noah

I waited nervously outside exactly two houses away from Dawn's house. My new car, which was small but capable, was trundling next to me on the curb. She was due to meet me here in approximately five minutes. I hadn't questioned her why I wasn't allowed to meet her at her house, but I was guessing it was because her mum wouldn't approve- either of having a boyfriend or having me as a boyfriend.

Either way, it was kind of sad that I was forced to wait and lean against my car. Though if the rest of the day proved to be nice, then I wouldn't be complaining. 

"Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry, mum held me back!"

I turned, just as Dawn appeared, walking towards me. 

She wore leather sandals, with an off-the-shoulder dress that was light blue and white and came a bit above the knees, and sunglasses that were currently sitting on her hair, which was out. The sunlight made it look soft and shiny, and the light breeze blew it off her shoulders. Her legs were long and tanned, each step precise and confident. A shoulder bag hung on her right shoulder, which was brown. 

Okay, I'll admit that I was staring quite a bit. 

"You look nice," I complimented once she reached me. 

Watching the blush creep over her cheeks was somehow satisfying. 

"Thank you," she replied, running an eye over me. I watched her sparkling green eyes widen slightly as she caught sight of my shirt, which was blue, like her dress, and buttoned up. I was guessing it was because I'd left the first three buttons undone, revealing the top of my chest. I had white shorts on, and flip-flops. 

"Did you somehow know what I was wearing and tried to match?" I joked as I went to open the car door.

"No," she protested, laughing a little, then paused as she saw the new car.

"Is this your...?" 

"Yeah, it's new."

"Wow. Nice," she inspected it, then reached out to open the car door too, just as my hand touched it.

The feel of her small hand under mine made a warm rush travel up my arm.

"Sorry," she said quickly, removing her hand. The feeling drained away.

"It's fine," I muttered, pulling the door open for her. 

Smiling at me, she got in and let me close the door for her. I headed round the side of the car and slide into the driver's seat.

As we pulled our seat belts on, I warned her to watch out for any bad driving habits. "The ride's gonna be pretty jerky," I told her, smiling a little sheepishly. 

"Go for it," she replied, grinning, and put her sunglasses on.

*

Dawn

I'll admit I was staring a tad bit when he came into view. His outfit was almost carelessly put together, but so well that he looked like a model. And I wasn't exaggerating. I was pretty sure over half the girls at school thought the same way.

"How long 'till we get to the beach?" I asked, looking out the window at the people and cars rushing past. 

"Not too long," he replied. "We'll be there in twenty minutes from now."

"Oh okay."

Now it got awkward as hell. 

After sitting in silence for about five minutes, Noah asked me to turn on his bluetooth so we could listen to his music. 

I told myself I wasn't snooping around in his phone. I was just choosing music. That was all.

"Which playlist?" I asked as I scrolled through his many songs.

"Any; you choose." 

"Oh." I looked at the titles. They were pretty normal, except for one that made me do a double-take. 

It was labelled 'Dawn'.

"Umm...." I touched it with one trembling finger.

The first song was Rewrite the Stars from The Greatest Showman. I'd watched the movie and it had been amazing and heart-warming. the fact that Rewrite the Stars, Tightrope, A Million Dreams, This is me, and Never Enough were some of my favourites made me wonder how alike Noah and I really were. 

As soon as I pressed play, Noah jumped a little as Phillip's voice rang out into the small car. 

"You know I want you.

It's not a secret I tried to hide.

I know you want me.

So don't keep saying our hands are tied."

The song continued on. Okay. So maybe this was a bad idea. I could tell it hit a little too close to home for both of us. Noah's hands were tense on the steering wheel and my fingers were sweating, which sounded weird.

"Do... you want me to change it?" I got out, just as Phillip headed into the chorus. 

"What if we rewrite the stars?

Say you were made to be mine.

Nothing could keep us apart,

You'd be the one I was meant to find.

It's up to you, and it's up to me.

No one can say what we get to be,

So why don't we rewrite the stars?

Maybe the world could be ours

Tonight."

Um... nervous laugh? My brain chattered. You just messed up this drive real bad.

"No," Noah said quietly. "Keep it."

I turned to look at him, and I was amazed to see a soft smile on his handsome face. 

I looked away, feeling something building up inside me.

At the time, I thought it was just nerves.

Later, looking back, I realised that it was love. Not something shallow like a crush, or the feeling when you liked a guy, but it ended up fading away. 

No, it was love, pure and strong and deep. 

*

"We're here."

The first words since we'd gone through a quarter of the playlist 'Dawn'. 

"Wow. I haven't been to the beach since last summer." It was true, and kind of sad. 

"I went a couple of weeks ago. But it wasn't that nice since it was pretty windy."

He opened the door and got out, then came around the side to open my door. 

"I can do it," I said, and I did. It wasn't like I couldn't open car doors!

"Sorry."

"No problem. Just let me do it in the future. You don't have to waste time then."

He nodded, then stepped back to let me get out.

The first thing I though was sun.

It was so bright, and it seemed like the world was full of sunlight. It glittered on dancing crests of waves, on the sparkling white sand, speared through the deep blue sky. 

Which brought me to my next thought.

The sky was so blue, and the sea was so magical.

Pretty wasn't good enough. The turquoise, rippling ocean, with golden dapples of sunlight shimmering on the shallow waters, and sparkling in the light was something to behold.

Let's just ditch all the descriptive words and say that I was speechless.

"This is incredible. I can't even believe how I could've forgotten this." 

Noah smiled. "The view is pretty good." 

"Let's go down!" I said, clapping my hands. I felt like a little kid all over again. 

Laughing, Noah reached for my hand and paused.

"Do you want to..." 

Nodding, I pulled his large hand closer until it enveloped mine. The feeling of his warm palm encasing mine felt comforting, and I threaded my fingers through his. 

Together, we headed down to the beach, without Aria or Jason, or even Kat.

*

I supposed we looked like the perfect couple, especially because of our matching clothes as we walked down the sandy pathway towards the actual beach. But looks can be deceiving, and today it sure was. 

Because of the amazing view, there was no need for either of us to say much, but inwardly I was already panicking about what we would do once we actually go there. Have a swim? Just sit on the sand and be bored? What did Noah normally do? I knew I normally acted liked I'd never been to the beach before, so I definitely wouldn't be doing that. 

We passed the open fence and soon the sand was sifting beneath my feet. The sound of the waves lapping and crashing onto the sand was enough to make me feel the slightest bit relaxed.

"Where do you want to sit?" I said loudly, to carry my voice over the waves.

"Anywhere, as long as it's not too close to the water, but not too far that it'll take forever to get down to swim."

So. We were going swimming.

I eyed a sandy patch in the sun, which was free from seaweed and sharp rocks. "There?"

"Sure." 

The wind made my hair fly as we walked towards the chosen area. It was now the slightest bit windy, but I knew that would be better for me if I started to sweat from nerves. 

As Noah unzipped a backpack and pulled out a huge beach towel for us to sit on, and a large umbrella, I opened my small bag and chucked some chip packets down onto the towels. "I brought some snacks."

"I brought some cake mum made for us. We should be all good." 

I blinked in surprise. The fact that Noah's mum cooked such a wonderful cake for us, and that she knew about me... wait-

"Did you tell your mum about... me?" I asked.

"Yeah, but I said we were friends."

I dropped down onto the beach towel. "What would you like to do first?"

He sat cross-legged and looked out towards the waves. 

"Have a swim? Soon it'll be too cold anyway since it's afternoon and we're gonna go out of the water to see the sunset."

"Uhh.... sure."

Now was the big moment where I either embarrassed myself or didn't.

I watched as Noah got up and started unbuttoning his shirt.

Oh no. Frick. I had to look away. Look away, look away, look away-

Too late.

His shirt fell to the beach towel and my eyes locked onto his chest. 

Clearly, he was a regular at the gym. His chest was sculpted and tanned, so perfect and, admittedly, exactly how I'd imagined it to be. 

Not that I dream about Noah, my brain added hurriedly. I mean, why would I do that? Stupid. 

He crossed his arms across his chest and looked down at me with a half smirk on his features and raised an eyebrow. 

Sighing, I stood up, pulled off my sandals, and then tugged off my dress.

I watched him take it all in with his raised eyebrow. I was wearing a white swimming crop top, which wasn't very revealing, thank goodness. I also had short-shorts on, and if I was telling the truth, I was quite proud of my swimming outfit.

And Noah better think so too, or I'd drown him in the ocean.

So I crossed my arms too, and we had a full-on staring contest for what seemed like five minutes until some little kid ran past with a shovel an a bucket full of seaweed (eww) and rammed right into me, making me trip and stumble my way into Noah's arms.

Accidents these days.

I felt his bare skin against mine, smooth and warm from the sun. His hands were on my waist, steadying me, and I took a deep breath in. Then out. Then in.

"Let's go swimming." 

When we were finally ready to go, I made my way slowly down the sandy beach and glared at any teenage girl who turned her head to stare at Noah. 

He was mine. Mine. 

Whoa. Where the hell did that come from? Possessiveness isn't a healthy thing, Dawn. And you, like, barely know him. 

I glared at them anyway. 

As soon as my feet felt the soft pull of the waves lapping against my skin, I did a little happy jump, let go of Noah, and splashed my way out a few metres, glancing over my shoulder to grin sheepishly at Noah while he laughed and followed. 

I was acting like a two year old, and I couldn't care less.  

Eventually, time flew, even if it took ten minutes for Noah to start splashing me. 

Like every other normal human being, I splashed him back, which started a war.

That was probably why neither of us noticed the two girls who sat down right next to our beach towel with sunglasses on, stretching out on the sand and watching our every move.

*

It was very hard to stop staring at Noah once we got out of the water and lay down on the beach towel and ate the snacks. 

I gave it my best go, but it was especially hard since we were talking and I had to look at him or that would be kind of rude. And then my eyes would wander. 

Since my hair was completely wet, and I was soaked, we decided not to go back in until the sunset, so we could soak in the last rays of the sun before it sunk out of view.

"Do you have any siblings?" I asked as he opened the cake wrapper.

"No, I'm an only child. You?"

"Same. It kinda gets lonely sometimes, especially since my parents are divorced."

Originally, I hadn't been planning to tell anyone, but I did end up telling Aria, and somehow the whole story had leaked out. 

Noah looked at me. Like, really looked at me. "I'm sorry to hear that. I hope they get back together again."

"Thank you," I replied quietly. 

Finally getting the cake wrapper open, he took a slice, paused, then looked up at me, gesturing to the cake and then to me. 

Figuring that he was asking me to take a slice, I leaned over, just as he brought his slice to my lips.

Oh.

Unable to stop the giggle from escaping, I opened my mouth and let him gently feed me the cake slice.

It went on like this, with me also feeding him, until there was nothing left to eat. 

Laughing by now, I flipped over onto my stomach and turned my head to the side, watching him as he leaned back on his elbows and took in the heat. 

Half an hour later, or somewhere around that time, he gently nudged me awake (I had fallen asleep- no judging allowed) and told me the sun was setting now and that it looked spectacular. I had never though Noah would be the one to like nature, but I was totally glad that he did. 

Sitting up and yawning, I glanced a little sleepily towards the horizon and blinked. 

It was really magnificent, glorious, spectacular... and once again, I ditched the descriptive words. 

Beneath the streaks of red, gold, orange, light blues and soft pinks, and lets not forget the great big gold half-sphere sinking slowly out of sight, or the rippling, glittering waves, all I could do was gape. I truly had never seen such a breathtaking yet serene sunset in my life- which wasn't  very long, so I supposed I couldn't say much. 

I stood up to get a better view, and I heard Noah get up too. We both stared at the heavenly view in front of us, at the sea stretching away forever, and I felt Noah move closer to me. 

Then his hand was tracing along the side of mine, and I let him lace his fingers gently together with my fingers.

For a moment, all Noah and I had become were two silhouettes standing underneath a brilliant sunset at the beach, holding hands and feeling like we were life itself.