Chapter 68

Chapter 37 If there was one thing I knew about Grayson, it was that he was extremely lazy. When he suggested that we go to the beach the day before we had to go back to school, I thought we would actually have fun. You know, walk around while eating ice cream, swim in the ocean, not be lazy. As soon as we got to the beach, we laid our stuff on the sand and Grayson immediately laid on his towel, resting his arm over his eyes. "Wake me in an hour," he muttered. I sighed and laid down beside him, though he kept his eyes covered. "I thought we were going to do something," I said. "We are," Grayson said. "In an hour. When I wake up." I sighed, deciding to let him have a short nap. I pulled out a book from my bag and began reading. I wasn't that big of a reader, but I did read when I went out somewhere and had nothing else to do. And considering Grayson was being lazy, I had nothing to do. After about ten minutes, I heard Grayson snoring quietly. That boy could fall asleep anyway, no matter how loud the place was. Once, he fell asleep during the pep rally we had and that was loud. Feeling even more bored, I put my book back in my bag and grabbed a water bottle from the cooler bag we brought filled of food. I finished about half of the bottle before getting an idea. I scooted closer to Grayson, still able to hear his admittedly adorable snores. Without second thinking, I dumped the thankfully cold water on his face, making him sit up and sputter the water out of his mouth. I gave him a smile when he looked at me. "Oh, you're so dead," he said, quickly standing up. I hurried over to the ocean, which was a bad idea because I still had a sundress on over my bikini and Grayson decided to be a wonderful boyfriend and tackle me into the water. "Grayson!" "Oh, I'm sorry," Grayson said sarcastically with a smug smile. "I never knew you didn't want to get wet." "You could have waited until I only had my swimsuit on," I pointed out, standing up from the water. Now my dress was soaking wet. "It's fine, I always have extra clothes, remember?" Grayson asked, standing up as well. He peeled off his shirt and squeezed the water out of it. "Well, that's enough water for me today." "Really?" I asked. "But we're at the beach for a reason." "Yes, to relax before school starts," Grayson pointed out. "I'm actually kind of hungry, so let's eat our food." I sighed, following him back to our towels. I took off my dress to let it dry faster, which wouldn't be a problem if Grayson waited for me to be in only my swimsuit. Then again, I should have done that before dumping water on Grayson. Grayson and I sat on our blankets and he set the cooler bag in front of us. After eating a few snacks, Grayson laid back down, resting his arms under his head. "I missed this," he said. "Missed what?" I asked. "Being able to relax at the beach," he said. "We haven't done it since before the crash. It was nice to get out." I laid down on my stomach, propping myself up on my elbows. "I know. And thank you, for helping me get through all of that. You literally did everything for me and I couldn't ask for a better boyfriend." "I'm pretty awesome, aren't I?" Grayson said with a smug smile. "Now where's my payment?" I gave him a quick kiss before resting my head on the towel. "I'm going to take a nap." "Go ahead," Grayson said, rubbing my back. I fell asleep, surprisingly. I normally wasn't one to fall asleep in public places, but Grayson did wake me early that day. He loved doing that and it was quite annoying at times. Sometimes, I did wonder why I thought it was a good idea to ask my parents if my boyfriend could move in. I woke up and saw Grayson sitting beside me, on his cellphone. He was wearing sunglasses, something he didn't have on before. I sat up and he looked up at me before looking back at his cell phone. "You're awake," he said. "Yeah," he said. "What's up with your sunglasses?" "Too sunny," Grayson replied, but I knew he was lying. Before he could react, I reached up and pulled of his sunglasses, revealing a black eye. "Grayson, what the hell happened?" Grayson shrugged and took the sunglasses from my hands, putting it back on. "A few guys were being dicks so I had to shut them up. Thankfully Belle and Devon showed up because he helped me." "Grayson, you can't go around beating up guys," I said, "I don't," Grayson said. "I beat up dicks who need to be taught a lesson." I sighed as Devon and Belle sat down beside us, both having ice cream cones. "By the way," Belle said. "Thank you so much for telling me you're no longer paralyzed, Poppy. When did this happen?" "A few days before Christmas," I replied. "I tried calling you but you never picked up." "You could have texted me," Belle pointed out. "You could have answered," I shot back. Belle sighed. "Fair point." "Flower, can we leave now?" Grayson said. "I'm not in the mood to stay." "Maybe if you didn't fight those guys..." Belle began. Devon raised an eyebrow as he looked at his girlfriend. "Really? In his defense, he had a logical reason. They..." Grayson cut him off with a sharp look. That, however, made me curious as to what those guys did to get Grayson so angry. "What did the guys do?" I asked. "Nothing," Grayson muttered as he began packing up our things. Once it was all packed, he gave me his extra dry clothes and I put them on. Still shirtless since he gave me his only dry shirt, he stood up and began walking towards the parking lot. I got up and hurried after him, standing in front of him to stop him from moving. "Grayson, what did they do?" I asked. He sighed and rubbed his forehead. "I don't want to talk about it, Poppy. Can you please just drop it?" "You know what? No," I said. "I'm not going to drop it, Grayson. Something obviously made you snap because you don't go looking for fights anymore. What did they do?" Grayson looked away from me. "Let's just say that if any guy talks about my girlfriend in a certain way, I'll lose it." "They said something about me?" I asked. "What... what did they say?" "Inappropriate things," Grayson muttered. "Things that any douche-bag of a guy will say to a beautiful girl." "And because of what they said, you snapped?" I asked. Grayson looked at me and nodded and I couldn't help but give him a hug. "I don't like you getting into fights, but thank you for not letting them say anything else. What exactly did they say?" "Trust me, you don't want to know," Grayson said. "You know it was bad enough that it made me snap." I nodded and pulled away. "At least you don't go looking for fights." I pushed up his sunglasses so it rested on the top of his head. I gently touched the bruise around his eye, which caused him to wince. "My parents probably won't be happy to see this. The love you and everything, but..." "I get it," Grayson said. "No parent wants their daughter around someone who gets into fights." "It's not like they'll kick you out or anything," I said. "They know what you're going through." I pulled his sunglasses back down. "I'll cover it up when we get home." Grayson raised an eyebrow. "Cover it up? Oh, no... Poppy, don't you dare put make up on me." "Do you want my parents to see your black eye?" I asked. Grayson sighed. "Alright, fine. But I swear, if they notice it when the make up is on, you will pay." I knew his threat was serious, but I ignored it as I took his hand in mine and led him to his car. We got in and enjoyed the peaceful ride back to our house. As soon as we walked in, Mom took one look at Grayson before sighing. "Grayson, how many times have I told you not to go shirtless around the house?" she asked. "It distracts Poppy." "Mom," I said. "It does not." It totally did. "Besides, his shirt and my dress got wet, so he gave me his extra shirt." Mom nodded, thankfully believing me. But then her eyes caught sight of something she and Dad didn't know about. "Grayson, is that a tattoo?" Grayson looked down at his chest, seeing the poppy tattoo. "Uh... Yes?" Mom sighed. "You are lucky you aren't my son. Now, go put on a shirt please." Grayson nodded before making his way upstairs. However, since he was shirtless and his back was towards Mom, she saw his first tattoo. "You have two tattoos?" Grayson stopped in his tracks, covering the tattoo on the back of his neck with his hand before looking at Mom. "Um..." Mom sighed once again. "Just put on a shirt." When Grayson was upstairs, Mom looked at me. "Did you know about his tattoos?" "Obviously," I said. "I've seen him shirtless plenty of times." Mom raised an eyebrow. "What? We got to the beach a lot and he sleeps shirtless. There's nothing wrong with it." "Sure, sure," Mom said before walking into the kitchen. I went upstairs to my room and quickly replaced Grayson's shirt and my bathing suit with clean clothes. When I was changed, I went to Grayson's room. He was laying down on his bed, his arm covering his eyes. He heard me come in because he looked at me. "Hey, Flower." "Hey," I said, noticing that his sunglasses were off. "By the way, you got a little something here." I pointed to my left eye, which was the same eye Grayson had a bruise around. "Ha-ha, you're so funny," he muttered sarcastically. "Tell me the truth, is it big?" "Eh, kind of," I said. "Come on, I have to cover it up." Grayson groaned as he got up from his bed before following me to my bedroom. He sat down at the bench of my vanity table and I pulled out my make up. I gently applied it around Grayson's eye, which caused him to wince. "Flower, that hurts," he whined. "Then you shouldn't have fought those guys," I pointed out. "I'm sorry, next time I'll let those dicks think they can say whatever they want about a girl," Grayson snapped back. "That work?" "You don't have to be so snappy," I said. Grayson sighed. "Sorry. It's just... what they said really get me pissed. Like, really pissed. I mean, the last time I almost got into a fight was when that Henry guy was being a dick and said inappropriate things about you." "Wait, that's why you almost fought him?" I asked. "Why didn't you tell me?" Grayson shrugged. "I don't know. Speaking of Henry, has he been annoying recently?" I shook my head. "No. He pretty much gave up on me, thankfully." "Yeah, if only every other guy would," Grayson muttered. I finished covering Grayson's black eye and I furrowed my eyebrows. "What are you talking about?" I asked. "Poppy, do you know how many guys I've heard say something about you?" he asked. "I've heard so many guys say that they want to... hook up with you. You're extremely beautiful and all those guys see it. And then my over-protectiveness kicks in and I either glare at them or, if what they say is bad, beat the living crap out of them. I hate when guys think they can say whatever they went about a girl, especially my girl. They don't know what you've been through." I took Grayson's hands and pulled him up so he was standing. "Thank you, for getting them to stop. I don't agree with you fighting people, but you're intentions are good at least." Grayson pulled me into a hug and rested his chin on my head. "No matter what, I'll always be here to protect you. I always have, since the day we officially met." I smiled at the memory of Grayson standing up for me in detention when he didn't even know my name. He was the most amazing boy ever.