“Do you want to go down to the beach, babe?”
I turn to Dan. “Yes! I even wore my suit under my clothes.”
He smiles at me. “Okay, I’ll get changed and then we’ll head down.”
I shimmy out of my shorts and pull my t-shirt over my head, I can’t wait to go down and start our vacation. Hopefully, this will be stress free, even though I doubt it. I decide to check out the view and step out onto the balcony. It’s so beautiful from up here and looking down seeing everything I know that no matter what we are going to have an amazing time.
“Jules?”
I freeze. That voice. That nickname. I turn my head to see Brian on the adjacent balcony. “Seriously?!” I look up to the sky and scream. This shit is so not funny anymore.
“Damn, Jules, calm down.”
“No! Why the fuck are you here? Why would you follow me?” I can feel my face redden and my hands are fisted at my side.
“There you go again. Everything is always fucking about you right? My boys and I planned this trip a year ago as a vacation when we all decided not to re-enlist again. You know you never used to be so fucking conceited. Must be the douche’s influence.” He grabs something off the table before going back into his room.
Asshole! God, I hate him. God hates me apparently. Deep breaths, just calm down, Jules. Jules? Ugh! He is the only one that has ever called me that. I can still her the disdain my mother showed after the first time he called me that in front of her.
“Son, I did not name my daughter Jules. Her name is Julia and that is what you need to refer to her by. She is not one of you heathens running around on the street. She is a lady and should be referred to by her given name.”
I remember looking at Brian and thinking his head was about to blow off. Honestly, my mother was always a stuck up prude and so was my father. They never accepted Brian but I never really cared. I was willing to give up everything for him. Until he didn’t want me anymore.
“You ready, Julia?” I take one more deep breath trying to let all of the tension and frustration roll off of me. Who am I kidding? That shit never works.
Chapter Nine
Brian
How the hell did this happen? Not only are we in the same damn hotel, but we are right next door to each other! When I left for this vacation I had one thing I wanted to do, forget about Jules. Now she and the douchebag are going to be rubbing it in my face all week.
I walk back down to the pool, and slam onto the chair next to Mason. “What crawled up your ass?”
“You wouldn’t fucking believe me if I told you.” I shake my head still trying to get over it myself.
“Try me.” He doesn’t take his eyes away from the group of girls in front of us the entire time he is talking.
“I went up to the room to grab the sunglasses I left on the balcony, I looked over to the next balcony and saw Jules. “
Mason looks over at me his eyes wide. “You’re fucking shittin’ me?”
“What’s up?” Ryan sits down on the end of my chair.
“Fucking Jules is here,” Mason says before turning his attention back to the girls.
I look over at Ryan knowing that out of everyone he would be the easiest person for me to talk to. “So, this sucks huh?”
“You have no idea. I mean it’s bad enough that I can’t escape her in my damn head. Now I can’t even escape her in real life.” I run my hands over my face in frustration.
“Maybe you should stop trying then.” I look up at him in confusion. “There has to be some reason that you two keep running into each other. Did you ever think of just talking to her and not being such a dick all the time?”
Ryan has always been the most level headed of us, and sometimes I hate how right he is. “No.” I stand up making the chair unbalanced and send him crashing to the ground, before jumping into the pool hoping swimming laps will help me release some aggression.
I don’t know how many laps I do but by the time I’m done my arms and legs are on fire. As I get out of the pool I see Jules and Douchebag set up across from us. Inside my head I take this opportunity to drown his annoying ass in the pool, unfortunately if I actually did that it might be frowned upon. Instead I head toward the pool bar, if I am gonna have to look at them all day then I need to be fucking hammered to do it. “Jack and Coke, make it a double.”
I feel a hand run up my arm and look over to see a sexy red head with a pair of double D’s. “Hard day?”
She almost purrs the word hard and I hold back from laughing in her face. I don’t get girls like this, the ones who are ready to open their legs without knowing your name. The complete lack of respect that they have for themselves is absolutely pathetic. Honestly, right now I could use a girl with no respect for herself and most likely daddy issues.
“It’s definitely been hard.” I whisper close to her ear. Her fingers play with the top of my board shorts as she makes it known what she wants. I have no problem giving that to her but first I’m gonna have a little fun.
“So do you have plans to do anything?” she asks me before running her tongue over her bottom lip. Damn, this girl really wants the D.
“I’m thinking about hanging out here for a little then maybe going to bed.” She raises her eyebrows at me.
“Sounds perfect.”
I grab my drink and walk back to the pool knowing that she will follow me like a trained puppy. By the time I sit down on the chair and put my drink down she is already inbetween my legs. Her hands are tracing up and down my thighs each time going a little further under my shorts. I look up to see Jules watching us from across the pool and I smile at her. I can tell that this is pissing her off but for the first time I see something different in her eyes, pain. Is what I’m doing hurting her? I may have wanted to piss her off, but I never wanted to cause what I just saw in her eyes.
I get up and the redhead quickly follows. “Sorry, sweetheart, I’m leaving alone.”
“What do you mean? I thought you wanted to have some fun.” Her hand grabs my arm and the unwanted contact pisses me off.
“No, I wanted a fucking distraction but I changed my mind. I’m sure you won’t have any trouble finding another bed to jump into.” I walk away from her hearing her gasp at my comment.
None of the guys say anything as they watch the encounter or me storm away. We have known each other long enough that they know when I’m not in the mood to be fucked with. I get up to the room not really sure what I’m doing there. All I can picture is the look in her eyes, the hurt that my actions put there.
I never wanted to hurt her. She is the only one who knows me inside and out, the only one I’ve told my story to.
“Brian, you can’t do stuff like that! You are going to end up going to jail!” I know that she’s right and that I lost my cool, but the asshole had it coming.
“I know that, Jules, but it was unavoidable.” My voice is low, I’m ashamed that I lost my cool and that she was there to see it.
“No, it wasn’t unavoidable, Brian! You could have just walked away. You could have just hit him once. You didn’t need to keep going ‘til he was unconscious and three guys needed to pull you off of him. What is your aunt going to say when you tell her that you were arrested?” That’s a laugh, Aunt Jenny wouldn’t give a shit.
“Don’t worry about it, Jules. She won’t care.”
“Seriously? You really think that? Of course she is going to care!” She is pacing back and forth in front of me in a frantic pace, and I can’t help but smile at how cute she looks.
“Babe, calm down. She barely even knows I exist and even if she finds out she could care less.”