Chapter 14-Crashing a Luau

It'd been a day since we'd landed. We'd rested the whole day and went to Five Guys for dinner. They had really good burgers that were burning hot because they were wrapped up in foil. We spent some time at the International Marketplace and got some trinkets. I got a deck of cards with a palm tree on the back of them, which I thought was totally cool. Krystal got a flower bracelet and Tiana got a pair of flip flops. We had separated from the guys a while ago and Lily, Michael, and John were off at a luau. Not surprisingly, they hadn't invited us "kids". All in all, it really hadn't been that bad, though. We were going to get some ice cream after we were done shopping and go to the beach. We were going to leave soon, so I looked over at where the boys were to make sure we were all here. I immediately noticed someone was missing. Where was Bryan?

I tapped Steve on the shoulder. "Have you seen Bryan?" I asked, anxiously looking around. He shrugged.

"I don't know," he replied, "Maybe Eric knows." With that, he turned back to whatever he was looking at. I rolled my eyes. How helpful. I knew it was kind of unfair of me to think that, but it was like when you lose your cell phone at an airport. I spun around wildly hoping to catch sight of his dark blue shirt. I finally saw him at a booth that was selling...jewelry? He bought a seashell bracelet and started walking back to where we had been. Maybe he had a girlfriend at home. Why hadn't I ever asked him that? It felt like I wasn't supposed to see him buy the bracelet, so I ran back to our meeting spot. I made it there just before him even though I had taken a roundabout way. I thought I was pretty fit, but the way I was breathing you wouldn't be able to tell. Bryan looked at me strangely.

"Where have you been?" he asked.

"What? I haven't been anywhere. I was here the whole time," I said in a rush, trying to control my breathing. He nodded dubiously. Man, I was so stupid. I should have said that I went to the bathroom or something.

"Trouble in paradise?" a voice asked. I spun around to see Krystal.

"No. No, not at all," I said strongly. "I thought you thought that I liked Eric," I added as an afterthought. She nodded decisively.

"I did, but now I think you like Bryan," she said slowly.

"Who did Eric like? The time you asked?"

"Look, it really isn't my place to say," she said. She seemed very distraught, so I decided to let the matter drop...for now.

Eric waved us over.

"BEACH TIME!!" Justin shouted. Tiana clamped her hand over his mouth.

"People are staring!" she hissed. He shrugged and she let go. Steve started racing everyone to the beach. It was really hard to run in flip flops, so I took them off and ran at a full sprint. Someone grabbed my arm and I whirled around, trying to watch where I was going simultaneously. Bryan winked at me.

"Let's take a short cut." He started off in a different direction, and I followed. Soon we were on the sandy beach running as if a cheetah was chasing us. Sharp rocks dug into my feet as we cut across the sand.

"Where are we going?" I whispered. It seemed so quiet except for our footfalls and breaths.

"You'll see," he said, "Why are we whispering?"

"I don't know. It just seems like we should," I said in my normal voice. "What are we..." I trailed off as I saw bright lights shone through the trees. I could hear music and people shouting in glee.

"Doing?" Bryan supplied. "We're going to a luau."

It turns out, we were actually crashing a luau.

"I am not going first! This was your idea!" I hissed at Bryan. "What if you ditch me when I get to the other side?" I asked nervously. Somehow he had managed to convince me to climb a tree and jump over a wall to get to the luau.

"Do I look like the type of guy to ditch you?" he asked. He didn't. Well, not really. It seemed like he was the type of guy to walk a girl to her locker every day and give her a dog for Valentine's Day.

"Do you have a girlfriend?" I asked suddenly. I immediately felt my face heat up. What had gotten into me? "Never mind. Forget I asked," I said, turning away.

He grabbed my hand. "Surprisingly, I don't," he said jokingly, "Why do you ask?" I didn't answer. Realization dawned on him. "Eva, I really like you, but I thought you didn't feel the same way. I thought you like Eric," he said in a rush. I looked at him bewilderingly.

"Why in the world would you think that?" I demanded. He shrugged nervously.

"I don't know," he said, "You always act different around him and he's nice and everything. Not that bad looking, anyways," he added as an afterthought.

I was at a loss for words. "Oh," was all I could manage to say.

"Eva..." he said, then started leaning closer. I held my breath. I had even managed to forget that we were in a tree. So that was probably why when he took my hand, I managed to fall out of the tree and over the wall.

"AAAAH!!" I screamed. I heard Bryan jump over the wall and cuss. Omigod did he just say that word? I thought to myself.

"Eva? Are you okay? What happened?" he asked worriedly. I looked up at him.

"I fell," I said weakly. He choked out a laugh.

"Yeah, I realized. Are you okay? If anything happened to you...." he looked so sad. I mustered up a smile.

"I'm fine, really," I assured him. "What about you? I heard you jump," he saw my sideways glance and let out a huge breath.

"It's just a little scratch," he told me. I looked over his shoulder. I could've sworn I had seen a familiar face.

"I think I'm hallucinating," I said honestly. He looked at me worriedly and I pointed over his shoulder. It was Lily and Michael, and Michael was holding her hand and smiling widely at her. No one had noticed that Bryan and I had fallen out of the tree and into the luau yet, but we were going to attract attention if we didn't move soon.

I raised my arms up to Bryan and he hauled me up. "Let's blend in," I whispered to him, "I want to know what's going on with Lily and Michael."

"Wow, Eva, being a spy? Never would've guessed it," he teased, and pulled me into the crowd. Just in time, too. Someone shouted that they had seen someone fall from the sky. I started laughing hysterically, but surprisingly, it didn't draw that much attention because everyone was talking to the guy who had yelled. Obviously, they thought he was drunk because there was no body. Lily and Michael had taken no notice and were still wrapped up in their little world.

Bryan was suddenly pulling me in a different direction.

"Hurry, Eva! he hissed. What was going on? "John's coming!" he said in response to my bewildered look. I quickly sped up and soon we were at the edge of the sea of bodies.

"Why are we running from him?" I asked, looking around cautiously.

"I don't know," he admitted, "It seemed like a good idea at the time." I laughed loudly. Tonight seemed full of surprises.

"Poor John, being a third wheeler," I said sarcastically. Bryan nodded sadly.

"I understand the feeling," was all he said. I looked closely at him. At first, I thought he was just teasing, but now...."Come on! This is your favorite song, right?" he asked. He was right! My favorite song "Gold" by Victoria Justice was on! I started dancing and singing.

"I've been trying to let it go, but these butterflies I can't ignore. 'Cause every time that I look at you, know we're in a catch 22," I sang loudly. He smiled.

"Do you always do that?" I looked at him questioningly. "Just dance."

"Always," I grinned. He grabbed my hands and spun me in circles. I felt like screaming, "WHEEEE!!" but, being so mature, I didn't. When we finally stopped spinning, I was a bit dizzy, so being me, I tripped on my own feet and fell against Bryan. "Sorry," I said, shaking my head. He didn't reply, so I looked up at him. He was looking at something in awe.

"Wow," he said slowly. I rolled my eyes.

"Yes, yes. Go talk to her," I said. He looked at me questioningly. "Yup. I'm just going to get some of those chocolates I saw earlier." I started walking away. He grabbed my arm.

"What are you talking about?" he asked.

"Oh, I guess you didn't see them. They were on the food table," I said, his hand slid down my arm as I started walking away.

"No, the other part. About a girl," he said.

"Oh, that's what you were looking at, right?" I asked slowly. Why had I just assumed that? He was looking at me like I was crazy. "No? That's strange. Well, let's get some chocolate, then," I said quickly. I knew I was babbling, but I couldn't help it. He shrugged and followed me.

"Those chocolates were heavenly," I said a few minutes later. They were chocolate Macadamia Nuts kisses. The paper said "Aloha".

"Indeed," he said seriously, "Maybe we can take some home." He looked at me hopefully.

"Fine," I relented....speaking of home.... "What about the others? What if they wonder where we went?" I asked frantically. I hated worrying and I didn't think they enjoyed it that much either. I pulled out my phone, but no one had texted or called me so they either didn't care or didn't know that we were gone.

"Don't worry about it," Bryan said, "They knew that we were going somewhere. I told Justin." Huh. That was pretty good planning. Apparently, I said that out loud because he grinned said, "I know." I jabbed him with my elbow. "Ow," he said, stretching out the "o". I rolled my eyes and grabbed some chocolates to take back to the others. "Let's go," he said. This time, I didn't even bother to ask where we were going because I knew it was going to be fun.

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"Okay, seriously. Where are we going?" I asked for the third time. He just smiled. I could smell salt, so I guessed that we were headed back to the beach.

"We've arrived!" he said with an arm flourish just as we reached the vast beach. I could see a fire off in the distance. That was probably where our friends were.

"So...what are we doing here?" I asked, "Are we going to go back?" I started tugging him towards the fire.

"No," he pulled me to a stop, "We're going to watch the tide, and I'm going to show you the constellations." He guided me to a flat rock and lay down. I shrugged and lay down. What was the harm? He started pointing out constellations like the Big Dipper, Cassiopeia, Pisces....

"Eva?" I opened my eyes.

"Oh, sorry....I guess I dozed off," I said sheepishly.

Unlike other people, he just said, "I never knew my voice was so soothing," and smiled. I rolled my eyes, even though he couldn't see it since he was looking at the sky. "Anyways, I'm going to continue my astronomy lesson, if you don't mind," he said haughtily.

"I totally don't mind," I said sarcastically. He pushed me off the rock into the sand. I probably could've stopped him, but I was so surprised that he would do such a thing. I made a face. I was so getting him for that. I jumped up and pushed him with all the strength I had. He immediately toppled over, not expecting that.

"Wow, Eva, you're stronger than I thought," he said with wide eyes. I laughed.

"More than anyone expects," I said solemnly. His eyes brightened.

"I want to give you something," he said, still lying on the sand. I looked at him questioningly. He flicked his hand up, and a bunch of sand flew on me...and in my eyes.

"Ow! You got sand in my eyes, you jerk!" I said, frantically blinking my eyes as I kneeled over in pain. I could hear him getting up.

"Oh my god, I'm so sorry, Eva!" he shouted, "Are you okay?"

"This sounds a lot like déjà vu," I muttered. "For someone who hurts other people, you sure are caring," I said with venom in my voice. He stopped a few feet away.

"Eva...I'm sorry. It's just my way of having fun," he said sadly.

"Yeah, it's so fun to hurt people," I said sarcastically. He stood there silently. I flicked my hand in the air, and sand flew into his eyes...and my hair.

"Ow!" he yelled, "Okay, I guess I deserved it," he admitted, then looked at my hair. "Good plan, poorly executed," he said as I ran my hands through my hair and sand rained down around me.

"Whatever," I glared at him. He had the nerve to laugh.

"I really do want to give you something, though," he said seriously. Then looked over my shoulder at something and scowled. "What are you doing here, Eric?" he said dangerously. I spun around. What was Eric doing here?

"I thought I saw you guys," he said, ignoring Bryan's question. "Anyways, I thought you guys might want to come to the camp fire." I glared at him. He just didn't understand.

"Fine," Bryan said, surprising me. I realized I hadn't said a word the entire time I'd been staring Eric down. He looked away without batting an eye. "Let's go." We followed Eric back to the camp fire and sat down. I was next to Tiana, with Bryan on my right side. Krystal winked at me from the other side of the fire.

"I need to talk to you later," Eric said from behind me. I have to admit, I jumped a little. I sighed.

"Fine. Whatever," I muttered.

"I guess our astronomy lesson will have to wait until tomorrow," Bryan said sadly. I punched his arm lightly. He feigned pain.

"Don't worry about it," I said. Before he could reply, Tiana handed me the bag of marshmallows and wooden sticks. "Oooh! Marshmallows!" I squealed while poking a few with my stick. I passed the bag to Bryan and held the stick over the fire. Soon, I had gooey marshmallows on a stick. I started eating them, until I realized that they were really hot and Krystal was passing around graham crackers and chocolate. I nudged Bryan. "Remember those macadamia nut chocolates we had?" I asked. He nodded. "Do you think we should give it to them now?" He nodded, so I handed them to Tiana and motioned to her to pass it around.

"Where have you guys been?" she asked. I shrugged. Maybe we'd tell them later. When we finally went back to our house, it felt like we had been outside for a lifetime.

Author's Note

What did Bryan want to give her? Why was Lily so mad that Eva was at the luau? Macadamia Nut Chocolate Kisses are really good. =)