Island Vibes

29. spill

I scrunched my toes up, feeling the sand crumble beneath my feet. I felt nervous, watching Noah and Melissa go on ahead. This was such a ticking time-bomb of a situation, and I really didn't want to be around when it detonated.

Some sick voice in my head piped up to remind me of how good they looked together – perfect beach babes, a match made in heaven – and how Noah was ruining all of that without Melissa even knowing about it. 

I couldn't believe I'd let myself get involved in such a mess. This was supposed to be a stress-free way of getting some work experience under my belt. I hadn't anticipated the world's suckiest love triangle being on the cards.

And now? Now I had to deal with Noah's sister, who still made me feel on edge. She'd admittedly been nice to me – or at least, as nice as I thought she could be – as of late, but she still totally terrified me.

"So listen, first things first," Brie began, taking my newly-rented surfboard from me and lying it on the sand.

I blinked down at the board, wondering where we'd even begin. I knew there was always a lot of practicing how to get up on the board involved before actually getting out into the water, so that was probably where Brie would start--

"What the fuck is the deal with you and Noah?"

I stared at her. I had to have misheard her. This was surely my subconscious being an absolute asshole and making me trip.

"I'm sorry, what--?" I began, but Brie had clearly said what she'd said.

"Like, come on, Callie. I saw you guys arguing, the atmosphere is beyond bizarre. I've been keeping tabs on this bullshit ever since you puked in his bathtub," she scoffed, half-laughing at the memory while I cringed.

"I really don't know what you're talking about," I insisted, but my acting skills clearly weren't up to scratch.

"Callie. Please. I'm not about to call Melissa over here and tell her you're, like, in love with my brother or whatever," she said, rolling her eyes all casually, like I wasn't currently experiencing a waking nightmare.

I swallowed, the lump in my throat preventing any words getting out too quickly. "Um," I began, fumbling for an explanation. I wasn't in love with Noah. I knew that much, but I also knew that wasn't what Brie wanted to hear. I didn't think she'd believe me. Maybe I ought to just come clean? "Well, I--" I stopped myself, frowning. I didn't want to tell her about Noah kissing me, either. Or about Noah wanting to leave the island. Or-- or anything.

It wasn't my place to say. I liked gossip as much as anybody, but this wasn't fun. I didn't want to mess with Noah's life like that, because--

Well, I did like him. It wasn't love – not at all. We hadn't known each other long enough for that. But he was sweet and kind, and he made me laugh. In another scenario, we'd have been dating, and I thought we'd have been happy, too.

I felt kind of sad that that wasn't our reality. Instead, we'd been blessed with this hot mess of a situation.

Brie huffed a little, before turning her back to the sun and pushing her sunglasses up off her face. She let the tortoiseshell frames get lost in her currently unruly hair.

"You can tell me," she insisted, sounding drained, trying to win me over. "I care about Noah, okay? I'm not trying to do anything-- bad," she laughed. "He's my brother. I'm looking out for him. So, spill."

I chewed at my bottom lip. She was making me even more nervous, honestly. It was like I had a pit of snakes in my stomach.

"Callie," she pressed, terse.

I shook my head, finally decisive. "No?" I said, wrinkling my nose up apologetically. It wasn't really a question, I was just trying to make my answer sound less harsh. I knew I couldn't tell her and live with it, though – Noah might've made a mistake, but he still deserved some courtesy.

"Are you kidding me? I know something's going on between you two," she said, her voice full of disbelief that I hadn't told her everything I knew. "I'm his sister," she laughed, as if that trumped everything.

I shrugged, sheepish but trying to stay firm. "I'm... his friend," I countered. "And I don't want to talk about it."

Brie outright scowled at me. Even with the sun beating down on my skin, I felt a chill.

"You're being ridiculous," Brie said, the words coming out of her mouth as if they were fact. She was so confident, so self-assured.

"Maybe," I replied, stealing a little bit of her confidence. My gaze slipped away from Brie, who was now glaring at me, to see the backs of Noah and Melissa, out in the ocean. They were still pretty close to shore, not nearly ready to ride any waves yet, but they'd gotten beyond where the water was breaking. They were just bobbing, peaceful. It made me even more certain, even more confident: I wasn't about to mess with Noah. He could take a while longer to figure things out. He deserved that.

"Jesus," Brie huffed, this whole conversation clearly not following the plan she'd had in her head. She looked completely done with me, like I'd offended her. "Whatever. You know what? Why don't you get Noah to teach you to surf. I think I, like, left the oven on," she said, muttering out the last words of her lame excuse and rolling her eyes sourly. She slid her sunglasses back down and ruffled at her hair before stalking off, only turning to glance at Noah and Melissa once before ditching.

I opened my mouth twice, trying to find something to say. The truth was that I didn't want her to stay, but I felt awkward letting her leave, and... in the end, I just let her go. It suddenly made sense to me, why she'd been so eager to get me to come along with them today – she'd wanted to fish for information. Maybe she'd noticed that Noah had been off lately, or maybe she'd just always had a bad feeling about the two of us – both options seemed equally likely – but either way, I was glad to not be dealing with it right here and now.

I raised an arm and waved broadly out at Noah and Melissa, hoping to flag their attention. I had zero surf skills after leaving Brie's Surf School, so heading out into the sea to join them wasn't an option yet, and I definitely needed to tell Noah what was up before he got blindsided by his sister at a later date.

Nothing could ever be easy, could it? Not even something as supposedly fun as learning to surf.