𝐑𝐢𝐯𝐚𝐥𝐬

6| 𝒓𝒊𝒅𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒐𝒏 𝒘𝒂𝒗𝒆𝒔

Ni shook me out of bed and I groaned, as the bright light of the dorm room was shining directly in my face.
"Five more minutes?" I groaned under my breath.
"Dude, we have to go!" He yelled, and eventually resorted to smacking me with a pillow. That was the second time this week.
"Okay okay fine!" I yelled as I sat up in bed and rubbed my eyes, trying to block out the annoying light. I looked up at him.
"What time is it?" I asked.
"Like 8:30."
"That's too early!"
"The others are waiting for us."
I finally made the decision to get out of bed and I changed into swim-shorts and a shirt. I came back out and slipped on some slides, and then we both made it down the hall where my brother, mothra, rodan, and Ni's other two brothers were waiting for us. Goji had a bag of things, probably towels and sunscreen.
"Good morning." Kevin said, cheerful as ever. Ni gave him a hug, while I waved and yawned at the same time.
"You look tired." My brother said,
"I am."
Goji chuckled a little and we made our way down the hall. We all crammed into a minivan that my brother rented, and we all climbed inside. The beach was close to two hours away, so it was a lengthy drive, but we entertained ourselves with singing, laughing, jokes, games, and then eventually we settled down and started playing on our phones. Ni showed me a couple memes, and I laughed a few times. It was nice that we were finally getting along. I was tired, so I laid my head down, but I didn't realize it was Ni's shoulder. He didn't move or flinch, so I assumed that he was okay with it. I can't believe we hated each other so much. If we just learned to forgive, we could have become great friends. I guess we have more in common than I thought.
The van stopped and we all climbed out of the van and found somewhere to stop. We set all of our things down and began applying sunscreen.
"Jesus Christ it's hot out here." Ni said, putting his hand in front of his eyes to stop the glare.
"How do you deal with this, Rodan?" Kevin asked, doing the same thing. Rodan laughed and just shrugged.
"I'm practically freezing." He said, imitating shivering. Kevin punched him playfully and they both laughed.
We found somewhere to set our stuff down, so we laid out some beach chairs and towels, and even set up an umbrella with a blanket on the sand. I kicked my sandals off and wiped all of the sand off of my feet. I grabbed my water bottle that I thankfully packed and took a refreshing sip of purified, mineral water. . .
Oh. My. GOD.
Ni slipped off his shirt in order to put sunscreen on, but I couldn't help but keep my attention on his perfect torso. How the hell was I supposed to function correctly today? His abs were chiseled with a 6-pack, his shoulders were broad, his arms were super defined, his collarbone was-
Wait.
It's fine. Don't worry about it, it's only today you get to see him like this.
I grabbed some sunscreen and applied it around my arms and shoulders, my neck. Yknow, everywhere you can get. I don't usually do my legs since it doesn't really matter if you're in the water a lot, but I didn't know how much I was going to be in it so I applied some sunscreen just to be safe.
"Is everyone good?" Rodan called out.
"Yeah I'm goo-" I was cut off by Kevin speaking in a super high pitched voice, like the world was about to end.
"Wait! Don't we need to wait fifteen minutes!?"
"Please, no one cares about that!" Ni said, talking in his usual crass and annoying tone. "Let's just get in the water!" He continued.
"Ok calm down buddy." I said.
Godzilla and I darted towards the water and were immediately pummeled by the waves. Ni dived into the air and splashed down, causing water to splash into Rodans eyes. He dramatically pretended to die, and fell into Kevin's arms. The looks on their faces was definitely something I haven't seen before.
The next thing I knew, I was under the water being held down by someone. My brother had LEAPED on top of me and I could faintly hear him laughing. I opened my eyes and kicked him off, and I rose to see some of the others laughing. Over the distance, I noticed Femuto and Mothra were basking in the sun under the tent we brought, as well as talking to Manda and Destoroyah. I completely forgot that Ni hangs out with Ichi's group of friends, so I'm guessing they'll be here soon.
"Who are you staring at?" Rodan asked, speaking super quickly and like I was gonna kill someone.
"Uhhh, no one." I responded, stupidly.
"That's not true."
"I know."
"Is it Mothra?" I was about to punch him in the face.
"Why would I be in love with Mothra?" I asked, rhetorically.
"C'mon man, it's obvious! A lot of guys tell her she's hot and pretty, I wouldn't be surprised if you did."
"Ok but, Godzilla already has a crush on Mothra and I wouldn't take that away from him."
"Dude, you literally dated Femuto just after Godzilla broke up with her."
"Bro, shut up."
I punched him in the face and he fell backwards into the water. I couldn't help but laugh. He splashed water on my face as he came back up.

•

We finished a couple games of volleyball with the others, the girls one by one point. We all stopped for lunch, and Rodan had managed to put his amazing chef skills to use by making and packing snacks for everyone. It was about an hour later when we decided to get back into the water. My brother and I stayed behind to build a little castle with our hands, since we didn't bring any sand toys. Although, sadly, some little kid came over and destroyed it.
Ni and I got comfortably close. There were times when I either slipped on seaweed or a rock or something in the water and almost landed on him. I liked it, but at the same time I didn't. I couldn't tell if I was developing feelings or not, but if I was, I hoped for damn sure that he felt the same way too. Though, sometimes I do wonder...
What would've happened if I minded my own business all those years ago?
I don't know. I tried to not think about it.
We were at the beach until sunset, which was surprising to say the least. I'm not usually out this late, but I guess young-adults can have a little bit of fun every once and a while.
We were leaving close to 7:30 in the evening, and the sun was setting pretty early. We gathered the rest of our things and packed them in the back of the van. I told the others I was gonna need a while, I needed to do something. That was my best excuse.
I stopped Ni before he could go anywhere else.
"Thanks for bringing me." I said, looking up at him as we walked together.
"Ehh, no problem, mate! I think this time I'll let ya come to some more events together, hm?" His voice was plastered in my brain, I was starting to like it. I remembered when I used to hate it.
"Ha, sure." I said, with a smile on my face. He slid his arm around my neck, and talked to me in that melodic tone as we walked to the car. The others had just finished up, and Ichi and Goji were having a convo outside, while I could see the ladies filling up in their ride.
"Yo! There you are!" Rodan said as looked up from his phone.
"What took y'all so long?" He asked.
"None of yo' business, chicken legs." Ni said from next to me. I could help but snicker a little.
"Damn, calm down." He said, crossing his arms. "No need to defend your boyfriend like that." I spat out all of the water that I wa just drinking. The others let out a very exaggerated AYYYOOOOO from in front of us, and Ni was about ready to square up.
"I'm sorry, WHAT?" Ni screamed. I was sure we had alerted the others at this point. Rodan was practically cackling like a witch and crying.
"C-Chill! It's a joke! HAHA!"
"Better be. I'd rather use my eyelids as bottle openers than dare this little shit." I punched him in his arm.
"Bro, that hurt."
"Didn't ask, don't care." He said, wrapping his arm around my neck again and smiling like he just accomplished something.
"Can we leave? Before we start throwing sand in each other's eyes?" Ichi asked.
"Yes, please." Godzilla added. He hopped in the driver's seat and I smacked Ni with my water bottle to get him off me. We climbed in the back and it was a long and boring drive home, but surprisingly we entertained ourselves perfectly enough.
I must have fallen asleep in the car, because I don't remember getting home or in my bed.