Song for this chapter: sucker

- The Jonas Brothers

After breakfast on the seafront, sipping on orange juice in champagne glasses, Lyds and I make our way to the beach. I'm more than ready to get my tan on.

Finding a quiet spot on the beach, we place our towels down side-by-side. We strip off simultaneously, taking place of our layers off until we end up in just our bikinis. Lydia is wearing a matching bikini to me, only in white instead - which brings out her skin tone, dark olive and completely beautiful. I have a feeling she's gonna be even more of a knockout when she's tan. I'm sure a tan makes her baby blue eyes pop. Lucky.

"You wanna go for a swim?" Lyds asks after about half an hour, clearly finding the heat a little too much and finding herself in need of a cool down.

"Can we leave our stuff here?"

"We'll be able to see it from the sea." She responds, so I nod my head getting up to follow her.

As we walk past a small group of middle aged/older men, I feel my anxiousness start to creep up. A wolf whistle echoes and I turn to give the one responsible a killer death glare, and noice all four men looking at us - their eyes following us as we continue to walk.

"Get your boobs out!" One calls.

"Come join us." Another one adds. I stop moving completely, turning around. This isn't acceptable.

"We'll make it worth your while, darlings." After the final comment, I lose my temper.

"Fuck off. You're almost 50 years older than us and have the audacity to be calling things like that out at minors. We're 17 years old and shouldn't have to deal with the harassment from old perverted men like yourselves."

"Oh shut up, you feminazi and take the fucking compliment or I'll show you what harassment really is." One of them chuckles tauntingly. I hate society and patriarchal white men who are so entitled that they think catcalling is a compliment.

"It is not a compliment you old fart! And if you just threatened to touch me without my permission, that just makes you a fucking predator. Just because you're an entitled white man doesn't mean you can do what you want to woman's bodies! It also doesn't make me a "feminazi" sticking up for myself against men like you who think it's okay to shout things out about my body and make me feel uncomfortable. It's disgusting and you should be ashamed. Fucking assholes." With that, I grab Lydia's hand and storm off - absolutely furious. I hate men.

"Damn baby," Lydia purrs, "you're one hot mama when you get angry." She winks at me.

"I'd agree." A boy around our age joins the conversation. He's hot sandy blonde hair with gorgeous green eyes - not as pretty as Grayson's, but still pretty. He's lean, almost a little bit lanky but his muscular build makes up for extra few inches of length of his arms and legs. Oh how I wished to be taller.

"Huh, it's not very smart to come and flirt with a girl after she's just told old men off for looking at her body." Lydia tells him, and I watch as he lets out an uneasy laugh.

"I just wanted to check if you were okay." He says nervously, fidgeting with his hands.

"Yeah, I'm perfect." I say, offering him a smile to try and make him feel better.

"Alex! Fucking get a move on?" A voice interrupts him just as he moves his mouth.

"Sorry," he scratches the back of his neck, "I should go, I hope you're okay though - seriously." He says and then runs off to join his friends, who are gathered higher on the beach, playing volleyball.

"Damn if I weren't entangled, I'd jump on that quicker than a fly on shit." Lydia mumbles, checking out Alex's ass as he leaves. What a nice comparison.

"He was sweet." I mumble, before paddling into the sea - it's taken longer than it should've done just to have a swim in the sea. Stupid men.

We sunbathe until around six pm, which is when we decide to head to the beach party. For dinner, we just ate burgers from a cart in the parking lot. Throwing on my dress, I pack everything back into my bag, putting my flip flops back on.

"It's on the part of the beach that Grayson's house is on so we need to be careful of kidnappers." Lydia says, "or murderers actually, because they're gonna kill us when they find us." She finishes after a minute of silence.

"I can't wait." I say, putting my bag into the back of Grayson's jeep. Oh, he's definitely killing us.

When we pull back up to the beachfront, nearer to the house, we park on the road. The beach is already crowded when we get there, a bonfire set up with several coolers spread out around.

We get out of the car, and I survey the surroundings. There's so many people here, making me feel slightly uneasy. Lydia gets out of the car with a bottle of vodka.

"Where did you get that?" I question.

"Under Grayson's bed."

"You really want us to die, don't you?" I ask, crossing my arms; I'm not impressed by her stealing his alcohol, he might've wanted that.

"C'mon party pooper," she rolls her yes, leading the way onto the beach.

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When I'm stood by myself from the corner of my eye I see Alex walking up to me with a can of beer in his hand.

"How are you now?"

"I'm good, just a daily occurrence being a girl."

"And it shouldn't be. It was disgusting what they said, I heard every word. It shouldn't be normalised." He says, and I shoot him a smile.

"No it shouldn't."

"Do you want a drink?" He asks me, pointing over to one of the coolers. I nod, following him over to the cooler. "Soda okay?"

"Yep." He hands me the can, and I pop it open, taking a sip.

"So, I've never seen you around here. Do you live near?" He asks.

"No, I live in Palm Springs." I inform, "so not too far away."

"Ah okay." A slightly awkward silence follows, just for a couple of seconds before I decide to make more conversation.

"Do you live near?" I ask.

"Yeah, just around the corner. I could show you around sometime?" He asks, the awkwardness returns.

"Urm-" I start.

"Or we could go out for dinner? Like a date maybe, you know - just while you're here?" He asks, and I tense up a little, finding this incredibly awkward.

"I'm seeing someone," I say, Grayson means a lot to me and I refuse to be anything but loyal to him.

"Oh. Oh. Yeah of course you are." He says and then let's out a nervous chuckle before facepalming himself. "Fuck, I'm sorry I'm not this much of a mess usually. You just make me really nervous." He says, stumbling over his words a little bit. I find myself smiling up at him. Wanting to reassure him; I place a hand on his arm to stop his nervous rambles.

"It's okay. You're not a mess. I think it's cute, in a friend type of way. Because obviously, we can't be anything more." I pause for a second, "shit I'm sorry, that was insensitive." He laughs at me this time.

"It's alright, I get it." He mumbles, placing a hand over mine, "it's hard to find a loyal girl these days, trust me I've been looking for a while." He rolls his eyes.

"Oh I know more about that than anyone." I mutter.

"Wait are you gay?" He asks, and immediately I start to blush.

"Oh shit, that didn't come out right." I tuck a piece of hair behind my ear. "My bestfriend slept with my boyfriend at the time." I tell him. I don't know why I'm saying this like we've been friends for years, but I feel like we could be really good friends.

"Ouch." He takes a sip of beer, "that's rough." He winces. "If you don't mind me asking, why are you still friends with her?" He asks, looking I've to Lydia whos taking part in a competition for downing drinks the quickest.

"Oh not her. She's actually dead now, died in a car accident. It happened the night I found out about them actually." I mumble, looking over the rim of the beer can at him. He looks taken aback, and I almost laugh at his shocked expression.

"That's awful." He mutters, "are you okay?" He looks me up and down.

"I am now." I admit.

"Layla?" A deep voice calls from behind. Turning around, I come face to face with an angry Grayson and my smile drops when I see his pissed off expression.

"Hey Gray," I grin and step forward to hug him, only he holds me back slightly. He starts glaring at Alex behind me and I realise why he's so annoyed. "Alex," I turn back towards him, "this is Grayson. Grayson, Alex." I introduce them. Alex holds his hand out, but Grayson just glares at it until I kick him in the shin. He reluctantly puts his hand in Alex's.

As if Alex notices the tense atmosphere, he decides to leave, "I'll see you later Layla," he says, pulling me into a hug. Maybe he didn't notice the tense atmosphere then. "It was nice to meet you." He directs this to Grayson before walking off. I send a little wave his way before turning to Grayson, a smile on my face.

"I missed you." I say, he just grunts and then walks past me to a cooler, before he chugs the entire beer and then takes another. "What's wrong?" I question, slightly confused because I haven't done anything wrong.

"What's wrong?" He questions, "huh, that's funny." He says sarcastically. And then he storms off.

"I didn't do anything wrong!" I shout after him. When he carries on walking, I feel my heart sink. "Grayson, I don't deserve this. Just tell me why you're annoyed."

"Stop acting like you don't know!" He turns around, "you ditch us for an entire day and then I find you here with another guy!" He's angry, so angry at me but I genuinely didn't do anything wrong.

"You've got it all wrong! You're not even letting me talk! It wasn't like that at all." I try to explain, but he cuts me off.

"Whatever Layla." He says and storms off.

"No," I call to him, "don't 'whatever' me - you're being immature, don't try and speak to me later because I've tried to explain and you're not letting me!" I shout after him and then go to find Lydia. His attitude towards me has annoyed me so much.

I won't allow him to treat me like that.

Growing pains in communication are apart of all relationships, I know that. But it doesn't mean I will allow him to accuse me of things and not let me defend myself against those accusations.

"What's wrong?" Lydia asks when I reach her.

"Grayson caught me talking to Alex and kicked off. Can we go back?" Her eyes fill with sympathy.

"Yeah of course. Let's go." She puts her cup down and says goodbye to the people she was just with. "Did you explain to him that nothing was going on?" She asks as we start the trek back to Grayson's jeep.

"I tried, but he wouldn't let me."

"Fuck him then."

"Can we just not talk about it? I'm pissed off and I'm only getting angrier the more I think about it." I tell her and she nods in agreement, before I start the engine.

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Grayson hasn't spoken to me since he got back from the beach party, only thirty minutes after Lydia and I; he's still in a mood that he caught me talking to Alex. I tried to tell him that I told Alex I wasn't single but he wasn't having any of it. I don't understand why he doesn't trust me because I personally find it very obvious how obsessed I am with him. I would never leave him, especially after everything we've gone through together.

I actually found myself getting even more annoyed at him for doubting me so while he was ignoring me, I decided that I was going to ignore him as well. I decided to show him what being petty is really like.

With that thought process in mind, I placed my pillow on the floor of our room; watching from the corner of my eyes as he stares at me. I plop myself on the floor, facing away from him.

"Get up." He finally speaks. I repeat the mantra in my head, not wanting to give in. So I ignore him. "Layla." He quite literally growls. Aw, the poor baby doesn't like people ignoring him. How the tables turn. "Get into bed. Now." He spits, and when I don't answer again, he storms out of the room. What a brat.

Deciding that I'm actually quite hungry, I get up to go to the kitchen, craving some Nutella on toast. When I enter the kitchen, Grayson is stood with the ice cream tub in his hand.

He glares at me darkly when he notices my presence, and I roll my eyes.

"What?" I growl, walking further into the kitchen to get the Nutella from the cupboard.

He lets out a sharp laugh as he sits on the counter in front of my Nutella cupboard, shaking his head. Is he not gonna move?

"Excuse me." I say childishly, but he just rolls his eyes not moving.

"You're excused."

"Seriously?" I question and pull on the cabinet door. If he's not gonna move then he can be hit by the door. His hands grab mine, pulling them away from the cabinet. He yanks me forward so I'm standing between his legs, while he glares down at me.

"You were seriously gonna open that on my head?" He questions.

"Well, yeah?" I narrow my eyes.

"That's mean." He tuts, his hands slipping down to my waist.

"Get your hands off of me." I mutter weakly, not really meaning it at all. He leans even closer, his head tilting as his mouth makes its way to my ear.

"I don't think you really want that." He whispers, his voice deep and husky.

"I do." I tell him breathless as his hands trail down from my waist to my ass.

"Uh huh." He grunts in my ear as his lips begin to make their way down my neck.

"Why are you doing this?" I mumble.

"Because I want to. And maybe I've missed you."

"Maybe?" I question him while pulling away. He chuckles, as he roughly pulls me back in. He grabs my chin and leans in towards me.

"Shut up." He grumbles and kisses me harshly. His tongue enters my mouth as I gasp in shock at his ability to take me off guard and shock me by kissing me when I know how pissed he is at me. I don't agree with why he's pissed at me but I know he is. He pulls away briefly.

"I've definitely missed you." He coos, before kissing me again. He jumps off of the counter, pushing me back towards the island.

His hand loosely makes its way around my neck, knowing how much it drives me crazy and he lowers me on the island, our lips still remaining connected. He climbs on top of me, letting out a groan when his erection brushes against me.

"Oh for fucks sake!" Lydia cries from the doorway. I pull away from him, just now noticing the lights have been switched on. Oops, I mustn't have noticed that while Grayson's tongue was down my throat.

I let out a nervous laugh, turning my head to face her.

"So are you gonna leave so that we can carry on or...?" Grayson speaks up, his voice breathy from our kiss. His brashness forces a laugh out of me.

"You have a room of your own, do it there instead of on the kitchen island, that's dirty." She chastises, giving us a dirty look before walking further into the room.

"Lydia, what the fuck? Get out." Grayson says and I slap his shoulder making him turn his attention to me. "Oh? You wanna start?" He questions, smirking down at me. He looks like a devil hanging over me, his chain dangling down and almost touching my face as his eyes hold a dangerous glint within them.

"Start what?" I narrow my eyes, and then grin cheekily, watching critically as he runs his gaze the whole length of my body.

"Hmm." He grunts and then pulls me into his arms. He makes sure my legs are tightly around his waist before he walks to the stairs, flicking Lydia off on his way. Over his shoulder I see her return the gesture before winking at me.

"Where are we going?" I ask.

"Our room." He says.

When he gets upstairs, he throws me on the bed, continuing to kiss me. We need to talk. We can't just kiss and make up.

"Gray." I whisper against his lips, pressing a hand lightly on his chest to get him to stop. He stops immediately.

"What's wrong?"

"We need to talk."

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