chapter 4 - pretty girl

It was now 10pm, we had just arrived back to the room from spending the whole day on the beach. Claire and I sat down against the wall and we went through all the polaroid pictures we took today. She leaned her head on my shoulder and asked

"Wanna dance?"

"Duh, Clairo!" I leaped up.

"How many names for me do you have?" she chuckled following me up.

"Clairo is a cute name not gonna lie" I told her truthfully.

I played girls by girl in red and danced while Claire took polaroid pictures of me.

I pulled her up to dance with me and before we knew it, it was midnight. We fell on the bed, she was on top of me, I held her close. I was so tired the last thing I remember was her voice next to my ear saying:

"Night night, Alexa" and she pressed her lips against mine gently and we both fell fast asleep.

I woke up at around 11:30 that morning with Claire on top of me. I put my arms around her and gently tucked her in next to me, making sure that I didn't wake her, I kissed her forehead and I snuck out to get a change of clothes from my room.

I washed my hair as I had been swimming yesterday and got changed. As soon as I was ready, I raced to Claires' room. I knocked and there was no reply, I texted her-no reply. I waited and hour but still there was no reply. At this point I was starting to get worried. Just as I was about to text her again, I saw that she was typing...

"hey love! Come back to my room tonight at 8, I have I surprise for you :))".

That day felt different without Claire by my side. I decided to go on a walk to the mountain where she took me on our first date. There was nobody up there apart from a family of three with their golden retriever.

I smiled at their daughter, who looked awfully a lot like Claire but just a bit older.

She looked at me almost shocked and ran over and hugged me. I fell over and was now on the ground with this girl I didn't know. She looked me up and down as her dog came over to lick my face and her parents were confused.

"Alexa, it's really you!" she seemed so happy.

"I'm so sorry but have we met?" I asked awkwardly.

"It's me Abby, Claires' sister!" she smiled.

"Claire always sends me pictures of you two"

"Hey!!" I replied forgetting what just happened,

"What are you all doing here?" I giggled with their dog still licking me.

"Claire has a surprise for us." Her mom smiled, still unsure who I was.

"She wouldn't tell us what's going on" her dad chuckled, pulling the dog away from me.

"Same here, my name is Alexa by the way" I introduced myself, shaking her parents hands.

After getting some ice cream on the seafront and getting to know her family, we all headed to her room. She saw me first and almost threw herself around me and almost kissed me but then saw her parents watching.

She winked then hugged them leaving me and Abby laughing together.

"I spent the whole day writing and recording a song that means a lot to me," Claire started "And here it is! It's called pretty girl" we watched music video.

The beginning went "polaroid of u dancing in my room" I thought of last night and blushed.

In fact, I was blushing the whole time, she was wearing all of my clothes through the whole video, her mom was making comments on every part saying "I like that, oh I like that too," her dad patted her shoulder every time she used one of the techniques he taught her in singing and Abby was singing along as Claire had put subtitles underneath.

It was a cute, short video of her vibing in her room.

When the song was over, we all cheered and hugged her. She then uploaded it to YouTube and informed us all that her new name for her career was going to be "Clairo". I admired her; she was my pretty girl. Abby obviously knew what was going on between Claire and I.

"So... Clairo" she went on.

"Who did you write this song for?" she asked, glancing over at me.

"Alexa." Claire answered, her face turning bright pink.

"The last couple of days I have had with her have been some of the best days of my life so far.

"So, is she your girlfriend?" her parents asked with excitement.

(Girlfriend or girl that's a friend, its easy just to pretend that we don't have something real it's just how we feel :)

"Will you be my girlfriend?" Claire turned to me with her innocent smile and confidence.

"Of course, Claire! You're my girl, you always have been since the day at the lobby."

"love the girl in red reference," Abby teased. I smirked back at her.

I forgot her parents were still in the room... I could see out of the corner of my eye her dad was looking right at me.

"Only if it's okay with you Mr Cottrill..." I said biting my bottom lip.

"Geoff for you!" He smiled "Claire obviously likes you and Abby seems fond of you" he winked.

"Daaaaad." Abby rolled her eyes and groaned. Making their mom laugh.

We hadn't noticed that whilst we were all talking, Claires' notifications were popping up madly. We all looked from behind her shoulders to see that she had 99+ notifications on all her social medias. She looked up and smiled at all of us. Pretty Girl must've blown up! Instead of going straight to YouTube,

She looked at all of us, trying to hide her happiness,

"I'm kinda tired now... Can we all go out for breakfast tomorrow?"

"Of course, baby," her mom said kissing her forehead.

"Good night, girls," her Dad waved us goodbye.

"See ya!" Abby called as she walked out.

She sat me down on the bed next to her.

"Claire that was amazing! I'm so proud of you angel." I smiled, putting my arms around her.

"Alexa..." Claire gulped and looked at me.

"what's up, angel?" I asked confused.

"I love you."