Chapter twenty-nine

"You guys look like ants down there!" Emily calls out, tipping her head backwards, then screeching obnoxiously when her left foot slipped to the side. "YOLOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" she yells.

"Are you done screaming yet?" Lilli exclaims, looking like she really needs a pair of noise-cancelling earmuffs. "It's loud enough as it is up here with the wind, then we have to deal with you."

I chuckle to myself. All that climbing must've done my scrunchy in, because it decides it'll bungee jump right at this moment. I flick myself around to reach for it, but it drops fast, and I'm lucky that the wind isn't so strong. I don't see where it lands, but for the moment, I can't care less. I even consider singing loudly and off-key with Emily's impersonation of Moana.

"See the line where the sky meets the sea? It calls meeeeee~"

"SHUT UP!"

I burst out into laughter with Lilli, so relaxed that I forget for a second that I'm hanging by a rope ten metres above the safety of the top deck.

From below, a familiar voice sounds. "I THINK YOU SOUND BEAUTIFUL, EMILY!" It's Ben.

Emily gives Lilli a look. "See?" Lilli scoffs and leans backwards so that Charlie can bring her down. Emily leans towards me. "At least we know one of us is sane."

When I finally muster up enough courage to let myself lean backwards, and Harry slowly let me down with a few, quiet reassurances (most of which I could not hear, but I appreciated them nonetheless), I was safely standing beside Harry on the top deck, now clicking him in.

"How was it?" he says softly.

His voice is so serene, like a harp playing beside my ear while I lie in a hammock on a pristine island in the Mediterranean. Shivers travel down my spine.

"Scary," I tell him. "But pretty."

"Speaking of pretty…" Harry starts, lifting my hand and placing within it a soft object. I squeeze it and look at it. My favourite scrunchy. "This is yours, I believe. I think you'll need to give me lessons later."

I grin stupidly at him. If his words could be any more knee-to-jelly, I would've already collapsed. "I'll be sure to," I assure him, nodding. "But for now…" I sprint around him, then get on my tip-toes to pull his soft hair into a very small (and silly-looking) ponytail using my scrunchy. Then I return to my spot in front of him to admire my handy work. I nod. Harry laughs.

Thank goodness, everything's back to normal.

Across the table, as I guiltily gobble down some refreshing ice cream, I steal a couple glances at Harry, just to see that he's still cheerful, but to be honest, I'm starting to get used to him being straight-faced.

I should've realised before, but people change. Especially when you haven't been around them for a while to witness that change firsthand. If I was still friends with him, I bet I wouldn't see anything abnormal about the way he acts. I wish I was there to see that change, but that isn't Harry's fault. If anything, it's my fault for not being brave enough to stay in contact with him. If there's a reason that he doesn't smile as much anymore, something must've happened between the end of primary school and now, and if I had the courage, I would've been Harry's friend through it all.

"Tasmin?"

"Hm?" I realise that I shouldn't be having such deep thoughts in front of my group of friends. "Yeah?"

"You blanked out," Ben tells me. "Thinking about something?"

I swipe my tongue at a drop of ice cream that would've fallen in my lap a second later. I blush, adding an extra layer of red to my face; it always gets red when I'm cold or I'm eating or drinking something cold.

"No," I say.

"Huh," Ben sighs.

I look up awkwardly at Harry, who seems to have been looking at me.

"So, Harry," Lilli starts. "You asked the receptionist about the party tonight, didn't you?"

"Yep," Harry replies, swallowing his ice cream. "Sixteen plus rooftop party with big screen tele, music, dance floor, a bar, and D.J."

"Hold up, did you just say 'tele'?" Emily asks, clearly amused.

I giggle under my breath as Harry retreats to his defensive 'ums' and 'ahs'. Ben throws an arm around Harry protectively.

"Don't tease the British boy like that!" he says.

We all laugh a little harder. From the smile on Harry's face I can tell that he is more comfortable around his friends. I wonder how long he's known Charlie and Ben.

"Okay, okay," Lilli says. "Do we all agree that we should head back to get ready?"

"What? It's only two," Ben exclaims, slightly confused.

Lilli stands. "We all need some alone time, don't you think?"

Eek. I know this Lilli, but this Lilli is not worth fighting with. I stand with her.

"Come on, we'll see each other later." I try to give them all a reassuring smile. "If we get bored, we can always come and knock on your door," I say, and that makes them nod in agreement. Clearly, from the slightly concerned look on Lilli's face, she doesn't just want some alone time, she has a lot more planned for us. Just for us.

When we get back to the cabins, I expect her to sit us down to talk to us, but instead, she tells Emily to shower first because she and I would be choosing her outfit for tonight and it would be a surprise. I could see that Emily knew there was something that Lilli was hiding, but didn't protest. Whatever Lilli needed to say to me was with good intentions, we both knew that much.

"Lilli?"

"Let's go choose Emily a nice outfit for tonight, yeah?"