My Sister's First Love

-4-

Grace wasn't lying when she said there would be a lot of people at the beach. It took us around forty minutes to get there, but once we did everything seemed to fast forward.

I met two of her other friends, Emily, and Natalie but they didn't stay around much. Emily was stuck to the side of someone who looked far too old to be her boyfriend, and most likely was, and Natalie engaged herself in a highly competitive sand castle contest.

Grace and I took our seats around the fire as the sun set. She handed me a beer, and I watched, utterly horrified as she pulled a cigarette from her bag.

"Want o—"

"Absolutely Not."

"Yeesh."

She raised both hands defensively before grabbing the lighter from her bag.

"Why do you smoke that — and how old are you? Fifty?"

She pursed her lips at me, "I'm trying to stop alright? It's either that or the loud gum chewing."

"In that case, chew the gum."

Grace paused, narrowing her eyes at me. I crossed my arms on my lap, keeping her gaze.

She sighed before shrugging her shoulders. "Already a good influence, huh?"

She took the nicotine gum from her bag and popped it into her mouth and with that, we turned and stared ahead at the beach. The sunset was beautiful, a mixture of orange and red that touched the sea at a distance we'd never reach. I removed my sandals and kept them in the vehicle, so the warm sand tickled between my toes.

There were so many indistinct conversations going on, but they only added to the calm scenery. No one played music so we depended on small conversations and the waves crashing against the shore to be our background music.

I found myself leaning back in the sand, digging my hands into it as I observed everyone. I normally found myself anxious in situations like these, but there was a sense of calm that rushed through me and I had no doubt it was because of the girl who chewed obnoxiously loud next to me. She had pulled out a sketchbook, and settled for that — I guessed it was to keep her distracted. On the other hand, I tried to enjoy the beer but... there wasn't much to enjoy.

"Guess who won," Natalie padded back to us, a smug smile on her face.

"I'm guessing you since you're nearly twenty-one, battling a bunch of ten-year-olds. Grace raised her eyebrow, her pencil pausing midway.

"Hey," Natalie held a finger up, narrowing her eyes. "Age has nothing to do with it. It's purely a skill issue."

"I'm sure," Grace snorted. "Or maybe your buddies just had to go home? The street lamps are on."

I giggled under my breath and Natalie's long orange hair snaps at her shoulders as she snapped to look at me.

"What's funny?"

I shut my lips tightly as she waited for me to say something else.

"That's exactly what I thought." She playfully tugged at my toe as she sat, and before I could express displeasure, the loud hum of a few cars sounds through the air.

"Oh brother," Grace rolled her eyes, and Natalie sat up straight, turning towards the parking lot. I furrowed my eyebrows at their reactions, noticing that everyone else had also stopped what they were doing.

I followed their gaze and watched as at least three cars came to a stop, a group of four men coming out of nearly all of them, and amongst them was Elias and Heath.