CHAPTER TWENTY
That weekend Alex was awoken much earlier than normal by a pounding at the door. With eyes still closed and clad in those famous pink pyjamas, he trudged to see who it was in a sleepy daze.
"It's about time!" Kalila exclaimed, hands thrown up in mock relief.
Alex rubbed his eyes violently to see both Hannah and Kalila standing there, rain drops falling off their clothes. "Whatcha doing here?" he managed to ask in between yawns.
"I saw Kalila about to walk here so I thought I'd give her a lift before I gotta go to work," Hannah chirped, waving goodbye to the two of them before exiting the building hurriedly.
Kalila chuckled, she had known Hannah for a while and although she had changed over the few years, she would always be living in the fast lane. She watched Alex manage a small smile at her laugh before yawning again and turning around to walk back to his bedroom. After slipping off her shoes â which were soaked because of the light rain outside â she followed him, finding him lying face down on his bed, pillow clutched to his chest.
'Aw!' she thought to herself before pulling his duvet off violently as he mumbled curses under his breath, eyes shut tight. "Get up!"
He mumbled something into the crook of his arm, his words barely comprehensible but she managed to guess what he was asking. "It's almost six, get your ass up, we're gonna be late!"
Alex finally lifted his head up then but it was more in outrage than complying with her demands. "You came over to wake me up at six in the morning?" he spluttered with an expression that was so appalled, she couldn't help laughing.
He groaned and fell back on his pillow, eyes automatically shutting almost stubbornly as Kalila sighed.
This would take a while.
---
"I can't believe you woke me up that early just to go to Brighton!" Alex grumbled as he leaned against a window of the train they were currently on. He said it like it physically disgusted him to say the word Brighton, as though it was a rundown alleyway instead of the South coast of England.
Kalila looked up from the sketchbook she was doodling on and poked his side with the back of her pencil lightly. "And here I was thinking you'd be happy to go to the beach like a normal person," she said, grinning up at him from her seat.
He tried to suppress a smile at her eagerness and concentrated hard on still trying to look annoyed, as though the idea of being at a beach instead of sleeping like he wanted to appalled him. "Its winter Lila, who goes to the beach at the end of December?" he snorted, one eyebrow raised high before answering his own question. "Mental people like you, that's who!"
Kalila ignored the little flutter in her stomach at his use of her nickname and grabbed her rather over-stuffed bag before jumping up from her seat. They had gotten on the train from Victoria station about an hour ago and her body was aching from being in the same position too long. Ignoring his remark she pulled him along, holding on to the front of his grey and orange jumper.
"C'mon, this is our stop!" she exclaimed excitedly, dragging him out of the automatic doors before he could protest. Not that he wanted to though, her enthusiasm about getting to the beach was adorable. There was something about the way her dark eyes shone in excitement that made him smile and follow along willingly.
The air that hit their faces was cold, their cheeks tinted red in just a number of seconds. For a minute Kalila wondered if it had been the smartest idea going to the beach smack bang in the middle of December but then she looked over at Alex.
She remembered how dejected he always looked when they first met, how exhausted he constantly seemed with nightmares every time he tried to sleep. He was a different person now; the eye bags had faded, the sparkle from his eyes returned and Kalila knew she had a lot to do with it. Although this was a stupid idea and they both would get ill tomorrow, she knew he needed some fun and everyone loves the beach right? And this could be their next painting for the project.
They walked in comfortable silence, both buried in their own thoughts until Alex snorted loudly making Kalila snap out of her daydreams and look up. She chuckled then, so sudden but infectious and before long both of them were laughing loudly.
The entire beach was empty.
The waves hitting the shore was the only sound heard for miles and it seemed that even the birds had abandoned the coast. The sand was smooth with no indentations of footprints at all, it was clear that nobody had been around for at least a week or so. 'And who could blame them?' Alex thought to himself with a smile as he shoved his hands in his pockets to keep them warm against the cool air. 'It is winter after all.'
It had been a long time since Kalila had gone to the beach, a few years in fact. As a kid she had loved it, her family along with her cousins would go often and she would always spend most of the time in the ocean. She loved the smell of it, the feeling of the waves hitting your skin. But most of all she loved being submerged in the water, the complete silence that came with it. The peace.
Too bad she had never been able to swim though.
Without really thinking about she dropped her bag on the floor and kicked her shoes off, pulling down her jeans and Paris jumper to reveal a swimsuit as fast as she could.
"What the...?" Alex asked amused at the way she seemed to get her arms stuck in her clothes before fighting back a laugh when he realised her intention. The water would be freezing in this weather but she hadn't seemed to realise that yet. Kalila threw her clothing over her shoulder â effectively hitting him in the face with it â and ran the few steps to the shore before yelping loudly when her body met the water.
"Crap!"
Alex couldn't help it and started laughing loudly. Nobody in their right mind would jump into the water in the end of December expecting it to be warm other than Kalila. His laughter faded however when he looked at her, like really looked at her.
She was standing knee deep in the water, her hair loose and blowing softly in the wind. Half of her was clearly soaked and despite the light shivering, there was a huge smile on her face that caused him to grin slightly. Considering it was always cold and rainy, he was used to seeing her in jeans and long tops with jackets but this was a change.
She was wearing a one-piece. That was the amazing thing, he thought, the fact that she could look that incredible despite not wearing a skimpy bikini. His eyes drifted over her body, brightening at the way her skin shone against the sea as he watched a trickle of water run down the dip of her breasts. And those legs... damn. Kalila had legs that could go on for days, as he had discovered that very first day watching her ice-skate.
He shook his head suddenly at his train of thoughts and reprimanded himself inside his head. 'Stop perving on her you bloody idiot,' he scolded himself before looking up again at Kalila's questioning gaze, hands on her hips.
"Well are you just stand there like a potato or what?"
He grinned and pulled off his own clothes, much more gracefully than Kalila had of course and jumped in alongside her.
"Oh shit, this is freezing!"
Kalila laughed, glad of the sudden splash to stop herself from staring at him half strip. It just didn't feel right checking him out and the slight blush raising on her cheeks showed that. 'Friends, just friends,' she reminded herself, squashing down the flicker of sadness she felt at that thought. She could not afford for him to be any more than a good friend, there was absolutely no way she was going to destroy her life like Natalie did.
And that's all love does, it destroys people.
While trying to stop his teeth from chattering, Alex flicked some water towards Kalila to bring her out of the deep thoughts she seemed to be emerged in.
"Hey!" she exclaimed, spluttering slightly at the taste of the salty sea water.
And so they began a water fight; two unlikely friends floating in the water along the coast of the English Channel, their voices a stark contrast to the silence around them, their laughter vibrating against the air.
A/N: Click on the external link on the right side to see Kalila's outfit while at the beach :}