"what? I needed more followers"

It's been four days since we'd arrive at their house and my days were spent with Coopernicus and Taylor. It was like time had never changed. The parents went off somewhere, my uncle and aunt suggested they visit some places and go shopping.

We spent most of the days running around playing tag like little children, we baked a cake, Cooper almost burning himself in the process and we went for a walk to the park, continuing the game of tag there.

It was a horrible idea to play hide and seek because when it was my turn to try and find the two, it was like they had disappeared into thin air. I found them eventually but it wasn't a very nice encounter. I saw Cooper's foot and decided to sneak up on him, only to find the two in a heavy make-out session.

"Save it for the wedding night!" I had yelled before pushing them apart and running away. They ran after me and we started another game of tag.

During one of those days, we discussed the wedding invitations and they gave me details on when it needed to be completed, the size, the format and etc.

But today, since the weather was still warm, we decided to go for a swim in the pool. I hadn't come prepared and didn't bring my swimming costumes so I had to borrow my mother's who claimed she had brought five or six pairs. And it sucked because my mother's clothes bared a lot more skin than my own.

All my swimming costumes were once-pieces that covered my pale skin. But mother's, they only consisted of strapless or very small bikinis. I borrowed the most modest. It was a navy blue colour, it's top was similar to a sports bra which comforted me and the bottom was like a normal pair of undies. Thankfully it was just a fun day with family if it were friends--if I had any-- I wouldn't dare step out.

Taylor wore a bikini which suited her hair well. I could tell she was very confident in her body because it consisted of two emerald green triangles, held together by a small gold ring at the front and was tied at the back with strings. Then the bottom was like normal, only on each side, near her hips, was another gold ring.

We spent three hours in the pool, splashing each other relentlessly. At one point, I had jumped on Cooper's back and he threw me off him. Then Taylor tried jumping but he moved out of the way so she ended up falling back into the water.

Soon Cooper had trapped Taylor in the corner of the pool, with his hands on both sides of her petite body. He was visibly flirting with her, particularly because of Taylor's giggles. A few seconds later, their heads were closing in and a makeout session had begun.

I smiled at them fondly before struggling to stay quiet while getting out of the pool. I dried myself with the towel on the chair and applied another layer of sunscreen. Picking up my phone, which I had left in the shade in hopes it wouldn't explode from the sun's heat, I lied back down onto the chair and turned it on.

For some strange reason, there were a whole bunch of notifications from Snapchat from people from school. Why would they text me? They've never before and haven't even spared me a glance at school.

I furrowed my brows, unlocked the screen and opened Snapchat to see what people sent me. It was peculiar because all of them were replying to my story.

Michelle: whos the guy on ur story. hes hot af.

Riley: is that ur bro? i didnt know u had one. hes cute 🤩

Tegan: hes so hot. 🔥 whos that???

Julie: oftt. who is he? 😍

Lyla: followed him! he followed me back 😱

And there was more too. I kept reading through them but not daring to reply until I saw Carson's message.

Carson: u lied u said u had no friends. whos that boy?

That's the thing. I have no clue.

I exited the chat and clicked onto my story.

It was a shirtless picture of Cooper with a poor winky face on. It looked like he had just stepped out of the pool and there was a small caption:

Add me: Cool_Cooper_

Follow on insta: Cool_Cooper_

That idiot.

He's getting married for heaven's sake.

I quickly typed, Cooper's my cousin, he's getting married so don't bother and copy and pasted it to all the girls who sent me a message. I sent it to Carson too, only getting rid of the 'so don't bother' part then I chucked my phone on to the chair and went to attack Cooper.

"COOPERNICUS!" I shrieked, running--not too fast or I'd slip and fall and die-- towards him.

The two, who were still kissing after all this time, hastily jumped apart as if being stung by a bee.

Cooper who was still short of breath from making out, looked at me slightly irritated. "What?"

"YOU IDIOT! MY SNAPCHAT STORY!" I yelled at him, attempting to kick the water in his face. Taylor slowly backed away to the other side of the pool and grinned. "Wait, Taylor. You knew?"

"Hey! Don't blame it on me! I just saw it. I didn't ask him to do it." Taylor held her hands up in surrender. She was definitely telling the truth, she didn't seem like one to lie and I did add her on Snapchat three days ago.

He blocked the tiny waves with his arm and looked at me with realisation. "Oh. That Snapchat story."

I looked at him blankly.

"What? I needed more followers!" he argued, trying to act innocent.

"That's a stupid excuse and an invasion of privacy! You're twenty-four!" I shouted, before stopping. "How did you unlock my phone?"

"Trial and error?" He grinned at me sheepishly before shrugging and slowly backing away from to the other side of the pool. "Relax...I just remembered your birthday. I didn't think it would work."

"Come back here! You...you...Chicken!" I hollered but he had already climbed out of the pool and began running into the house. The stupid boy. He's not even a boy. The house is carpeted, he's going to wet it and it's going to smell like chlorine forever.

Not wanting to get into trouble, I slowly walked out, turning back to Taylor. "Want to help me catch him? We can take the side door?"

She nodded eagerly and I knew I had just found my non-blood sister.

After catching him, we were all wet and muddy since we actually had to tackle him on the front lawn. The poor neighbours. We were so high on adrenaline that we couldn't stop laughing and pushing each other for fun.

We went back to the pool and I decided to not swim anymore but to try sunbaking. The two nodded and jumped back into the water. Only then, when I got to my chair, in search of my phone, I realised it wasn't there.

I frantically shoved towels out of the way, along with shoes or bags or anything. Where was my phone?

"Cooper? Taylor? Any of you guys know where my phone is?" I hollered as loud as I could, trying to get my voice higher than the splashing water.

"No!" They both shouted and the splashing continued.

Maybe I left it inside? I swear I didn't though. After I checked the Snapchat messages, I left it on the chair. I remember I did, but it wasn't there now.

I double-checked every corner in hopes of finding my phone. It wasn't there and my skin was becoming dry from the chlorine.

"Going to go in now!" I yelled at the couple who gave me incoherent sounds in return.

I tried drying myself as best as I could so I wouldn't wet the carpet and climbed up the stairs, going into the guest room to collect my clothes to shower.

The whole time in the shower, I was scrubbing angrily. Where would my phone be? I swore I left it on the chair, right next to my towel. It couldn't just disappear into thin air.

I turned off the shower and stepped out, putting on my clothes and rubbing my wet hair with the soft white towel.

As soon as I opened the door, a figure greeted me.

I squealed and the person bent over laughing. "Oh god. Flower. You should've seen your face."

"Cooper!" I screeched, using my towel to whack him but it didn't stop him from laughing. "Don't. Do. That. To. People. You'll give them a heart attack!"

"You're alive now aren't you?" He breathed through laughter so I hit him harder. "Ow." He rubbed his head.

"You're so annoying. What are you doing here? Isn't standing outside someone's door, waiting for them to come out a little stalkerish?" I said, pushing past him to find my hairbrush.

"I found your phone," he said and it made me pause.

I squealed in delight. "Thank you so much!" I went to hug him to realise he was still half-naked, "Yeah, sorry, I just showered but I would've given you a hug if you weren't..." I trailed off, pointing at his attire.

He handed me my phone and I thanked him again.

"No need to thank me, because I had it the whole time." He shrugged and said it so casually.

"Cooper!" I shrieked, grabbing my towel, hitting him harder. "Do. You. Know. How. Hard. I. looked. For. My. Phone?"

That didn't stop his laughter from echoing throughout the room.

A few moments later, I stopped hitting him and he calmed down a little and spoke. "Also...who's Carson?"

And the towel was back.

a/n: vote and comment x