Oh my God.
Everyone froze, staring at her in utter shock, myself included. A long pause followed.
“Hazel,” I breathed out, still not believing my eyes.
“I’ll definitely bail you out,” Logan said, taking one of the joints and sniffing it.
“Marry her,” Ava exclaimed in my face, “marry her right now.”
We all started laughing from happiness.
“You’re the coolest person ever,” Norah added.
“At your service,” Hazel said, a shy smile lighting her face. “It’s the least I can do, especially knowing I ended up here, in this country, randomly with all of you.”
“Okay, OKAY,” Ava stood up, commanding attention.
“Here’s the plan: Norah and I will prepare food; Ethan, Logan, Alex—you drive to the store for munchies. LOADS of them. We won’t be driving tonight,” she laughed, delighted. “Summer—gather blankets and pillows. Luke—bring down thespeakers and connect with the projector outside, find some movies we can watch while utterly baked. Let’s get this party started,” Ava shouted out as if on fire.
“And me?” Hazel asked.
“Oh, dear Hazel,” Ava said softly, placing both hands on her shoulders with motherly care. “You’ve done more than enough. Go upstairs and wash off the beach from your armpits, you beautiful, magnificent angel.” Hazel chuckled.
“Let’s go, go, GO.” Ava clapped her hands, hurrying us. Hazel disappeared upstairs, her blonde curls bouncing on her back at the same rhythm as my heart.
I followed her to our room. She looked a bit tired, her face had caught some sun.
“Hey,” I entered slowly, voice filled with guilt, searching her gaze.
“Hi,” she smiled brightly. It shouldn’t be this hard. I just wanted to apologize, but found myself hesitating.
“Listen, Hazel,” I lowered my eyes, “I’m sorry. For this morning. I—”
“Oh, stop it,” she interrupted. “I shouldn’t have done that. You were eating, and it just wasn’t appropriate for me to—”
“NO, Hazel! Just stop,” I cut her off firmly so she’d understand there was no arguing about this. “Stop making excuses for me.”
In two steps, I found myself right in front of her, just a breath away. I knew what she was doing. I’d made her feel worse, and she was trying to laugh it off or blame herself. Neither of those was acceptable.
“I was rude and an idiot. I—” I exhaled. “I didn’t sleep well and was grumpy, and I took it out on you. Believe me, it had nothing to do with you.”Lies. It had everything to do with her. Or what she did in the middle of the night. I swallowed. “It had nothing to do with what you said or did this morning,” Icorrected myself. “I’m really sorry, Hazel.” Somewhere in the middle of my rant, I’d taken her hands into mine, caressing her palms.
She looked down and then met my gaze, offering a shy smile. “Okay,” she replied simply. “Thank you.”
“Yeah?” I had to make sure.
She nodded, and I pulled her into a brief hug, letting the calmness wash over me. Her hair carried a salty scent, and I gently rubbed one of her locks between my fingers. I probably shouldn’t touch her so much, but my body was doing things before my mind had the chance to stop me. The weirdest part was that I brought her here to help her relax, yet it was me who found comfort in her presence. And that scared the shit out of me. I pulled away and smiled.
“Okay, we have those doobies to smoke now, you crazy girl. Where did you even get them?”
“Ava was talking about wanting to get high. I still know some people here. They helped me out.”
“That was the personal business?”
“Yeah,” she replied. “What did you think?”
“That you were leaving,” I admitted, catching the surprise in her eyes.
“I would never do that,” she replied, a small smile on her face. I gave her a grateful look.
