"I'll teach you!" Noah was almost over-excited now, in total contrast to his earlier mood. "C'mon, it'll be awesome. You'll be a natural, I bet," he grinned.

I pulled a face.

"Noah--"

"Callie," he teased, before making a move to get in his car.

"I don't know," I said, feeling nerves already bubble up at the thought of surfing. I wouldn't have a clue what I was doing.

"What if I buy all the smoothies all week?" Noah offered, raising his eyebrows at me, innocently pleading.

I wasn't sure I was capable of saying no to that face.