3: The Click

I smirked as I brought my bag forward and rummaged though it in the hopes that I had in there what I thought I had. I let out an excited squeal as I picked out a permanent marker from the bottom of the bag.

"A marker" he asked curiously. I nodded. "Okay, first of all, why do you even have a permanent marker in your bag?"

I shrugged "I don't know. I think it must have been in there since Liz and I went to that One Direction concert for the sign that she made"

"Wasn't that a few years ago?" he exclaimed.

"I must have forgotten to take it back out" I defended "Well, it's come in handy now"

He just shook his head "Seriously, you and Liz could be sisters. The amount of rubbish you guys carry around in your bags is unbelievable"

"Hey, you never know when you'll end up needing some of these things. Like this permanent marker for instance"

"So, what are we going to do with it?" he enquired.

"How about we draw something on him? He's always walking around like he's God's gift. I think we should knock him down a peg or two"

Jason laughed "Brilliant. Okay, give me the pen"

I passed him the marker which he uncapped and stood in front of Ethan's sleeping body, blocking my view of what he was doing.

I could see Jason's arm moving wildly like he was painting a picture, doing who knows what to Ethan's face.

"Aha!" Jason exclaimed. "I present to you my finished masterpiece" he said with a flourish of his hands at Ethan's face as he moved to show me what he had done.

I placed my face in my hands and shook my head to muffle the loud bout of laughter that was threatening to make its way out of my throat.

"What do you think?" Jason asked with a cocky grin.

I had another look at Ethan's face and couldn't contain it any longer. I burst into a fit of raucous laughter, not caring who was watching me almost go insane with hilarity.

"Ah, I can't believe you did that" I cried out with laughter. Jason had drawn a moustache on Ethan's face and added a monobrow to match. Oh, his beautiful face, destroyed by a permanent marker.

"You are a bad influence Ms Kassel" Jason laughed alongside me. "Okay, get ready to run after this" Jason said with a giddy smile on his face.

"After what?" I asked confused.

Jason leaned down towards Ethan's ear and screamed "Yo, Ethan!"

Ethan woke with a start and groaned while Jason scrambled from his sitting place on the sand and grabbed my hand in the process, running from Ethan.

My feet kicked the soft sand behind me as we ran to the other side of the beach. I let go of his hand and stopped to catch my breath "Man, I really need to train harder at the gym" I breathed out.

Jason stopped beside me and laughed breathlessly "Ethan's going to kill us once he finds out what we did"

"Erm...what's with the 'we?" I joked.

"Hey, it was your idea" he defended.

"And you were the one who actually drew on his face. It's all on you I'm afraid" I shrugged with a smirk playing on my lips.

"Is that so?" he said with a playful glint in his eye, as he moved slowly towards me.

I moved back cautiously with a giggle almost escaping me. Butterflies were erupting in my stomach with the way he looked at me, his eyebrow raised, his eyes piercing though mine, the smirk on his face, as if he was about to pounce on his prey.

"What are you doing?" I asked, my teeth now biting my lips excitedly.

And pounce he did. He bent down, grabbed my legs from underneath me and lifted me up bridal style and started carrying me across the beach.

"Hey, put me down Jason" I giggled.

"Nope. This is revenge" he laughed, trying to imitate an evil villain laugh "Mua ha ha ha"

Coming out from him made me laugh even harder "That was terrible"

I looked ahead of me to see where we were going. I could see the clear blue sea in front of me.

"Erm, Jason, aren't you getting tired now of holding me? I'm not that light" I said, my eyes widening as we were drawing closer to the sea.

Jason looked down at me, his teeth glinting in the sunlight as he grinned broadly. "Are you kidding? You're light as a feather" and just to prove his point, he took off into a sprint, running towards the sea.

Just before plunging into the sea, a scream could be heard "My hair!" before it was muffled by the water. The cold water hit me hard, I could hear the water around me before I drew back up for air and gasped.

I was greeted by Jason's face scrunched up in laughter. "You are such a jerk!" I shouted but laughed along with him "My hair is wet and now, so are my clothes"

"Awww, poor you" Jason pouted.

I splashed water across his face, which stopped him momentarily. I laughed at his startled face, his mouth open in shock. I splashed water at him once again, which seemed to wake him up. I couldn't stop laughing "Oh, you're right. This is quite fun". Next thing I knew, he was splashing me back. And then we were having a splashing war.

We eventually got out of the water, him coming out perfectly and me feeling heavy as the water had soaked through all my  .

"This is not fair" I groaned. "I didn't get any warning about going in the water, so I didn't get to take my top off. But you were already organised and had your top off, ready for a splash in the water"

"Well, what can I say, I'm an organised person" he smirked.

I scoffed "Organised? You? Since when?"

"What are you talking about? I'm very self-sufficient"

"Oh yeah. I'm pretty sure I remember back in our high school days; you were late like all the time"

"That was back then"

"What about last week when we were supposed to go to the cinema, but you forgot to book our tickets after repeatedly telling us you had it under control"

"That was a onetime thing" He scoffed

I rolled my eyes at him "I swear, you and your sister are so much alike"

We made our way back to where our stuff was, only to be greeted by an angry looking Ethan. His arms were folded as if he was a teacher about to scold his students. His nostrils flared and, if they could, his ears would be producing steam like in those cartoons. His eyes bore holes into ours, ready to attack.

"Hey Ethan" Jason said casually as if nothing had happened and proceeded to sit down on his beach towel nonchalantly.

I was trying my best not to laugh. A little squirm escaped my throat and, like a wolf about to catch his pray, Ethan's eyes landed on mine. "Hey Ethan" I said with a shy smile and avoided his eyes as I picked up my towel to dry myself off.

"What is this?" Ethan cried, glaring down at Jason.

"What is what?" Jason replied absentmindedly.

"This" Ethan pointed to his face.

Jason placed his hand over his eyes, as if glaring from the sun, with a grin on his face. "Oh, that. That's just a little something to enhance the face that's all"

I snorted unlady like as I took off my shorts. Ethan took no notice.

"Do you realise how embarrassing it was walking around like this" Ethan bawled.

Two girls walked past us and giggled as they took notice of Ethan. Jason chuckled "I suppose I have some idea"

"We were supposed to go out tonight. There's no way I'm going out looking like this" Ethan moaned.

I took off my top, which was too wet and uncomfortable for me to wear. I sighed as I dropped the top to the ground and felt a lot lighter with my bikini on.

"Oh, calm down. It'll come off" Jason replied calmly.

"I've just been to the bathroom and it's impossible to take off. What did you- "

Ethan stopped mid rant as I continued to dry myself. I looked up, noticing the now silence from Ethan, to see both of them staring at something in my direction.

"What?" I asked, looking around me, finding nothing unusual.

"Erm..." Ethan started off, but he was still staring as if in a daze. My eyebrows knotted together.

"Jason, what is-" I paused as I realised it was me they were looking at. My eyes widened and I searched all over me. "Is there something on me? Is it a spider? Please don't tell me it's a spider" I said in a panic.

"No, its..." Jason stuttered, not managing to complete the sentence.

"Hey guys" a voice from behind us said. It was Liz with the biggest grin I had ever seen on her face. "Oh, that bikini really looks good on you. Good choice" Liz commented as she approached us.

Then they took notice of Ethan. Ian was the first to burst into laughter "Oh wow, who did that? That's genius" he laughed with his hand clutching his stomach.

"It's not funny" Ethan growled.

"I think you'll find that genius is me" Jason grinned proudly.

"Awww Ethan, you poor thing. Why would you do this Jason?" Liz said sympathetically but you could see that she was trying hard to hide her smile.

"This better come off" Ethan growled to Jason and was about to storm off before Ian stopped him.

"Are you still coming out tonight?" Ian asked.

"If I can get this off by tonight, then yeah" Ethan scoffed, storming off in a huff.

Ian laughed after he walked away. "That was great" Ian gave Jason a high five and sat down beside him.

"I suppose I can't take all the credit. I did have an accomplice" Jason grinned looking at me.

"What?" Liz almost screeched. "Why would you let Jason influence you like that?"

"Hey" Jason defended. "It was Rosie that was the bad influence. It was her idea"

"Rosie. How could you do that to poor Ethan? That was mean"

I shrugged "I wouldn't exactly call him 'poor Ethan'. I just decided to go all beauty and the beast on him and see if anyone could love him for anything else other than his good looks. Turns out they can't" I joked, to which the boys laughed at.

Liz just sighed and set her towel down on the sand to sit down on. I decided to join her and sat down beside her.

"So, where were you guys?" Jason asked. Liz's eyes widened while she stared straight ahead of her and Ian's face had taken on a tinge of pink.

"We just went for a walk" Ian replied stoically.

"Yeah, a walk" Liz nodded.

I tried to hide my smile, while Jason looked back and forth between the two. I would definitely have to find out later what happened between the two of them.

I had to bite my lip to keep from laughing. It had gone quiet and awkward and it was clear Ian and Liz were feeling uncomfortable under Jason's stare. I guess it was time for the super best friend to step in and save the day.

"So, do you remember the time when Jason put permanent marker on Ethan's face. That was hilarious guys". I know, pathetic attempt at a save.

"Nice save" Jason chuckled, shaking his head.  "Well we better go. We have a busy night ahead of us" he said to Ian and Ian instantly shot up.

"Okay, yeah, sure" he replied nervously. "See you girls later" he nodded, his gaze lingering on Liz's a second longer.

"Bye. See you back at the house Liz" Jason said before picking up his stuff and leaving.

Liz let out a heavy breath as soon as they were out of sight. "Well, that was a big sigh" I commented.

"Well, that was awkward" Liz retorted. "I thought Jason was going to grill us"

"But he didn't. I came in and saved the day" I grinned.

"Oh, by the way, thanks for that" Liz deadpanned, clearly not appreciating my efforts of saving her ass.

"Now, that I've practically saved your life" I said, to which Liz rolled her eyes "You now need to tell me everything that happened between you and Ian"

Liz produced a shy smile and cuddled her arms around her legs, shaking her head slightly "Nothing" she squeaked.

"That didn't sound like nothing" I raised an eyebrow, wanting to know everything.

She shrugged and looked at me with her smile overtaking her face. Her face looked as bright as the sun then. She was glowing. "Really, nothing happened. We just talked"

"Talked?" I asked incredulously.

She nodded "It was nice. I felt like I could be myself around him. And I found out he likes Chinese food" she said excitedly.

I laughed "Really? That was all you did? Just talk about his love of Chinese food?"

"We talked about other stuff too" she defended. "I don't know. It was great just spending time getting to know him. I never get to do that when Jason's around" she sighed.

"There's definitely chemistry between you two"

"But we could never happen" Liz sighed defeated, looking out into the distance. "Jason would never approve"

I wrapped my arm around her shoulder "If two people are meant to be together, it'll happen" I said, trying to console her.

Liz gave a slight smile "He even held my hand"

I raised my eyebrows at her "Really? And you thought this wasn't important information to tell your best friend" I said, feigning hurt.

"I don't think he realised he was doing it. He just took it and we were like that for the rest of the walk. It felt perfect. I didn't even realise how much time had passed; I was just having fun being with him" she smiled, looking dreamily into the distance.

"Awwww" I hugged her tighter. "Just answer me this?" I asked, putting on my serious face.

"What?"

"Can I be maid of honour at your wedding?"

Liz punched me in the shoulder and laughed "Shut up. So enough about me. What about you?"

"What about me?" I shrugged.

"What ever happened between you and Max?" she questioned.

Now it was my turn to look out into the distance. "Ah, Max" I hummed. "I don't think there ever really was a Max and I"

"You guys were always joking around in college and messing about. He even asked you to the Grad Ball"

"And that was where it ended. He hasn't called all summer or even answered my texts" I shrugged. "It's fine, I think we were better off as friends anyway. I didn't feel that connection, that click"

Liz groaned "You always say that about every guy you meet"

"What's wrong with that?" I questioned.

"You can't go around rejecting every guy because you can't find 'the click'" she air quoted.

"Don't you feel like that with Ian?" I retorted.

"Yeah.... well..." Liz stuttered.

"See, it does exist" I gloated.

"Okay, fine. I see where you're coming from" Liz agreed. "I know you'll find 'that click' with the right guy"

I sighed "I hope you're right"