The Boyfriend Rivalry by Milana Spencer

5

Curtis: First Morning

When I wake up, I blink at the pointed ceiling and glance at the window beside me, shrouded in soft white curtains. Lonsdale Bay. The Harding beach house. The attic bedroom.

Morning light streams through the cracks in the curtains, reflecting off the pale timber floor. I glance at Liam's bed, and his blankets are a tangle between his legs. He must move around a lot in his sleep. His mouth is open, his black hair crushed against his pillow. From here, I can see some of his chest. I can't believe how pale his skin is, though he'll get a tan after two weeks of being here. Or maybe he's one of those people who don't tan but only burns and peels.

I pick up my phone from the bedside table and check the time. It's already past 8, which means I've slept in, but then again it was a long night yesterday. I sit up in the bed and stretch my arms before grabbing my clothes and toiletries and heading to the bathroom.

I have a quick shower, dress and brush my teeth. By the time I return to the bedroom, Liam still hasn't woken up, but that doesn't surprise me. I call my mum and talk to her and Dad for a couple of minutes, letting them know we've arrived and that I won't forget to study. Kennedy, Bonnie, Liam and I all brought a heap of school work to keep up with the endless homework of Year 12. I think Erin intends to do uni work on her computer too, even though she's on a uni break.

After hanging up, I head downstairs. Kennedy's in the kitchen, fiddling with the coffee machine, her pyjama shorts revealing her legs.

"Morning," I say, hugging her from behind.

She turns to me and smiles. "Morning. I'm guessing Liam's still sleeping?"

I nod as I open cupboards. When I can't find any green tea packets, I settle for coffee. I pull out another mug and place it on the bench next to the coffeemaker. "What about Erin and Bonnie?"

"They're on a jog," Kennedy says. "They run every morning, no matter how tired they are. Sounds like a habit their parents would have forced them to do, to maximise healthiness or something." She picks up my mug.

"Lucky your parents didn't make you do that."

"Yeah. Despite all my complaining about my parents, my aunt and uncle are on another level." She fills my mug with coffee, then makes hers. Usually, she adds almond milk, but there's almost none here, so she'll have to drink it black, the way I do.

"How'd you sleep?" she asks.

"Yeah, alright." I take a deep drink. I try to avoid caffeine, but I can't deny that the smell alone wakes me up.

"Liam didn't annoy you?"

"When doesn't Liam annoy me?" I say.

Kennedy glances at the stairs, frowning.

"It was fine," I add hastily. "I'll survive."

"Okay. Good." She finishes making her coffee before leaning against the kitchen bench. I lean against the kitchen island opposite her, and we eye each other. Kennedy's hair is a sexy rumpled mess. From the smile on her lips, she knows what I'm thinking.

"How did you sleep?" I ask, continuing the conversation.

"Well. Bonnie, Erin and I decided we'd rotate, so we'd all get to have the master bedroom to ourselves at one point. At the moment, I'm sharing with Bonnie in the other bedroom." She bites her lip. "You should sneak in when I have the master."

"Smart idea," I say, pushing myself off the island and coming over to kiss her.

Kennedy's mouth opens and we deepen our kiss, abandoning our mugs on the bench. I groan — we haven't kissed like this in a while, and I doubt we'll get much of a chance while surrounded by the others. Kennedy pulls me closer and I pick her up and place her on the bench, so she's sitting on it, wrapping her arms around my waist.

I press my erection against her, and she smiles against my lips. I bring my mouth downwards and kiss her neck and Kennedy brings me closer, tightening her legs around me.

We talk about having sex all the time, but it's impossible because we never get the opportunity. Hopefully, this holiday will be the chance we need.

After a couple of minutes, we reluctantly peel apart when we hear the front door unlock. I catch my breath and look down before deciding to slide into a chair at the kitchen table. Kennedy joins me, cheeks slightly pink. "Did you bring protection?" she murmurs, as Bonnie and Erin step into the house.

"Shit. I didn't." While I hoped we'd get a chance during these holidays, I didn't actually plan for it. Which is stupid, because I'm usually organised. "Did you?"

She shakes her head. "It's alright though, we can go to the supermarket."

Bonnie and Erin arrive in the kitchen, both wearing bright pink workout clothes with their ponytails poking through the back of their caps. The pair of them refill their drink bottles as we chat about how we slept and how their run was.

Erin checks the pantry and fridge for anything left over from previous trips during the summer, but there's nothing except canned food and condiments. She's talking about breakfast when Liam enters the kitchen wearing almost the same outfit as yesterday. The only difference is that the ripped jeans are black and his t-shirt features a logo printed above the breast.

"Hello, hello," he says, waving like a member of the royal family. "Hello, Curtis. How are you this morning?" he asks when he sits beside me.

So he's being a weirdo again.

"Did you even brush your hair?" I say instead of answering him. I don't mean to insult him, but it just comes out. It's automatic. A survival reflex. Usually, I wouldn't be so rude — if my parents heard me, they'd give me a stern talking to. But this is the norm between Liam and me.

"It's meant to look like this," he answers, combing his fingers through his messy hair.

"Boys, listen," Erin says. "As I was saying, we don't have any food, which I forgot to account for yesterday. But is everyone happy to go out for breakfast and then go grocery shopping?"

Everyone makes sounds of agreement.

"Awesome," Erin says. "Grab what you need and we'll leave as soon as we're all ready."

"Yes, ma'am," Liam says with a mock salute. That earns him smiles from the girls, but my lips don't even twitch.

*

We walk from the beach house and quickly find a cafe facing the ocean. Thankfully, the breeze isn't too harsh, and the sun is out, so the weather is quite pleasant as we sit at an outdoor table. Kennedy and I sit beside each other, with Erin on the end. Sitting opposite from me is Liam, telling Bonnie a funny story about his Media class.

I clench my fork, and I don't know why. Maybe it's because Bonnie practically ran to sit next to Liam. Maybe it's because he's even charmed Erin.

Now, Kennedy jumps in to help tell Liam's story, laughing. I force myself to eat my eggs and toast, and a minute later, Liam finishes the big conclusion of the story. Erin is covering her mouth and Kennedy laughs loudly while literal tears gather in Bonnie's eyes. Come on. It's not that funny.

Liam catches my gaze as he chuckles. "Enjoying the food, Curtis?"

"Yep," I grumble.

Kennedy touches my elbow. "Hey," she says.

I look at her, and I know my annoyance is lingering on my face because she flinches.

"What's wrong?" she asks.

"Nothing! Nothing," I repeat, more calmly.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes."

"Then why are you acting like an asshole?"

I recoil. "What?"

"Liam's being nice to you," she whispers.

I lower my voice to match her volume. "He asked me about my food."

"And he greeted you this morning, and both times you were super rude."

"I—" I open and close my mouth — "that's just what we do. You know how we are around together."

"That's how you two used to be, but Liam's making an effort. Can't you?"

I don't know what to say, and Kennedy closes her eyes in frustration. "Fuck, Curtis. Please don't be stubborn about this."

"I'm not!" I say too loudly, and the others glance over at us. "I'm not," I whisper. "He's not even being nice to me, anyway. He's being… weird."

"You sure? Because to me, it looks like Liam's realised the antagonism between you too is pointless and immature."

If Liam's anything, it's immature. He won't be nice to me because of some weird moral superiority. I was nice to him when I first started dating Kennedy. He started this.

"Are you calling me immature?" I ask.

"From the way you're acting, yes," Kennedy says. I open my mouth to protest, but nothing comes out, and Kennedy turns away to join in with the others' conversation.

I busy myself with my breakfast until I finish it. When I look up, Liam gives me a small smile, encouraging smile.

Wow. That almost looks genuine. I wonder what his ulterior motive is, why he's suddenly pretending to be nice. It's not like he was friendly in the bedroom last night.

Maybe he's only like that in front of Kennedy. Maybe he wants to make me look bad. Maybe he wants to sabotage my relationship.

#

Kennedy's irritation with me continues after breakfast, though she deigns to let me hold my hand. I wish I could make her see that while Liam might be a nice friend to her and the cousins, he's a dick to me. But we've had that conversation so many times, and every time she's been on Liam's side.

At the local supermarket, Bonnie and Liam zoom off with a trolley. To no one's surprise, they head to the sweets aisle.

Erin and Kennedy laugh, and the three of us trail after them. Before the display of lollies, Bonnie and Liam pick out a packet of sour chews.

"Do we want to get diabetes?" I ask.

Kennedy gives me a look, even though my tone was polite. Besides, my comment was genuine. I'm actually being nice by caring about their health and wellbeing. But I correct what I said, anyway. "What I mean is… perhaps we could decrease the number of lollies we get and find delicious alternatives."

"Sure," Bonnie says absently, popping the lolly packet into the trolley, anyway.

"Curtis is right," Erin says. "We can't eat lollies for lunch. Come on, let's go get some vegetables."

While Bonnie and Liam play with the trolley — Liam pushing it and Bonnie riding it (how old are we, seven?) — Erin discusses recipes she knows and picks out healthy staples. While Kennedy still seems frosty, she helps us get the ingredients we need. I grab a packet of green tea.

At the self-serve checkout, I pull out my wallet just as Erin and Kennedy take out theirs.

"Put that away, Curtis," Erin tells me. "You're a guest."

"You're letting me stay with you, at your family's house. The least you can do is let me pay for the groceries."

"It's fine, Curtis," Kennedy says. "Now, Erin, let me pay. You did all the driving yesterday, and you covered the fuel —"

While they bicker, I reach out and press my debit card against the card reader. A second later, the checkout makes a sound and Erin and Kennedy look over.

"Curtis, you didn't," Kennedy says.

"Curtis…" Erin begins, frowning.

"Come on," I say with a cheerful smile, picking up the bags of groceries.

The others grab a bag each too, while everyone thanks me, which I wave off. We leave the supermarket and Bonnie says it would have been smarter to drive into town because now we're going to have to lug the groceries a kilometre to the house.

At least the view is nice. The ocean is far lower than the town, so to get down to the beach, people have to take stairs from the grassy edge of the cliffs down to the sand. From up here, you can see the white caps of seafoam and how the waves come in and out. We walk through a park, leafy green trees surrounding us. The sun rises higher in the sky.

I walk behind the others, and Kennedy lingers to walk with me. "You didn't have to pay," she says.

"I wanted to."

Kennedy looks at me, and I tense up. Sometimes she gives me this assessing look that makes me wonder if I've done something wrong — if I said the wrong thing, if my hair is messy, if I'm just simply odd. She has that look on her face now.

Then she smiles like I've passed her test, and sighs, jokingly exasperated. "You're cute," she says, taking my hand. We walk in silence for the rest of the way, though it's not an angry silence. It's the usual silence that lingers between Kennedy and me.