Lizzie
Lizzie dropped into a black plastic seat on the top deck of the ferry and pulled her hands inside the sleeves of her hoody. Despite the heat of the day, the evening breeze had an English feel to it.
A moment later, Jaddi and Samantha settled down beside her and the ferry engine roared into life.
‘So, I’m really pleased I bothered to blow-dry my hair.’ Samantha shook her head as a gust of wind lifted her hair and blew it into her face. She scooped it up and tied it into a high ponytail. ‘I thought escaping the humidity would mean at least one good-hair day.’
‘Who cares.’ Jaddi grinned. ‘Look at this view. What a place to see the sunset from, eh, Lizzie?’ Jaddi rifled in her satchel. ‘And look what I found in that supermarket,’ she said, holding up a miniature bottle of Prosecco and ripping off the foil wrapper.
Lizzie smiled and nodded as the ferry dipped and rose, bouncing over the waves made by a large boat heading into the harbour, and rocking them in their seats.
‘I’d shoot the cork into the water,’ Jaddi said, twisting the bottle in her hands with a pop, ‘but the city is so clean I think I might get arrested, or something. I don’t think I’ve seen a single piece of litter today.’
As the ferry turned out of the harbour, the vast black metal of Sydney Harbour Bridge came into view.
‘Hey, look up there,’ Samantha said, pointing towards the top of the bridge where people were walking up.
‘Wow,’ Jaddi said, offering the bottle to Samantha, ‘we have to do that.’
‘Definitely,’ Lizzie said. ‘I’ll have cheeky swig,’ she added, plucking the bottle out of Samantha’s hands and filling her mouth with cold, fizzing bubbles.
She passed the bottle to Jaddi and laughed at the expression darkening their faces. ‘It was one sip, guys. Relax. I’m sure it won’t kill me.’ The bubbles of alcohol danced alongside the excitement jumping in her stomach. She’d known for weeks that she’d be seeing Harrison again. And from the flirty tone of his messages she’d have to have been a complete idiot not to realise that things between them would be more than platonic, but it had always seemed distant, like a dream she could push to the back of her mind and forget. Harrison’s sudden appearance had literally and figuratively swept her off her feet.
‘There’s our hostel,’ Jaddi said, pointing at a four-storey building that stretched the length of the street. It was a dark-red modern structure with two thick strips of black bricks running through its centre.
The hostel was, they’d discovered after wandering the clean streets of the city, eating a huge fry-up and drinking copious cups of coffee, well-equipped compared to the places they’d stayed in Southeast Asia. It had a cafe and a large rooftop area with tables and chairs overlooking Sydney’s two most iconic sights – the distinctive white peaks of the Opera House, which reminded Lizzie of a shiver of shark fins like they’d seen off the Thai islands, and the Harbour Bridge. Despite the spectacular view, it was the communal kitchen they’d spent the most time cooing over. Lizzie didn’t miss cooking dinners, and she suspected Samantha and Jaddi didn’t miss it either, considering the number of times she’d managed to serve undercooked chicken with overcooked vegetables. But Lizzie did miss breakfast. Being able to eat a bowl of cereal whenever it suited her was a strangely thrilling prospect.
‘Ah!’ Jaddi cried out as a gust of wind carried droplets of cold sea water, hitting their faces. ‘Maybe we should have got the bus after all. I’m getting soaked sitting here.’
Lizzie turned her face to the sun, enjoying its last rays of warmth as it began to inch lower in the sky.
‘Are we in the right outfits?’ Samantha asked, touching her shorts. ‘I’m starting to think, maybe we should have gone dressier?’
‘It’s a beach party, Sam,’ Jaddi said, ‘and it’s going to be dark. Don’t worry.’
Jaddi was right. Samantha needn’t have worried. Harrison and his friends had also chosen similar outfits – baggy multi-coloured board shorts with oversized jumpers – with the exception of one waif-like girl in a floral ankle-length dress.
As Harrison introduced them around his friends, Lizzie found her eyes drawing back to the girl. Every one of her features appeared angular, from her jutting elbow bones, to the pointed tip of her nose and deadly straight blonde hair. She seemed to know Harrison and his friends, but, at the same time, stood on the outskirts like an observer.
There was something intriguing about her, and alluring, Lizzie assumed, based on the way Harrison’s male friends would periodically drift over to her. She chatted amicably for a time, but her face remained impassive. Lizzie envisaged a gust of coastal wind blowing through the bay, catching the billows of the dress and carrying the girl up into the air and out to sea.
‘Who’s the blonde?’ Lizzie asked Harrison after the introductions to Teddy, Jimbo, Lance, Tessie, Gill, Sally, and two couples whose names Lizzie had already forgotten, had been made and the angular girl missed out.
Harrison’s eyes moved across the group until they settled on the waif, who glanced back before finding a spot in the distance to focus on. ‘Oh, her. That’s Cress.’
‘Why didn’t you introduce us?’
He shrugged. ‘Dunno. I don’t know her that well, I guess. And she’s pretty moody most of the time.’
‘Oh, I see.’ Although she didn’t. Why would they be friends with her if she was such a grump?
Without warning, Harrison pulled Lizzie towards him, scooping her into his arms and charging towards the crashing waves of the black ocean, sparkling with flecks of orange from the reflection of the bonfire.
‘Hey!’ she shrieked, excitement racing through her veins. ‘Put me down.’
‘No way, it’s time for your swim. You’ve been on Aussie soil for eight hours and still haven’t been swimming in the sea, and that is a capital offence.’
She squealed as he entered the sea, only drawing to a stop when the water reached his knees. ‘You wouldn’t dare,’ she gasped as droplets of cool water splashed onto her bare feet.
‘Wouldn’t I?’ he laughed, allowing her body to slip a few inches lower.
‘Harrison, you’re crazy. My microphone will break.’ Lizzie clung harder to his neck.
‘The only thing I’m crazy about,’ he said as he led her feet to the soft squidgy sand of the ocean floor, and drew her towards him so that it seemed every part of their bodies were touching, ‘is you.’
The cold water lapped against the bottom of her shorts, sending goose bumps across her body, or maybe that was the feel of Harrison’s toned body against hers. Whatever was going on between them it was happening quickly. Too quickly for her to process what it meant and whether she was prepared to drag someone else into this. But was that a bad thing?
‘You don’t need to look so surprised.’ He smiled. ‘I thought you knew.’
‘It’s not that. I … I just thought after last summer, when you left and I didn’t hear from you, that it was just a fling, which was fine. I mean, we live on opposite sides of the world and I completely understood; it’s not as if I was heart-broken or anything.’ Lizzie couldn’t stop the words from tumbling out of her mouth. A nervous energy fluttered around her as Harrison’s arms tightened their hold on her.
He leant his head towards her until the softness of his lips brushed against hers. Like a strong current, Lizzie allowed herself to be swept away.