Chapter Text
Chapter 1
South beach, miami, 2007
“Hey Noah!” izzy called from the waterline, her curly auburn hair falling into the front of her face, which she then shook away in annoyance. I lazily raised my head from the beach towel I was so comfortably relaxing on, letting my oakley jacket sunglasses fall to the tip of my nose.
“What?!” I exclaimed to her and Tyler, who was spinning a Wilson volleyball on the tip of his pointer finger. I turned off my mp3 which was playing grey by SEREBRO to hear the two better.
“Come on,get off your ass and play with us!” Tyler chirped, waving his hand in a mocking attempt to lure me over. I just scoffed and pressed my Oakleys back onto the bridge of my nose
“Yeah, no thank you. I'm currently assiduous with basking in these crepuscular rays, also known as sunlight. So that's gonna be a no!” I goaded, laying back down on my beach towel. I clicked the center button on my mp3 player and let my music blur out any of Izzys or Tylers final kick ins, settling into the warm sand underneath my towel.
The hot Florida sun was relentless, beating down on south beach. I closed my eyes and took in the beautiful sunny day, feeling the warmth beam down on my white casted face.The warm, orange glow behind my eyelids slowly started fading into a cool, blue shadow. My lips curled into a frown, I could've sworn that there wasn't a cloud in the sky just a couple minutes ago..
In annoyance, I lifted my sunglasses up to my forehead to check the sky and instead of a blue expanse, I was met with a pair of bronzed, freshly shaved calves and a pair of black birkenstocks. My eyes immediately darted up towards the person's face, and I could feel my heart jumping out of my chest when I saw who it was..
Alejandro Burromuerto , fucking Alejandro. What the hell was he doing here?!-and god he looks really hot right now..
“Uhm, what?” I questioned, my wrists flexing as I sat up. I turned down my music a tad, waiting for alejandro to answer. He didn't answer for a bit, just stared down at me with his bright jaded eyes, his arms flexed and crossed along his bare chest. I couldn't help but blush, the way he looked down at me brewed something deep in my stomach. Something I couldn't exactly pinpoint. I sipped from my water, the awkwardness taking over and bringing me back to reality.
“Uh, are you gonna say something or just stare at me like a creep.” I snarked, burying the bottom of my water bottle back in the gritty, beige sand.
Alejandro didn't answer, although a cheeky smile started to creep up onto his face. Before I even got to register his smile, his hands were already latched onto my ankles and pulling me towards izzy and tyler. My sunglasses slid over my forehead and off my face completely, settling somewhere in the sand as he continued to drag me along the sand's surface.
“Hey!-this is kidnapping! You’re violating my personal-” I yelped, flailing my free leg around as alejandro giggled. “You are a cruel, cruel man! Unhand me this instant!” i protested
Alejandro just kept laughing, bringing me closer and closer to the waterline where the sand was getting damp and packed."What'd you say?" Alejandro mockingly asked. “You're gonna have to speak louder! I can't hear you!” Alejandro added, he finally let go of my ankle and stood in front of me, howling in laughter with Izzy and tyler like a pack of hyenas. Dirty, annoying, stinky hyenas.
“I'm going to sue you! My lawyers will be hearing about this!” I retorted, sitting up on the sand. The waves crashed and landed on my feet, vacuuming the sand stuck in between my toes.
“I'll see you in court then, Mr. Mudaliyar.” Alejandro joked, his hands cupping the sides of his hips. Izzy and Tyler were dying of laughter at my expense, izzy now on the ground flailing her arms around.
“ oh- you should've seen your face! Oh my- HAHAHAHAHA! The way you were clawing the sand-!” Izzy guffawed, struggling to breathe as she laughed uncontrollably.
“Yeah, yeah laugh it up guys!” I rolled my eyes and stood up, glaring at alejandro directly. “You are done for.” I warned before tackling into alejandro, playfully wrestling him in the shallow waters of the atlantic. alejandro's eyes widened like saucers as he fell back in the freezing waters of the Ocean. I could hear him screaming under water as I wrapped myself around him, trying to bring him down with me.
Tyler and izzy watched, izzy still giggling profusely. “Do you think we should stop them..?” Tyler looked towards izzy in mocked concern, before they both started laughing again.
After a couple minutes wrestling in the water, we both came up laughing. Alejandro's hair was slicked back and dripping down his back, my heart fluttered once more, it was addicting the way the water dripped down his bare chest and down to his torso. Luckily Alejandro didn't see that i was basically drooling, thank god. But I still couldn't keep my eyes off of his wet body.
Alejandro looked over at me too, his eyes darting to my own body and back to my face. His eyes were locked onto mine, and I swear my face turned about 10x redder if that was even possible. It felt like hours had passed that me and Alejandro were just staring at each other, both stuck trying to find the right words to say.
“Hey, look at that beautiful sunset!” Tyler broke the trance me and Alejandro were in and pulled us both back into reality. He pointed a finger at the golden streaked sky with the sun just breaching the water line.
Tyler wasn't wrong, the sunset was really fucking nice. The horizon was a mix of violets, pinks and deep oranges. The kind of sunset you would only see in the postcards.
I forced myself to look away from Alejandro's attractive form and towards Tyler and Izzy, my snark creeping back up onto me.
“It's fine, I guess.” I muttered. “Although, the rayleigh scattering today isn't-”
“Noah.” Alejandro interrupted as he sifted through the seaweed, his shoulder brushing up against mine. “Just say it's pretty, no need to be a smartass…”
I bite my lip to force a frown, although I couldn't help but smile. “It's…adequate.”
I jested. The others, izzy and tyler, were already packing up the umbrellas and chairs. It was just me and Alejandro now still in the water, the tension so thick you’d need a chainsaw to cut through it.
I broke the underlying silence, jestering towards Izzy and Tyler who were packing up the beach stuff. “We should, uh- we should probably go help them.” I said awkwardly.
Alejandro quickly nodded, already walking out of the water. “Good idea, they look like they need help..” Alejandro agreed, his footprints getting washed away from the crashing waves as we walked towards the others.
“Hey Alejandro, you can bring these to the car right?” Tyler pointed towards the 3 chairs sitting in their bags.
“Oh yeah, of course!” Alejandro smiled as he picked up the three bags and slung the straps over his broad shoulders, treading towards the car that was parked just a few meters away in the now empty parking lot.
Izzy looked towards me, a knowing look plastered along her face. She elbowed my ribs a few times, ushering me to spill. “So, what's the deal with you and alejandro? You guys sure look…well how do I put this, close?” Izzy quizzed, leaning into me to really emphasize her suspicion.
I fumbled over my words, my chest tightening in panic that she might've caught on already “W-what? Nothing! Izzy, we’re just close friends. Y’know, since like..middle school. There's nothing “going on” with us…” I scoffed, trying to play it cool like she was being weird, but deep down in my heart, she was right. Spot on actually.