Hey! So, tomorrow is my birthday, and I decided to drop a bonus chapter for the occasion. 💕
The best gift this year has been the engagement and support I have received from every single reader, and so I think you deserve a special gift of appreciation. Therefore, enjoy! (and stick about till the end, because I have an important question to ask you!)

~

There is a tranquillity in spending the very height of the day clad in a bikini, laid out on a beach towel with an ever so gentle breeze to cool you, accompanied by the subtle salty mist that lifts from the lapping waves, tingling the skin of your body which has been soaked a shimmering bronze by the benevolent sun that hangs in the air like a golden pendulum, unrelenting even despite the occasional passing cloud.

Naturally, even just the thought has me sighing in contentment, running the palm of my hand across the grainy sand beside me which has warmed too. I can't much imagine a greater place to be than on the island of Fuerteventura, surrounded by my favourite people as a post nineteenth celebration. That's how I like to think of it anyway, but in reality, it's simply a friend vacation to mark the end of our first year venturing into adulthood.

It has been arranged for well over a year, and, naturally, Alena has been counting down the days, hours and minutes with the help of an app on her phone, badgering us incessantly with reminders, pointless matters of discussion that there was no concern for at the time, and outfit arrangements for every hour of our travels. Eventually, I put a sock in her mouth and allowed for Nat and me a minutes quite time. Literally. But it only lasted thirty seconds.

"Lottie?" I don't bother opening my eyes, though I'm bugged slightly by the shadow that has been cast over me by my boyfriend – whom only bothers me when he wants attention or for me to fetch him an ice cream because apparently the sand is 'too hot to walk on'.

I merely lift an eyebrow and tilt my head back slightly, a gesture of acknowledgement. "Lijah?" I say, preparing to prop myself on my elbows, only to be discouraged by the tsunami level wave of water that is doused upon me, eliciting a sharp gasp of surprise – in which I inhale far too much water and fish urine than I care to admit.

The water is warm, a silver lining I suppose, but I expect that from the bark of laughter than comes from Hendrix quick followed by a chorus from Seb, Collins and Jack, I must look quite the picture. I throw off my sunglasses, their lenses stained with watermarks and stand slowly, glaring at the boy who grins widely, halfway down the beach as to gain a head start.

From beside me, Nat pries open an eye and arcs an eyebrow, her amusement exposed only by the slight tug of her lips. "Can you go kill him over there please? I was almost asleep." She slumps down and covers her eyes with a lazy arm. Before I begin on my pursuit, I pick up the sun cream and toss it on to her abdomen.

"Sun cream." I remind, baring notice to her violently red shoulders, and she lifts a half-hearted thumbs up of acknowledgement. My attention then turns to him, who stands still, awaiting attack. "You. Here." I gesture with my index finger, pursing my lips when he shakes his head in refusal.

"Or what?" He jibes.

I guffaw and with theatrical footsteps as to avoid the burning of my feet, I begin my way towards him. "You best hope I don't catch you Hendrix." I yell at him, wringing my hair as I do so.

He cocks a shoulder in nonchalance, slowly stepping backwards towards the water. I run towards him, and just as I think he will spin and dart away in fear, he too runs towards me, tackling me in my stomach and swiftly lifting me on to his shoulder with no hesitation. For a moment, I'm perplexed, suddenly convinced that he has practiced this move with Seb as to render it so perfect. "You alright babe?" He takes off in a slow stroll, smacking my arse with a firm hand, jolting my body from the impact.

I return the favour, hitting each cheek of his harshly, and like a horse encouraged, he takes off into a gallop. "Put me down Elijah." I insist, wriggling in his firm grip.

"Oh? You want me to put you down?" He asks, and once more, I'm stunned by how easily convinced he is, that is until I register the jarring splashes of his feet disturbing the water.

"Elijah," I warn, but it proves futile, because I'm quickly lifted, spun and flung into the water, crashing with obnoxiously volume, submerged in the warm pellucid blue. Gasping for breath, I resurface, notice how Elijah has wade out to join me, the pair of us now chest deep within the sea. "You."

He grins, flashing two perfect rows of white teeth and leans towards me, allowing the water to carry him so he is only inches away, his hands toying languidly with the ties of my bikini bottoms. "I prefer it when you're wet for me." 

My lips curl, disgusted, yet when I see the humour swimming within the emerald of his eyes, I can't help but allow myself to smile. "Is sex ever not on your mind?"

"Mhm," I arc a brow as to indicate he should continue. "During the five minutes after sex while I allow my little guy to recharge." I guffaw, throwing my arms around his neck.

"You're insatiable." He laughs, his arms curling around my waist, laying his lips on the curve of my shoulder with a chaste kiss.

"Yeah but you like me. A hell of a lot." My eyes roll on their own accord, especially at the smug grin that plagues his expression. At first, the words were never spoken so we could ensure this relationship was real. We had a hell of a lot of making up to do before we started throwing that word around. It is, now, simply a game. I'm too stubborn, he's too stubborn... we both do, just neither of us want to be the first to say it and face the humility that will be sure to follow from the persistent ridicule. "So, what do you think?" He pushes himself against me and instinctively, I wrap my legs around his waist, blushing profusely.

"We're on a public beach." I remind, though already my eyes flit across the shore, noting how many of the families have packed away, or are in the process of doing so, leaving us to be one of the few remaining. Besides, no one particularly wanted to set up beside a group of loud and boisterous teens, and so our vicinity is rather sparse of others.

"Don't be so loud then." He chides, grinning widely. I smack his shoulder at the insinuation, though my face still heats in embarrassment.

"Don't smile like that." I decide to scold, though my hold on him tightens considerably.

"Why?"

"Because that's your pantie dropping smile and you know I can't resist it." Of course, as a result, his grin only seems to stretch.

I toy with the idea for a moment longer, my thoughts interrupted by the hollering of Seb, his hands curved around either side of his mouth. "Come on love birds, we're going back to get ready!"

"We'll meet you up there!" Elijah replies. Seb shrugs, turning away and striding off of the beach with the others, leaving the pair of us only in each other's company. "So?" He inquires once more.

My hands run down his front, revelling in the beauty of his sculpted chest that has come since he began his regular gym visits. "If we end up being nicked by foreign police, I don't know you."

His eyebrows shoot upwards, shocked at my agreement. "Seriously?" He probes.

"Yeah. Why – scared?" I tilt my head to the side as his hands begin to venture.

"Of you? Never."

And then we commit a crime.

~

"You totally boned in the ocean." I clap a hand over Nat's mouth as I stride into the villa wearing an after sex glow, her and Lena perched patiently on the bed, donned only in white cotton towels with a packet of crisps in their laps, the air conditioning working the wrappers so that they crackle incessantly.

Seb's parents are well off, and that has never been a secret, but I hadn't know they were 'Richy Rich' rich. I'm talking holiday homes and private land. In fact, I'm almost positive that Sebastian Walker actually descends from the man who invented the crisps, because having this much money should be criminal. Still, it saved us all a few hundred pound when it came to booking the holiday – we went self-catering at Casa de Walker.

"Will you shut your mouth?" I snap, my ears perked as I wait to see if anyone else has heard her claim. "Yes, I did, but I'd rather not make it public knowledge." I tell her, peeling away my hand to display her shit-eating grin.

"I didn't know you had it in you Chaps. Seriously – the ocean. Like a porno for fish." She laughs, tipping her head back as she does so.

I grimace, shrinking in on myself with embarrassment and push her forehead so she collapses back on the bed. "Okay, that's enough." I sit myself on the chair, dousing my hair with a leave in conditioner already cursing the difficulty that is sure to come of fixing my hair after it's been tangled with sea water. "So," Nat sits herself up, legs folded, and elbow perched on her knee, "tell me about how good it was."

I roll my eyes, but decide to indulge, because I'm sure to be pestered otherwise. Nat and Addie's relationship didn't last too long, a couple months at most, before it fizzled out. She's abstained from sharing the details, the why's and when's, but as a result, Nat has returned to her experimental sex life and living vicariously through her two coupled friends. Still, her promiscuity has risen considerably, and I have a sneaking suspicion that the breakup hurt her far more than she cares to admit and frequent, meaningless sex is her recover route.

"Owen never wants to do wild things like that," Lena pouts playfully, slowly dragging a brush through her wet hair.

"Please Garc," Nat lifts a dubious brow, "if Collins asked you to have sex in the ocean, you'd shrivel and die on the spot. Your shared vanilla-ness is what makes you compatible," she admits, linking her fingers together in gesture before she stands. "Now, if you don't mind, this path of celibacy is just drab, so I'm going to have sex."

Lena wrinkles her face in confusion. "With who?" She asks.

"Jack – he's cute." She concedes nonchalantly.

I watch her as if she's entirely preposterous. "I thought you were gay?" I ask her, although her sexuality has never been indefinite.

"I'm bi-curious. And he's got big hands." She chortles a laugh as she leaves the room, Lena and I both curling in disgust at the insinuation, though grinning all the same.

"She's unbelievable." Alena decides, shuffling off to the wardrobe in which sits hers and Collins clothes. Mostly hers, of course. "Do you think she's hurting?"

I nod without hesitation. "I know she is. She even came on to Seb a couple of weeks ago. I think she's lonely." The acknowledgement saddens me, especially since it's Nat. She is everyone's rock, and would seriously do anything for her friends, and the idea that she feels she has to seek companionship in the sack makes me feel like a terrible friend. Too spun in my own relationship that my friendship seems to have been put on the backburner. "Maybe the three of us should spend the day together tomorrow. Get matching tattoos or something."

Alena nods and smiles. "Sounds good. I miss it being the three of us sometimes. Sometimes the boys are so," her words trail off as Collins joins the pair of us, his arms crossed as he mocks disappointment.

"So... what?" He asks.

"Wonderful!" Lena answers in a frenzy as I shrug.

"Annoying?" I suggest. Lena glares, but Collins only grins.

"Easy Little Mermaid; I'm spoken for, and the last person you called annoying currently has you riding more than the waves in the water." He wraps an arm around Lena's shoulders as she claps both of her hands to her mouth in disbelief, watching as I attempt and fail – miserably – to count the ten.

"I'm going to kill him."

~

I don't kill him. Only because he offers to pay for my dinner to apologise for his failing confidentiality. I accept his offer, and don't even feel slightly guilty knowing that I told my girlfriends just as he told the boys. What he doesn't know won't hurt him, especially when he buys me moussaka at the restaurant we visit. A meal so good, when he asks for a taste, I threaten him with my fork prongs.

"You have cheese," Hendrix tuts before completing his sentence, shaking his head in amusement as he brings his thumb to strike the cheese away that has settled on my upper lip. "You eat like a pig."

I shrug, forcefully swallowing the mouthful of food before I speak. "So what? You really like me anyway." I comment before forcing more food into my mouth despite my resisting body.

Hendrix leans towards me, his hot breath fanning the shell of me ear. "I actually love you, Peppa."

I can rely only on Elijah to admit something that extreme so nonchalantly when I have a mouthful of food. Food that I consequently begin choking on, spluttering it across the table in this fancy restaurant, my face beet red as I wrestle for oxygen, Hendrix a matching vermillion as he battles back his laughter, clapping me most unhelpfully on the back.

"Jesus Charlie," Jack exclaims, wiping his cheek of the moussaka that has settled upon it. "Can you die quietly?"

Eventually, I rectify myself, still bewildered. "He just," I turn to Hendrix, my words failing, "you love me?"

He shrugs, picking up his fork and focusing his attention on the calamari before him. "Suppose so." He admits.

My lips curl and I nudge him with my shoulder. "You're such a sucker for me." I joke. He grins, twirling octopus on the end of his fork. "I guess I can admit it too."

"You guess?" He deadpans.

"Mhm. I love you." His lips split into a grin and he leans forward to kiss me, an action that still lights an explosion within me, igniting a burning fire of desire even after all of this time. For a moment, I really almost forget when we are, although I can rely on Seb to return me to reality.

"When you're finished sucking face, the rest of us are trying to eat." He claims, twisting his face into a grimace. Lena nudges him with her elbow, tutting at his hypocrisy. He's 'sucked face' with more women this holiday than I had actually imagined to be conceivable.

"Leave them alone. It's cute. You'll understand one day when you're mature enough to be in a relationship." She tells him.

Seb sighs, rolling his eyes at her preposterous claim. "Oh yes – the enemies slowly become lovers, and now the playboy has to settle down too? Who'd want to hear about that?"

Hendrix's hand finds my thigh, squeezing it gently and I relish his touch, calmed by his presence – the boy who once was my nemesis, and is now the person I don't believe I could live without.

~

"We're back!" I holler as I step over the threshold, my suitcase abandoned quickly so I can meet the embrace of my mother. She abandons me quickly, trading me for Hendrix, and I can't help but feel offended. He has my entire family under the thumb, so much so, that their youngest daughter is no longer their greatest achievement, just as I am no longer the favourite sibling.

"Hey Charlie!" My dad grabs me and squeezes me tightly, planting a kiss on my forehead. "You have a good time? You look tanned."

I pull away, my eyes fixed on to his cropped hair. "You look grey. Seriously, is life that stressful without me?" I joke, raising a hand which he swats away.

"I heard being a silver fox is an in thing now." He tries to defend, and I choose not to butcher his ego rather than tell him that mottled grey is not a silver fox. The pair of us continue into the living room, my mum and Elijah still submerged in a serious conversation, one that makes my eyes narrow, but I can't think about it for long, not when I'm near tackled.

"Diabla, oh I missed you! The house is so dull without you." Oli cries, wrestling me to the ground.

"Jesus, you fat sod, gerr'off me." My words exit muffled, my lips smacking as I try to rid of the hair which as tangled around my tongue. He slowly lifts himself and I rectify the lasting shreds of my dignity. "Why are you even here? Aren't you meant to be in Spain?"

He shrugs nonchalantly, but there is a forced stoicism about his demeanour which has me narrowing my eyes for the second time today. "Ran out of money. Went to Las Vegas and put it all on black twenty eight when I should have put it on red eighteen." He throws himself of the sofa, feigning misery, and I can't help but chortle.

Beside him, Ezra rolls his eyes playfully, patting the sofa arm where he wishes that I perch myself. "Good holiday?" He asks me as I sit. Nodding emphatically, I pull him into an awkward hug.

"The best. You should have come Ez."

"I know, but I needed to focus on Uni and – is that a tattoo?" He grabs my hand and forces it to twist so he can study the inner of my wrist where an outline of a jigsaw piece sits. Nat and Lena both got adjoining pieces.

"Hey! Regretful tattoos are my thing." Oli whines, lifting his top and pulling on his jean waistband to reveal a new tattoo right above his groin, shaky text reading 'say hello to my little friend' with an arrow pointing towards his cock. I bark laughter, clutching at my sides as I make note of his gleaming, clearly satisfied expression.

"How did you ever get a girl to marry you?" Ez asks rhetorically. Oli does not justify that with a response, but a gesture, and thrusts the air rhythmically. Ezra only rolls his eyes as Hendrix finds his way into the living room, greeting my brothers and dad.

To my surprise, just as I move to go and find my mum, my path is blocked by my eldest brother, grinning down at me like a Cheshire cat. He wraps me in something of a headlock, squeezing me so tightly I bray my fists on his back, insisting that he unhand me. He eventually does, rubbing his knuckles into my hair.

"Squirt." He greets.

"Benjamin." My expression remains impassive for only a second longer before I hug him properly, surprised yet again by the fact my sibling is at home. "What are you doing here?" I inquire.

"What, a man can't come home to welcome his sister back from her holiday?" I frown, studying him with scrutiny.

"You're being too nice – what have you done?" He rolls his eyes, nudging me back into the living room which has filled considerably.

"You're talking to me, not Oli. I haven't done anything." He sighs.

"Hey!" Oli interrupts indignantly, showing his new tattoo to Hendrix and my tutting mother. It's only then I notice Ferne on the sofa, and now, with a full house, I'm almost positive there is a problem. Naturally, I'm the only one with balls big enough to ask.

"What's going on?" The room quietens and my parents share a look before instructing us all to sit. "You're not having another, are you?" I ask quickly, paranoid by the seriousness of the situation. Hendrix pulls me between his thighs, allowing me to rest my weight on him as he sits on the sofa arm.

"I'm menopausal Charlie, we're not having another baby." She assures incredulously.

"TMI." Oli decides to comment.

My dad takes control, his eyes flitting along the five of his children and one additional before he speaks. "We've decided to move. This house is too big and you're all leaving and me and your mum want a quaint little cottage