And Then She Grew Up

Chapter 18

Emily's POV-

So currently I'm pacing after a tall blonde boy who's making his way down the street and towards what I assume is the towncenter.

It's about 80 degrees outside and I'm wearing a gray t-shirt. I swear if I start sweating I'm going to wish I lived under a rock.

For the past 5 minutes, I've been casually walking behind Ryder, trying to aline my foot placement according to his as I kept my head down. With only 8 seconds into our synchronized walking, my body collided with another. My head shot straight up, and I was immediately being gazed down at by two green eyes.

"Is this follow the leader or something?" He asked in a slightly irritated tone, raising an eyebrow.

My eyes widened immediately and my jaw dropped about an inch down as I struggled on what words to reply with. But the only thing that my vocal cords could create were some pretty messed up "uh"s.

The tension was the only thing surrounding the two of us before Ryder let out a howl of laughter, "I'm just pullin' your tail!" He exclaimed, his face lighting up with pure amusement. To be honest it was kind of cute, but I could only stifle out a quiet chuckle.

Why the heck am I being so tense? I asked myself, mentally flicking myself in the forehead before Ryder suddenly grabbed my arm and jerked me after him.

"Come on, we're almost there!" he proclaimed before we turned a sharp corner and found ourselves facing a vibrant towncenter filled with decorated surf shops, cute little restaraunts, and tan people, all centered along the beach's shoreline.

"So," Ryder asks, "Where would you like to go first?"

I look around amazed at all the surroundings. I breathe in the smell of the ocean. The perks of having a brother who lives just down the road from the ocean.

I keep looking around until my eyes land on a surf shop. I point.

"A-Are you sure?" he stutters.

I nod excitedly, not even noticing the unsureness in his voice.

I practically drag Ryder into the shop and immediatly go to examine the t-shirts.

After about 15 minutes of looking through all the interesting tees, I had practically created a pile of my own from how many shirts I had liked. Well I should have a swell time making a decision.

"Okay Emily, only 3 shirts at the most." I tell myself. I look up to ask Ryder his opinion on which shirts I should get but he is nowhere to be seen. I huff.

I start searching for the blonde haired boy until I finally spot him by the surfboards. I roll my eyes. Of course. I raise my hand and start to call his name but instead a high pitched squeal comes from behind me. I whip my head around to see a gorgeous beach blond girl jumping up and down like she had just won the lottery.

To my horror, she harshly pushes past me and wraps her arms tightly around Ryder's neck. Great. Now how am I supposed to choose less than 5 shirts. I contemplate on whether I should interrupt their little "reunion" or not. I decide that it isn't as important as choosing t-shirts. So I start to march over to the happy couple only to stop in my tracks about 3 steps later. Maybe I shouldn't. I mean, what if they havent seen each other in a year. I would be interrupting their time. I should make a pros and cons list.

After I spend 40 seconds trying to find my notebook, I realize that I left it on my pillow pet. Its a ladybug in case you were a bit curious. He's pink. Named Foofoocuddlypoops. Foofie for short. Well, there goes that plan. I could make it in my head. Nah. I've tried that before. I ended up forgeting the two things I was comparing.