Beach Week

17: "I'll be surprised if I don't end up dead."*

"Should we go after her?" Avery asked, feeling guilty for letting Amy leave by herself, even though she wasn't the person who upset her. Amy was still her friend and she didn't want her to be angry or hurt, much less alone. The moment had been tense, and it was impossible to get a word in edgewise that wouldn't have been taken poorly by one side or the other. If she had said that Amy shouldn't have to leave, Taylor and Aaron would have been furious, but if she said that Amy was overreacting, then Amy would have turned on her. It had been a lose-lose situation. She felt bad for Amy, and she agreed that what had happened between Aaron and Taylor last summer was inappropriate and a betrayal of friendship, but she also believed in true love. There could have been a better way for the pair to have gone about expressing their feelings that wouldn't cause Amy to get hurt in the process.

"No," Aaron stated with a heavy sigh. He crossed his arms over his chest, his lean muscles flexing. "She needs to calm down before anyone tries to talk to her again, and having us all follow her isn't going to make it easy on her. I know her well enough to know that she likes to be alone for a while after an argument so she can calm down and collect herself. I'll let her relax for a half an hour or so and then I'll go and check on her. The two of us need to talk alone anyway." He looked at Taylor from the corner of her eye and she did her best to ignore his gaze. She felt bad enough already. She didn't need him telling her that she shouldn't feel bad, when she knew what she did was wrong.

Sara huffed out a sigh. "Why couldn't you just keep it in your pants, Aaron?" she groaned. Then she raised a pointer finger at him and said, "She better not break anything again. I don't care if it get's paid for; it's too much stress to worry about explaining it to my parents. I'm twenty-two years old for God sake, I shouldn't have to worry about explaining anything to my parents like a teenager," Sara grumbled as she fell into the sand in-between Avery and Grayson. Grayson sat down next to her and scooted a little closer, unnoticed to Sara. "But I agree, it's better that she's left alone for a while," Sara added.

"Maybe she'll just shut herself in the guest room," Grayson offered. "She seemed pretty upset. I don't think she'd do anything harmful."

Sara shrugged. "I hope she doesn't." She sighed again, trying to get rid of the tension that she felt inside. Without even thinking, Sara leaned her head over and rested it on Grayson's shoulder. With everyone still so focused on Amy, and Aaron and Taylor's budding relationship, no one pointed out that Sara was behaving out of character when it came to a new guy. Normally, any little sign of affection Sara showed toward any guy caused everyone to blow a gasket. This time, she got away unscathed.

Grayson let Sara lay on his shoulder while Brett and Avery walked toward the water, and Taylor pulled Aaron off to the side to talk. Grayson watched the seagulls fly overhead, and dug his feet into the sand while waiting for Sara to start talking again. After a while of silence, he asked, "Are you okay?"

Sara nodded against his shoulder. "I'm fine."

"I won't accept 'fine' as an answer.  It's a cop out. Seriously, how are you feeling?" he asked again.

Sara shrugged. "I don't know. I feel like, I'm caught in the middle of a problem between my friends and even though I have nothing to do with it, I know I'll get blamed for it somehow."

Grayson furrowed his eyebrows. "What makes you think that?"

"I just will, it's fairly usual that I've come to expect it. So I know it will come, and I'm just waiting for the when." Sara sat up and turned to face Grayson. His brown eyes were bright under the summer sun, and he had this boyishly handsome look about him. Looking at him, and sitting at such a close proximity, made her stomach clench with anticipation and nervousness. They had slept in the same bed together, with a line of pillows in between them, yet this was the closest they'd gotten. "What Taylor and Aaron did was wrong, but I found out about it recently and I didn't tell Amy so I'm as much at fault as they are. I just couldn't bring myself to tell her though. It wasn't my place. Besides, Amy and I aren't nearly as close as we used to be. I don't think she would've believed me anyway. She thought it was Aaron and I who had been hooking up behind her back."