"Who was that guy you were talking to?" Harry questioned when I sat back down next to him.

I waved my hand dismissively. "Alice's brother. We don't like each other very much."

He frowned. "Alice has a brother?"

"Yeah. Joseph. I don't think they like each other very much either." I shrugged.

"Hmm. You sure he doesn't like you?"

No. Yes. I honestly had no idea. I merely said to Harry, "Yep. I'm 102% sure. Why?"

He smirked slightly at me. "Just thinking about competition."

Like the oblivious – and slightly drunk – person I was, I repeated stupidly, "Competition?"

Harry didn't reply but a smile grew on his face, and he raised his eyebrows at me. We were suddenly interrupted by a certain someone unceremoniously planting themselves right in the middle of us.

"Sorry, mind if I just–" Joseph sat down, shoving Harry over a bit, "Just thought I should introduce myself."

Was he serious? I glared at Joseph, but he wasn't looking at me. So, he wasn't jealous, but here he was, acting protective, and, yeah, pretty damn jealous.

"I'm Joseph," Joseph introduced himself curtly, his voice a little aggressive. I was actually going to kill him.

"Harry." Harry shot Joseph a distrustful look. God, I really did not want to be in this situation right now. "You're Alice's brother, right? And wait, didn't you–"

"I'm just Alice's brother," Joseph said firmly.

I looked suspiciously between them. It was almost like they knew each other, or at least knew who the other was.

"Harry, hey!" Millie suddenly appeared in my field of vision, and I looked up at her into surprise.

Harry's face broke into a grin. "Millie!" He got up and gave her a big hug, and I looked on in confusion. "How have you been?"

I glanced over at Joseph, but he seemed to know that they knew each other. While Harry and Millie seemed to be catching up, I scooted over to Joseph and asked forcefully, "What are you doing? Are you trying to scare him away, or something?"

Joseph turned towards me, a neutral expression on his face. "I told you. I don't like him."

"So?"

"So, yeah. I hope I scare him away."

I merely stared at him disbelievingly. "What is wrong with you?" I got up and began to march over to Alice to get away from Joseph, but he followed me, grabbing my arm to turn me around.

"Are you angry at me?" His voice, while irritated, stayed low. "Just because I don't like him?"

"No, I'm angry at you because you can't just interfere like that, like you have the right to do that, or something," I hissed, pulling my arm from his hold. "You don't even know him."

Joseph's face hardened. "I know more than you think, Lily."

"Well, I guess I wouldn't know that since you don't tell anyone anything about yourself," I snapped. "You know, Joseph, I don't get you. I mean, one minute you make me feel like I know more about you than anyone else, and the next minute you make me feel like crap."

Joseph didn't say anything for a moment. "Why does that matter to you?"

Stumped, my anger faded for a second. "What?"

"Why does it matter to you that you know things about me?" His eyes were intense.

I blinked and looked away. "It...it matters because I don't hate you, Joseph. I couldn't." I glanced back at him, then down at his lips before snapping my gaze away. "Maybe I just feel like you're the only one who... gets me. I don't know what you've been through, but you've been through something, and I guess that sort of means that you're... important to me, okay?" Did I seriously just confess to actually caring about Joseph? I looked up at him. His eyes were stormy, his jaw clenched. I had no idea what he was thinking. I couldn't tell if he was angry, surprised, confused... I was currently feeling all those things, personally.

Finally, he began to say, "Lily–"

"Hey, guys," Alice suddenly appeared beside me and threw her arm around my shoulder. "What's going on here? This looks like a deeeep conversation."

I forced a humourless laugh and pushed her arm off me. "Oh, nothing. I was just about to come interrupt your flirting session with Finn, actually."

Joseph hadn't taken his eyes off me. I looked over at him one more time before grabbing Alice's hand and pulling her back over to our other friends.

"What happened to your Harry boy?" Alice questioned as we sat back down with Harry's friends as well as Ellie, Sam and Ryan.

"Oh, he was having a little conversation with Millie. Apparently, they know each other." I made a face.

An expression of realisation dawned on her face. "That's that Harry."

I furrowed my brows in confusion. "What?"

"I think they used to date. Millie's mentioned a Harry a couple times."

"Oh." I wrinkled my nose. "Good to know."

"Oh well. Come join us. We were just about to go brave the Newacre sea. Wanna join?"

"I so want to join."

"Fabulous. Guys?" Alice said to everyone else, who turned towards us. "Swimming time?"

Sam cleared his throat. "I think you mean 'skinny dipping' time–" Ellie cut him off by shoving a sandwich into his mouth while Ryan, Finn and Logan laughed.

"Sam, you are more than welcome to be naked and free, but I will not be joining you." Alice wagged her finger at him.

"Hey, is that Millie Harry's talking to?" Logan asked me, nodding over in their direction. I glanced over to see them still deep in conversation.

"Yeah. They look like they're having a nice old catch up session."

"That's so weird," Finn commented. "It was not a good break-up. And now they're looking as friendly as ever."

I merely shrugged. "They're probably both drunk."

Around me everyone was getting up and stripping down to their swimming clothes. Sam's eyes were fixed on Ellie. I merely shook my head at him and took off my top then shorts, revealing a red bikini underneath.

"Let's go." Alice grabbed my hand and we ran towards the sea, only I stopped when I reached the edge as Alice just plunged straight in.

"Jesus Christ, that's cold," Alice exclaimed. "Trust me, Ana, it's better to just get it over with."

I knew that. I'd lived here long enough. But I couldn't move. Not even when everyone else rushed past me, cheering and laughing as they submerged themselves in the cold water. Even when Harry appeared, apparently done with his conversation with Millie, and lightly touched my waist, saying "Are you coming in?" I still couldn't move. Instead I just said, "Yeah, in a second I just... I have to go do something on my phone real quick. You go in." I gave him a smile and before he could reply, I made my way back to the rugs and clothes where I'd left my phone, feeling my eyes well up slightly. I pulled my top back on, knowing there was no way I was going in the sea.

"Lily?"

Of course, Joseph had followed me back. No doubt he'd know I wouldn't be able to get in the water. Even so, I quickly wiped my eyes and turned around. "Yeah?"

I'd expected to see a knowing, hard look on his face. Instead, his expression was soft. "Let's go."

"Sure. Wait, where to?"

Joseph glanced down at the others, who were all too busy having fun in the sea to pay attention to us. Then he started walking towards the rocks, and I followed. "I figured you'd enjoy the sea more if you weren't in it."

"True, I guess but..." We began to climb the rocks, heading towards the sea. "Why are we–"

"Just, ssh." Joseph slowly sat down on a ledge, resting his hands on his knees as he looked out to sea. After a moment, I sat next to him, my shoulder pressed against his. We were both quiet for a while, the salty wind weaving through my hair, the sound of the waves the only thing I could hear.

"I'm sorry about the Hector thing," Joseph said, finally.

"Harry," I corrected, knowing full well he was doing that on purpose.

"Whatever." He sighed. "I shouldn't have... interfered like that, I guess."

"Yeah, you shouldn't." I shrugged. "But also... you don't need to worry about it. I wasn't going to... I don't like, like Harry. You know?"

"That's not–" Joseph made a noise of frustration. "I don't care about that, Lily. You don't need to tell me that."

And so the confusion continued. I tried not to take what he said to heart. "I think I do need to."

Joseph merely glanced at me before looking away and just not saying anything. I realised he was shutting me out and putting the walls up. I was not going to let him. "You're doing it again. Shutting down."

He faced me again, his eyes skimming over my face, the crease between his brows softening. "I'm not shutting down. I just don't know how to answer."

I pressed my lips together, just looking at Joseph. "Not everything has to be complicated, Joseph."

"Not everything has to, but some things just are." He exhaled slowly and turned towards the sea. "Do you want me to be honest?"

"I do."

Joseph closed his eyes for a second. Then he began to speak. "Something did happen, a while ago. I can't... tell you what, exactly, but I messed up. So did my parents. Long and short of it is that, uh, I guess I find it difficult to... trust my parents now. Or anyone else." He cleared his throat. "That's why I can be such a prick sometimes."

I pondered this for a moment. "I don't think you're a prick."

Joseph gave me a look. "Sure thing, Lily."

"I don't." I shrugged. "Sometimes you act like one, sure, but... I think you're, you know, a decent person."

He laughed and turned to me. Laughed. I was pretty sure I'd never heard Joseph genuinely laugh before. "Such a high compliment. And possibly the nicest thing you've ever said to me."

I smiled at Joseph despite my low mood. It felt... it felt unfamiliar to smile. I couldn't remember the last time smiled. My smile was small, and I wasn't exactly happy at that point in time, but it was a smile.

Joseph's own smile faded as his eyes moved over my face. "You're smiling."

My smile faded, too. "I guess so."

Joseph continued to watch me, looking like he was about to say something else, before clearly deciding against it and turning away. I studied his profile, my eyes trailing to his lips. He suddenly stood up while I looked up in confusion.

"We should head back," Joseph said, not meeting my gaze. "Your friends will be wondering where you are."

I raised my eyebrows but got to my feet. "And yours?"

Joseph just shrugged and started to make his way over the rocks, back towards the beach. I quickly caught up with him and carried on, "You know, I didn't even know you had friends. Were you secretly that really cool guy at school that everyone wanted to be friends with?"

He gave me a look.

"What?" I said defensively. "I'm just guessing. I don't really know anything about what you were like at school, or your friends, or anything, really."

He still didn't look at me. "You know more than most people, Lily."

"There you guys are!" Ellie's excited voice interrupted us and I looked round to see her clambering over the rocks towards us. "We thought you'd been swept away by the sea. Where'd you go?"

Joseph didn't reply so I said, "Oh, um, I just didn't really want to go in the sea, so we went for a walk."

An almost knowing look crossed her face for the briefest second. "Oh, right. Understandable. But you should come back now, we're digging a hole and burying Sam in it."

I forced a smile. "You know, that sounds like fun." Ellie grinned, grabbed my hand and started pulling me back to the others. I glanced back at Joseph, who was following behind more slowly, a frown on his face as he kept his eyes fixated on the ground. Confused, I chose to ignore his sudden change in mood and tried to focus on my friends instead, helping bury Sam up to his neck in sand. He seemed perfectly happy for us to do this, even helping us scoop handfuls of sand into the hole he was standing in. At this moment, I was actually happy.

Harry reappeared next to me, touching a hand lightly on my waist. "Hey, where'd you go?"

I shrugged. "Just for a walk. I needed some space."

Sympathy flickered across his face, and he nodded in understanding. "Got you." He held his spade out to me. "Wanna use this? It'll get more sand into the hole than your hands will."

I took the spade, sticking it in the sand. "But what are you going to use?"

"Well, my hands are bigger than yours, so I'll probably be more effective than you."

"My hands are not that small," I protested, holding one up. "Look."

Harry put his hand against mine, showing, in fact, that my hands were really quite small since his hand practically engulfed mine. He grinned at me. "See?"

I rolled my eyes but before I could pull my hand away, he interlocked our fingers with a cheeky smile, giving my hand a squeeze before going back to burying Sam. I stood there for a moment, realising that my heart was beating slightly faster in my chest. And I wondered if I'd actually been completely honest with Joseph before about Harry, and about me not liking him. Because as I watched Harry laugh with my friends, his blonde hair flopping over his face, his eyes twinkling with charm and mischief, I thought that I felt something, but I wasn't sure what that something was. It was something... almost exciting, and fun. Because Harry was fun, and honest, and it seemed to me that he was genuinely a good guy. And now, I felt completely unsure about my feelings. I watched Harry carefully, and then I looked around, remembering Joseph, the most confusing person on the planet.

But Joseph was nowhere to be seen. And neither was Millie.