California Dreamin

8

The next morning, Nina had the worst headache and was hungrier than ever.
She had breakfast with anything she could find. Some of the Ramirez's were already going to the beach but Nina's parents had some work to do for their house so they told Nina to go with them.

When she went outside she found Ruben with his family, Ruth with Roberto and Richard as they were organizing what to bring with them.
She helped them bring something as Ruben's wife was already taking care of their kid. He was the sweetest baby ever.

Richard walked right next to her and looked like he was expecting something from the girl.
"Is everything okay Richard?" She asked clearly confused.
"Are you?" He replied with another question.

"Oh right, we smoked that shit, I have such a headache and at breakfast I looked like a dinosaur. I literally devoured everything."
She whispered and laughed.

On the other hand, the boy wasn't laughing at all. She didn't remember what happened the night before except for the smoking part. That's because she was also drunk for sure, but he was so disappointed. It's not like they kissed or anything but she did kiss him on the cheek and he could not act like nothing happened.

He didn't say anything else as he only thought about something: he had to make a move.
But he had to make it while she was sober.
He snapped back to reality only when she asked him to help her put the sunscreen on her back. She was provoking him, he thought.

He did as she asked and then as she was already going into the water with Ruth, Ruben went up to him.

"I heard you sneak out while we were sleeping. Where'd you go?" He whispered to his ear.

"I came here. I was with Nina. Nothing happened." He replied without hesitation.

"Woah, slow down. What were you expecting to happen?" Ruben was almost shocked as his brother was only fifteen and Nina was fourteen.

Richard thought hard about his question. What was he really expecting? It was their first day there as friends. Did he really believe that she would betray her friend just like that?
He wasn't thinking straight anymore. Stupid hormones. Or maybe it was just her beauty, it was messing with his head.

He scoffed and muttered a "nothing" and proceeded to remove his shirt and put sunscreen on, not that he was really able to cover his entire body.

What if she did remember something but was simply pretending? Maybe he had to make her live those exact moments and watch her reaction.

And he did just that. He went into the water and told Nina to swim further with him. She told him she couldn't swim so he proceeded.
"Do you trust me?" He smiled.
She looked at him with a weird expression on her face.
"I'm having a deja vu. Whatever, yes I trust you." And she did the same things she did a few hours earlier: she put her arms around his neck and her legs around his body.

Ruth and Ruben watched them swim further in disbelief. They knew more than anyone how the two couldn't stand each other and now there they were. Ruth couldn't help but smile at that image.

When they were far enough from the others, Richard spoke.
"You really don't remember a thing, do you? Think, Neens. Dig deep into your head."
Nina could notice a weird sparkle in his eyes so she started thinking hard.

They were at the beach. They did the same thing they were doing in that moment. She remembered feeling weird. They got high and ate something and went back home.

"Yes, I remember something. We were here, we smoked, we ate and went home. What's the big deal?"

"You kissed me-" And before he could finish his sentence, Nina shouted.
"I WHAT?" And almost let go of him, remembering soon enough that she couldn't touch the ground.

"Shhh! On the cheek!" He put a hand on her mouth to shut her up.
"IS EVERYTHING OKAY THERE?" Ruth screamed.
He sighed. "Let's get back to the seashore."

The rest of the day went peacefully and everyone had fun although Richard was clearly avoiding Nina in every way possible.

"Why don't we have dinner out tonight?"
Ruth's husband suggested.
"You ask our father." Ruben scoffed.

"I will take care of the adults, you guys go have fun. We prefer eating peacefully together." Ms. Ayala spoke up.

Mercedes, the Ramirez's mum, smiled.
"Hay esta taberna donde nos gustaba comer cuando éramos jóvenes. No sé todavía si sigue abierta."
(There's this pub where we liked to eat when we were young. I don't know if it's still open though.)

"We got drunk for the first time there." Ms. Ayala whispered to family's youths who laughed at her confession.
"Who would've thought." Ruben smiled.

As Ms. Ayala explained how to reach the pub to Ruben and his brothers Robert and Joseph, Nina would glance at Richard, wondering why he was avoiding her like that.

He would feel her eyes on him every two seconds and he would just talk with Roberto, Ruth's husband, to distract himself.
Yes, he was still disappointed. Nina kissed his cheek only because she wasn't sober. He thought he'd finally have her.

Nina couldn't handle that situation anymore so she got up, announced she was going back home to get ready for dinner and left.
Why was she so upset? For the same reason why Richard was disappointed.
She felt something, even though it was wrong.
She was in the middle of something she didn't want to have anything to do with.

If only she could call Nancy and have one of their long conversations.
She wanted to tell her everything.

As she just got out of the shower and put a towel around her body, she heard someone knocking.
"It's Ruth. Can I come in?"
"Sure."

The woman closed the door behind her.
"Your mom allowed me. I just saw you a little down earlier and you know I'm not stupid. What happened with Richard?"

Nina sighed. "I'm a terrible friend Ruth."
She didn't give her time to reply as she kept speaking.
"Yesterday I spent the night with him, at the beach. I felt something. It was special. For one night I felt on top of the world and it was all because of him."
Ruth was speechless as she noticed Nina's eyes getting wet.

"And I ruined everything. Because I kissed him on the cheek and this morning I told him it wasn't such a big deal and acted like it was nothing. I'm sure this is why he's now avoiding me and I hate it. I want him to talk to me and tell me what's wrong. Why is he acting like this? And I hate the fact that I'm worrying so much about this. I don't want to have any sort of feelings for him because Nancy's in love with him and all of this makes me a terrible friend." She simply exploded while tears were already falling down.

Ruth smiled and hugged her tight.
"You're not a bad friend sweety. You can't decide who you should have feelings for and who you shouldn't. Sometimes things like this just happen."