My mother left on a Wednesday. I remember the day well because I had my favourite substitute teacher that afternoon and so I skipped home with my elbow hooked around Maisie's while we talked about ponies or Barbie dolls or something. She asked if I could come over to play. I told her I'd ask my parents.

And Dad opened the door and told me we needed to have a talk. He was crying. I thought someone was dead or sick but instead he was just heartbroken because that afternoon she'd packed up her belongings in her suitcases and hadn't left us a note.

It took her a few days to contact Dad and tell him she was filing for a divorce. I mean, it made sense. They'd married at eighteen, had me at nineteen. Everything happened fast, so everything ended fast.

It was also a Wednesday when my university acceptance letter arrived in our rusty metal letterbox. Like I'd expected, I had a position at the uni I'd selected in Perth. Also where my mother lives, and also exactly where everyone expected me to go. But it was also the closest university to my father, and Maisie was studying graphic design at an institution not much further away than I'd be. I shook off my doubts and put on a smile to tell my dad.

We had organised a beach meet up that Wednesday. We hadn't actually had one for a while because everyone seemed to be busy, or away visiting relatives each weekend. It was a blessing and a curse, because I knew we'd all have our letters today, and while some were bound to be ecstatic with their status for this year there'd also be disappointment in the air. At least no matter the mood, we'd all be up for alcohol.

In fact, I was the supplier for the evening. I had acquired the large old esky and had the job of carting it down to the beach side. It had a handle and wheels, so I was going well at my own pace along the bumpy footpath. I had only been walking five minutes or so when a bright red Porsche pulled up beside me, a slender bronzed arm resting outside of the window.

"Want a lift?" Lottie asked.

I gave her a grateful smile and she stepped out of the car to help me bring the esky into her boot. She looked remarkable in a lacy white cover-up with some expensive looking bathers underneath. I took a seat in the front beside her and sighed in relief beneath the air-conditioning. Her car smelled like lilacs and her speakers blasted some kind of instrumental piece. There was a strange air of awkwardness in the car that I felt might be eliminated with chatter.

"Thanks for this," I said. "I guess you're having a quiet one tonight if you're taking your car?"

She nodded. "Alastair and I had rock-paper-scissors as to who was going to be designated driver. Our parents said one of us had to, they aren't a fan of us walking home past midnight."

"Oh, that makes sense. I guess Leeds would be really busy. Here we never really question walking around late."

"Yeah, it's a quite absurd concept to them. Speaking of my parents, I heard Alastair had you over the other night?"

I gulped. I wasn't sure what made me feel weird about it, but something did. "Yeah, it was nice."

"I'm sure it wasn't." She gave an elegantly breathless laugh as she pulled up as close as she could to the beach steps. "But you're pretty brave going. He was really mad at me leaving him to be with them alone. They're pretty brutal, but I'm sure they toned it down with someone else there."

"Kind of." I shrugged.

"You should probably know that they assume you and Al are a couple." She gave me a pointed look, some of her chestnut curls falling onto her cheek. "It would probably give him a hand if you just went along with that."

My high pitched tone reflected my astonishment. "What?" I squeaked.

"I know you have something with Logan or whatever, you're not damaging that or anything. Just don't go out of your way to tell them you and him aren't a thing."

Lottie looked as if her words were completely logical. I guess they were, but I couldn't shake the moral dilemma I had with her plan.

"Anyway," she said before I could say anything more. "Want some help to lug that bloody thing down the stairs?"

Logan and Noah were the only ones sitting beneath the jetty when we came into view. As usual they were both shirtless, which made my heart bloat for a second because I hadn't seen Logan shirtless since he kissed me. Prompted by my physical reaction, the scene of him kissing me on the jetty which was just above his head played for the hundredth time.

He wore a confident smirk, which Noah mirrored beside him, not quite as well as Logan. It missed some cockiness, maybe some of the smartness behind his expression.

"Thanks for jumping up to help us, gentlemen," Lottie exclaimed as we wheeled the esky to a stop. As if energised with the idea of beer they each got up.

"We're actually trying to encourage gender equality," Noah said. But he was laughing, which is good because I think Lottie could have punched him in his sculpted nose if he wasn't.

"Missed you around, Vally," Logan murmured as Lottie and Noah's attention was driven to a distant approaching figure. Something about his proximity made me extraordinarily nervous, and my mind wandered again to the kiss. But it wasn't the idea of kissing him that made my knees week, it was what could lead from that.

It had been a handful of days since our date, and between work and Maisie I'd only made it down to the beach once. The one time Noah was out surfing alone. Logan had been absent.

I didn't know what to say, missed you too? Cool? Once again I was caught between acting how we usually did and talking about feelings and acting sentimental. I think I opened and closed my mouth a few times before he continued to talk.

"Was it good news or bad news this morning?"

It took me a second to realise what he was talking about. His blue eyes had a way of locking mine in. "Good. I got my first preference. You?"

"Of course you did. And yeah, me too."

"You don't sound particularly excited?" I noted.

"It's in Melbourne," he said. "Kinda a long way away."

Melbourne was also on the East coast of Australia, whereas we were on the West, along with Perth. Melbourne was actually just below Sydney, where my dream course lay. "What made you apply there?"

"The program. You know how I want to do law. It's recognised a lot in the industry and it has good options for work experience. Everything is dead around here."

I hadn't thought very far about my slowly growing relationship with Logan. It was inevitable that we'd be starting university in about a month and a half, being mid-January. And if he was going to go to Melbourne, we'd be apart no matter what. There was an option to change which preference you held as your first before the second round of offers were released. That was a very small window, though. Only two days.

"I'm thinking of re-applying to Sydney," I blurted. "But like you said, it's really far away."

"It's weird that it's all coming up so quickly, isn't it?" He sighed and reached back to rub his shoulder.

"Yeah," I agreed. "We should probably enjoy us all being home while we can."

"I know it's early, but you can't avoid it," he said.

"Avoid what?"

"The fact that we'll probably be going separate ways."

"Oh, yeah." There was the sound of laughter beside us. Alastair had his arms crossed in front of him and was giving his sister a very smug look. He met my eyes and gave me a small smile. I recalled what he'd said about Logan's possessiveness after dinner.

"I guess we'll work it out as it comes," Logan said. His tone had tensed a little as he looked over to where my eyes had wandered.

"Let's get a drink," I suggested.

I had known Maisie was going to be late because she was having dinner with Dan, but what I didn't expect was her galloping along the sand radiantly and slinging me into the most brutal hug I'd ever experienced.

"Guess who got into the advanced class?" She sang.

"Congratulations," I told her sincerely. Her excitement was a little contagious. "This calls for a drink, right?"

"Hell yeah."

"What about Dan?"

Her face loosened a little. "Not quite as pleased."

"Oh no." I got him a drink from the esky as well.

By the time the sun disappeared below the thick blanket of the ocean we were all very drunk. The fire was crackling and the air was dry, the smell of smoke and salt mixed together to form the nostalgic atmosphere of the so many summers passed. I wondered how many more of these we'd have before we all broke up into bits.

Somehow our chit chat had gradually shifted into a game of truth or dare, as if we were fifteen again and hanging out here was the coolest thing in the world.

Zoe was sitting beside me and squeezed my arm with drunken excitement. "Do you remember when we were in grade nine and we convinced Noah to eat that chunk of seaweed?"

I screwed up my nose at the memory. Noah had thrown up on one of our deckchairs and we wouldn't stop talking about that night for weeks. "Why did we even think that was funny?"

"Because it was," she said enthusiastically. She swept her immaculate raven hair from her face and tapped her manicured nails against her cider bottle. It was currently her turn. "Anyway, I can't decide who to ask."

"Just ask," Noah said with a laugh. At her bringing up of the seaweed incident there was little spurts of muffled laughter around our not quite perfectly aligned circle.

"Okay, Logan. Truth or dare," she tossed her hair again. No wonder it had so much volume, she was obsessed with moving it around all the time. But, her words were enough to distract me from her annoying habit. I stiffened.

"Truth."

Logan was sitting a few seats down between Noah and Luke. He looked nonchalant at her calling on him, his fingers gripping the top of his bottle lazily, and I wondered if he knew about her interest in him.

"Who was the last person you kissed?"

I stiffened even more and took a large mouthful of my drink. He was drunk and unpredictable and I tried to avoid his eyes. Please don't say it to the group, please don't embarrass me.

In my attempt to avoid his gaze my eyes locked with Alastair's and he raised his eyebrows.

"Someone pretty cool." Well, that was nice I guess.

"Oh come on that is not an answer!" Zoe giggled. Surely she had some motive for this question. Had they kissed? Had they kissed on New Year's Eve when I'd run away to the jetty? I finally allowed myself to look at Logan. His eyes were narrowed at Zoe, he was clearly in thought.

"I answered. My turn."

"Wasn't an answer," Mallory's voice said from across the circle where she sat with her friend, Ingrid. Her voice was high from her intoxication and her shirt was unbearably low. I looked to Maisie, who was already looking at me, also with her eyebrows raised like Alastair.

"Valerie," Logan said.

"Seriously?!" I blurted unconsciously. Everyone seemed to be sitting up very straight now. Zoe's hands were rigid by my side.

"This is truth, Logan. You need to be truthful," Zoe said bluntly.

Logan shrugged. "Whatever you say. Anyway, I have a truth for someone."

"Go on then."

"Alastair," he said. Zoe slackened and I could almost sense her anger in the air at him shifting the attention from them. Luckily, she hadn't picked up on Logan's honest answer. Clearly I wasn't the only one who had found it ridiculous. "Alastair, you gave me some great advice the other night, if I remember correctly. I was a little drunk."

"You're supposed to ask me truth or dare first. Not just give me a truth."

"Like I said, a little drunk," he laughed. "Truth or dare?"

"Truth, you're clearly trying to get something out of me."

It was weird watching them talk. I was worried about their exchange, especially after hearing Alastair had given him advice. Surely it was about me, and Logan was going to ask something potentially just as embarrassing as his answer before. Valerie, the girl who never kisses kissed. Logan was smart, and I had a feeling I wasn't his victim with this blow.

"Who was the last girl you took to dinner?" He asked, mimicking his accent a little. I scowled at him visibly, contemplating getting up and whacking him across his pretty face with my sandal. Yes, he was drinking, but that gave no excuse for his games. How did he even know about the dinner anyway?

Alastair, at least, was keeping a light and amused air about him as he laughed and put his drink down. "Lottie, we went yesterday."

Logan looked pissed but didn't respond. Everyone around us was looking confused and curious.

"Noah," Alastair addressed. "Truth or dare?"

My mind spun with annoyance, and confusion. How could Logan be the same person right now as he was the other night on the jetty? He was annoyingly good at changing his personality to suit his needs. I felt furious, clenching my fists in a bid to prevent myself from flying over there and wringing his neck.

Luckily, it didn't take long for the entertainment from the game to reduce and for people to split up into smaller groups. Maisie and Dan went for a walk along the shore, others wanted to go to the end of the jetty to see if they could spot seals. I was following their lead when an arm tugged at my elbow. Logan.

"Where do you think you're going?" he asked cockily.

"None of your business," I tried to tell him in a serious manner. But instead, probably due to my intoxication, it came out with a smile.

"Come with me."

"Why should I? You've been an ass tonight."

"Doesn't that just make you love me more?"

I ignored his easy use of the L word and instead gave him a small shove. It didn't do much except make me feel just how hard his chest was, his skin burning against mine. 

"Oh come on, Vally. It was just joking around, nobody took it seriously," he said.

"Well clearly something is bothering you about me hanging out with Alastair, and you're playing stupid games instead of just confronting us about it."

We looked up from where we were under the jetty as our friends passed us from above. I heard Zoe's animated chatter and spotted Noah's broad frame from between the cracks of the jetty. I could even hear the distant murmur of Alastair's accent.

Logan raised an eyebrow, the smartass. Why was he acting like a child? He was probably the smartest person I knew and here he was playing stupid drunken games. I crossed my arms over my chest in annoyance and waited for our friends above us to pass so I didn't alert them of our presence.

He took a step forward and I took a step back, feeling the post of the jetty against my shoulders.

"You know, I always thought you were cute when you were pissed off with me."

"Well, I'm sure you found me cute pretty often then."

"You know it."

"Just shut up, will you? They'll hear us." I pointed to the people above us, who were taking an awful long time to pass.

"Whatever you say, Valerie," he whispered. He took another step forward and I could feel his breath on my forehead. He was so close now, his body warmth was making my whole body tingle.

"I'm so annoyed with you," I whispered into the small space between us.

"Good."

Then he kissed me, his arms stretching out to lean against the wooden post, making us impossibly close to each other. Something inside of me drove my arms to pull at his back, craving him to be closer. One of his hands slipped down to loop through my hair. And we were even closer again. Closer.

I should be shoving him off me, I was furious. I still wanted to yell at him, maybe even slap him around a little. I wanted to make him realise somehow just how much he got on my nerves, but all of that anger was now channelled into kissing him against this post. 

Our second kiss lasted much longer than the first. We stopped when each of us became breathless, and we just looked at each other for a few prolonged moments. There wasn't much light, only the distant illumination from the moon and a handful of streetlights. The only thing we could hear was the rolling waves of the ocean, the crackle of the nearby fire and the distant laughter from the end of the jetty. 

"Don't do that again. I'm still so angry at you," I told him. But my tone didn't match the harshness of the words, and my hands were still resting on his shoulders.

"Whatever you say, Vally."

He gave me a peck on the lips before taking two steps back, stretching, then wandering over to the ladder to the jetty, climbing it in two swift movements.

AN: Sorry for taking so long to update, I've been travelling and I've just started summer classes which are very full on. I'll hopefully get back to routine soon! Thankyou so much for reading, this story has just reached 1k reads! Please don't forget to comment your thoughts and vote if you've enjoyed this chapter :)