Where Lost Things Go | ✓

【壹零】THE BEACH

chapter 10
the beach

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THEY ARRIVED the beach around noon after a rather chaotic drive down. It mostly consisted of Jayden and Molly singing terrible karaoke while Asher and Reagan blasted music over shared earphones to drown them out in the backseat.

Deciding to start with lunch first, they settled into a corner booth at the closest diner and rattled off their orders.

"So," Molly smiled excitedly. "Beach day!"

"Woo-hoo," Jayden said in the most unexcited voice as he let out a yawn.

Asher snickered beside Reagan.

"It's 11:30," Molly said in an accusing tone. "Why are you yawning?"

"Oh I'm sorry," Jayden said sarcastically. "Were you the one driving for the past hour?"

Trapped in that small booth with nowhere to escape, Reagan and Asher played a silent game of rolling a paper straw back and forth to each other while their friends continued to argue and flirt in the background.

Minutes later, the waitress finally arrived with their food, and the party of four dug in.

"Guys," Molly said seriously, leaning forward against the table. "I have something to tell you."

Asher slurped on his smoothie. Reagan stared at empty space in boredom.

"It's really not that big of a deal but..." Molly's eyes briefly darted to Jayden. "We're...seeing each other."

"Gee," Reagan said, taking a fry. "What a shocker." 

Molly's eyes widened once she realized that her secret was not very well kept.

Jayden leaned back in his seat with a loud sigh and threw his arm around Molly. "Didn't know why we had to hide it in the first place."

"Because," Molly emphasized.

"Because what?"

"It's embarrassing," she looked over at him pointedly.

Jayden gripped her chin and made her look at him. "Embarrassing?" he teased, leaning in close so their faces were inches apart. "Nothing about me is embarrassing."

Molly pretended to gag as he leaned in and captured a kiss. The now public couple whispered at each other, lost in the magic of new romance.

"Maybe you guys should go back to hiding it," Asher mumbled from the other side, pushing his smoothie to his right so Reagan could have some. "This is disgusting."

Reagan nodded in agreement as she took a large sip.

Molly immediately shoved Jayden aside and composed herself, only for him to reach over and tousle her hair up again.

"So when did you guys first get together?" Reagan asked, pushing the smoothie back to Asher.

"Well," Molly looked up as she thought back. "We hooked up the day after we ran into each other near the quad where I was yelling at him for not remembering me."

"The day after?" Reagan echoed.

"Yeah. Then we just kept going and...here we are."

Reagan looked over at Asher and placed her hand out, "Pay up."

Asher groaned, reminded of their bet from months ago. He dug into his wallet and slapped a crumpled up twenty dollar bill onto her hand. Molly's jaw dropped as she watched their exchange while Reagan pocketed her victory money.