Waves

f o u r t e e n

~PRESENT~

"C'mon, it's one night. Just do this for me, please." Sarah said, running her fingers through her long blonde hair, pulling it up into a ponytail on the top of her head. She stared back at herself in the mirror hanging on her bedroom wall.

Amelia sighed, laying back in Sarah's bed, her head engulfed instantly by the pillows. She opened her mouth to tell Sarah that she would rather sit in the house alone, staring at the wall, than go with her tonight.

Last night's events replayed through her mind for the one millionth time since she woke up this morning.

"Why can't you just go by yourself?" Amelia questioned, meeting Sarah's eyes. She could tell by the look on her face that her response was not the one she wanted to hear. Amelia tried her hardest to fight back the anxiousness taking over her body at the thought of having to be around JJ.

She plopped down on the bed beside Amelia, staring at her with the puppy dog eyes that she always wore so well. "Amelia, come on. Please. When John B texted me earlier, he invited us, not just me. So you can't just not go." She spoke. "I know you're only saying you don't want to go because of JJ. But you don't even have to talk to him. Just stay on the other end of the boat and ignore him." Part of her wondered if JJ had asked John B to invite her. Or if this was part of some evil scheme John B and Sarah had plotted to reconcile the mess between her and JJ.

"Ignore JJ? Yeah, right. We both know how that works."

She slipped her flip flops onto her feet, looking at Amelia. "This doesn't mean that you have to talk to him. Or even look at him."

Amelia sighed, knowing that she wasn't going to give up until she said that she would go. She couldn't lie, and afternoon out on John B's boat sounded fun because it always was, but the fact of hanging out with JJ made her feel like she was going to throw up all over Sarah's bed. After everything that happened the previous night, she didn't know how she was going to handle seeing JJ. And she didn't know how he was going to handle seeing her.

"Here, you can wear my favorite bikini." Sarah said, hopping off the bed and sliding her feet across the carpet to her closet. She smirked as she pulled out a little black lace bikini, which Amelia had seen her wear about a thousand times and she always looked amazing in it. She threw it across the room to her, smacking her in the chest before falling onto the bed in front of her. "That suit will be perfect. It's never done me wrong." She smirked at Amelia. "It'll put an impression on, you know, whoever you want to make an impression on." She winked.

"You're gonna owe me. Big time." Amelia said with an eye roll, standing from the bed as she started to pull the grey v-neck T-shirt off of her body. She could see Sarah's face light up as she obliged to put the suit on. Her eyes landed to her bag, that familiar grey tank top catching her eye. Without a second thought, she grabbed it and slid it onto her body. She held on to this shirt since last summer, and would never give it up.

As Amelia pulled her shorts up over Sarah's bikini, she grabbed her flip flops and headed for the door.

***

Amelia popped open the can of Truly in her hand, lifting the tin to her lips as she chugged back the cold liquid. She leaned back against the railing of the boat, the sun beating down on her face, the seagulls screeching in the sky above her.