30.

                                    

                                          
3 0 | l a  p e r o u s e
                          
THE FIRST THING I NOTICED when we reached the beach was that the boys were crowded in a circle, talking excitedly together.
                          
The second thing I noticed was the thick, black head of hair poking up from the centre of the group. All the breath in me left at once. I released Everett's hand, sprinting towards the Nauti Buoys.
                          
"Sky!" I screamed, almost slipping on the sand.
                          
She stood, her eyes wide and a grin on her face. Sky, with her thick, dark hair and always wild grin. Sky, who I hadn't seen in months, since she left at the start of summer for Cambodia.
                          
She pushed past Connor, opening her arms for me.
                          
"Isla!"
                          
I leapt into her arms, almost knocking her to the ground. She squealed, our hands clutching onto each other's shirts desperately, trying to squeeze the life out of each other.
                          
I buried my head into her neck, ignoring the way her long, unruly hair stabbed at my face and tickled my nose.
                          
"I missed you," I muttered into her skin. Her grip around me tightened and I knew from the way her chest rumbled and her shoulder shook that she was crying.
                          
I pulled away, looking at her in disbelief. "What are you doing here? You're early! You're meant to be in Thailand!"
                          
"Surprise?" she offered with a watery smile, wiping furiously at her eyes with the back of her hand.
                          
I narrowed my eyes at her, scanning her face. I hadn't seen her in months. Her skin had tanned, turning darker with large, brown freckles spotting her cheeks. Her hair was a little longer, but still thick and unruly – never tamed. 
                          
She pulled at her hair as I scanned her face and my eyes widened.
                          
"You got a fringe!" I shouted.
                          
She smiled sheepishly, running her fingers through the thin bangs that spread across her forehead. "Yeah, do you like it?"
                          
"It definitely covers up that five-head of yours," I teased, raising a brow. Her jaw fell open and she shoved me. I laughed at her reaction, pulling her back into a hug. "I'm joking, I love it."
                          
My heart felt lighter with her in my arms. I'd missed her so much all of summer. And so much had happened since she left, I'd wanted to call her every single day and beg her to come home. But there was bad reception where she stayed in Cambodia, and then in Thailand... my eyes widened, and I pulled back. 
                          
"Is this why you kept saying you were too busy to video chat?"
                          
She shrugged, glancing at the giggling boys behind her with a mischievous smile.
                          
"You!" I shouted, narrowing my eyes at Connor, River and Austin, all of whom were grinning suspiciously at me. "You knew!"
                          
"Hey, come on. It was a pretty good surprise," Connor offered, running a hand through his blonde-brown waves.
                          
I rolled my eyes, pulling Sky back into my arms and squeezing her again. "I did miss the hell out of you. Never leave me with these idiots again."
                          
"You've got to tell me everything I missed," she replied, her voice muffled from my suffocating hug. "I already know this lot must've caused you a lifetime's worth of headaches without me."
                          
"God, you don't know the half of it," I laughed. "Summer is pure chaos without you, Sky. Nothing like what I'd imagined our last summer together would be."
                          
"Well, we still have two weeks left," Sky said, and I knew from her voice that she was grinning as wide as me. "Still enough time to have the best last summer ever."