Upir Island was undoubtedly beautiful. Sprawling beaches, parks, rolling hills and most importantly, a bit of peace and quiet if you ignore the birds and tourists. After breakfast, we'd headed for the beach and fooled around there, destroying all the peace and quiet, as humans generally tend to do. As much as we'd all enjoyed the salty sea breeze that made odd places feely unusually sticky, we'd decided to head home soon after lunch for a swim in the hotel pool. Close to dinnertime now, with little to do, Alia had appeared like our saving grace as she magically produced a pack of cards from her floral suitcase I was slightly jealous of.

"Pass me a card. You dealt shit cards Zahra," Rosaline complained for what was probably the tenth time tonight. 

She leaned against the headboard of the bed with a sullen expression on her face. Zahra shot her a glare as she took a card.

"Alia shuffled them," Zahra muttered indignantly. 

"Don't blame Alia. Blame both your sucky card skills instead," I quickly butted in. 

I stuck out my tongue at the two sore losers. Zahra just rolled her eyes as she put down a card but I could see the slight anger. Goodness knows why she hadn't torn me apart yet. She'd always been so easily riled up, especially by me. Sure enough, a retort came my way in moments.

"Just cause the cards are in your favor tonight, don't get too cocky D."

 I laughed as she put down the card I'd wanted all along. They truly sucked at this game, or maybe I was just that good.

"I can be as cocky as I want cause wait, look what it is, my 5th win of the night ladies. Read, weep and call me the rummy queen if you please," I said loftily. 

Zahra threw her cards down with a huff and lied back as I continued to flaunt my victory in their faces. Alia just shot me a beaming smile, because she wasn't a sore loser, and proceeded to shuffle the cards for another game. On the other hand, Rosaline looked at me with narrowed eyes and then came the accusations.

"You obviously cheated."

"Aw is little Rose's ego crushed," I asked cheekily. 

She looked like she was about to crush my head. It was just a card game, but of course, with a little money involved. There was no use playing cards otherwise, was there?

"Watch it D."

I just winked at Rose as I put another $20 in my pocket. That was $100 tonight, about as much as I'd been able to make at that coffee shop I'd worked at in a whole week. Man I was on fire.

"Give me the cards Al, I'll shuffle," Zahra said. 

Zahra grabbed the cards and just as another game was about to commence, a knock sounded at the door. It was close to 10 in the night and we'd been planning on room service but we'd never called. Who the hell was knocking at our door at this late of a time? Naturally I didn't want to open it but before I could get a word in, Alia was at the door.

"I'll get it," she called out.

 Alia opened the door and I let out a bloodcurdling scream that could have awoken all 13 floors of our five star hotel as three figures came through the door in a blur and landed on the bed with a flying leap, throwing cards off the side of the bed. It took a minute to calm my racing heart and another to realize just who it was that had barged into the room.

"Not funny boys," I snapped in annoyance.

 In her fear, Rosaline had dived off the bed with a resounding crash while Zahra had said enough curse words to scar even my ears. Alia simply stood by the bed with a frown marring her face. She was always so confusing.

"It was Sebastian's idea," Michel pointed out.

"No surprise there," Zahra retorted.

The brown-eyed Sebastian looked up at all of us with a mischievous grin that I whacked off his face with a pillow. He just laughed and shoved it away before pulling me into a warm hug. We'd known each other the longest of this crew and more importantly, he'd been like a brother to me when I'd needed him to be. Ladies man or not, he was still an amazing guy.

"What are all of you doing here," Alia asked. 

That was definitely a good question. I drew back expectantly, waiting for an answer. Sebastian, Noah and Michel just glanced at each other without answering. Zahra finally fixed Michel with a look that had him talking rapidly.

"It was definitely not my idea. The weather is way too humid down here," Michel complained.

He slowly sat up and moved to sit beside Alia. I watched him being his usual grouchy self with a smile as he sat with that ever-present frown on his face. As we always said, it was always grey skies and stormy weather on Michel-land regardless of whether we were in Australia or Brooklyn.

"Quit being a grouch Michel. In answer to your question Alia, we're here to give you girls some company and we were also extremely offended that we weren't even invited to come along on your trip," Noah said.

He sat at my side with a smile at all of us. He'd always been so articulate, so prim, proper, polished, kind, and not to mention the British accent. Zahra looked at me knowingly as my cheeks flared up without my volition. It was a well-known fact that I'd had a crush on him since we'd met five years ago. Who wouldn't? He was stunning and perfect in the most blindingly obvious way. I was so lost in him that I hardly noticed Michel speaking.

"It's a girls vacation Noah. Inviting Sebastian would have been okay though," Michel said with a smirk.

Sebastian whacked his friend across the head with a pillow. If possible, Michel turned grouchier. I finally managed to tear my attention away from Noah but my mind was just cotton candy webs at this point. Of course, he had to sit so close.

"Look you won't see us at all if you don't want to. We thought it would be a nice surprise, that's all," Noah said. 

I almost screamed that it was the nicest surprise and resisted the urge to slap myself for almost being the biggest idiot in the world. Calm and composed, I replied to him as best as I could. Naturally, I failed at the calm and composed part.

"No this is awesome. Stay, we're playing cards." 

I really did try not to sound too eager. Sadly, I couldn't keep the eagerness out of my voice and all three of my girls shot me a look this time. It wasn't my fault. I hadn't seen him since school had let out, which had been two months ago. Distance makes the heart grow fonder and all that rubbish held true in my book. I focused on the cards in my hand and thankfully, since boys were oblivious, Noah didn't notice the tension in the room.

"Have you ladies had anything to eat yet," Sebastian asked.

"No we were just about to order some food," Rose replied.

Alia stood up to grab the phone but Sebastian quickly pulled her back down with a wicked smile.

"Don't. I just had an idea. We'd like to take you lovely ladies to a restaurant along the beachside. It's very beautiful. You'll love it," he suggested.

It sounded romantic and Noah would be there. That was literally all the motivation I needed to return to the sweaty, sandy beach once again in the middle of the night. I'd wear that dress, the black one Alia always said I looked beautiful in. Then again, she said that about everything I wore.

"He's just trying to get-." Sebastian had a hand clamped down on Michel's mouth before the latter could finish. He then looked to us with an expectant smile.

"What do you say girls? Our apology for scaring you," Sebastian said convincingly.

Sebastian would always be the charmer, hence the ladies that flocked around him. A secret look passed between the four of us girls and Rosaline nodded before turning to Sebastian with a smile.

"Yeah sure why not," she said.

It was a great dinner with the greatest people and it wasn't just my stomach that was full as we walked out of the diner to sit on the beachside for a while. Close to 12 at night, the beach was now deserted and normally it would have been slightly frightening. Unfortunately, now, my stupid one-track mind could only think of the word 'romantic' to describe the mood. Sebastian had stripped down to his boxers to take a midnight swim and Zahra had joined him of course, being the daredevil she was. Normally, I would have too but today, Noah was here. Even though I wasn't really fooling anyone, I was at least going to pretend I wasn't a complete lunatic in front of him. I could hold a mature conversation.

"How's your summer been," I asked.

I leaned back on my elbows and let my hair touch the sand. That was going to be a pain to wash. I kept my eyes trained ahead at the beach, keeping it casual. So far so good.

"Wonderful. It's a shame we didn't meet at all though," he pointed out.

Had he missed me? Was that what that implied? Oh my god he missed me. It was getting harder and harder to keep it cool. My fingers clenched the damp sand before slowly releasing it.

"Family stuff you know?" That was casual, wasn't it?

"Yes of course." 

 A comfortable silence stretched between us, which I took to focus my scattered thoughts and quit thinking about him in a romantic sense for just two seconds. Noah was my friend first before any of this romantic stuff happened. I'd just have to find that place again or at least hold my inner fan-girl in until we were back at the hotel.

"Davina you should know something," he started. Oh crap he was still here. I scrambled my head for an acceptable response.

"What?"

"It might have been Sebastian's idea to surprise you girls in the bedroom, but it was my idea to fly out here," he said slowly.

 I think my brain actually short-circuited. Words, words needed to come out of my mouth now. My next response was so choked I'm surprised he even understood it.

"Why, why did you fly out here," I wheezed out. 

"I wanted to see all of you." 

Right of course. What the hell was I thinking? Trying to calm down my racing heart, I sat up and put a slight distance between our bodies. If he knew what I was thinking, he'd be racing away from me by now and I couldn't lose him over this stupid crush I'd developed.

"I wanted to see you," he said after a brief pause. 

 It was so soft I wouldn't have heard it if every fiber of my attention hadn't already been trained on him. Did I hear that right? Did my desperate brain conjure that up by itself? I looked to him with an expression that probably resembled a deer caught in the headlights. Frantic, puzzled, but hopeful that just maybe my stupid crush wouldn't go in vain. Thank goodness it was dark, not that the lack of light made him any less handsome.

"Me?" It was the only word I could spit out.

"Yes. Lately I've been-." He'd leaned closer as he'd said it and I'd already imagined a thousand ways he could end that sentence. Lately he'd been having feelings for me, he'd been playing with the idea of having my kids, he'd wanted to marry me, etc. Any response would have been good enough, hell it would have sent me over the moon with joy.

However, Alia's untimely interruption was definitely not the way I'd imagined that sentence ending and I resisted the urge to chuck her in the ocean as she called for us to head back. That stupid little minx was going to get it for me, regardless of whether she was my little puppy or not.

"You were saying Noah," I asked hoping he'd finish.

He was already standing up and stretching a hand out to grab mine. I took it although I didn't really need it and to my delight, he didn't let go as we walked down the beachside hand in hand. He was really holding my hand! All my focus went into not tripping and making a complete fool of myself. It was hard not to though, when I caught a glimpse of his face in the moonlight, and his baby-blue eyes were staring right back at me with an expression I'd never seen in them before. My voice didn't sound like mine at all when I spoke.

"Noah. I've been feeling some kind of way too."

For the past three years, but I didn't tack that on to the end of the sentence. He didn't need to know that I was already kind of obsessed. He didn't need to know that I wasn't really planning on letting his hand go anytime soon, physically and metaphorically. Seconds after I spoke, I forgot how to breath as he shot me a dazzling smile and tightened his grip on my hand. This was a dream. I was going to wake up any moment now. I'd fallen asleep on that beach, hadn't I?

And that was when I felt the air seem to electrify, the wind seem to hush and the ocean seem to still as I glanced to the tree line which hid the restaurant we'd just eaten in. My eyes sought something I couldn't see, something that seemed to mess with nature's balance itself. Something that had me clenching Noah's hand more tightly out of a sense of fear that didn't make any sense.

Something was very, very wrong.

And as if in answer to that deep-rooted thought that had no origin, I watched the silhouette of a man staring our way, completely still like he'd been frozen solid; like he'd been watching us all night.     

Second chapter's up! Hope you enjoyed that. If you did, don't forget to vote and comment down below. 

Question: Do you like Noah?

Also, in my head, Zahra Queen would be played by none other than the stunning Shay Mitchell. Comment below if you agree. 

Love, 

-ASH