Whatever Floats your Boat

Epilogue

Yep, it's finally happened. I have finally got to the end of Whatever Floats Your Boat. I'm again going to dedicate this to my best friend, Emily, who has been with me through everything these past five and a half years. She is my honest-to-God rock and the one who forced me to write this for Nano-Wri-Mo last summer. Thanks Egg, love you,,,man xx

Copyright © Georgie E. - Fruitea on Wattpad  

Epilogue

"Are you sure you want me with you every day for the next year?" I asked teasingly. "When you get to know me you'll find I'm really annoying."

"I know you're as annoying as they come, Lou." I rolled my eyes. "Are you sure you want to spend all this time with me, we can give it a few more months if you want?"

"I'm sure."

"I wouldn't deny this sexiness either."

I scoffed, "Okay, whatever." Kendal pressed a kiss to my temple, one I fell into happily.

We'd spent the rest of the summer together, mostly to get away from our families. Needless to say, both groups of parents weren't happy with us dropping from the race. And if my family wasn't happy, there weren't words for how angry Coach Ian was when I walked into one of his lessons the following Monday.

He went spare; words that I had never heard from an adults mouth spat at me as he went on about how stupid I was to go after a boy. I could have won, apparently. I smiled through it all, I would have won was more like it.

At the end of it I shrugged, told him thanks for all the work he had put into trying to make me the best. I handed him a box of Roses, a box that he wouldn't eat with all the rants about sugar in each wrapped chocolate, and left with that mask like smile still in place. I hadn't seen Coach Ian since then; he was making a point of not coming to Wine Down, the hang out of most of the adults in this town.

The only people who were happy about this were our friends, yes our friends. Shockingly, I could actually describe Kyle as an acquaintance now, wasn't that nice? Kendal told me that leaving the competition for his friend meant something to Kyle.

"Hello, Earth to Lou." I looked up to find Kendal standing over me. He laughed as he realised I was totally out of it, forgetting even where we were. "Can you pass me that bag?"

I got to work, using both my hands and bending from my knees. I didn't know what was in all these bags; Kendal had told me to pack a bag with necessities; which had been filled with clothes, a teddy, photo of Tristan and Keet and that was all. To have Kendal shifting all these bags, well they have to be important. But did we need all this stuff?

He pointed at the next bag. When I went to pull this one up I was really not expecting the weight. It tipped forward, onto the dock and I squeezed my eyes shut in exhaustion; we had been up since two this morning. I leaned down and started to pick up the tinned goods that were rolling everywhere.

A hand rested on the small of my back, warming the cool exposed strip of skin. I relaxed into his touch. "It's okay," he whispered, pressing a kiss to the back of my head. I smiled and placed the last tins in the bag.

Kendal didn't swoop to get everything aboard like I had expected though, he pecked me on the lips and I subsided into him. My fingers hooked into the dips of his collarbone, and I was brought to my toes.

"You need to stop biting your lip," he breathed. He pulled back, his thumb running along my plumping lip. His forehead rested against mine and he smiled; it was a perfect moment. A moment he would have to ruin; "There's nothing for you to worry about, as long as you don't bite your lip. I don't want to be stuck with a girl looking like Troubeck for the next year."

I had moved past rolling my eyes every time Beck was mentioned; I was giving myself headaches with the action. I had turned to play acting, gasping or swatting his chest – like I did now.

"Idiot," I laughed. Idiot had become her endearment for Kendal over the last few months and even though it was nothing close to I love you, we both knew that was exactly what I meant when I said it.

But obviously it wasn't just that word that had us knowing that yeah, I did have a strong, strong liking for him. The prospect alone of going out on the sea alone was enough to tell him, as was coping with his constant mood swings, not strangling him in his sleep from his snoring and the idea of not washing my hair for days on end.

But I knew it wasn't all one sided; he was the one to admit to me after all. And he showed me in small ways that he too loved me, although those exact words hadn't escaped him either. It was in the milky cups of tea, in the way he called me Loopy-Lou when I was angry, and in the way his eyes drank my face in.

It was even in those stupid food puns he's been slipping into conversations. I blame Tristan for that.

"Come on, Lou, get your arse into gear and let's get this boat on the road."

"Weird," I looked down at the substance beneath the dock; "Last time I checked a mass of salty water was called the sea, not a road."

"Okay, smarty pants, you made your point." I grinned happily, grabbing a cardboard box of food and pushing it onto the deck of Kendal's new boat. I pushed the other one on after it, thanking Geoff silently for the hours he had spent in the kitchen with my two friends to make these care packages. Kendal grabbed the two holdalls, the last items on the cement dock and held everything I needed for the year.

"You ready?" Kendal asked once everything was shifted from the decking and into the cabin. The cabin was bigger than the compartment in the lake boat; it was close enough the size of a small living room. It was saddening in a way; no longer could we fulfil our ultimately lazy lazy-days. We would now have to climb out of bed and walk to make ourselves a drink.

I nodded; "Yeah, I very much am." We shared a smile, one filled with so much excitement we were both fit to burst. I had been bouncing for weeks but now we were here, Kendal cranking up the sail, I didn't really know what to do with myself.

I moved next to Kendal, watching as he moved from one spot to the other. He had spent weeks with his new boat, one his dad had begrudgingly handed over once Kendal's results came through, learning how to raise the sail and get the boat to its maximum speed.

I still knew nothing from my first introduction of a boat. When Beck had tried to explain things over the years it had gone through one ear and out the other. Now, as the muscle in Kendal's arm tightened and his veins strained under his skin, I knew that I wanted to learn. I wanted to learn what Kendal loved.

"And we're a-go!" Kendal cheered as the engine rumbled. It wasn't like any other boats I had been on; although they cost a fortune with age the engines had failed, the motor made the ground shake usually. This boat made it feel like there was nothing beneath you.

"I can't believe it." Kendal had sat himself down on the plush white leather chair behind the wheel; I sat down next to him on the slither of space available.

"Believe it, Lou." He wrapped an arm around me and pulled me onto his lap. He readjusted himself, I slid into the gap made between his legs and leaned back against him, his chin resting on my shoulder.

He stretched and changed the throttle; the engine seemed to stutter for a second before shifting back to a smooth hum. They moved from the harbour and onto the open sea, heading South East towards Jersey; it had taken months of planning but here they were, setting sail from Paignton, the town Kendal would be attending uni next year.

The water was nothing like riding on Windermere, it was bumpier and it jostled my hair in a flurry that the still wind around the notorious lake never could. I loved it, because it told me what was to come with the world I was going to experience, of the different ways the sun would burn my skin and the wind would soothe it. It told me I was now the tourist, I could always enjoy the bittersweet moments and some other poor sod would be whispering with their friends in the back about the obnoxious tourists.

It told me how a life with Kendal was going to be.