Twenty-Nine // J.G.

twelve.

Day 8.

"Day eight." Jack cooed in my ear, waking me from my much-needed slumber, which caused me to scratch my ear with irritant.

"Don't get ahead of yourself, pal. You've still got three more weeks." I interjected, a low groan bubbling past my lips as I attempted to rub the sleep out of my eyes.

"Easy peasy. We'll get to thirty in no time." His confidence was admirable, I had to admit, but I had my own certainty that he'd get bored of my companionship eventually. As insulting as it was to myself, he had to, otherwise I'd never be able to live it down. "Anyway, eat up, babe. We're going back to the beach today. I've got a surprise." He chirped, landing a kiss on my cheek before he paraded out of my room. To be honest, I sort of missed his little (sometimes more than little) surprises, and I might have been somewhat excited to see what he had thought of for today.

Not wanting to be obvious about my enthusiasm, however, I took my time eating breakfast and wrote a little bit in the journal Jack gave me as well. After that, I headed to my bathroom to get all my morning stuff done, checking things off in my head as I went. Assuming that the activity would be water-related, I put on coral bikini and threw some loose clothing over it, styling my hair like I always did.

"Are Sammy and Nate coming too?" I asked Jack, walking to the kitchen and seeing that the other boys had yet to wake up. Rather than voicing his answer, he grabbed two pillows off the futon and chucked it at their immobile bodies, which only managed to make them stir and grumble curses at us.

"We're going to the beach, boys!" Jack announced like it was a formal decree. Even then, Sam and Nate took their sweet time getting up and moving to get ready. It took a whole half hour for them to finally be awake enough, and then we all went down to the beach.

"Are you gonna tell me what we're doing?" I inquired, looking up at Jack as we walked. To my surprise, he wasn't acting sly or annoying like he typically would.

"We're going swimming." He stated.

"We?" I rose a brow, stopping in my tracks while he chuckled and turned back towards me, pulling on my arm.

"I'm gonna teach you how to swim, babe." He elaborated. I should have been ecstatic that someone was finally willing to teach me how to swim, but instead my first reaction was to worry about all the other watchful eyes on the beach. I'd look like a fool for sure.

"Whoop, whoop! Baby Mar's finally gonna be a normal teenager!" Sammy hollered beside me, laughing as he planted himself on a towel, dodging my vengeful backhand.

"Come on, what is there to lose?" Jack insisted. I guess he had a point... I was indisposed, but after letting my annoyance out through a heavy sigh, I kicked my flip-flops off and began undressing, which earned cheers from the boys.

"You better not drown me, Gilinsky." I warned, shooting him a stern look as I pulled my hair down from its bun and shook it loose.

"Oh shit, the hair's going down. Trying to impress me, Marley?" Jack teased, displaying a bright smirk while his eyes wandered down my figure. To be honest, I forgot all about his interest in trying to get me to wear my hair down. Kind of. Rolling my eyes, I stuck my hand out towards him, and he happily grabbed it before tugging me down the beach and into the water until we were waist-deep. Well, he was waist-deep whereas the water came up above my belly button. "Okay, if we're gonna do this, you have to trust me. Do you trust me?" He looked at me from behind his dark sunglasses, but even with that barrier, I blushed at how intent his gaze seemed to be.

For the first time, I was able to confess my newfound trust in him, and I was hoping that it wouldn't come back to bite me in the ass. I nodded, and I detected a short moment of glee in his expression before he cleared his throat and regained that chill demeanor he was known for. Taking my waist into his large hands, he pulled me further into the water until I was standing on my tiptoes.