Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Summer break feels as sudden as a very familiar slap in the face. Not soon enough for Violet’s taste, but then again she is quite petty. She leaves the classroom a second before the bell rings and doesn’t bother turning back. Three hours later she’s sitting in a bus on her way to Louis crazy rich parent’s summer vacation house.

He sits in the seat in front of her, his long legs twisted into some kind of knot to fit in the small space in front of him. His body slumped into the seat, eyes closed and fast asleep. Violet notes the bit of drool hanging down from his chin.

Aasim, sitting next to her, knocked out as well with an opened book resting on his head. He is still wearing the school uniform, an itchy horribly ugly cashmere sweater over a baby blue dress shirt and beige pants. He must be sweating like crazy and Violet chooses to lean closer to the window away from him in hopes she can escape his pubescent odor.

The only other person awake besides her is Brody. It’s not surprising, given that Violet has never seen her sleeping in her whole 18 years of knowing her. One leg crossed over the other she sits with her bag squished in the space between her and Louis seats, separating the two. Her red hair is tied into a tiny ponytail, clear skin missing any drops of sweat or dirt, perfectly polished nails she has been staring at for what feels like the whole ride. She looks nice. She has always looked nice, even with a black eye and bleeding lip. Even with dark circles under her eyes and her mascara destroyed by her non stopping tears. Even when she was angry, accusingly, yelling at Violet, doesn’t matter if years ago or just earlier today.

Violet hates summer. The irony isn’t lost on her and clearly not on anybody else either as they later unpack their bags and make a face at her collection of long sleeve black shirts. The house is ridiculously huge, with gigantic windows and large rooms. It’s missing a few doors, where there is instead open space framed in bows, which Violet is sure there is some sort of pretentious architecture term for. It means the house is unnervingly open and sound travels easily. A fact that will surely not lead to any drama in the course of their stay. They have strayed immediately after arriving, everybody making themselves busy with something. The only person talking is Louis.

“We should hop by the beach later, you know catch some sun, some cocktails, maybe a nice swim?” Violet doesn’t answer, pretending she doesn’t know who is talking to, although it is quite obvious with him sitting on her bed, looking up at her.

“Although I guess in your case the tan’s not gonna happen. Packed enough suns cream V? We don’t want you catching fire anytime soon.”

He crosses his legs and flutters his eyelashes dramatically at her. He stays unmoving even after she tells him to go bother somebody else. She has busied herself with moving her clothes from her bag to the closet next to her bed. Not even a quarter of the space available is used. She sighs annoyed and finally turns towards Louis.

“What do you want?”

“For us to have the best summer ever of course!” He throws his arms into the air and proclaims way too loudly. Violet imagines Aasim rolling his eyes somewhere down the hall.

“As long as there’s booze I don’t care,” she mumbles. She and Louis used to get drunk together on school nights and watch those stupid straight white romantic comedies together. They must have watched Love Actually a thousand times by now and he still cries at the end. It has been a while since they have done that though. A while since she has done anything with Louis or with anybody really.

“We have a bar,” Louis wriggles his eyebrows at her and laughs triumphantly when he sees her twitch of a smile.

It’s not far to the beach. Barely a ten minute walk, but the sun shines mercilessly and Violet feels like she’s in one of these old western movies. She sure as hell is ready to shoot somebody.

“Someone’s lookin very happy right now hm,” Louis slings a sweaty arm around her shoulder and she rams her elbow into his ribs. He yelps in surprise and falls over, slipping in his stupid flip flops.

“What are you goin to do there anyway? You can’t even swim jerk.”

“Wait, you can’t swim??” It’s the first thing Brody has said since they got here and Violet can’t help but glance over to her awkwardly.

“What can I say? My parents never taught me.”

“But you have a house by the beach. Like literally, the ocean is right there,” Aasim has finally changed clothes and Violet appreciates his solidarity with her in refusing to wear shorts. His shirt has a math equation on it though and it will probably haunt her forever.

Aasim is right however, the beach is really right there. There’s some kind of restaurant with a beach bar, all open and probably full of sand. The lifeguard post looms high at the side and the sun loungers are filled with half naked rich people. It looks straight cut out of Violet’s greatest nightmare. Why did she agree to this again? They laid down their towels and Violet claimed the spot underneath the sun umbrella immediately, crawling into the shadowy space like a grumpy gremlin.

In the short peace and quiet before Louis announces he will get everyone cocktails, it is painfully clear how strange the combination of the four on vacation is. Louis can’t sit still for more than a minute; he keeps making annoying remarks about everything and everyone and also obnoxiously avoids any serious topic.

Aasim is awkward and unlike Violet’s passive aggressive unhappiness, his is just uncomfortable. He has brought stacks of textbooks and homework to do over the break. The only times Violet talks to him that aren’t in class is when they bump into each other in their attempt to hide in the bathroom at whatever party they’ve been dragged to.

Brody, well, Violet has already spent too much time thinking about her.

And Violet? Violet’s been the same grumpy stiff dyke she has always been. None of this is up her alley and if it weren’t for the fact that this is the only way to get away from her parents, she wouldn’t even be here. They’ve all had a shitty year and agreed to play pretend for this trip.

Violet wonders how long it will take for the first one to break.

Chapter Text

Violet has always found the concept of a school for ‘troubled children’ to be ridiculous. The idea of stuffing a bunch of bad behaved teens together in one place and expect them to become better people in the process is laughable. On top of it all, Ericson is a boarding school. Meaning those horrible teenager don’t just see each other all day, but also have the opportunity to sneak into each other’s room’s at night. They make them wear a school uniform in a pathetic attempt to teach them discipline. Violet has lost count of how many times she and Louis have sat in the principle’s office for having swapped the skirt and pants with each other. Detention is horribly overused to the point that it’s actually special if you don’t end up in it.

And yet for all Violet makes fun of her school and refuses to take it seriously, the moment she isn’t suck in the stuffy building anymore, the change is horrifyingly drastic. There is no overbearing authority figure criticizing your every move, no curfew, no constant fighting in the halls – nobody or anything to bother Violet in her tranquil beach vacation bliss.

Except for Louis of course.

“Okay so, I’ve taken the liberty to make a bit of a vacation plan for us.”

Violet drowns the rest of her disgustingly fruity cocktail like a starved man in a desert. She narrows her eyes at the tourist map covered in what looks like dozens of colorful crayon annotations made by a overexcited three year old. Louis points at one of the thick red circles in the printed city landscape.

“Shopping mall,” he cocks his head to the side in fake consideration “Vi can buy herself a bikini with spikes on it or somethin’ chic like that.”

“Fuck off.”

Ignoring her, he moves his finger to another drawn red circle.
“There’s a pretty good diner, they have killer burgers.”

Louis looks back to the tourist center he just came from. “I also saw they have surfing lessons. What’cha think A-Team?”

Aasim stops mid in reading his obnoxiously thick beach read and shakes his head very uncomfortably barely a second later. “No, thanks.”

Louis moves his arms excessively, “C’mon guys! You’ve not even put as much as a toe in the water!?”

“I’m here for the aesthetics,” Violet deadpans.

“YOU!” Louis points a long finger at her like some kind of decrazed America’s Next Top model recruiter. Before Violet can scramble away, he proceeds to grab her and drag her all across the hot sand to the water. She struggles in his grip, kicking him in the shins and ending up falling on top of him when he trips.

“I’m gonna kill you,” this time she means it.

Louis tightens his hold on her middle and rolls them around until Violet’s face ends completely sunken in the ice-cold water. The saltiness makes her eyes sting and she silently curses having skipped gym so many times, as Louis uses his spidery arms to throw her further into the ocean.

She gasps for air as she reaches the surface again, finding Louis a couple of feet away, grinning satisfied.

“Told you, you would enjoy it!”

A thought crosses her mind and she paddles over to him as quickly as she can, pressing down hard on his shoulders until his head is fully submerged under the water. He flaps around with his arms, trying to grab her, but by now, they’ve ventured so far out that even his feet can’t reach the ground anymore. Louis starts shouting a few incomprehensible curses, most sounds that escape him sound more like helpless gurgling.

Violet flinches when she hears a high-pitched whistle. She looks to the shore and sees a very angry lifeguard looking back at her. Violet takes a bit to adjust her burning eyes, but when she does, she spends an embarrassingly long time how the heck this lifeguard manages to look so good, drenched in sweat and sand.

Suddenly Louis’s one hand finds the collar of her shirt and tugs, making her lose her balance in swimming. Using the momentum, Louis rises up again and both of them slam face-first against each other.

“Ow!”

Violet’s hand flies up to her nose and she draws her fingers back to see drops of blood stuck to them.

“Fuckin’ hell.”

Meanwhile, there are bubbles appearing where Louis has sunken again and Violet looks up just in time to see the lifeguard coming full speed towards them. They drag Louis back to the beach, staying hunched over him until he starts coughing up water.

Violet follows suit, her clothes soaked through and hair sticking to her face. She holds her nose in a pathetic attempt to stop it from bleeding and watched Louis’s old-man-wheezing. Aasim and Brody have gathered next to her.

“You tried to kill me!”

“It’s not my fault your rich ass can’t swim!”

“Hey!”

All eyes snap towards the lifeguard standing next to Louis. Violet stiffens. This close she can see them clearer, the muscles of their arms flexing as they put their hands on their hips. A rusty old baseball cap sits on top of their wet locks of hair and their dark skin glistens in the brutal sun.

What the fuck? Violet thinks.

The lifeguard points at Louis first, who hasn’t stopped staring at them for at least a minute.

“Don’t go that far out, when you can’t swim.”

They turn towards Violet, brows furrowed and eyes dark under the shadow of their cap.

“Don’t drown your friend, when he can’t swim.”

They sigh quietly and begin walking back to their post. The four of them keep standing still, not a single word is muttered. Violet blinks a couple of times, her brain working overtime with processing what just happened. Louis hasn’t moved his head from where he was looking back to see them walk off.

Finally, Brody breaks the silence.

“Is it just me or was that lifeguard really hot?”