Love In Destin ✔

22 - keep driving

~━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━~

𝑹𝒊𝒄𝒌

~━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━~

THE FIRST RAYS of sunlight light up my room and cascade the ceiling where the flower designs are. I roll over in bed groaning at the prospect of having to go to school. Oh wait, I'm suspended, great. When Dad discovers this, his voice won't stop ringing in my ear, and I won't be left alone. I should probably go and crash at Mark's place. Hopefully, his parents won't have an issue with that. They've known me since I was fourteen.

I lift myself from my bed and open the door to the hallway. I hear Starla and Chef Throndsten's voices mingling in the living area. I listen to some more before concluding that Dad is probably not home, and a rush of air leaves my body.

I shower before having my breakfast of eggs, bacon, and toast with a side of coffee to wake me up.  While taking the time to contemplate how I'm gonna make use of my day, Starla takes her seat at the other end of the table. "Morning Rick," she says, even though I've told her a million times not to talk to me. She calls it 'trying', and apparently so should I. A reply never leaves my lips.

"I informed your father about your suspension. He'll be back from New York in two days,"

My phone starts ringing, and the caller ID is none other than Dad. I don't make an effort to pick it up, even after five times of him trying to get through to me.

"Pick it up, Rick," she insinuates.

I snag my phone and shut it off before leaving the dining table, head to the kitchen, thank Chef Throndsten for breakfast and walk out of the house.  I inhale deeply before exhaling all the tension in my body.

My hands feel rigid as I think about how this suspension might affect football and everything I've been working hard for. A bolt of rage forms within me, leading me to kick the front wheel of my car and exhibiting a theatrical display of me jumping and howling from pain in my toe.  When the pain subsides, and I've finally calmed down, I sit in my car and start the ignition.

~━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━~

𝑴𝒂𝒚𝒂

~━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━~

The rising sun casts a rosy hue across the morning sky. The sky and water meet far in the distance, with the light striking the ocean in ripples.

I sip my hot coffee, rubbing my arm as a light flurry blows in, bringing with it morning activity. The smell of waffles infiltrates my room and causes a subtle smile to spread on my face. My mind wanders to the recent outing Rick and I shared and the smile he had on his face. He actually looked cute and it felt good to see his face light up for once.

My memory changes like a scene in a movie to the emotions that sprang out of me when Rick's fingers grazed my back when he was helping with my apron. My stomach felt like it was running a tournament, and my skin felt like fire ants were biting it. His cologne brought in the nostalgia for surfing, building sand castles, having fun in the deep iced blue water, and splashing water. Heat spreads up my neck and cheeks as it comes to my notice that I'm thinking about him in a way I've never thought about him before. It's whatever.

A yawn slips out my mouth as my phone buzzes by my bedside table. Striding to the bed and settling the coffee mug down, I see that it's a message from Jada.

We went on our first date together!!

"Of course you have, I type. Tell me EVERYTHING.