Secrets

Simply

Jasper sat on the elastic bedsheet, a heavy object at each corner to form a sort of rectangular bowl to keep the sand out, reading from a book as Calvin sat behind him with his legs on either side of the slight boy. The blonde looked over his shoulder, frowning. "Jas, love, there's a whole beach right in front of you and you're reading a book?"

"I've always wanted to read on the beach," Jasper argued, turning a page and adjusting his glasses.

"Oh, come on, Jas, it's been almost an hour. I bet you've never swam in the ocean before," Calvin said back, snatching the book out of his hands playfully and placing the bookmark beside him in between the pages. "Come on, I'll teach you how to body surf."

"That's not an inappropriate reference, is it?" he asked, chuckling as took his glasses off and got up with Calvin.

"I can make it one later, if you want me to," he replied, giving him another one of his famous suggestive looks.

Jasper blushed as he stepped out of the rectagular box with Calvin beside him. Rebecca and Allie watched them walk off, Rebecca with a notebook in hand and Allie with her phone. Calvin slapped Jasper's rear with a laugh, causing the short teen to jump to the side and peer up, startled, at him.

Allie's jaw dropped slightly with a smile and she leaned over to her friend to whisper, "He touched the butt."

"He did more than that," she whispered back.

"I like." She raised her eyebrows at her brother, whom she'd never expected to take a turn down Rainbow Lane, as she liked to refer to it as. Jasper was, in both her and her friend's opinion, the cutest thing to walk the Earth in their current day and age, second only to a few select characters in the animes that they watched near obsessively.

Rebecca picked up her thoughts and said, "I know, right?"

"Makes me wish--by about .001 percent--that they hadn't gotten with each other. Jas is so kawaii. Makes my little otaku heart go bang!, you know?"

"Oh, I know," she agreed. She observed for a moment as Calvin kissed Jasper on the cheek and eased him into the spring-temperature saltwater tides. "I've gotta admit that they're really cute together, though. Makes me feel bad for fantasizing that they weren't together."

"Ah, no harm in fantasizing. I do it everyday with my OTPs, do I not?" Allie shot back, looking up from her phone. She brought up the camera and focused in on Calvin and Jasper. She waited for a small group of people to pass by before taking a few pictures. "Aww, look at this picture, Bec." She swept to the side to show her the last one, which was of Calvin hugging Jasper from behind and leaning over as they both smiled and laughed. "My favorite one, right here."

"Aw that is cute," she concurred. She smiled at the two boys. "If only," she added in a quiet sigh.

"C'mon, Jas, get in the water, you little baby!" Calvin urged, pushing him further into deeper water gently.

"It's freaking cold, though!" Jasper protested, smiling as Calvin pushed him forward.

"You'll get used to it, just go," he assured him. He pointed off into the distance where a swell of water was beginning to form. "You see that, over there? I'm going to teach you how to body surf those."

"You're kidding, right? I'll be swept away," he muttered, his feet sifting through the sand of the shallow water.

"Not if you listen to me, sweetheart," Calvin said into his ear. "Just do what I say when I say it, and do it when I do it. 'Kay?"

"...'Kay," he replied, finally getting waist-deep into the waves. A cold shiver ran up his spine and he nearly turned around towards the shore again, but Calvin placed a firm palm over his chest. "But it's freaking cold!" he reiterated.