Love's Not A Competition

I could hear the boys laughing who had been waiting for us and glared at them. I walked over to Aidan and punched his arm.
“Why did you let me drive with that maniac? I nearly died!” I yelled.
“I thought you knew already,” he said innocently.

I glared at him and heard someone cough behind me. I turned slowly to see Brittney giving me the evil-eye.
“What are you doing to my boyfriend?” she asked quietly.
“I was just giving him a friendly punch on the arm. It’s a guy thing.”
“Oh, fair enough. Let’s go inside.”

I finally looked up at the house and stared. It was huge. It was light blue and had big white windows. I could hear the ocean and sand came right up to the front door. We walked inside and I gazed around me. The floors were timber and the walls had lightly colored wallpaper on them. There were sculptures and paintings and extravagant furniture but it all fitted together perfectly. Brittney walked up the staircase and we all followed her.

She stopped down the hallway and told Katie that this would be her room. Eric’s room was next to her room and Brittney and Aidan’s was across the hallway. Zeke’s room was down the hallway some more. Mine and Jesse’s joint room were across the hall from Zeke’s. We put our suitcases at the bottom of the huge bed and Jesse went to look in the bathroom while I walked onto the balcony. We had a view of the beach and I smiled. The sun was nearly setting and I walked back inside.

Brittney was giving us a tour of the rest of the house and when she was done she walked outside. There was a large swimming pool on the deck and behind that was stairs that led down to the beach. I sat down on one of the sun loungers while the others stood around. I could see Katie talking to Eric. I watched as she pointed to something near the pool and he bent over. She shoved him hard and he stumbled a bit before falling into the pool. Katie burst out laughing and I couldn’t help myself from laughing.

Zeke and Aidan did a running leap before jumping into the pool as well. Brittney and Katie jumped in next and Jesse looked at me. I rolled my eyes but grabbed his hand before running and jumping into the pool with him. I dove under and swam under everyone. The water was clear and I could see everything. I came up to the surface and pushed my hair out of my face.

We had dinner and were sitting around the table outside. Brittney’s summer house had its own set of cooks and maids and butlers. It was pretty extreme.
“What are we going to do tomorrow?” Katie asked.
“We can do whatever we want to do,” Brittney said.
“What’s there to do around here?” I asked.
“We can go to the beach, the mall, the movies, the bowling alley or the pier.”
“Can we just hang around here tomorrow?” Aidan asked.
“Sure,” we all agreed.

“Who wants to go for a late night swim?” Katie asked.
“In the ocean or in the pool?” asked Eric.
“In the pool,” Katie said.

We nodded and after dinner we all went upstairs to get changed into our bathing suits. I grabbed my bikini and went into Katie’s room to change. She used the bathroom first and came out wearing a gold bikini. I changed into my purple bikini and walked out of the bathroom with my towel wrapped around my waist.

“Jasmine, I need to talk to you about something before we go downstairs,” Katie said.
“Sure, what’s up?” I asked.
Katie looked nervous and I smiled encouragingly at her.
“Well, on the car ride here, something happened.”
“What was it?”
“I don’t want you to be angry but it was Jesse. He tried to hit on me.”

I blinked twice before raising an eyebrow. “Jesse wouldn’t do that.”
“I’m not lying,” she said quickly.
“I didn’t say that you were lying but Jesse wouldn’t do that. He’s my boyfriend and he wouldn’t try making a move on some other girl.”

“Are you sure you know him that well? He said some pretty crude stuff in the car to me.”
“Are you sure you just didn’t misinterpret it?”
“I didn’t, I’m telling you the truth.”
“Oh, I get it. You’re jealous,” I said coldly.

“I’m not jealous. Whatever, if you won’t listen then I’ll stop trying to tell you but if he hurts you don’t come crying to me because I will be first in line to say I told you so.”

I shook my head slowly before walking down the stairs and out to the deck where everyone was in the pool. I was standing away from everyone and jumped when someone put there arm around my shoulders.

“Why are you sulking in the corner?” Eric asked.
Zeke walked up beside us and smiled evilly. I stepped away from Eric.
“What are you two doing?” I asked cautiously.

They both smiled at me and quickly grabbed an arm each. They lifted me up and grabbed a leg as well. As they walked closer to the pool they started swinging me. I tried to wriggle out of their grasp but it was too late. They let me go and I closed my eyes as I went flying through the air and into the pool. I spluttered as I came up to the surface and glared at the two of them. I climbed out of the pool and was about to walk over to the sun loungers when I saw Katie sitting on them. I didn’t want to deal with her right now so I grabbed my towel and sat on the edge of the pool. I glanced at Brittney and Aidan who were kissing in the pool. I quickly looked away and saw Jesse walking over to me. He sat down beside me and grabbed my hand.

“Are you angry?” he asked.
“No, why would I be?”
“Because they threw you in the pool,” he said.
“Oh, no, I’m fine.”
He smiled and slid into the pool. He pulled me in with him and I hung onto the side of the pool as he went under the water and swam to the other side.
“I’m tired,” I heard Eric say. “I think I might go to bed.”

I waved to him and he smiled before saying goodnight to everyone else and walking into the house. Katie stood up and for a second I thought she was going to go to bed as well but she walked over to the pool and dived in. Zeke jumped in as well, not wanting to be left out. I pushed away from the wall and waded out to the middle of the pool. Brittney and Aidan had finally stopped kissing and I swam over to them.

“Jasmine, you aren’t wearing your trunks over your bikini like you normally do,” Brittney said.

I looked down and saw that she was right. I normally wore trunks to hide the tattoo on the inside of my thigh that nobody knew about. It was the only reason why I hadn’t wanted to do the charity run in my underwear. I had gotten really drunk one night and gotten a tattoo. I was glad that it was in a spot that was easy to cover but wearing my underwear and a bikini I couldn’t cover it. It was of a butterfly and it was cute but I didn’t like showing it to people.

“Oh, I must have forgotten to put them on,” I smiled.
“Okay, well, we are off to bed,” Brittney said before her and Aidan climbed out of the pool.

I looked at Zeke, Katie and Jesse. Jesse swam over to me and kissed me on the cheek.
“I think I might go to bed as well. Are you coming?” he asked.
“Nah, I think I might just stay here. I’m not tried.”

He nodded and hugged me before getting out of the pool. I stayed near the edge and watched the two of them talk. I saw Katie laugh at what Zeke said and hit him playfully on the arm. I knew that she was flirting with him and sighed before climbing out of the pool. I pulled my towel around me and walked into the house. I changed in the bathroom before getting into bed beside Jesse. It felt weird sleeping in the same bed as him. We hadn’t gone further than kissing and this felt too intimate. I didn’t want to give him any ideas.