"Whatever, loser," Britt sneered, planting her hands on her bony hips. "This beach is private property and you don’t have an invitation to be here."

"Wanna bet?"

My response threw her because she was used to everyone in our grade falling at her feet.

Not me.

No sir.

I couldn’t stand Brittany, Ashley, and their nasty girl gang, and I wasn’t afraid to call them out either.

Her blue eyes narrowed in anger. "Rourke is my boyfriend. He does what I tell him. This is his property, and if I tell him to kick you off this beach, he'll do it."

"Then go ahead and tell your boyfriend on me," I countered, entirely uninterested in wasting my breath on this barbie doll. "In the meantime, I'm going swimming. Last time I checked, your boyfriend didn’t own the ocean."

"Why's she here?" another familiar voice demanded and I inwardly groaned.

Not another one!

Ashley Thomas strutted towards me, clad in a sparkling pink bikini that matched her BFF.

"Why'd you think?" Britt replied, giving me a poisonous look. "She's Daryl King's puppy dog. Loser follows him everywhere he goes."

"Didn't you hear?" Ashley snipped. "Rourke's with Britt now." A cruel, snarky smile spread across her lips. "I'm Britt's BFF, and Daryl is Rourke's. You know what that means, right?"

Yes. "No, and I don’t care." Stepping around bitch and bitchier, I moved for the water, feeling a burning flame of jealousy spark to life inside of me.

"Hey," Daryl called out when I got into the water. Splashing, he waded over to me, all golden skin and white smile. "What took you so long? You said you'd be here hours ago."

"Sorry. Mom wasn't feeling well again." Wading out to meet him, I dunked under the water before quickly breaking the surface. "I had to help with Bobby."

"No problem – hey, you okay?" His brows furrowed then, clearly noticing the lack of enthusiasm in my voice. Stilling in the water, he tipped my chin up, green eyes locked on mine in concern. "Something happen?"

"Other than Britt and Ash telling me about their grand plans to date you and Rourke, nope. Nothing out of the ordinary."

"Ashley Thomas?" He shuddered dramatically. "Dude, she's a total girlie-girl."

"I think that's the point, D," I said flatly.

"Yeah, it's a hard pass," he replied, scrunching his nose up in clear disgust. "Fuck knows why Rourke agreed to date that nightmare." He shivered again. "She's bad news, Molls. I've got a good nose for that sort of thing, and that girl is gonna cause him nothing but problems."

I agreed. "Do you think they kiss?"

"I know they do."

"Ew." I grimaced. "Gross."

"Yep," he agreed with a nod. "Crazy, huh?"

"Please don’t kiss her," I blurted out then.

"Kiss who?"

"Ashley." Red-faced, I looked down at the water before forcing myself to meet his confused gaze. "Please don’t."

Daryl stared at me for a long time, green eyes glued to my brown ones. "Okay," he finally said, and my breath escaped me in a sudden rush. "I won't."