Chapter 47: If you were a steak you'd be done well

"What?" I turn my head to look at him. He loses his grip for a second on the wheel, but regains composure and swerves to avoid crashing into a car in the other lane.

"Oh," he says. "Sorry, I thought we were just saying opposite things."

"Oh," I say, looking out the window. I'm an idiot. He doesn't love me. He doesn't love anyone. He just plays girls, moving onto the next one after one night.

"But, if you want me to show you love, I will," he says. I scoff and push his shoulder gently.

"Shut up."

***

"Yeah. Fraser Island," I say, folding another towel and placing it in my suitcase.

"Yes! We went there once. Be careful of the dingoes," Adele says. I laugh. "No, seriously, there are actual dingoes there."

My face falls. "What?"

"Yeah," she says. "It's their natural habitat. They're not going to kill you unless you provoke them."

I make a frowny face and pack a jumper into my bag.

"Its really not gonna be that cold," Adele says, biting into her sandwich, looking at the things I've packed.

"Really?" I ask.

"Bruh, I thought you were smart! Do you not do geography? Australia is heated! They don't reach anything under 0 degrees on the coldest day of the year. Their summers are literally forty degrees," she says. "And they make fun of Europeans because we call twenty-one degrees a scorcher. Rude. But, I mean, it is a scorcher!"

I take out my second hoodie and add a sundress instead. She nods.

"Alright, well I'm leaving now! Talk to you soon!" I say, picking up my phone after zipping my suitcase up.

"No, wait!" she says. I stop my finger from moving towards the end call button. "You understand that there's no reception there?"

"What?" I ask.

"You won't be able to call me," she says. I frown and Adele laughs. "So, I have something to say!"

"What is it?" I sigh, collapsing back onto my bed.

"Go get high with Alex! Drunk on your love!" she yells.

"Bye Adele," I say.

"Bye," she smiles and I hang up. I swing my plane bag onto my back and walk downstairs. I'm wearing some ripped jeans and a cropped white shirt with a small kawaii avocado on it. My hair's in braids and there are a few baby hairs framing my face that I'm trying to blow away.

"Hey, Nat," Michelle says when I walk downstairs. Their whole family is in our small lobby and we're waiting for the boys. Dad's outside packing a taxi with our gear.

"Yo," Alex walks over to me.

"Hey," I say. He smiles and picks up my bag for me. "Thanks."

"Are you excited to spend the whole holidays with a hot Greek God?" he asks, wheeling my bag out onto the footpath and handing it to Dad.

"Nope," I say. He pouts. "Sorry."

He doesn't speak to me, instead, he ignores me and walks back inside. I keep trying to talk to him but he has on this 'nope, you said I wasn't a Greek God so now I'm not speaking to you' vibe.

"Alex," I whine, picking up Wombat and patting him. "I'm sorry."

Alex doesn't respond, just glares at me playfully. I roll my eyes and sit down on the couch next to him, taking out my phone. I scroll through my Instagram as Alex stares at the wall in front of us. I smirk when I think of an idea. "Oh, this guy's hot."

"WHAT?" Alex yells, leaping across the couch and grabbing my phone. He looks through it then glares at me. "Dude, not cool."

I shrug. "Sorry."

He sighs dramatically and helps me off the couch when Mum and Dad tell us we're leaving.

***

First, we drop Wombat off at Bubbles' house, who's going to babysit him. Then we make our way to the airport, where we scan in our luggage and bags and walk through security. We finally get seated on the plane. We're all in first class, and Alex and I have our own little cabin thing again. We buckle up and the plane takes off. Once we're settled, Alex clicks the button so that we're sitting on the same, large seat and I slide over to him. He puts his arm around my shoulders and I rest my head against his shoulder, closing my eyes.

The rest of the trip passes quickly because I sleep for over half of it. When I wake up, he's on his phone playing Candy Crush.

"What level are you up to?" I ask.

"Five thousand," he grins.

"Damn, you win," I say, sitting up straighter.

"Damn straight, I win," he says, shoving his phone into his pocket. I laugh. "Can't catch up to me. You were out for eight hours straight, you know."

"Really? I thought it was only, like five," I check the time. He's right. One hour to go. "Let's watch a movie."

"Which one?" he asks. I pull star wars out of the seat's drawer and smile at him. He groans as I put it in. "Really?"

"We never finished," I reason. He pulls me back into him and I wrap my arms around his waist, leaning against his shoulder. I drift off to sleep again.

***

It took a whole lot of driving to finally reach the boat area. Random people drive up in cars. We've hired three. Two are four-wheel drives, the other - which Alex and I are in - is a ute. People get out of their cars with their flip flops in their hands and walk along the sand, leaning against their cars and speaking with strong Australian accents.

We drive onto a large boat full of other cars and it ships us across the ocean to the island. It is steamy hot. I feel like asking Alex to close his eyes so I can get changed into something cooler, but I don't. I just sweat my butt off.

When we get there, Alex and I hop out of the car, walking over to the parents. We get halfway there before our feet start burning on the sand and we sprint to the other cars, hopping onto the sides of them to avoid the sand. I put my shoes on the ground and step into them.

"Ok, you two," Jackson says. "Listen up. You just follow us. You can't call us, so stay right behind our cars."

Alex nods and we head back to the ute.

"Well, that was fun," I say, slipping back into the car after Alex.

"Yeah," he says, rubbing his feet. "That stuff burns."

A teenage girl walking past us stops and leans in the middle. Her blonde hair falls in strands over her shoulders. She's wearing denim shorts, a scrunchie, some flip flops and a singlet. "This isn't America," she says in her Australian accent. "Get used to it, guys. We use thongs. Go to Ripcurl. No Gucci here. Buy some."

The girl walks back to her friends, dancing to the music they're playing out of their ue boom.

"Well," is all Alex says before driving off. I laugh, tie up my hair, putting on my sunglasses and wind down the window.

"Woah," I say, pointing out the window. "What's that?"

"That, Dude, is a dingo," Alex says, smiling at me.

"Oh," I say, staring at it. It moves back to the bush behind it and runs away. "That was cool."

"That was Australia."

***

"That took so long," Felecia says. "I didn't even have a signal!"

"We don't get signal here, hun," Mum says, starting to unpack the car. We drove along the beach for about two hours before we found the house. Its right at the front of the beach and up the back is a whole oval surrounded by bush and dingo fences. There's another house next to us, but it's vacant.

I take my bag and everyone starts unpacking.

It takes us an hour to get settled and unpacked before the kids, Alex and I grab a soccer ball and kick it between us. We play for a little while before the parents call us inside.

"Get changed, please girls and boys! We're going for a little drive!" Dad says. I roll my eyes. Sure it'll be small if Dad's driving.

I head into my room, which is on the third level of the house. I pick out my plain black swimmers and throw a white dress over the top. I take a towel and my 'thongs' (aka flip flops) and walk back downstairs to the cars.

"Ready, Nat?" Michelle asks. I nod and we all jump into the cars. Dad's talking to Alex, and that goes on for a while before Paul leans over into the front seat of Jackson's car and beeps the horn. Dad glares at Paul but says bye to Alex anyway.

Alex hops into the car, looking like a real beach boy with his white shirt, board shorts and sunglasses. I pop an Extra into my mouth and chew on it.

"I'm bored," Alex whines, ten minutes into the trip.

"Well," I say, pulling my knees up to my chest and winding up the window, turning the music down. "What do you wanna do?"

"Hmm," he looks out the window for a few moments. "I'm gonna try some cheesy pickups and you can rate them."

I laugh. "What?"

"Ready?" he asks and starts before I can say no. "Are you French-"

"Yes," I say quickly.

"Because Eiffel for you. And no, you're American."

I laugh. "That was great."

"You know it. Are you religious? Cause you're the answer to all my prayers."

"That was bad," I giggle and he grins. We bounce over a sand dune and we jump up.

"You must be Jamacain. Because you're Jamaican me crazy," he says. I laugh again.

"Where are you getting these from?" I ask.

"Dunno," he shrugs. "If you were a steak you'd be done well."

I crack up. "What?"

He smiles, letting out a snort. "Sorry, just the truth. Is your body like McDonald's? Because I'm loving it."

I smile, looking out the window as we drive through a small creek of water in the sand.

"I've been wondering if your lips taste as good as they look," he says. I turn to him and glare. He smiles, he knows that one was equally as bad, just not as funny. "Wow, when God made you he was showing off."

I laugh.

"Damn, so you are religious!" he says and I smile. "If looks could kill you'd be a weapon of mass destruction."

I laugh again. And again, and again. Here's the list of things he said:

If I were a cat I'd spend all nine lives with you.

Did you swallow magnets? Because you're attractive.

If you were a fruit you'd be a fineapple

Feel my t-shirt, it's made of boyfriend material.

I laugh and stop him on that one. "Where do you come up with all these?"

"Callum, Leo and I were bored in the library one afternoon so we looked some up. Callum uses them heaps," he shrugs. I smile and roll the window down. "But I still meant everything I said."

"I'm a fineapple. Yeah. For sure," I say. "Thank you for adding meaning to my life, dictionary."

He smiles and turns up the music. We drive a little faster and catch up to the others. Michelle waves at us from the rear-view mirror. We arrive at a bunch of deserted rocks an hour later and Dad gets out of his car. He leans into the window.

"Sorry guys, I don't think your car's gonna be able to handle the next bit," he says, pointing to the large hill of sand reaching up. There's a line up of cars. Alex nods and turns off the engine.

"Should we wait or...?" I trail off.

"I don't mind what you do. But we will come looking for you if you're not back at the house by seven, ok?" Dad says. We nod.

"What's happening, Dad?" Lucas asks.

"The other two are just going to stay here for a while, Luke, the ute can't go up the hill," Dad says, ruffling Lucas's hair from outside the window. He gets in the car. We watch as they drive away. I hop out of the car with Alex, grabbing my towel.

"Let's just swim here until four, ok?" Alex says. I nod. He lays down a towel and we sit on it and watch the waves for a while. I hear a snap and turn to face Alex. He takes another one, looks at it and grins.

"Alex!" I whine, grabbing for the phone. He moves it away from me, holding me back by the shoulder. "You butthole, Patricia."

"Sorry, Greg," he says, slipping his phone in his back pocket and taking his hand off my shoulder. I look back out at the ocean and smile. I see a bunch of rocks that look fun to climb.

"I'm just going to go climb the rocks, wanna come?" I ask, getting up and brushing off the sand from my legs."

"No," he says, pulling his phone back out. These boys and their Fortnite addictions. Or is it Pokemon Go? I sure hope not. "Don't fall."

"I'll try not to," I say, winking at him. I run over to the rocks and start climbing. I've always liked climbing. When I was little I used to ace all the elementary school obstacles. No one could beat me on the climbing frame, I was a BEAST.

I climb up the rocks and sit down on the top. I feel my thumb is stinging a little and see that the scar which had appeared after I cut myself with the knife has re-opened. I put pressure on it and wave down at Alex. He's smiling, his phone in front of him videoing.

"Having a good time?" he yells up to me.

"Sure am!" I yell back down. He laughs when I throw my hands up to the sky. I take a couple of pictures of the ocean and the sunset before scrambling back down. I think a bit of blood must drop onto the sand because Alex's smile fades when I walk back to him.

"You ok?" he asks, standing up and wiping the sand off his legs. I nod.

"Yeah, just cut myself a little," I say. He quickly stomps over to me.

"Why? You cut yourself then you have to go and cut it again?" he asks, holding my thumb up so he can see it more clearly.

"Stop being so over-protective," I say, snatching my hand back. He glares at me and walks back to the ute. Stubborn pig burp.

He grabs a few Band-aids and his water bottle, walking back and sitting down. I sit down next to him and reluctantly give him my hand. He holds it, cleaning it and then putting a band-aid on.

"You know," I say when he's down. "I could've just done that myself."

"I know," he shrugs, turning to grin at me, all stubbornness forgotten. "But I feel like a respected servant of a Greek goddess when I do things for you. So let's go swim."

He pulls off his shirt in one swift motion and I can't help myself from staring. He sees me looking and smirks, running a hand through his curly hair.

"I know I'm a respected, good looking servant-" he starts.

"Debatable," I whisper. He glares at me playfully and I grin.

"-But keeps your eyes off the prize. I'm untouchable," he says.

"Yeah, like burnt steak," I say, stripping out of my dress and walking towards the water. He doesn't follow. I turn around, pulling my hair back up into a ponytail. He looks up at me. "C'mon, pervert."

He smiles and walks in. "Are you a fish? Because I'd love to go skinny dipping with you."

"What?" I laugh, splashing him. "That doesn't even make sense."

"I made it up," he smiles proudly and I shove him. He grabs my wrists and pulls me closer into him, so we're chest to chest. He moves his head so that its beside mine and whispers while tucking a strand of hair behind my ear. "But I'd love to try it."

"Patricia!" I shriek, pushing him off me. "Don't be sweet then sour!"

"What can I say? I love my sour patch kids," he says, shrugging. He dives under comes up behind me, shaking out his hair. He wraps his arms around my waist from behind and bends his head down slightly so that he can whisper in my ear. He kisses the back of my jawbone and I gasp. "Do you know what else I love?"

He's interrupted by the beeping of a horn and some bogans with their hooligan music holding up their middle fingers at us.

"C'mon," he grabs my hand. "Let's go back to the house."

He acts as though nothing happened, so I shake what just happened out of my head.

***

The drive back is long, but not awkward. The windows are rolled down and my legs are curled up to my chest as I feel the sea salted wind against my cheeks. I hum along or sing to the music occasionally until we arrive back at the house.

"I'm gonna go have a shower," I say, taking off. Its actually become quite cold so I take my sweatpants in with me, hoping the blanket will provide enough warmth for my bare arms. It starts to rain just as I hop out of the shower. I try my best to dry it, but I don't think it works, so I leave it out, where it goes to around my waist. I'm already cold when I step outside since I'm only wearing a singlet and sweatpants.

Alex is sitting on my bed when I come out and he looks up from his phone, smiling. He pats the spot next to him and I lie down. There's a balcony looking over the ocean connected to my room, and the doors are shut. I lean into Alex, feeding off his warmth.

"You look tired," he says. I nod, yawning. "You should sleep."

I lie down and try to sleep, but it's too cold, even with the blanket on. So, after about fifteen minutes of tossing and turning, I lie horizontally with my head in Alex's lap, facing his torso. One of his legs is propped up and I feel comfortable. He wraps an arm around my back and I snuggle into him. He mustn't have his phone in his hand anymore, because the other one traces my cheekbone. With the familiar feeling of his hand tracing my cheek.

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This chapter was a little gross, but bare with me, it'll get better... I hope. Please comment! I read every single one of them!

Uhm.... that's all I have to say.