The Ultimate first kiss checklist

Chapter 9

Percy's P.O.V

Isabella and I walk towards Natalie, where everyone is waiting for us. As we stop I feel her tense up next to me and I look down at her to see what's wrong. She moves her lips close to my ear. "My ex is here..." and I wonder who it is.

I give her a puzzled face and she replies. "Grayson." My eyes instantly move to him and see that his body is tense now. "Grayson this is Isabella." Natalie introduces them. Oblivious to what's going on.

"It's nice to meet you. I'm Grayson." He introduces himself with no hesitation in his lie at all. I watch Isabella give him a tight smile and suddenly reach for my hand.

Matthew pops out from in between everyone and leads the way down to the beach. I can't take my eyes off the ocean and how it reminds me of Natalie's eyes. I look to my side and find Isabella also gazing away from everyone.

"You okay?" I ask her. Her head instantly turned away from where she was looking and toward me. "I just didn't expect him to be here..."

"We can leave if you want to."

"No, I'm here to help you and that's what I'm going to do. So act like you're falling hopelessly in love with me so that we can make her jealous." She laughs making me chuckle.

"Whatever you say. Natalie isn't the jealous type." I reply. "Oh trust me every girl is when it comes to the right guy." She says with a wide grin on her face.

We reach a cave and walk through it. Coming out the other side we walk up the steps till we reach the spot for the night. I drop our bags onto the pile and take a seat. "You know what would make her jealous?" She says taking my hand

"What?" She places her head on my lap and places my hand on her hair. I start playing with it.

"So what happened between you two?" I ask curiously. She sighs, closing her eyes. "Do you want to know?"

"Well... He is kind of with my best friend and I don't want her to get hurt so yes." She opens her eyes "Well then I guess it depends on whose story you want to hear." I frown at her reply.

"Just tell me the truth."

"We were on a trip just like this one and his best friends were with us, Matthew and Winter. This one night we went out for drinks and we were dancing and the next thing I knew I didn't feel okay at all. I was nauseous and sick and everything felt numb. I asked Grayson to take me back to the hotel. Grayson stayed with me the whole night and he took care of me. The next morning when I woke up I heard him on the phone he was screaming and once he ended the call he told me that it was Winter's idea. I was just so embarrassed for trusting him and them."

My blood starts to boil. The same thing happened to Natalie.

"I started packing and called it off. I know it wasn't him, but he chose his friends over me... so I just want to show him he left someone who cared about him for manipulative people."

A tear falls down her cheek and I wipe it with my thumb. "I'm sorry Isabella."

She smiles at me "Don't be. Just don't judge Grayson too quickly okay? He's not a bad guy."

I nod at her statement. "Why would they do that?"

"To this day I still have no idea."

"I should confront them." I blurt out

"No Percy, it's not worth it," Isabella says trying to change my mind.

I look around and try to spot Nat and my heart sinks as I don't see them. I turn towards the forest and a few moments later I see them come out from behind a few trees, his arm around her.