Secondhand Embarrassment

twenty nine: double vision

what plot twist has surprised you most so far?

for those who might be confused: noah was pretending to be billy the entire time. think back to that first day at oliver's surf shack with the lemonade to the moment on the beach where "billy" (noah) ran into olivia. that was always noah, but lennon thought she was interacting with billy. on the other side of the equation, olivia confused noah for billy because they're twins. their past is more than complicated. billy has no idea what lennon looks like. he's only heard of her from noah. right now he just thinks he's talking to a pretty girl on the beach, and so here we are.

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lennon || noah || billy

☼~☼~☼~☼~☼

"sure," lennon says, feeling the word leave her lips spontaneously.

as the wind pushes the flames toward the boardwalk, billy grabs lennon's hand and pulls her away from the pit. her heart laps against her ribcage, the pulses equivalent to the beat of the bass booming from the stereo playing front the strewn white tents. he glances at her momentarily, a small smile crossing his pink lips.

"travis," billy calls, breaking their gaze for a second, "i'm heading back to the house if you need me. i'll see you later."

travis barely hears half of billy's words, but he nods, sending the both of them off with a tilt of his fifth bottle and a crooked grin. a couple of billy's other friends come back to their exclusive circle with a group of girls following closely behind. they're laughing about some joke that's only funny when you're drowning in alcohol and unholy thoughts.

billy leans in and whispers, "let's go," to lennon who has her mind lost among the stars.

as they leave the beach, she wonders exactly how did she land herself in this situation. she's never done anything like this before, and it's nothing like she imagined. noah's different than she imagined, but she's going to allow the alcohol to do all the talking for once tonight.

when the ocean fades away in the background, lennon can't see the waves kiss the shoreline anymore. they approach the beach house with its porch light glowing in the distance. the beach keeps getting farther and farther away, but the waves are getting louder and louder. it's almost as if they're screaming at her, telling her to step back onto the sand.

-----

"where the hell is it," noah groans, digging around furiously for his cellphone.

he's scoured every open space he can think of, turned every doorknob he can find. he's even run from room to room, but the worst part is that all of this has made him fifteen minutes late. a part of him shatters when he finds his cellphone hidden under the couch cushion with not a single text message covering the lock screen.

"she's probably not even there, but there's only one thing left to do," noah mutters to himself as he sprints out the back door.

he rushes right past the boy with a dark blue shirt strung over his neck holding hands with a girl whose eyes have moved mountains. noah is more than relieved when he hears travis' laughter from the edge of the beach. he runs straight into the lopsided circle, stumbling over a couple of beer bottles they've tossed onto the sand.

out of breath, noah pants and places both of his hands on his knees. "where's billy? is he not with you guys anymore?"

"he went back to the house with some girl about ten minutes ago," travis answers truthfully.