I See You [REWRITING]

chapter 27: right decision

Twenty-five minutes later, the nine of us pull up in three spread cars to Riker's favourite section of Malibu beach. Not unknown to me, or my friends but possibly new to Felix who has only ever taken me to the other side of the beach. When I open the passenger door to Felix's car, I'm met by the scent of sea salt mixed with Felix's cologne.

"What are you doing?" Felix laughs when he joins me on my side of the car and sees me leaning over in my seat, trying to untangle the strap from its clasp on my shoe.

"My mom paid a fortune for these and I'm not about to let the sand ruin them," I explain and groan when I fumble to undo them.

"Give it here," he holds his hand out with a smile.

"What makes you think you'll be able get them off?" I hum out and he just shakes his head before leaning down and grasping my heel with his hand. "I could get used to this."

"Oh, yeah?" Felix narrows his eyes at me as he gets my sandal off, holding it out for me to take before taking my other foot to do the same.

"Thank you," I laugh lightly when I take the second shoe, and set them on the floorboards of his car. I slip forward on the seat and step onto the running board, my eyes falling to the tiny little rocks in the gravel.

"Come on," he smiles gently and turns around, offering me his back.

"Are you gonna give me a piggy back ride?" I tease and my favourite sound falls from his lips as he ushers me to climb on.

A giggle falls from my lips as I rest my hands on his shoulder, lifting one leg up for him to grab a hold of before I jump up. He holds onto my legs and I loosely hang my arms around his shoulders, closing the door to the car when he steps back. Felix carries me down towards the flicker of light from the fire Riker and Isaac started, everyone sitting around laughing as I scramble to my feet when he sets me down.

"Nice of you to join us, your majesty," Riker teases. "I can't believe we convinced our homecoming king to leave the dance."

"Funny," Felix laughs as he sits down. "I could say the same for the class president. I thought you thrived on this stuff, Lena."

"Oh, I do," she agrees, "But I much prefer these nights with my favourite people."

"Agreed," Isla nods, joining in on the conversation.

"But, I'm just class president," Lena adds. "What about you, homecoming king? You abandoned your court."

He shrugs, "I think my court can survive without me."

Riker's ribbing continues and eventually everyone is joining in, teasing Felix about the honor of winning the crown at homecoming. He doesn't let it get to him and cracks jokes at his own suspense, but it dies down and we're eventually left with the silences of the crackling wood. It being the only noise we need.

"I guess, I should probably give this back to you," I say quietly as I reach for his crown still rested neatly on top of my hair.

His fingers brush my wrist, stopping me before I can even pull it off my head. "You keep it."

"It's yours," I frown. "To reminisce on in twenty years. You're supposed to look through a box of keepsakes and remember your night as homecoming king."

"How about you keep that to think about me when you're reminiscing and I'll just keep you?" He hums out and I almost giggle at the sweetness in the gesture.

"Smooth!" Robyn, Isla and Riker hoot in response at the comment, having been eavesdropping on our conversation causing me to giggle.

I ignore them and lean forward, kissing him quickly. "You're cute."