The Beach

ALEX'S POV

"Guys, come, on!" I yelled at the little crowd of people getting ready to leave for what seemed like the millionth time that morning.

The week had passed in front of my eyes in a blur and now, it was time to meet the black and blonde skunk haired boy at the train station in Eastbourne, where people had weird accents and surely dressed differently.

My friends decided to crash at my place the night before the trip so it would prevent any of us from arriving late to the train station and missing the one train we were taking to get there. I don't know what I would do if we were to lose the train for not being there in time, I would probably have killed all of my friends.

I could hear them talking up in the guest's room but I couldn't quite figure out what they were saying, I only understood when they told me to quit shouting and complaining but that wasn't enough of an effort from them to cease my whines. They said I was being a little bitch over everything, but I don't think they meant it. I was maybe just a little stressed out about the whole trip, meeting Jack, going to Jack's house, meeting his parents and spending time with him; I was really nervous.

I stood by the main door that led outside, leaning my head back on its frame of it, desperately waiting for the lads that were chattering about me to come down and leave the house.

My parents were not anywhere to be seen. They had gone to work early in the morning and didn't want to wake me up knowing that I had to stay still on a train for almost eight hours later that day. My mum was polite enough to leave a note wishing me luck with Jack and money on the table next to my bed.

My dad didn't exactly know that I wasn't staying at the hostel. At the time, he didn't know that I started liking guys, nor it was necessary for him to know that. I knew what kind of person my dad was and in all honestly, my mum and I thought it'd be better not to tell him until he really needed to know.

My stuffed backpack was lying on the floor next to me. I only carried the things I thought were important to me; I didn't need any extra accessory.

I was holding the keys to lock the door -if those assholes decided to come down- in my right hand and in the other, I was holding four Home Alone DVDs I had bought for Jack since his parents thought it was a waste of time and money to buy DVDs when you can download all the movies you want on the internet, apparently, but since Jack's birthday passed a few months ago and I obviously didn't get him anything, I thought it would be great if I got him all his favorite movies.

Jeff, Matt, Danny, Ian and Cass walked down soon after I warned them about burning the house down and locking them inside.

Even couldn't manage to join us because his parents didn't let him go with us. In his dad's words, 'Those friends you hang out with are too dangerous and irresponsible; you could get in trouble at any moment. They are a bad influence for you, Evan'. Evan wasn't the type of guy who would hang out much either so he assured us that he didn't mind not coming or that he would come with us the following year if we did the same thing again.

Cass and Danny walked down holding their hands together, which surprised me because no one had told me anything about their new relationship. It was true that I wasn't there when it happened; I was too busy talking to Jack to pay any attention to my other friends, apparently.

I felt bad for not knowing what was going on in my friends' life for a second; we had always been really close friends and growing apart wasn't something I had planned for us.

They rushed downstairs to annoy me even more and called for me to move my ass, which I did with a sigh. I closed the door behind me and walked down street to meet them.

-

Matt and I sat next to each other on the train. It was really simple really; white with red lines bordering it corner to corner, comfortable gray seats and a little plastic table in front of us separating both pair of couples.

Cass and Danny sat across from us and Jeff and Ian were somewhere pretty far from us because a couple of people had already taken the seats next to us.

We had to stop and take other trains to get there, but the almost eight hours of the journey passed in no time.

Jack and I messaged on Skype the whole time; I could imagine him shaking already. He said he was really nervous and was about to throw up, which I didn't believe. Why would I ever cause such reaction in someone just by visiting them?

I promised him that everything would be just fine, I was trying to assure myself that I was doing the right thing but it all seemed wrong to my stomach as it started to do back flips and made me feel nauseous.

I overheard Danny and Cass talk about meeting each other's parents but Cass disagreed immediately, worried about their not-that-long-relationship and Danny's parents not liking her. Danny chuckled and put an arm around her, pressing their sides together and kissing her head; there was no doubt Danny's parents would love Cass. They were really good parents, really acceptable and all, and Cass was just beautiful and amazing, anyone would love to meet her.

I smiled to myself, slightly drifting off to sleep wondering if Jack and I would look that cute whenever we felt that comfortable around each other. That would probably take ages knowing how shy Jack was.

Matt pushed my arm way too hard and woke me up but for my surprise, he did it in order to wake me up, he didn't kick me accidentally.

"Are you serious about the relationship with this Jack guy?" He asked.

Matt wasn't the most supportive friend, if you asked me. He could be a total ass sometimes, and I guessed this was one of those times.

"Well.. yeah I guess. I really like him and he likes me too so I think that's enough for me to try things out you know? I don't care if it's a girl or a boy that I like; it's their personality that matters. Plus I'm experimenting, I don't exactly know how things work between two guys, but that's why I'm here, to find out. Jack thinks I'm using him to find out if I like to be with guys, but I really do like him and I don't want you to be all judgmental okay..? This means a lot to me" I admitted.

"Dude, it's okay as long as you don't like me" He chuckled.

I nodded and went back to the irrelevant conversation I was having with Jack on my phone. Soon enough, Matt cocked his head to my side to read what we were talking about but I laughed and covered the screen with my hand. He only pouted and crossed his arms on his chest like a little kid -I guessed that wasn't the asshole-Matt I was seeing right then.

'Goddammit. This asshole -Matt- won't let me talk to you unless I let him read our conversation'

I looked back at Matt, hope filling his eyes as he once again trying to look at my phone, and at my phone again when it buzzed telling me that I had a new message on Skype.

'Only if he promises not to laugh or tell anyone about them' it read.

"That boyfriend of yours it quite confident about himself, right?" I laughed really loudly at that, not really caring about the bunch of people that were staring at us because of the seal noises.

Matt raised an eyebrow.

"You're very wrong. He's like.. the most shy, less self confident person I've ever known"

"Oh"

He grabbed my phone and started scrolling thought all of our endless and stupid conversations. He laughed as he read them, he even widened his eyes in horror sometimes, I didn't even want to know what he read.

I ignored Matt's facial expressions and focused on the couple in front of me.

Danny was sitting straight on his seat as Cass laid her head on Danny's lap and let her legs hang on the other seat with one of her hands laced with Danny's and the other laid on her stomach. He kissed her head and went back into staring into nothing and everything at the same time. I motioned him to take his ear bud out when I noticed that he was actually listening to music.

"Hey" He said smiling.

"How long have you been dating?" I asked trying to start a conversation. Danny and I had always been really close and we had definitely lost touch with the time; he seemed distant, different even.

"Erm, half a year now" He said looking down at the sleepy girl.

"You asked her out or..?" He immediately shook and lowered his head obviously blushing. He laughed and slightly stroked Cass hand.

"I couldn't have asked her out in a million years and you know it, you know the stubborn head I've got, plus she really is confident about herself and knows what she's doing. I'm glad she did though, I'm really happy that we finally got together" He admitted.

"I'm glad you're together now, you two look adorable, really" I spoke my mind out.

His smile turned into a blank face and a frown; I should have seen this coming.

"You missed out a lot you know. You should have at least called us or something" He whispered trying not to wake Cass up.

"I know, and I'm sorry. I don't know what I was thinking. I'm not going to say that I was busy, because talking to Jack isn't being busy, but I don't know man. I have no excuse, I can only apologize for not being with you guys for that long" It was true, I had no real reason not to hang out with them or not to call them; I guess I just didn't want to, but didn't want to admit it.

"It's okay bud, just don't do it again" He gave me a confident smile and went back into his music.

Silence surrounded the carriage once again and it was time for me to analyze the people around us, who doesn't do that?

My eyes immediately landed on a woman holding her newborn baby in her arms; she was looking down at her -she was wearing a little pink dress- with a priceless look on her face. It was full of love and adoration. The little girl tried to grab her mother's nose but failed when the young woman moved her face and smiled down at the baby. I wondered if men could biologically have babies too. I knew that it was impossible at that moment, but what if they created something or found a way for men to have babies? That would be amazing really. Homosexual couples wouldn't have to struggle with all the papers to adopt a kid; sure they would love the kid as if it was biologically theirs but I think they would have a divers vibe if they were the ones giving birth to the child, and not someone who didn't even want to have a kid in the first place.

There was a pretty old woman sitting a few seats away from the baby and her mum. She looked really lonely even if she was surrounded by lots of people and surely her family. The look in her eyes made me want to go there, sit next to her and just talk, but that would have been a really creepy thing to do so I chose not to do anything and kind of stare at other people that were staring back at me.

The silence in my mind was interrupted by Matt shouting and nudging my side.

"What the hell is this?" He pointed and pressed at where the message was but I couldn't quite read anything because the train stopped abruptly and it sent my phone flying onto the floor.

Everyone had shocked expressions plastered onto their faces just like me. We were supposed to stay on that train for about an hour still, yet the train driver was politely asking us to leave the train. The doors wouldn't open so we were kind of forced to sit down on our seats and wait.

The driver arrived to our carriage and informed us about our situation; the engine had stopped and there was no way we could continue our journey. Before he could go to the next carriage, the train started moving on its own. The driver cursed loudly and started running towards the other carriages.

"LOOK AT THE RAILS. EVERYONE. LOOK AT THE RAILS" Some guy leaning against the window shouted loudly enough for the whole town to hear him.

My legs went numb from sitting in the same position for about four hours but I managed to stand up supporting myself on Matt's shoulder to look through the window and down to see that the train was been derailed.